I don't even know where to begin. The airline is horrible and doesn't care about their customers, for starters, no one speaks a lick of English. So communication was absolutely pointless. Second, their lack of compassion for customers is unacceptable. Third, they love to belittle you and make you bounce from one person to the next. They wouldn't let me board my flight after they gave me the wrong gate number (which was never printed on the ticket) and we missed our flight, even after we verified with 3 different information desks and the gate we thought we needed to board on, their only solution / wait until tomorrow and buy a $3600.00 one way ticket for an hour and a half flight to Egypt. When we went to get our baggage since we didn't catch the flight the baggage claim idiot took every chance to yell at me and scream and shot, he charged at me and told me to "shut the f*** up" and threatened me. It got to the point where he turned all the staff in customs against me and made them search my bags piece by piece (we already did this upon check in, so it was pointless and a waste of time) he kept threatening me so I called 911, again with the language barrier, I had no idea what's going on. They didn't help, I went to the police station in the airport which they made me wait an hour while they laughed and joked and took selfies with other staff, it got to the point where I felt threatened and called the American consulate who advised me to leave the airport at once.

I do not recommend this airline whatsoever, every Turkish airport employee is a complete jerk and arrogant beyond words. This is not acceptable in any way shape or form. I will be filling a report with the American consulate and the Better business bureau as well as filing a dispute with my credit card company since the services i paid for were not rendered.

If I could go the rest of my life without ever flying Turkish airlines or even visiting turkey, I would die a happy person.

Also, I told them I had been at the air port waiting to board the flight for over 6 hours and my boarding pass showed the time the pass was issued. When they asked me for my boarding pass to obtain my luggage, he ripped my boarding pass in several pieces so I don't have proof to show my credit card company. I made him dig it out of the trash to use as proof. They are completely moronic.

Finally, they ripped my brand new luggage and stained it beyond repair. $400.00 suitcase will now be tossed in the trash.

Stay away! Far far away! You are not considered a customer, only a dollar sign. I've never missed a flight in my life, but the general rule states they put you on the next flight, they don't garage you thousands of dollars for a domestic flight, then ignore you after you try to explain the error was the airport staff, not our own.

Very unprofessional staff, no system, no customer retention, no poise, no compassion.

It's been two months since I've been back and I am still not over the horrendous lack of service i received. I will make it my life's mission to come on your websites once a month and file complaints, contact the better business bureau and write as many bad reviews as possible until your airport staff learns some respect and how to treat paying customer with dignity.

They make you file trouble tickets over and over again hoping you get tired of the lack of response, there is no resolution team and their email responses are generic and pre written. Stay as far away from this airline

Turkish Airlines has won awards for being the best economy class airline in Europe, maybe its even the world - I don't care! Here is the reality! You are given a baggage allowance of 30kg on a long haul flight - in my case (excuse that pun) or at least the case of my wife (still not punny!)- that was Malaga, Spain to Jakarta, Indonesia.

So what's the problem? Prices were ok - for the flights - timings, transfers, everything seemed clean and proper.

Now lets imagine that you had a wife who enjoyed a little shopping whilst on a 3 month trip to Europe. I know its hard to imagine, but try - a woman who might decide to buy some bits and pieces as souvenirs, as gifts, as enhancements for the already burgeoning wardrobes at home... yes? Okay so as a result of that I decide that I need to buy some more luggage allowance for my shopaholic - maybe another case of 30kg - or with a bit of frugal control - lets say, another 20kg case...

So how much IS that going to be? Bear in mind this is 3 weeks before the flight. IT is not turning up at the airport with EXCESS BAGGAGE - this is a planned approach and I want to buy another case worth (20kg) of allowance.

Now before you guess how much that will cost, let me quote you this interesting comparison: DHL will deliver it to arrive in 2 days for 370gbp. That is 18.50gpb per kg!
Ridiculous I know but then again - it is the world's most expensive courier company.

So lets use that for price conditioning, and now make an educated guess how much Turkish Airlines (a. K. a. Ali Baba & his 40 thieves) would want for a similar service?

NOt as excess baggage remember - this is a bit of an Oliver Twist
"Please Sir, I want some m-m-m-more!"
I see that my wife is going to have a need for more baggage allowance to take back home so how much can it be?

