Great food, and lots of it. They made us come to the gate two hours before the flight and you were stuck in the enclosure until you boarded with no bathroom or food or drink. My seat in business class was very claustrophobic, I could barely get into it and a large board blocked the window and made it even more claustrophobic
The entire experience in Turkish business class was superb. From the friendly greetings including the chef, to the polite and classy service, all was wonderful. The in flight entertainment is one of the best. The food was the best I’ve had inflight.
It would be great if the flight attendants could inform people travelling with small children that at take off and landing the children should drink liquid or chew/swallow something so their ears don’t hurt. Also, Emirates serves the food to the children first. Really good idea. Best of all would be to put all children in the same area.
Make sure to request a vegetarian meal in advance. They printed out menus for all passengers with the options but by the time they were halfway through (for breakfast and dinner), the vegetarian options were already all taken.
Istanbul to Miami is a very long flight, somewhat uncomfortable, especially because the seating offers very limited space outside of business class.
Very good except the boarding process too forever and wasn’t organized by group. I had a heavy pack or I wouldn’t have minded. I was in business. There were no audible announcements in the waiting area about boarding and everyone packed into the boarding area. Then boarding stopped for a long time but the staff made no announcements to update waiting passengers about the holdup. The flight was good after we got on.
This time my experience was very bad. The Turkish Airlines changed my flight from Erbil to Istanbul from 8:15 AM to 11:20 AM few days before the trip. This made my transit in Istanbul about ONE hour. I have a special needs child and need extra time to navigate the huge new Istanbul airport with a child. To make the matter even more stressful the flight took off about 20 minutes late from Erbil which made our transit even shorter (around 40 minutes). The Turkish Airlines failed me on too many points despite clearly asking for help and as follows: 1. I asked the checking agent in Erbil for seats at the front of the plane to exit first and he stated the closest one is in the middle of the plane and I should ask the flight crew for help 2. I asked the boarding agent in Erbil to ask the flight crew to let us out first since we don’t have much transit time and she said she can’t and they wouldn’t listen to her anyway. 3. When we boarded I specifically asked the cabin crew chief the same request and after some discussion he wanted to get rid of me and said, they will help when we land. I again politely reminded the same person to help us when we exit before landing and this time he stated he would NOT be able to even announce to the passenger to let the people which short transit first and I should just deal with it like other passengers. He also told me to ask for help from the airlines staff at the gate when we get to the airport. This is very rude coming from the Cabin Crew chief. 4. I asked the airline crew at the gate which he had a cell phone to call the gate of my flight to inform them we are on our way and the agent pretended he didn’t speak English… Frustrating 5. I went to the Golf Card station (used to transfer passenger in the large airport) and asked for a ride and the driver there “shooed” me away pretending he doesn’t understand English while looking into his phone constantly telling me “Go this way, Go this way”. I saw first-hand other well able passengers on these cards and Turkish looking families get help on our way … which is clear discriminations. 6. We finally got to the Gate as one of the last people and we didn’t even use the bathroom on our way and made it back to Canada. I am extremely frustrated with the TKY this time and feel discriminated against just because I look from the Middle East despite I am and my child are Canadian. The Turkish Airlines operations failed me on too many points this time.
Unfortunately internet was down and they couldn’t fix it in a time I needed it so urgent to stay in touch with work
It would be good to choose between a Turkish based meal and an American meal option.
This is the first and last time I will be traveling Turkish airlines. The flight was delayed three times. Second time we sat on the aircraft for approximately an hour and a half. Initially told that the delay would only be 15 minutes then no explanation thereafter except that we were deboarding. We missed our connecting flights to Zimbabwe, and had to pay for a overnight hotel stay in addition to paying for a new tickets to our get to our final destination. They allowed us to order food from the airport food court but only from fast food and even that they limited the menu items we could select. I would some to contact me about the refund on the hotel and the connecting flight!
It was a great experience for my first time flying with this airline. I will be flying with them a lot more now. Plane crew was amazing.
