yulred
Apr 1, 12, 8:32 pm
So I finally flew TK in Y+ and Y on YYZ-IST-DEL.
Positives:
1. Y+ was excellent - worth every penny and then some. Crew good. Catering ok (the mushroom omlet was mediocre, but I was too stuffed from dinner anyway).
2. Seat was excellent - slept very well indeed.
3. YYZ-IST was on time.
4. Security was easy (around 5 pm) - I went to the washroom and then went back -took maybe 10 min to clear. No major line up. As others have noted, only 2 machines (kind of low).
5. IST has reasonably priced shopping and an excellent range - makes YYZ look 3rd world.
6. IST-DEL crew the best I've had in a long time. The male FA working the back belonged to the old school - professional and at ease. The others were equally polite, professional and fluent in english (apparently not too common on TK)
Negatives
1. Due to rain, IST was a mess. Still, managed to get to the gate within 20 minutes of the scheduled time.
2. Plane was being worked on at the gate. We could see technicians working on the A333. Jetbridge not connected. 45 min prior to delayed ETD, the luggage was taken away.
3. No announcement about a gate change - it simply showed up on the information board.
4. Buses arrived at the remote gate departure area around the same time as we did (^). Then they decided to take an A333 worht of pax and process them through one door(:td:). Needless to say, with an India-bound flight, that was never going to end well. 20 min later they opened another 2 doors with 2 more gate agents.
5. Packed the buses like Sardines. It was a mess.
6. TK does not like scanning boarding passes during boarding. They didnt do it in YYZ and they didnt do it in IST - this would not have been an issue if they had switched from a 333 to a 333. They switched to an A332. No rows 5-10. Ooops. Caused chaos while boarding, what with having people from rows 5 through 9 stuck in the galley.
7. The 332 was a shambles (duct-taped panels, no PTVs). Good legroom, but despite the absence of PTVs, they conspired to put massive Entertainmnet boxes under the K seats (...?)
8. As a * status pax, I didnt get offloaded (really wish I had). Instead, seat assignment made while standing in the galley after everyone else was seated (as pleasant as it sounds). Was punished for having status - was switched from 9k to 42k. Thats the last row, near the Washrooms. It was as awful as it sounds.
9. Flight left 4 hours late - at 1205 am (scheduled for 1955). Fortunately (given what TK had pulled off so far), it arrived only 4 hours late. Wouldnt have been a problem if I hadnt had a company pick up arranged for 420 am. Poor fellow missed a lot sleep for a flight that arrived at 8 am.
10. 30 Mar was a rainy day in IST, so delays were WX related.
All of this is to say that I simply don't trust TK. The first impression has been not good. Theres too many problems in the system that they have to iron out. I have a 2h 50 stopover on the way back. I don't think I will make it. Flight stats (which I should have checked before booking - the aviation enthusiast in me won that day out of a desire to fly the new Y+), tells me DEL-IST typically runs an average of 92 min late. It has an ontime performance of 49%. A 92 min delay would cut my connection time by more than half, whcih would leave me at the mercy of security (11am - 1pm).
If I miss my YYZ connection on Mon, there are no flights till Thurs.
I now think I have two options:
1. Fly DEL-IST a day earlier, with a day layover in IST (tempting, but it cuts my 8 day trip to India to 7 days, which given the distance travelled, feels like a real waste). At least it will ensure I get to YYZ.
2. DO a hail mary, fly to IST on the day of, possibly miss my cnx and hope they reroute me through NYC or CHI (downgrade from Y+ to Y, in that case).
Feels like a lose-lose right now. The Y+ was twice the price of Y, but I doubt I ll get compensated - TK seems very much like AI - great hard product, poor soft product.
Suggestsion on how to proceed?
I dont want to say I will never fly TK again (I will - the product is good), but I don't think I ll be doing any connecting travel through them, not till YYZ is a daily freq.
Positives:
1. Y+ was excellent - worth every penny and then some. Crew good. Catering ok (the mushroom omlet was mediocre, but I was too stuffed from dinner anyway).
2. Seat was excellent - slept very well indeed.
3. YYZ-IST was on time.
4. Security was easy (around 5 pm) - I went to the washroom and then went back -took maybe 10 min to clear. No major line up. As others have noted, only 2 machines (kind of low).
5. IST has reasonably priced shopping and an excellent range - makes YYZ look 3rd world.
6. IST-DEL crew the best I've had in a long time. The male FA working the back belonged to the old school - professional and at ease. The others were equally polite, professional and fluent in english (apparently not too common on TK)
Negatives
1. Due to rain, IST was a mess. Still, managed to get to the gate within 20 minutes of the scheduled time.
2. Plane was being worked on at the gate. We could see technicians working on the A333. Jetbridge not connected. 45 min prior to delayed ETD, the luggage was taken away.
3. No announcement about a gate change - it simply showed up on the information board.
4. Buses arrived at the remote gate departure area around the same time as we did (^). Then they decided to take an A333 worht of pax and process them through one door(:td:). Needless to say, with an India-bound flight, that was never going to end well. 20 min later they opened another 2 doors with 2 more gate agents.
5. Packed the buses like Sardines. It was a mess.
6. TK does not like scanning boarding passes during boarding. They didnt do it in YYZ and they didnt do it in IST - this would not have been an issue if they had switched from a 333 to a 333. They switched to an A332. No rows 5-10. Ooops. Caused chaos while boarding, what with having people from rows 5 through 9 stuck in the galley.
7. The 332 was a shambles (duct-taped panels, no PTVs). Good legroom, but despite the absence of PTVs, they conspired to put massive Entertainmnet boxes under the K seats (...?)
8. As a * status pax, I didnt get offloaded (really wish I had). Instead, seat assignment made while standing in the galley after everyone else was seated (as pleasant as it sounds). Was punished for having status - was switched from 9k to 42k. Thats the last row, near the Washrooms. It was as awful as it sounds.
9. Flight left 4 hours late - at 1205 am (scheduled for 1955). Fortunately (given what TK had pulled off so far), it arrived only 4 hours late. Wouldnt have been a problem if I hadnt had a company pick up arranged for 420 am. Poor fellow missed a lot sleep for a flight that arrived at 8 am.
10. 30 Mar was a rainy day in IST, so delays were WX related.
All of this is to say that I simply don't trust TK. The first impression has been not good. Theres too many problems in the system that they have to iron out. I have a 2h 50 stopover on the way back. I don't think I will make it. Flight stats (which I should have checked before booking - the aviation enthusiast in me won that day out of a desire to fly the new Y+), tells me DEL-IST typically runs an average of 92 min late. It has an ontime performance of 49%. A 92 min delay would cut my connection time by more than half, whcih would leave me at the mercy of security (11am - 1pm).
If I miss my YYZ connection on Mon, there are no flights till Thurs.
I now think I have two options:
1. Fly DEL-IST a day earlier, with a day layover in IST (tempting, but it cuts my 8 day trip to India to 7 days, which given the distance travelled, feels like a real waste). At least it will ensure I get to YYZ.
2. DO a hail mary, fly to IST on the day of, possibly miss my cnx and hope they reroute me through NYC or CHI (downgrade from Y+ to Y, in that case).
Feels like a lose-lose right now. The Y+ was twice the price of Y, but I doubt I ll get compensated - TK seems very much like AI - great hard product, poor soft product.
Suggestsion on how to proceed?
I dont want to say I will never fly TK again (I will - the product is good), but I don't think I ll be doing any connecting travel through them, not till YYZ is a daily freq.