TK a 4 star airline??
Jan 10, 2010 | 5:22 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Sweden
Programs: SK Blue, OK Silver, QA newbie
Posts: 7
TK a 4 star airline??
So this is a recap from a recent trip I did to DEL from ARN with TK. It’s not a full trip-report as I thought I would write, but more of a highlights and lowlights that I have bin thinking of and would like to see what others here have experienced.
My trip started on day before christmas with nothing ordinary going on, so I thought. It started with a good surprise, TK sent a A340 to do the initial run from ARN to IST. So far so good, but plane arrives late and departures close to 3 hours late from ARN. As my connection time in IST is only little bit less then 2 hours I of course was worried that I would be stranded in IST for christmas. The interesting part that made me very confused was that the reason for late departure from ARN the captain blames it on a broken veichle that is supposed to help the plane to start it’s engines!? Now, how does that really work? Did he make up a small lie or is this really true? Anyone here who can put a light on this?
What more puzzled me was that according to taxipattern at the time of the day he clearly went the wrong way, to the opposite end of the active runway. I base this on that half way the plane stopped on the taxiway and just stood there for a good 30 min without any word from flightdeck. After a while the plane started to move again and did a 180, I thought to get in line for take-off. Much to my surprise he does another 180 turn and soon we stand still once again at the same spot where we just stood for half an hour. While this is happening we see an obese overweight pilot comming out from flightdeck with a magazine in his hand and a big smile and heads straight to the middle lavatory at L2 door! We in the C-class cabin just looks puzzled at eachother and can’t belive our eyes. Some minutes later the captains comes on the PA and explaines in very poor english that due to faulty start veichle we have missed our slot and we have to wait for another 40 minutes on the taxiway for a slot opening. This is the time when the cabin starts to become a zoo, many passengers tries to get in contact with cabin attendants and ask what will happen with there connections as by this time we were already 2,5 hours late. The poor english knowledge from the captain seems consistant through the whole flightcrew because we could barely understand when they said that our connections would probably wait for us in IST. A woman almost hystericly asks an attendant if there is any food she can give to her husband who has diabetes and need to eat soon or he will get ill. The reply she gets is that there’s no food available at the time while she picks out a bag of nuts and gives to the woman.
Time goes by and soon we lift off from ARN 3 hours late. The flight is uneventful and we arrive at gate after the longest taxi I have ever bin on. In the gateway though there is a TK employe who has a paper note with connection gates for those who are in a rush. As the flightcrew said, atleast our DEL flight was waiting for us at the opposite end of the terminal.
For once I was glad that DEL flight was over 2 hours late from IST as we didnt arrive in DEL for a dreadful 4 am arrival but for 6 am instead. The meals were good and plenty of it. But here’s were we once again asked ourself if it’s really a 4 star airline when you have to book in advance a vegetarian starter for the meal? I was fine with the pre-plated starters, but my girlfriend who is a vegetarian could not eat much except for the main meal. How well thougth is this arrangement for a flight that arrives in a country where you start every meal by being asked ”veg or non-vegetarian”? Surely atleast half of the passengers must be vegetarians as there were lots of Indian citizens. This flight once again proves that english knowledge in TK is below acceptable for a european flag carrier. Once during flight I asked for two more bottles of drinking water, 15 minutes later I get two glasses of very hot water filled to the edge! What am I supposed to do with that? Also only one meal service for a 6 hour flight? Sure many passengers opted to sleep for the whole flight but as a business passenger you should have some options on snacks available during the flight which I did not see.
The last day in India came by fast and soon it was time to fly back home again. As we had some vacation time down in Kerala we had to fly up to DEL again from Trivandrum with Kingfisher, more of that later.
One thing we didnt expect was that you dont have entry to the terminal in DEL for departure at earliest 3 hours before flight! We had arrived on the domestic run with Kingfisher at 8 pm the evening before our 5 am flight with TK. So we spent 5 hours in a cramped visitors lounge until we could evan enter the international terminal. I have never seen so many people looking like zombies at the same time! I really felt for the poor families with children who had to endure the night in the lounge. Food was available for prices that far exceeded the normal street fares.
Check in soon came and went by without any problems, although I wonder why TK sticks with Menzies on the ground when they have star partners that can do the job, both ARN and DEL had Menzies ground service that checked us in, not much of welcoming really on neither of the places. I was evan questioned if I was in the right lane when I was in business check-in at ARN. That’s really not TK fault but it does reflect back on TK as they are there representives.
