My mom is looking at flying to Istanbul, and wants to use AA miles. I didn't see any trip reports on Turkish Airlines when I searched. Does anyone have any experiences on it, particularly in J?

I'm against the idea of her flying on Turkish, mainly because it violates my rule about not flying on the flag carrier of any nation where it is unsafe to drink the tap water.

I have flown them domestically in Y and its was pretty decent. I sent my mom, LHR-IST-AYT in J and she had no complaints.

In thinking over her itinerary, I would have sent her in J from ORD to IST and saved her schlepping through the airport.

I think Turkish Air is a pretty good airline, but others may chime in with other observations.

I have flown Turkish Airlines IST-ORD in Y, and was pleased with food (for coach) and service. Plane looked brand new, lavatories were clean. The only complaint was that their seats were the hardest I've seen, but I am sure they have much better ones in J...

What aircraft and J-class setup do they fly intra-Europe, e.g. IST-LHR?

How is IST as a transit airport for Europe-Asia, e.g. decent lounges, terminal, security?

TK A340 Business Class (total of 34 cradle-type seats, arranged 2-2-2):

Seat Pitch: 54" (137 cm)
Seat Width: 21" (54 cm)
Seat Recline: 135 degrees (12"-13")
Electronically operated back-rest & leg-rest
5 course meals
Personal TV screen
Satellite phone
Laptop power port

Sorry, don't know too much else in detail.

I flew TK in coach last month on BKK-SIN after SQ was oversold/delayed and the product was absolutely satisfactory. The J class seats looked pretty comfortable as well.

They use a combination of A310s and B737's on LHR-IST.

The B737's essentially just have a table across the middle seat in J, so it's not great, but the A310's have 'proper' club seating.

The International part of IST has been completely refurbished of late & is very pleasant, although I've never had long to wait for flights.

The long haul services are on A340s. They have a bar in J class - one of the few to offer it, I guess.

Actually, TK are pretty good in J, and I've travelled with them a LOT (LHR - IST - ALA). Not much to add to other comments on the thread, but there are many worse in more "civilised" countries (and, by the way, the tapwater at least in Istanbul is fine!)

I was transiting in IST from Asia to the US, and terminal looked new, security (at least when flying US-bound) was very tight. BA's mini-Terraces lounge was very comfortable, and staff was very attentive.

Terminal is very new (c1998). When I connected, I did walk in an enormous circle, but I was connecting domestic-international. Had to go through security, no hassles, but this was in 2000. Only thing wrong with terminal was the complete disregard for no-smoking signs. But after the hel-hole I'd experienced in Ankara, anything seemed good.

Flew LHR-IST in Y on 737-800 (so very new aircraft). Decent service. Only airline I've found that offer cherry juice as one of the drinks so a big for that.

Fine. I was @ Ataturk Airport last month, it is modern airy airport. The Turkish as well as BA lounges are a flight below the departure lounge.

Official airport website:

Istanbul Ataturk International Airport

I don't know about J class but I flew many times from the US to Turkey with TK. The planes are usually Airbus 340. So, seats and pitches should be like any other Airbus 340, me personally had no complaint whatsoever. (One forum member commented here that seats are hard ???)
Service and food (especially the Turkish Wine) is exceptionally good, FA's are nice and polite. If you are flying from JFK, TK is stationed at Terminal One, which is probably the best terminal building of that airport.
I definitely recommend TK to anyone flying to Turkey.

Actually, seats and pitches vary greatly between different airlines, even flying on the same type of aircraft.

And welcome to Flyertalk!

This is very true - the basic Boeing or Airbus spec is an empty box.

All the seat manufacturers seem to be either in North America or Western Europe, and they all serve a range of airlines from across the world. So whether the airline is from a developed country, or one less so, is not an issue when it comes to seat comfort. Meanwhile the leasing company that owns the aircraft will want normal international standards, so if they have to take the aircraft back they are not restricted for who it can be remarketed to.

The same international approach is true of the overall F or J experience, which for smaller nations' carriers will probably have been designed and specified in fine detail by consultants working out of London or LA, for example.

I would say that the tightest pitches are generally not found in third-world airlines, who do not usually take minimising seat-mile costs to the extreme like some European/US ones do.

Aviation has done a bizarre thing, for as the general population has got taller/bigger as the generations pass, seat pitch has gone the other way!

Actually altering the seat pitch in a modern aircraft is quite an expensive engineering operation. Moving the seats is just the start. All the overhead services for lights, supplementary oxygen, etc have to be reorganised, as do the IFE systems, galleys have to be rearranged, etc.