Total: 55/100
After watching all these ad spots on TV starring the best football players in the world advertise Turkish Airlines, makes you want to anxiously try it. Today was my fourth flight on board the Turkish Airlines traveling from Beirut to Malaga (Spain) via Istanbul. We left at 04:10 am on one of the most unpleasant flights I’ve ever had the badluck to experience.
You literally feel like you are sitting on board a public bus. A bad smell welcomes you into the packed and overbooked plane. More seats than it can handle. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t move my legs, I couldn’t recline the chair as the passenger behind me wanted to eat and didn’t have a magazine in front of me to make the long hour and a half pass.
If only one single row was removed from this plane, we would have had more space to breathe! Please check out the pictures and see how tight it was. It’s unacceptable on the acclaimed best airline in Europe!
I was so angry and had plenty of time to notice other bad things. I had no inflight magazine in front of me, used and dirty security leaflets left in the pouch in front of me and a dirty table.
I tried calling the Turkish Airlines offices in Beirut for an upgrade. After hours of trying, no answer and being put on hold, I was told that an upgrade from the economy to business will cost me $1600. For this price I expected something big! A business class like we see it on the TV ads, a big and enjoyable with room to play football like their players do: again, I mean, for the price asked.
The business class on those two flights is exactly like the economy:
- It has no individual TV screens
- Same seats and tight individual space
A public bus Airbus A320 from Beirut to Istanbul and a better and wider A319 from Istanbul to Malaga but without a TV screen even though the flight took 4 hours.
The very few positive things:
- Leather chairs
- A nice clean and varied breakfast
- A decent trained staff
Meal types you can pre-order 24hours in advance:
- BBML Baby Meal
- BLML Bland Meal
- CHML Child Meal
- CLML Celebration Cake
- DBML Diabetic Meal
- FPML Fruit Platter Meal
- HNML Hindu Meal
- SFML Seafood Meal
- AVML Vegetarian Hindu Meal
- RVML Vegetarian Raw Meal
- VGML Vegetarian Vegan Meal
- VJML Vegetarian Jain Meal
- VLML Vegetarian Jain Meal
- VLML Vegetarian Lacto-Ovo Meal
- VOML Vegetarian Oriental Meal
- GFML Gluten Free Meal
- LCML Low Calorie Meal
- LFML Low Fat Meal
- LSML Low Salt Meal
- MOML Moslem Meal
The negative:
- The seats headrest doesn’t approach: A backache guaranteed after a couple of hours flight
- No cover and no pillow unless asked for
- No individual TV screens for every passenger
- No musical program on the plane entertainment system
- We were broadcasted the movie Thor. Thor! Out months earlier! No new releases? Aren’t we used to watching movies playing in cinemas at the moment?
- Many passengers passed to the Business reserved toilets without a member of staff stopping them. I don’t blame travelers for their lack of ethics and Savoir-Vivre but I blame the staff for their nonchalance attitude.
I was not impressed and even more shocked. The best airline in Europe? Come on! Who the hell gave them this award their promoting and bluffing people with? It seems the organization got paid well for that or they didn’t even try Swiss Air, Lufthansa and Air France to name a few.
The food is another story: on the menu is written: “Welcome to our restaurant above the clouds. In order to entertain you with best tastes of the world and our traditional specialties, our expert chefs prepared our carefully selected menus using only fresh ingredients. We hope that tastes in your mouth will last beyond your journey.” Haha! Makes me laugh.
We had a quick breakfast bite on the way out from Beirut and what is supposed to be a decent breakfast on the way to Malaga. A breakfast printed on a cheap piece of paper, not even a thick carton like Air France and MEA, and not the possibility of a choice! You are obliged to eat eggs. The non awarded Middle East Airlines proposes eggs or Knefe. That’s the minimum. Not everyone eats eggs. The eggs are very average served with a low quality piece of cheese and yogurt. No chocolate.
I expected differently especially after seeing the selection you can pre-ordered before the flight (above).
No no no. I really am not believing my eyes…
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