hfly

When specifically last weekend? I was there twice in fact, as I was this past Weds and Fri/Sat, and as I will be again in the next 24 hours. I am there A LOT in fact.

The video that I reference has a group of South East Asian passengers walking around seemingly AIRSIDE, and in the gate and duty free areas. I am not quite sure here those specific passengers were supposed to have been getting their hotel(s) from, as it would not have been in any of the places that they were video'd.

I stand by my statement(s) regarding what I was speaking of, which in fact may have nothing whatsoever to do with what you are speaking of.

So which is your issue exactly. The slowness in TK in putting people in hotels, or the fact that it was snowing like crazy and people could not get to hotels? As really only one of those is fully under TK's control, isn't it?

But really I thank you for reinforcing my point. Yes the lounge looked like a refugee center, as does EVERY lounge in the World when there is such a snowstorm. I have seen LHR and FRA in worse situations. TK sees something like 25,000 plus transfer passengers a day through IST, this situation persisted for 4 days, and while some flights did get off, and after the first day many were not flying into IST, you are still talking about a number in excess of 20,000 passengers that were delayed, needed hotels, etc. I am amazed that they were able to keep up with that amount od delays and people with only a 3 hour lag and could get 200 people off at a time. Bravo to TK. The penultimate time this happened at LHR with only a 3 days snowstorm and about one tenth of the snow, there was a total meltdown and almost no one got hotels from BA.

Personally if I were you I would have done the following:

1) Checked the weather report on my own, all reports from the Thursday had said that the snow was going to persist until at least Monday, if not Wednesday.

2) When it became apparent that you were going to be stuck, which although you did not post the details I would assume was by Saturday morning at the latest, I would have immediately asked for a hotel etc FROM THE LOUNGE.

3) If this was not forthcoming, I would have gotten on a SUBWAY, and gone towards Aksaray or Sultanahmet or connected through to Taksim and just have camped out at any hotel for two days, and claimed it back from TK later.

But that is what I would have done. But obviously I have never been to IST, and I obviously know nothing.

Afterall, just milling about in a large crowd and shouting slogans through a terminal, mostly in my own language that no one understands and demanding to be immediately flown back to my country, when the airport is closed and everyone else is stuck is the logical thing to do................

GuyverII

The only issue I have with TK is the IST lounge has become a madhouse. Not quite as nice an experience as it used to be.

AntonS

Anyone who thinks TK is safe should take a closer look at recent accidents in AMS and KTM and near-crashes in AER and NCE that demonstrate serious disregard to safety.

Flying in winter? Take a look at novel de-icing approach:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...h-to-de-icing/

Plus:
* Turkey does not publish accident investigation reports: how many more incidents and accidents we do not know about?
* Abysmal IRROPs handling in IST
* Airline belongs to the totalitarian regime, which has enemies in the region that want to destroy turkish economy and turism.

Do you need more reasons not to fly TK?

CIT85

We flew ORD-IST on Sunday night, flight was diverted to Gaziantep (for those who don't know the name, Google Map will show it's ~100 km from Aleppo, Syria, because of weather in IST. No announcement was ever made about snow storm in IST during the flight or when we were diverted.

Flight took off after refueling and landed in IST around 10:30 PM Monday night. No ground staff to direct customers, and no display boards for flight information. TK transfer desk (wait in line) copied everyone's passport and boarding pass and sent everyone through passport control. After passport control we were directed to a desk that collected the copy of passport and boarding pass and issued visa. Then we're out of the secure area into bagge claim with no idea what the hell we were supposed to do.

We went upstairs to departure and found Business Class check in counters (Economy counters had enormous lines) and got rebooked to CDG fro 11:05 AM Tuesday. We were then told to go to Hotel Desk downstairs. That's when the confusion continued. Hotel Desk told us everyone had to wait in the hotel line, which was the 3 hours plus before they closed. The Hotel Desk guy even told me (flat out lie, and he should have just said he didn't know) that TK Lounge was closed. I went back upstairs to Business Class check in counter to confirm TK Lounge was open. At this point it was around 1 AM Tuesday. That's when we went through passport control and to the TK Lounge. Total duration in Turkey with visa was 1-1/2 hr, got to be a record.

