Originally Posted by
flymeoutofhere
Just returned to TLV after my second trip with TK this year in J. Until recently Turkish has been TLV’s largest foreign carrier. After the second flight I am even more confused as to how that has come to be.
- no business class queue available for pre-check in security. The guy managing the queue said there’s nobody waiting and that he doesn’t have an agent for business. There was a short queue but still took 10 min. Never happened with another airline
- 2 supervisor counters not forthcoming in helping when the business counter was occupied for 5 min+ (by economy passenger) with luggage problem
- Star alliance website says entry for gold is to any of the three Dan Lounges in TLV. As flight was departing from the E gates, I tried to enter the lounge in E and was told it’s not for Tk and to go to other side of terminal - B gates
- Boarding handling was a mess both times... info on screens not updated, no signage for priority, more like a pushing scrum to get onto the plane
- bus gates in Istanbul and TLV with inconsistency on the business class bus (once had, twice did not). In TLV the whole plane was squeezed onto one bus which even LCC’s don’t do. Took 15 min to load (on arrival).
- Inconsistent seat- everything from 3-3 with the middle blocked and no IFE to extra reclining 2-2
how did they get to big here with such a basic and bad product compared to basically every other airline (even LY)...
Many of the issues you have identified are airport issues and not TK issues.
In my experience there is always a business line available for business class passengers - though it is never marked and you have to ask about it (you'll need to be assertive).
There is no * lounge in TLV. Dan E is clearly a different beast and on most carriers websites it is clearly said that it is excluded.
TLV-IST is a short flight - I'm still surprised they send 777 and A330 on the route. Connecting to the many USA cities this is usually the best connection time and you can be assured for a real business class seat. That said, there are plenty of narrow bodies on the route. But it barely two hours flight and it is better than any other carrier from TLV (apart from Swiss and British).
It is still the best service out of TLV connecting forward, if you chose your flight strategically and understand the general limitations of TK.