blue2002

Heavy snow in IST. 100+ flights cancelled. Must be TK's fault.

Altaflyer

When I flew tk from sin to IST my impression was the hard product and soft product were excellent but service was abysmal both in the air and at IST. Plates not being cleared for half an hour and refills very sporadic in J is just not acceptable.

Ichinensei

put the plates on the floor in the aisle

tyberius

I think your frustration with not getting on your flight is probably the biggest pigment in the picture of how you feel about the service.

I've flown TK several times and it's always been equivalent to AC and a bit better at times.

Some people howl at AC too. In fact, find me an airline that nobody howls at (and I've howled at SQ so they are not exempt either).

Overall I have trouble with your criticism of the airline. Your plane is not there. It will get there when it gets there. Updates to schedules are often piecemeal and incomplete. But... sadly... delays happen and information is sporadic often, with everyone.

My last flight with AC took me 11 hours to get from A to B when it should have taken 4.

Ibound flight was delayed for unknown reason so we were delayed getting off the ground.

On the plane some jackass forgot their duty free so they spent 10 minutes trying to get it to them instead of getting the plane moving, making us more late. Other jackasses went up to try to claim it when it wasn't theirs. Argh.

We landed, and missed my connection by 5 minutes. Had to endure a 6 hour delay as a result.

Finally landed, way behind schedule, and as the only SE on the Dash 8, my luggage came out dead last, and the other bag didn't appear at all. Staffer had to go into the back room and found it, came out and told me, "Sorry, IT WAS MARKED RUSH."

Rush? And not even put on the belt?

So I was the last one to leave the airport. Luckily all the cabs were not gone.

But this crap just happens. I got unlucky that day. Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes it gets you.

mabramovich

You guys are being harsh. Delays suck and everyone knows it, especially on a RTW vacation. Let the dude vent.

Plus, I know how useless ground agents can be too. It's one thing to say "I dunno, plane is somewhere" and it's another to say, with certainly, "Your flight uses equipment from TK 451 which has not left ZRH yet due to some weather issues. The current expected take off time is 20.30 so we would expect the plane to be here in 3 hours. Of course, that could change, and if we get updated information, we'll let you know. We're very sorry about the inconvenience.

Plus, he's not some Y cow -- he's a J passenger!

becreative

Well on my last mini RTW our LX flight from YUL-ZRH was delayed leaving ZRH which meant we missed our connection in ZRH. We got rebooked onto an afternoon flight but while rebooking the agent was extremely rude and she had actually rebooked another pax (not flying in F) onto the next flight within 30 minutes whereas for us (flying in F) we were re booked on a much later flight. We tried asking her but she just said this was the first flight available and that we didn't know the other pax's reasons (well all i knew was she was on our flight was YUL, not in F, headed to MAD and missed the same connection but was treated much better). So we took the later flight and headed to explore Zurich for a few hours. Came back, had a nice lunch at the first class lounge before heading for our flight to MAD. Overall delay in getting to MAD was over 8 hours (the flight to MAD was delayed too!) but we didn't really care. I mean we were on vacation and these things happen.

But that doesn't make LX a bad airline. Their inflight service, rest of the ground service etc were still top notch.

I am sorry you have had to experience a delay at the airport but I am not sure the lounge agents at the IST lounge (or for any lounge for that matter) would be able to tell you which plane will get assigned to your flight. These things are changed based on incoming planes, planes going mx etc.. So although flight ops might have an idea of which plane you might get on, the lounge agents certainly won't so why pester them. Just enjoy the IST lounge. I am sure there are worse places to be stuck waiting for a delayed flight (lounges in Rome or Madrid come to mind immediately)

rumblefox

Part of this may also be the Turkish/Greek/Mediterranean lackadaisical attitude.
I remember travelling through IST and the region and having numerous experiences like:
1) Just wait 5 minutes (means wait 30+ minutes)
2) I'll just make one stop (5+ stops)
3) That will be about $5 ($25+)

Although I have to concur the IST lounge is pretty spacious and nice (liked the middle eastern theme)... I did notice there was alot of staff just sitting there and chatting very loudly. Luckily I didn't have to interact with them.

Shareholder

I do find in spite of the very good hard product and catering, TK crews are rather lackadaisical and remind me of the generation of "stewardesses" on European airlines who got their jobs because of family connections. They were pretty much all upper middle class women wanting to see the world and shop til they drop. What better job than being a stewardess for AF or a similar (then) state owned airline?! I suspect that's the same pool from which TK draws its FAs from.

As for IST, the airport is strained to its capacity given the huge increase in flights that TK has taken on in its rapid expansion, and the increased number of foreign carriers now serving the city. I've waited in conga lines that are longer than some of the worst at ORD or JFK. Last month was on A3 and it took us an hour and a half to move along the taxi way and into position for take off. On one turn I could count 11 planes ahead of us, and from the side windows could see a parallel line of a similar number of planes on the other side of the runway!

GUWonder

I too find TK's hard product and catering to be very good. However, the cabin crews and ground personnel have that "can't be bothered too much beyond doing the motions of my job and nothing more" approach -- not in the most horrible of ways, but in a way that reminds me of UA cabin crews (in economy class for the better part of the last decade) and somewhere between AA ORD and AY HEL airside groundstaff (during the better part of the last decade).

Expect decent physical product with barely responsive personnel and that's TK for me, other than having to deal with IST.

NOIR

A little trick when dealing with Turks, just throw in the word "Arkadas" which means friend in Turkish and you'll get amazing results on a person to person level.

cdepks

Just be glad you have lounge access...I paid $33 (US) for ONE vodka and club soda in IST in the open bar with couches/etc. (not sure what terminal, I was departing on LH).

nomad1974

I can't believe how many people are attacking the OP on groundless allegations. Did you actually bother to read their post? OP was *NOT* complaining that the flights were delayed but at the lack of and then the poor quality and misleading nature of the information provided regarding the delay.

TK has a lot of issues with staff. It is a well-known fact and you can only brush so much under the carpet. Sure, when things go according to plan, nobody might even notice and yes the hard product is pretty good, but when things go wrong, well there have been many, many reports of TK's response being anything but appropriate (for an airline of its size and aspirations). Just browse these forums.

nomad1974

I doubt this will work with TK and to be honest it shouldn't have to come to that at a professional level.

NOIR

You are right, but still it helps.

When given lemons, make lemonade.

nomad1974

Haha, yeah, good point