I have red about the chaotic boardings at DEL and sure enough it was. We could not hear at all when boarding time would start as the flight was late as usual. At one time they had one gate for two seperate flights boarding at the same time. I asked in what que a passenger was in line for, he said Dubai while the woman behind him was for the same flight as me, IST.
The return flight was much better service vice then the outbound, I sleept before breakfast wich was very suitable for the flight, although the hot main was really not that hot, an crepes filled with omelette which was cold inside and luke warm on the outside.
The entertainment system was pretty much non existant on both flights, for being an AVOD, nothing worked except for the flight map and the cameras. Outbound flight had no entertainment at all really. The return flight had some with only games working now and then. At the end of the flight though it started to work but with one hour to go it was pointless to start watching anything by that time.
After a long flight with some nice scenic outside the windows it was time to land in IST. Parking at a bus stand hundred meters from the terminal was pretty much pointless but I didnt mind it as business and Elite had our own bus waiting for us.
We were dying for a shower finally entering the THY CIP lounge. No welcoming or smiles met us at the entrance desk as the dragons rather talked in phones or chatting with eachother. After getting the shower kit in hand we turned our steps to the shower room, or more precisely locker room at it turned out to be be. Hot water was plenty of but the male shower room had one working shower head that you could use, but that was very worn out also. Also you had no privacy what so ever, meanwhile I was dressing a janitor and maintenance guy came in to fix some broken doors for the lockers. This was during I tried to dry up from the disposible paper towels, actually those worked pretty good, although a wierd feeling against the skin.
The best part of the whole TK experience was the lounge, very airy feeling and lot’s of natural light inside. Plenty of nibbles and beverages, after 11 am they start to serve something close to lunch with some hot dishes, I didnt try it but it looked very tasty. Now, i’m not blowing TK off totaly evan if it sounds like that but I really wonder how they got there 4 star rating, it’s a big mystery to me. But I’m willing to give them another chanse before I judge them to hard.
Kingfisher on the other hand, what an airline!! I only flew domestic but that was one of the best flights I have flewn. The service from curbside to luggage pick up at the destination was first class evan for economy service. The inflight service is out of this world, very attentive flightattendants, polite and caring. The food is very good and plentyful, and always served with a smile. We had one stop in Bangalore before we continued to Trivandrum, and same way back. And evan on that short hop of less than an hour they served a full meal with tea and coffe service afterwards. And the planes were spotlessly clean. I can only say it’s a first class airline that definatly deserves it’s five star rating!
My trip started on day before christmas with nothing ordinary going on, so I thought. It started with a good surprise, TK sent a A340 to do the initial run from ARN to IST. So far so good, but plane arrives late and departures close to 3 hours late from ARN. As my connection time in IST is only little bit less then 2 hours I of course was worried that I would be stranded in IST for christmas. The interesting part that made me very confused was that the reason for late departure from ARN the captain blames it on a broken veichle that is supposed to help the plane to start it’s engines!? Now, how does that really work? Did he make up a small lie or is this really true? Anyone here who can put a light on this?
What more puzzled me was that according to taxipattern at the time of the day he clearly went the wrong way, to the opposite end of the active runway. I base this on that half way the plane stopped on the taxiway and just stood there for a good 30 min without any word from flightdeck. After a while the plane started to move again and did a 180, I thought to get in line for take-off. Much to my surprise he does another 180 turn and soon we stand still once again at the same spot where we just stood for half an hour. While this is happening we see an obese overweight pilot comming out from flightdeck with a magazine in his hand and a big smile and heads straight to the middle lavatory at L2 door! We in the C-class cabin just looks puzzled at eachother and can’t belive our eyes. Some minutes later the captains comes on the PA and explaines in very poor english that due to faulty start veichle we have missed our slot and we have to wait for another 40 minutes on the taxiway for a slot opening. This is the time when the cabin starts to become a zoo, many passengers tries to get in contact with cabin attendants and ask what will happen with there connections as by this time we were already 2,5 hours late. The poor english knowledge from the captain seems consistant through the whole flightcrew because we could barely understand when they said that our connections would probably wait for us in IST. A woman almost hystericly asks an attendant if there is any food she can give to her husband who has diabetes and need to eat soon or he will get ill. The reply she gets is that there’s no food available at the time while she picks out a bag of nuts and gives to the woman.
Time goes by and soon we lift off from ARN 3 hours late. The flight is uneventful and we arrive at gate after the longest taxi I have ever bin on. In the gateway though there is a TK employe who has a paper note with connection gates for those who are in a rush. As the flightcrew said, atleast our DEL flight was waiting for us at the opposite end of the terminal.
