kimbra

TK business class on long hauls is very good plus great fares in comparison to other European US carriers.

hfly

Dover 2 Golf. I suppose that it really has to do with how often you are flying them. I rarely transit IST, so am not going to comment on that, however I can tell you that while over the last 5 years they have improved remote stand CIP buses, I can say very strongly that their "success" in providing them in anything approaching a useful manner is at best 50/50. They may in fact have a CIP bus show up 65% of the time, however as mentioned above and many times of FT, if that bus is then swamped by Econ pax, because they are first out the door or evenly interspersed with Biz pax, or once the Biz pax have boarded, they leave the doors open and load it up to the doors with another 30 Econ pax or so, then the service is next to useless. So they only effectively provide this service maybe 30% of the time. Worse, when they send one CIP bus and there is an MP (or whoever on th eplane) and they block the Biz pax from getting on and then send it off with the lone "VIP" and jam everyone on the normal buses.

Which BTW is interesting as IST ground operations are more than capable of sending MULTIPLE VIP buses out with people from the VIP lounges on departure and arrival...but their lounge does stink.

I notice that you mentioned QR, that IS an airline that in my experience was/has always been able to provide such buses on arrival and departure.

IAN-UK

Turkey seems to have an awful lot of VIPs

Dover2Golf

I note you rarely transit IST but you think the record of buses for C is poor at best 50/50.

I transit IST at least once a month and often as many as three times and I think their record is about 95%. I've never seen the crew allow an economy passenger to leave the aircraft before the C bus has pulled away.

hfly

Whether you O/D or transit, that makes no difference regarding CIP buses. But lets compare numbers, I just went into my flightmemory, I have flown in excess of 500 flights with TK in my lifetime ( I am not going to give an exact number for many obvious reasons), over 340 of those flights in the last 8 years or so, since they have gone of their growth spree, and my experience of this airline goes back way over two decades. Even more specifically I have flown over 80 segments since Jan 1 2015, if we want to be very current. Specifically over 93% of all my TK flights have been in premium cabins. Even more specifically I have flown over 80 segments, or 40 RT's with TK since Jan 1, 2015. So that is my data source.

So if you have a better sampling, with better and broader numbers, please feel free to post them. Otherwise here is a little secret for you that I know to be true, TK only has enough CIP buses to hit 80% of all flights max, when you add in those requisitioned for VIP's that lowers the number. Their bus fleet has not kept up with their growth. So if you have had a 95% success rate, that's great, I've had runs where I have had them ten times in a row, and then none the next 8 times. I will say that they are better at providing them to wide body a/c at remote gates than narrow body but then you get the separation issue.Regarding the separation of Biz and Y pax coming off long haul planes, just ask others on FT about their observations of how vigilant the FA's are with this. It's a 50/50 hit or miss at best.

airoli

My sample is much smaller than hfly's, but I can say that whenever I arrived at a hard stand and there were dedicated CIP buses (approx. 75% of the time), they were always filled up with Y class pax after all the C class pax had boarded.

For what it's worth I don't particularly mind that since the CIP bus still leaves well before the bigger regular buses do.

deniah

from domestic IST lounge there are buses to the plane. in that sense it is private to premium flyers.

plenty of airports and carriers share security screeners, and buses to tarmac, even from their home base. your advantage is you get to the funnel quicker, which i assume is the value most seek - not complete insulation from Y pax

how much does the LH group charge for its fares with private tarmac car transfers?


although it is also simple things that TK fails at. i bought a J companion pass at an official office. they split our 2 tix into separate PNRs. im not convinced my FFP account was added.

on the website later, cannot confirm or change FFP info.
cannot view or select or change either of our seats.

emailed CSR asking to (1) join PNR and/or (2) put us in neighboring seats and/or (3) add FFP info in there.......... no response at all

seems too much to ask to get neighboring seat assignment for a decent $$$ outlay

edit: emailed the local office and they took care of it in minutes. something TK corporate never could

boosh

I am well aware that TK is part of TSG, but I am always baffled by the huge discrepancy in delivering a service between the two, something must have messed up somewhere.