Flight to CDG Jan. 10 was delayed a few times until 3:50 PM with no announcements at the gate and no display board at the gate. We arrived at Paris at ~5 PM and no luggage. Filed missing luggage report and just waited with no word for 3 days before they were delivered on Friday Jan. 13.

Yes, TK in flight service is great. TK Lounge is great, even with the huge crowd. I can deal with weather, missed connections, and cancelled flights. But TK customer service is abysmal during IRROPS.

This is why I will never fly TK during the winter.

hfly

Anton, TK is no more or less dangerous than any other airline its size.

One can easily pick and choose anything can't one?

KTM. You mean where they went off the runway in an insident that anywhere else in teh World might not have been noticed, if KTM had a proper tug? Or even a proper fire engine with a tug bar? Compared to teh BA flight from PEK for example?

AMS? You mean about 8 years ago when a couple people were killed? I actually knew one of them. Your point is?

One can do a google of incidents and find a half dozen from any major airline over the last six months. You just seem to focus on one airline.

You are several days late in posting video from Sanliurfa airport. It was not IST, and quite frankly, if its deicing liquid, what difference does it make if it is poured on or done with a fancy sprayer.

Oh, I do agree that it makes the airline look terrible. But I do not agree that it makes the airline unsafe.

As to the rest:

The incidents which you cite all have published reports.

Their IRROPS in such weather conditions is better than most of the other top five airports/airlines in Europe.

You are making political commentary that does not belong on this thread

Back to CIT, I would just suggest you don't fly any connections through Europe in the winter if that is the way you feel. It is understandable that you are angry that you were delayed and delayed, anyone would be, but what you describe above could have happened or been worse with any other European airline or hub.

1010101

Sorry to report another Turkish aircraft has crashed

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38633526

edit: not clear yet who was operating the plane. It was apparently a Turkish cargo airline flying for Turkish Airlines.

TK has been on my no fly list for a while now, which is a shame as the service is good

Mict

This was operated by MyCargo and not Turkish Airlines. It only had a TK flight number. The frame and crew were all MyCargo.
Very sad, Rip.

simonrp84

.....

Worcester

That's as maybe, but the bare facts are that there are number of (safe) airlines like for Air France whose accidents over the last few years have lead to many more deaths than TK, but you don't see people trolling these airlines.

Any accident is too many and I hope TK along with every single airline in the world does their best to learn.

MrAOK

The latest reports say the 747 cargo plane that crashed was operated by ACT Airlines for Turkish Airlines not by TK itself, which I believe does all or most of its own passenger service.

I'm set to go to Bishkek on TK in April from the states so I'm paying close attention. But the initial word is this was caused by an error of a pilot for ACT.

hfly

While of course terrible for those involved. This was a once a week cargo flight operated from HKG-SAW (Not IST as reported), that carried a TK flight number for bilateral reasons and not much else, it was not even strictly a wet-lease from what I understand, it was more like an ACT flight that also carried Turkish Cargo in reality.

boosh

Using this logic you should stay away from all European, M3 and American carriers as well. I am assuming Russian carriers are already off you list.

It's a pretty weak and ungrounded argument that belongs in nutty section of OMNI/PR

starflyergold

If everyone could please take a deep breath. We have this discussion every time someone asks about the safety or security situation when flying TK or transiting IST or other Turkish airports.

Question about safety are perfectly acceptable and will continue to be so on Flyertalk. In the Turkish case the proliferation of tragic events in Turkey in recent times do pose legitimate questions. I would hope that we can continue to discuss these in a civilised manner without personal attacks.

Any FT rules violations will be dealt with in the normal fashion.

starflyergold
TK forum moderator

DaveS

I have just booked my next TK flight. I am a regular on Turkish. I worry less about flying on TK aircraft than I do on some European/US carriers. At least the aircraft were made in this millennium. I was on a BA flight from Abuja yesterday. The aircraft was so old it should have been on a scrap heap. There was a lot of backlash in the landing gear. And for airport security, as said earlier there have been plenty of problems elsewhere.

IAN-UK

Well, yes: reports on the Air France South Atlantic crash reveal a chilling mix of technical issues, gross pilot error and flaws in pilot training.

Of course, all that was some time ago, training was modified, the technical issues addressed: so now current chatter on AF tends to focus on more interesting areas such as the bling of its first-class service.



Yet for poor old TK dredging up the past, the "almost disasters" and conflating these with the country's current crisis of violence and political chaos is something of a hobby for some.