ISTFlyer

With the new aircraft ( 787-9 and A350 ) joining in the upcoming years, Turkish Airlines is increasing IAD, LAX, ORD and SFO frequencies and all these routes would be operated 10 times a week. This is the new rumor that I have read in 2 other forums and in addition to this, I have heard from an insider. However, no details of the schedule yet. AFAIH [ H stands for heard ], the additional flights would be morning flights that depart at similar times as TK3.

Turkish Airlines had operated x10 weekly to IAD and x11 weekly to LAX back in 2016 but after the political situation in Turkey, the additional flights were removed several months after being introduced.

Just a reminder that currently there is no credible source for a frequency increase and TK hasn't filed anything yet related to this in their S20 schedule.

This was the schedule when TK operated the extra frequencies to IAD and LAX back in 2016.
TK177 IST0640 – 1110IAD 333 247
TK007 IST1340 – 1810IAD 333 D

TK178 IAD1240 – 0555+1IST 333 247
TK008 IAD2325 – 1640+1IST 333 D

TK013 IST0940 – 1335LAX 77W x16
TK009 IST1420 – 1815LAX 77W x4

TK014 LAX1655 – 1600+1IST 77W x16
TK010 LAX2125 – 2030+1IST 77W x4

nacho

Morning TATL flights are not exactly great for me or anyone who is based in Europe

The earliest flight from CPH arrived at IST at around 11am.

gr8pirate

craigthemif

^

Of course IST is still a substantial detour for most Europe <--> USA itineraries. But at least we might have a better shot at avoiding an overnight layover in IST if there are more frequencies.

Goaguy

However it works great for connecting passengers from many African destinations, including myself.
As someone else said, flying TK from EU to US is quite a detour. Now, only thing they need to fix is their stupid narrow body chair-style business class on many African destinations. Many of those are 5-8 hour overnight flights. Otherwise these clients may still pick ET, EK or QR instead.

ISTFlyer

In EK it's a %100 chance to get a lie-flat on all flights; however, on ET or QR, not all African destinations that TK serves receives lie-flat or angled-flat Business Class seats. For example, ET uses 737's on some of their flights which the seat is similar to TK 737-900ER's. For the QR example, some destinations in Africa is served by A320/A321 aircraft which have recliner seats as well. Also a reminder that last minute aircraft type changes are popular at QR, you could be downgraded from a 787 to A321 just a few hours before your flight; obviously the opposite ( narrow-body to wide-body ) is also possible.

Goaguy

You are very right.

Take DAR as an example, where I have often been flying to/from.
You can either first fly DAR-ADD on ET which is a 2:20hr flight with very good chance of a wide body, from there straight to US (with a fuel stop one way).
On TK, until they recently started flying once/twice a week via LUN with A330, you would 100% be on a 7:30hr night flight DAR-IST on a B737-900ER.
You are right about QR, e.g. they currently operate a narrow body to DAR. But at least it is only 5ish hours to DOH, not 7:30. And the flight is daytime, that makes a massive difference. But then you might again end up with a long layover in order to catch a QR flight to US.

I believe same scenario goes for many other African airports. Question is how many of their potential clients on these flights will be ex-Africa. Perhaps more Turkish customers, or from Middle East/India/Pakistan region?

PVDtoDEL

i'll be over the moon if they bring the 21:00 LAX-IST flight back. It would let me get my full work day in SEA, and I could catch a 5PM flight down to LAX to connect to TK. This would be a huge improvement over what i currently do - redeye to JFK and then another redeye to IST.

Of course, it would be even more convenient if TK just launched SEA direct

nacho

Great that you can afford to fly business, we are paying out of our own pocket and even on business travel it's strictly discounted economy. TK Y is superior to other airlines and the detour means extra miles.

manhattan92

Any update on the new EWR-IST route?

ISTFlyer

AFAIK, it will be reconsidered later this year. PANYNJ is currently not offering TK, reasonable time slots that TK pax could transfer easily to UA flights.

Goaguy

The vast majority of my flights are in Y. However I go very far to utilize miles/upgrade vouchers to be in C on intercontinental flights, when possible. I understand that the narrow body C-class product may not bother passengers that would have flown in Y as much.
I agree that the TK economy product is superior to many other airlines.

gr8pirate

ISTFlyer

It's normal in Europe ( especially in Scandinavia ), I will doubt that the company that you work could buy Basic Economy tickets in the future and make you pay for your checked baggage.


CAI and BEY are the airports that receive the most bargains.

I also know some Turkish people who pay for their travel and do turnarounds at ATH as they find it cheaper than directly flying from IST.

Just to generalize, TK is successful at making promotions for pax who like to travel discounted and they are also successful to overcharge pax who don't know how airline faring works as well as those who never gives up from flying Origin to Destination direct flights.

I remember once when flying CDG-IST, the passenger sitting in my left of me had paid €400 for a CDG-IST-VAS-IST-CDG ticket, while the passenger sitting in my right had paid €550 for a CDG-IST-ORD-IST-CDG ticket. I was flying on a CDG-IST-CDG ticket worth €130.

deleter

Sorry for a bit more off-topic, I am more than aware about the CAI (and rest of Egypt) bargains, but I haven't had the feeling that BEY had some J bargains (or maybe I just bad at finding them). Do you have some current or recent examples? (BEY has been on my bucket list for a while now and this would be a good opportunity!)