For once I was glad that DEL flight was over 2 hours late from IST as we didnt arrive in DEL for a dreadful 4 am arrival but for 6 am instead. The meals were good and plenty of it. But here’s were we once again asked ourself if it’s really a 4 star airline when you have to book in advance a vegetarian starter for the meal? I was fine with the pre-plated starters, but my girlfriend who is a vegetarian could not eat much except for the main meal. How well thougth is this arrangement for a flight that arrives in a country where you start every meal by being asked ”veg or non-vegetarian”? Surely atleast half of the passengers must be vegetarians as there were lots of Indian citizens. This flight once again proves that english knowledge in TK is below acceptable for a european flag carrier. Once during flight I asked for two more bottles of drinking water, 15 minutes later I get two glasses of very hot water filled to the edge! What am I supposed to do with that? Also only one meal service for a 6 hour flight? Sure many passengers opted to sleep for the whole flight but as a business passenger you should have some options on snacks available during the flight which I did not see.
The last day in India came by fast and soon it was time to fly back home again. As we had some vacation time down in Kerala we had to fly up to DEL again from Trivandrum with Kingfisher, more of that later.
One thing we didnt expect was that you dont have entry to the terminal in DEL for departure at earliest 3 hours before flight! We had arrived on the domestic run with Kingfisher at 8 pm the evening before our 5 am flight with TK. So we spent 5 hours in a cramped visitors lounge until we could evan enter the international terminal. I have never seen so many people looking like zombies at the same time! I really felt for the poor families with children who had to endure the night in the lounge. Food was available for prices that far exceeded the normal street fares.
Check in soon came and went by without any problems, although I wonder why TK sticks with Menzies on the ground when they have star partners that can do the job, both ARN and DEL had Menzies ground service that checked us in, not much of welcoming really on neither of the places. I was evan questioned if I was in the right lane when I was in business check-in at ARN. That’s really not TK fault but it does reflect back on TK as they are there representives.
I have red about the chaotic boardings at DEL and sure enough it was. We could not hear at all when boarding time would start as the flight was late as usual. At one time they had one gate for two seperate flights boarding at the same time. I asked in what que a passenger was in line for, he said Dubai while the woman behind him was for the same flight as me, IST.
The return flight was much better service vice then the outbound, I sleept before breakfast wich was very suitable for the flight, although the hot main was really not that hot, an crepes filled with omelette which was cold inside and luke warm on the outside.
The entertainment system was pretty much non existant on both flights, for being an AVOD, nothing worked except for the flight map and the cameras. Outbound flight had no entertainment at all really. The return flight had some with only games working now and then. At the end of the flight though it started to work but with one hour to go it was pointless to start watching anything by that time.
After a long flight with some nice scenic outside the windows it was time to land in IST. Parking at a bus stand hundred meters from the terminal was pretty much pointless but I didnt mind it as business and Elite had our own bus waiting for us.
We were dying for a shower finally entering the THY CIP lounge. No welcoming or smiles met us at the entrance desk as the dragons rather talked in phones or chatting with eachother. After getting the shower kit in hand we turned our steps to the shower room, or more precisely locker room at it turned out to be be. Hot water was plenty of but the male shower room had one working shower head that you could use, but that was very worn out also. Also you had no privacy what so ever, meanwhile I was dressing a janitor and maintenance guy came in to fix some broken doors for the lockers. This was during I tried to dry up from the disposible paper towels, actually those worked pretty good, although a wierd feeling against the skin.
The best part of the whole TK experience was the lounge, very airy feeling and lot’s of natural light inside. Plenty of nibbles and beverages, after 11 am they start to serve something close to lunch with some hot dishes, I didnt try it but it looked very tasty. Now, i’m not blowing TK off totaly evan if it sounds like that but I really wonder how they got there 4 star rating, it’s a big mystery to me. But I’m willing to give them another chanse before I judge them to hard.
Kingfisher on the other hand, what an airline!! I only flew domestic but that was one of the best flights I have flewn. The service from curbside to luggage pick up at the destination was first class evan for economy service. The inflight service is out of this world, very attentive flightattendants, polite and caring. The food is very good and plentyful, and always served with a smile. We had one stop in Bangalore before we continued to Trivandrum, and same way back. And evan on that short hop of less than an hour they served a full meal with tea and coffe service afterwards. And the planes were spotlessly clean. I can only say it’s a first class airline that definatly deserves it’s five star rating!