Drum Roll please...
For that same 20kg suitcase, Turkish Airlines want 540 EUROS
They charge 27 euros per kilo and there is no way around it - what they say is quite simple:
We give you an allowance - if you are daft enough to want to bring more - planned or otherwise - then we shall firstly show no understanding nor shall we yield, nor shall we give a rat's $#*! who you are and we shall be emotionless and without care and tell you in broken English, "Dem's da rools! You should have checked our policy before you booked with us you western ignorant filthy pig dog. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits" Or something like that...

So luring us in with low cost flight prices or medium prices - these seedy illegitimates set out to fleece you like the men standing outside every boutique in every Turkish resort - come come come my friend - this way my friend - let me separate you from your money immediately.

So it is a shocking performace from all sides
AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE

BOOK Emirates or BA or Singapore Airline- it makes sense
Avoid Turkish Airlines - there is NO DELIGHT

TL; DR: Explore trip is a SCAM and Turkish Airlines is the worst airlines to book with.

My husband, 17 month old daughter, and I had purchased flights from SFO->MUM->IST->SFO from November 30 - December 23 on Turkish Airlines through ExploreTrip. We were planning on taking a 10 day layover in Turkey on our way back to San Francisco. However, because of the recent VISA dispute we cannot get Turkish VISAs as some of us are US Citizens. Through the last 3 weeks we have been dealing with this issue and have yet to see it resolved

We first called up ExploreTrip to see what can be done to change the flights considering we will not be able to stop in Turkey. ExploreTrip told us that we need to call up Turkish Airlines and they would need to put a note in our reservation that it can be changed free of charge. Once we called up Turkish Airlines, we got very conflicting information that resulted in us being on the phone with a multitude of people for over a cumulative 5 hours. Finally, we got a hold of someone that said we need to go to the Turkish Airlines office in the San Francisco Airport in order to get this resolved.

We went to the Turkish Airlines Office in SFO airport and had a chat with the Sales Manager, Berna Nar, who kindly let us know that we are eligible for changing our itinerary for no charge or canceling for a full refund. She asked us to send an e-mail to the Turkish Airlines SFO email address to start the process and that it will be given attention to as soon as Monday the 23rd of October.

We sent the email to the required email address, attaching our reserved flights tickets along with copies of our passports in order to expedite this. We requested to make the following change to our itinerary to have a stop over of 10 days in Athens, Greece instead of Istanbul, Turkey:

Nov 30th, SFO -> MUM
Dec 14th, MUM -> ATH
DEC 23rd ATH -> SFO

Rahel assefa Abebe at the SFO office originally answered our email saying that she could change our tickets (since we are US citizens), but we had to contact Turkish Airlines' customer relations department to waive the fee for my husbands flight change. The customer relations department got back to us and Rahel went back on what she had said, saying that we could no longer get our flights changed for free since our flight time falls outside of a certain time period, and we would have to pay to make the changes.

Then I called up Turkish Airlines again, explaining this entire process, for an enumerable time, to ask if we could simply purchase the next leg of our itinerary from Istanbul to Athens and if it could be added to our PNR number. The person who helped us said that Turkish Airlines cannot do that because we booked our flight through ExploreTrip, but that she could put a note in our reservation so that ExploreTrip could handle this addition. I confirmed that the note put in the reservation would be able to be seen by ExploreTrip.

When I called up ExploreTrip to finally finish off this matter, the person assisting us found that no note was put in the reservation, and that we would have to email the escalation department for this to be finalized. We were told that we would get a response to our message within 3 hours. Didn't get a reply, nothing happened. Our VISA appointment is in a few days and flights too.

This was my First time on Turkish Airline, flight (Business Class) dates being Nov 4th 2016 and return Feb12th 2017, Sectors, YYZ-ATQ and ATQ-MUM on th 4th Nov 2016 and return Mum-ATQ and ATQ-YYZ.
The 1st leg of flight was excellent and beyond expectation. The service of Both Ground staff and Inflight Crew was extremely Great. Every Whim and request was taken up with politeness and gusto.

The 2nd Leg... ATQ-MUM was a downer, showed very indifferent, maybe because of Indian sector. The service very offish, as if we were untouchables, and they crew was cold. May be India sector passengers are treated with step motherly treatment. This experience put a big damper, as I was spoiled in my 1st Leg. Why I do not know and even Airline could not answer my question.

