needHelp

I am planning a trip for my parents. My elderly parents will be traveling by themselves (from HKG-IST, J-class) and they do not speak English. (I will pick them up at the Istanbul airport)

I worry about the following issues. I hope someone can help answering them based on their experience.

1. Will there be any Mandarin-speaking flight attendants? (to help them order food)
2. When they land in Istanbul, how would they go through custom.
3. One CSR suggests that I can request for mandarin language assistance via the airline, so that someone will help them on the ground. I have not used this program before, anyone has any experience?

I tried calling Turkish airline Hong Kong and Istanbul offices and asking whether there will be Mandarin-speaking flight attendants on boards, but the answers weren't clear. (one says no, the other says not always).

Thank you.

dvs7310

I've been on the HKG and PEK flights quite a few times and honestly I don't remember a Chinese speaking FA (Mandarin or Cantonese) but then I wasn't really looking for one either. It's usually been in J or CC so perhaps if they have one then they were working economy. Keep in mind though, that HKG is not Mandarin speaking, so it's quite possible that a Chinese FA may be Cantonese speaking only. I'd expect airlines from the region to have someone speaking both Mandarin and Cantonese out of HKG but airlines like TK may or may not. I do remember one flight out of HKG that did announcements in local language, English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, but honestly I don't remember if that was TK or not, it could have been any of the *A airlines that fly from HKG as I've been on many of them, I just remember it was impossible to use the IFE because the announcements dragged on forever.

I just had a look at an old TK menu that I saved and it's Turkish and English only, so sending your parents with an English/Mandarin or Turkish/Mandarin phrasebook that includes common food and drinks would be smart.

As for entering Turkey at immigration and customs, as long as they have a general feel for the flow of international travel then it'll be fine. The immigration agents have never said a word when I've been through, nor with my travel companions, they just (sometimes very theatrically) put an entry stamp in my passport and hand it back (I am from a country needing an e-Visa so make sure they have this in hand with their passport if it's required). Customs (the people after baggage pickup) rarely seem to be doing much except talking to each other, but if they want to scan a bag then they'll point so English comprehension isn't necessary.

I forget the name of the service, there is one private company that does VIP/FastTrack service at IST. Find out who they are and see if they have any Chinese speakers on staff, it may be worth the peace of mind for you if they can handle the entry formalities for your parents.

chris19992

On my recent flights to and from HKG some people were having trouble with seat thieves but none of the FA's spoke any form of Chinese so they all got away with it.

TPJ

I believe the only routes with F/A's speaking local language are KIX/NRT.

nacho

HKG IST is my regular route and there is no Chinese speaking FA - the closest I have met is a Turk said 'nei hau' (Hello).

Seat thieves got away?! That's weird, once I travelled with 3 kids and we had the last 2 rows (2 seats row). Then the FA came over and said it's not possible (because my kids need to be with an adult) - there was a couple who sat in front of my occupied a 3 seats row and they refused to move. The FA said you have 2 boarding passes so you have 2 seats. They still refused and the FA called ground crew, a TGS guy came up and told them to X off. They did and then that couple accused me for stealing their seats and they belonged to a tour group and the group was scolding us all the way until I walked away from the gate at HKG.

Back to OP - you can call TK call centre for wheel chair assistance - if your parents have issues walking/locating the gate. The fact is, if you do this, they will have the wheelchairs ready by the gate then they will wheel your parents out to meet you.

needHelp

Thanks for replying! That's very helpful.

pandablood

There may be check-in staff at HKG (at some stations they work with local companies, not sure if this is one) but in the air it'll be rather surprising if they have one.