As for the C shuttles, TK is not the only airline who struggle with this, it is not an excuse of course but it is honestly not one of the biggest problems at IST.

As for people cutting in line in the Fast Track, I really cant see what TK has to do with that???

frenchft

There is something is don't understand with TK... they have imho one of the best domestic (if not the best) C and *G DOMESTIC ground service (in istanbul and Ankara) With dedicated terminal, dedicated luxury bus etc... but for international i totally agree : the ground service and CS sucks and the overall feeling is "they don't care".

I would mention that the direct lounge access in IST for C and Elite+ (average security + immigration = 3 minutes) IS AMAZING! Few airlines propose this in Europe (except for F pax in dedicated terminal).

For me the main issue is not ground service (even if i really hate how lazy and not customer oriented TGS is) it's the CS = better not to have any kind of issue, because it's a nightmare (very bad souvenir with luggage problems).

gilbertaue

There is one thing that I just ask for from TK:

That their crew maintain some form of cleanliness of their toilets in their aircraft.

I've not had a flight where even after 2hrs the toilets were wet with tissues strewn around.

I just left IST today and we had a nice guide a few days ago. His brother works for TK as cabin crew and recently showed him an email from the TK CEO who was pleading with his staff to help maintain the toilets in their aircraft properly.
Our guide mentioned that working as a TK crew is considered in Turkey as a lazy job that pays well "more than high school teachers".
But what got him riled up was how the CEO was dishing out "pleases" and "it would be so nice if" to his staff instead of telling them what to do.
Bottom line, his TK crew brother laughed it off.

powerup25

People pay for a premium product to get premium service, and that includes not getting crammed on the bus. Now TK doesn't have to provide this service nor anything else , it will just loss the premium coustomers.

Your whole rant sounds socialist

deniah

TK is not premium-priced.

Flyers wanting premium service transitting through that region has QR/EK, limos, choice of 3 or even 4 class service.

segacs

Yeah, and? Not an insult, IMHO.

The airline industry in general -- and FT in particular -- could use a healthy sprinkling of equality, respect and treating people as human beings instead of bank accounts.

TK isn't unique here. Every airline is guilty of this. It angers economy AND premium passengers in somewhat similar measures. It creates a terrible experience for everyone. And it doesn't help airlines make more money.

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/...assism/480813/

IAN-UK

QR is not premium priced either, for most of the year anyway. But its selling point is bling on the cheap: it has first-class, uber-bling, but the routes offering it are fast withering.

segacs

I guess the real question is, what do we pay for when we buy a "premium" product?

One view says we pay for specific services: A larger, more comfortable seat. An upgraded meal. More attention from flight staff. A separate cabin. Priority boarding. Free checked baggage. Lounge access. Etcetera. In other words, "we humans are all equal in value as people, but I splurged on an upgraded product in this case, and therefore expect what I paid for".

The second view, which OP seems to be suggesting with his post, is that we pay to be considered a better class of people. In this view, we're paying not for the services themselves, but for the separation from lower-status, lower class people. In other words, "I am better and I shouldn't have to rub elbows with inferior people."

There's nothing wrong with the first view. You pay for something, it's specified in the terms of a contract, you don't get it, it's okay to complain.

The second view, however, is the one I find problematic. OP's post was full of second-view status entitlement. And that's where he lost me.

You are not better simply because you have more money. You are not a special snowflake. Y passengers don't carry some sort of Y cooties around. They are just like you, albeit perhaps a bit grumpier because they haven't been coddled the way you have and they've had to deal with more frustrations than you have to get from A to B. They are you, sometimes. You are them, sometimes. And you are not entitled to a magic bubble to protect yourself from ever having to see them, touch them, bump into them, or know of their existence.

If a special bus for business class is part of the T&C of the ticket and isn't provided, then by all means, file a complaint. But do it on the basis of "I paid for X and didn't receive it", and not on the basis of "ewwww, I had to touch the peasants".

See the difference?