Now comes the clincher, my flight on 12 Feb 2017 to ATQ with on ward to YYZ. The honest of ground staff specially the loader Mr. Umar on Business Class check in was most Honest person in India. Believe its very rare. While shuffling my luggage at the counter I left my IPhone and Samsung on the counter, without realizing it. Lord behold within a few minutes of sitting in the Lounge (EAST), I got a call from the ground staff that I had left my phones there and Mr. Umar had found them. He promptly came up and returned the instruments to me. That was the pinnacle of my Journey and even the step motherly treatment I got on this sector did not matter, I guess its the Airlines routine of giving this type of treatment to Indian Passengers on this leg of flight.

Flight from ATQ-YYZ was not at all as good as my fight on YYZ to ATQ sector. But the honesty of the ground staff kept me going...

Overall a Good experience but would suggest, even though we are not Caucasians, but treatment, whether Business Class or Cattle class, the treatment should be Good. This may and will spoil Airlines reputation. Staff need to trained and taught to be more cordial.

Thank you Turkish Airline... A Good experience in Honesty by your Ground Staff... Mr, Umar. At Mumbai Check on Business Class Counter. Thank you Umar.

Vinay Sood

In October 2014 I purchased a return ticket, through 'TRAVEL HOUSE UK', with Turkish Airlines to take me from Edinburgh to Lagos, Nigeria.
The outward bound journey on the 20th Oct 2014 from Edinburgh to Lagos also included an overnight stay at a hotel in Istanbul. On arrival at Istanbul the airline staff at the airport informed me that they had no knowledge of any such booking and I was forced to find and pay for a hotel.
I was working in a voluntary role with the sick & children until my planned return on the 19th Dec 2014. My arrival at the airport for my flight back to Edinburgh was, as indicated on my ticket, over three hours in advance of my check-in time. On arrival at the check-in desk, myself and holders of similar return tickets to varying parts of the world, were informed by the Turkish Airline check-in staff that they were only accepting on-line ticket holders and refused to even look at the ticket I had.
I phoned my husband in Scotland who in turn contacted TRAVEL HOUSE UK. They tried relentlessly to contact Turkish Airlines to resolve this situation and were given a PR reference number and a complaint reference number and told that they would sort things out with the check-in desk at Lagos. They then gave my husband a contact telephone number for Turkish Airlines in Istanbul and two numbers for the check-in desk at Lagos Airport.
After phoning Istanbul several times, he was told that an E-mail had been sent through to Lagos instructing them to get me on the flight but that they had not had any reply!
My husband also tried phoning the two numbers he had been given for Lagos check-in desk, one of which was 'unobtainable' and the other 'temporarily out of service', which wasn't surprising as we could see the phones lying off the hook on the desks at the check-in desk!
People such as myself were told to return the following day at 11am if we wanted another ticket. As the place I had been staying was a two hour journey away from Lagos airport, I was forced to book into a hotel at the airport.
When I arrived the following morning at 11am the sign had been changed to 5pm. I might add that all other airline check-in desks except Turkish Airlines were open!
When finally they did open, I was told I would have to purchase another ticket at the equivalent of £380! Other ticket holders in a similar position to myself, were also told the same!
An airport security guard who had been present throughout and had shown sympathy towards our position, confidentially told us that what the check-in staff at the Turkish Airline desk had been doing was selling our seats on to anyone with cash and the sharing the money amongst themselves! Having experienced the corruption that openly exists in Nigeria whilst working there, I could well believe that such a thing may have been going on!
In total, including the purchase of a second ticket, hotels in Istanbul and at Lagos Airport, taxis and phone calls, I have worked out that in total I have had to spend an extra £795.
My only response from Turkish Airlines after complaining on their booking sight was an E-mail saying 'We wish to express our regret at this.' and that the staff at the airport said 'the ticket is declared to have "no show" status and use of the ticket may incur a certain fee'!
I might add that TRAVEL HOUSE UK have received several calls from others relating a similar experience with this Turkish Airline flight and it would appear that all they are prepared to do is avoid responsibility!
Have they no moral obligation to at least investigate what went on!