No alcohol served on my flight
 

I usually fly Emirates but yesterday I flew with TK from Tbilisi to Manchester.

The Istanbul to Manchester leg was in the afternoon and just over 4 hours.

I asked for a beer and the flight attendant said "we don't serve alcohol".

I asked if it was due to Ramadan and unfortunately I couldn't understand the reply.

The food was almost inedible - dry minced kebabs, with rice and two pieces of courgette.

So with poor food and no booze I won't be booking with TK again!

Since COVID, TK isn't serving alcohol in Economy Class.
Nothing to do with the month of Ramadan; alcohol is served in Business Class at the moment.

It's just cost-cutting.

I’m not convinced TK has a monopoly on poor food and no alcohol in Y, so you may run out of airlines soon!

Emirates is a safe bet for better alcohol in Y policies. Its CEO even called BA a low-cost carrier because of BA's pay-for-food policies on shorter flights.

Sir, you flew in Economy - what do you except?

Come on, it was beer :D

Expect? Accept? ;)

I thought that one could be temporarily banned from FT for admitting to flying Y. Beer or no beer... :D

Had the same dish IST-CAI this evening. Quite tasty, IMO. I used the hummus as a sauce to moisten the dish a bit. The white chocolate mousse was excellent.

I'm happy TK serves hot meals in Y on such short routes. Must be the only carrier to do so on intra-European flights.

In 11 years of flying between CGK and IAD pre-covid, I have never not been able to get complementary beer / wine in Y (usually whiskey too). Cutting out booze in Y is a ghetto LCC move.

“Do you have alcoholic beverages (May 5)? “
“No, because of Covid.”
”Okay. I’ll have an Ayran then.”
”I’m sorry. No Ayran,”
”Because of Covid?”
”I’m sorry. It’s procedure.”

I recently flew long-haul TK in economy and asked for a whisky. Before the pandemic they sometimes served an excellent Scotch malt. No whisky at all now: the flight attendant told me that spirits have been cut from economy.
That is a significant service diminution by Turkish in my view. I sent them a letter to that end.

TK has never served any "excellent" Scotch Malt. Much like their Bailey's "looks" like Baileys, and is instead "Irish Cream drink" (or whatever) they served either JB once upon a time, or something literally named something like "Scotch Malt". Just to be clear, they started serving spirits in economy BEFORE the pandemic, I make this differentiation because it is not like this was a "pandemic" thing that one should hope returns, but rather a budget decision at the time, whether we agree on it or not.