nevillek

Hello all,

My father is pretty apprehensive of flying Turkish airlines for his SFO-BOM return flight the next month due to the recent developments in Turkey. Are his fears justified or is it all a hoax created by people around? Looking for input from people who've flown Turkish Airlines recently and their experiences at IST airport.

Thank you!

ajeleonard

No one can give you a definitive answer. The airport is secure but a landslide security checkpoint was bombed last year.

SK AAR

No reason to be concerned - it is unlikely that any problems will occur at the airport during the transit/when your father is there

If he is really concerned, I see no other alternative than to ditch the return flight and buy a ticket with another airlines. But that would be an over reaction IMO.

vincewy

I would also avoid flying in/out of DME, FLL and BRU to be 100% secure. These airports have been attacked as well. There's an illogical bias against anything Middle Eastern in Western societies, unfortunately, many in Asia fall for it.

If it's not secure, as SK ARR mentioned, ditch the return segments and stop asking/worrying.

johnirvine

If your father is apprehensive, he should not fly TK. There are many other airlines which fly the route. When travelling, one needs to feel comfortable and relaxed.

The problem for TK is that the Erdogan regime has two very determined enemies at present - PKK and Daesh. They are both determined to destroy Turkey's economy and tourist industry. Whatever anyone may say to the contrary, the risks of flying TK are far higher than with the ME three or other airlines like LH and BA.

This said, I still occasionally fly TK. But only when there are very clear price/schedule benefits or to take advantage of the two annual E+ upgrades.

nevillek

Sorry guys I misworded my statement in OP. By return flight, I meant a 2 way return trip i.e. SFO-BOM and back to SFO, that we haven't booked yet.

nevillek

Turkish is $665 for a return trip, while the ones he prefers like Lufthansa are $950+. But he is adamant in avoiding Turkish. Etihad is ~$800 but he doesn't like that either, I wonder why?

Mict

I would not worry at all. I fly TK frequently and am never worried. Plus your father will just be transiting and will be staying airside.

SK AAR

I C. Thank you for clarifying this. It makes quite a difference from what I understood you asked for in the first place.

Despite the fare difference (the higher LH fare) by all means book the ticket that your father is most comfortable with. USD 300 is small price for your father to travel comfortably and without concerns.

hfly

For that matter, LAX, FLL, FCO VIE, GLA, and countless others have also suffered attacks in the past, for that matter I know people who are really afraid of visiting Bombay after the 2008 attacks which took place in a dozen places all over the city and killed scores of people. Everyone has different perceptions of risk.

boosh

I myself find TK and IST perfectly safe to fly with.

I guess you could say that IST is even safer than FRA or MUC as all airports in Turkey have an additional layer of security, when you enter the terminal, that Germany, or any other EU country to my knowledge, does not. From memory India has the same.

Actually, with the intinerary posted above, the unsaftest airport could probably be SFO

CIT85

I have no reservations flying TK through IST. However, after my daughter and I were caught up in the snow storm fiasco at IST, I will never fly TK through IST in the winter when there is a chance of snow storm that TK is not equipped to handle.

I actually selected TK because of very good service in Business Class and so that my daughter an experience TK Lounge Istanbul. Safety was never a concern. I also did not consider winter weather.

I found out that it is not unusual for IST to have heavy snow, but IST cannot handle snow and TK customer service during IRROPS is absolutely disorganized.

Feb is still winter. I would not risk you dad getting stuck and with no one to help.

Select an airline that has good customer service and can handle IRROPS.

Mict

IST is used to the snow in the winter but this year was exceptional, I have never seen so much snow in IST, last time this happened was in 2009 and before that I can't remember of any such situation.

hfly

To be clear, while I recall that there was more total snow, I believe in 2009 it fell over less days so that the overall disruption was less. Look, I am the first to criticize TK when they do wrong things and they are many, but in my experience, having hit snowy weather at many of Europe's biggest airports, I can say as I did above that TK does a better job than LHR, FRA or CDG........a much better job.

Like in that video where a bunch of Southeast Asian people are marching through the airport and saying taht they want to go home. That may be Twitterable, but what do they expect the airline to do? Make it stop snowing? Do they have visa issues which is why they wre not going to their hotels? If that is the case that certainly happens at all major European airports everyday.

I would say that the biggest issue that TK has is their desire to try and never FIM onto other carriers (in this case to overfly IST), in my experience, the only airline worse at this is EK. TK will FIM its Biz passengers, and elites, but you will have much better results going to your originating airport and getting it done there rather than over the phone.

CIT85

Sorry, but this is ---- comment. If you had been at IST this past weekend you wouldn't make such sarcastic comment based on ignorance, regardless how much traveling you do.

All passengers waiting for a hotel were told to wait in hotel line by TK Hotel Desk. They were sending groups of 200 passengers. The line for hotel was >3 hours long at midnight Jan. 9 when I asked one women about 30 from the front of the line, then they completely stopped sending people to hotels at around 3 AM. Taxi line was 4 hours.

So how the hell do you expect anyone go to their hotel?

My daughter waited in the hotel line for 30 minutes until I confirmed that TK Lounge was open, then we went through passport control and security to spend the next 15 hours at TK Lounge, sitting at the cafe because every sofa and soft chair was occupied with people sleeping and every carpet area had people sleeping, including 4 men sleeping under and around the grand piano.

By the way, everyone was issued visa at passport control free of charge, if you did not have one.

Please do not make stupid comments if you were not there.