The following is a review for a flight from Johannesburg to Washington, DC with a connection at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and refueling landing at Rome, Italy. The flight was provided by Ethiopian Airlines. There were two of us: me and my wife on this flight. Everything was on time. Enough legroom between the seats, I was able to stretch my legs and sleep for at least some time during the 14 hour second flight (19 hours in total for both flights). Very decent meals that included two lunches and one breakfast on the flight from Addis Ababa to Washington and one lunch on the flight from Johannesburg to Addis Ababa. The lunch choices were beef, chicken and fish, I think the vegetarian option was available as well, accompanied with beans. The breakfast was a choice between egg and pancake, accompanied with a fruit salad. The egg breakfast was awesome, it came with a scrambled egg and a sausage. However, my wife mentioned unusual taste of the pancake breakfast meal, by all means those were not pancakes. What wasn't good: Externally initiated commercials on the infosystem screens, you couldn't turn the screen off. These commercials were accompanied by loud and annoying music, transmitted through the entire cabin. Obviously, there was no escape from this music as well. Additional moment: on the flight from Addis Ababa to Washington, DC, we landed at Rome for refueling. This was totally fine and it was in the flight itinerary. But, the flight attendant asked me to straighten the seat while we were at the steady position during the refueling. I can't rationalize this order except that some people just like to be a boss of some kind. Keeping the light lit in the economy cabin while keeping it dimmed in the first class also didn't improve my and my wife's feelings. Overall, the services were very good and the flight, despite its longevity, went on very smoothly.
The plane was ok, I was in business class and was surprised there were no pods and each seat was right next to another one. That said it was comfortable and the food and coffee were good. Entertainment wise again I was surprised to see only movies and no TV shows. Check-in at Toronto Pearson was an absolute disaster, which was especially disappointing as I was a business class passenger. There was no dedicated staffing for the business counter and four (4) airlines employees assisted one economy class passenger for about 15 minutes when one could have easily assisted me. Overall room for improvement, particularly in the on-ground experience and airplane infrastructure.
The Boeing 737 MAX on this route, flown in the middle of the night, is an UTTER FAILURE for business travellers. The whole point of business travel is to arrive alert and recover from travel quickly, and this little aeroplane with its quarter recline uncomfortable business seats does nothing for that. It’s a small step up from economy in that you have decent legroom, but that’s it. Absolute margin at the cost of the traveller.
The use of a domestic carrier without entertainment was disappointing and a let down
There where no ear phones provided and the food needs to improve.
I took 4 Ethiopian Airlines flights on my trip. Each flight was one of the worst experiences I have had flying. The interior was filthy on each flight, the seats, the floors, the bathrooms. All were filthy. At 5-10, my knees touched the seat in front of me. The person in front of me declined their seat, basically making eye contact with me should they look up. My seat did not recline, so I was trapped in my seat, unable to use the bathroom or get up from my seat unless I woke up the person laying in my lap. My tv and seat were broken, as well as my friends seat and tv for our 14 hr flight. The bathroom closest to us was already clogged before we took off, so the backed up bathroom smells wafted out and into our row the entire 14 hr flight. Out of 4 flights, they were out of vegetarian food options for each meal. Flight staff was fairly rude and unapologetic, finally agreeing to give me a second roll and butter instead of no substitute offered for most of the meals. Flight crew had zero control over the passengers, allowing adults to congregate by exit doors and talk loudly during sleeping hours. Children were allowed to be completely ignored as they played outside of their seats and screeched for the ENTIRE 16 hr return flight. Forcing passengers to try and shush the children. Passengers then got up and got their bags the second the flight touched down, ignoring all safety and exit protocols. I will NEVER fly another Ethiopian Airlines flight as long as I live.
Choice of Vegetarian Food in Economy class needs overhaul improvement
The food could be better, the beef was quite tough. The crew were friendly and helpful on this flight, which has not being my experience on other Ethiopian flights.
Same but worse than international. The inter African flights are worse.
I was first assigned a seat that could not recline fully and was at the back of the craft. I was not able to select another seat during check-in even when opting to pay for selecting a different seat. I had to contact the airline and spent 25min with a chatbot and was then transferred to an agent who was very helpful and could change my seat (free of charge). The entire process took me one hour. If I happened to not have that hour available this would have been a problem. And that was only to check in. The next problem is that the airport lounge I had access to is located landside. How strange. So it means that you need to allow time for security check and passport control and boarding time when leaving the lounge, which makes it almost pointless having lounge access unless you have a very long layover or arrive 5 hours before the flight. Inflight service was okay. But not up to par with the likes of QA, SQ or CX, even though the price is the same or even more. It was much better than the domestic flight where Lufthansa is actually a low-cost airline with legacy airline prices.
Yvonne, was the flight attendant in my area. She was INCREDIBLE!
The crew were excellent, smiling and kind. The seats were good for economy though my seat back got a bit sticky from getting out of the reclining position. The food was good for a Kosher meal, better than usual. Entertainment was okay, but there was no Wi-fi available the entire flight. Overall the flight was fine for an overnight flight. The flight attendant in my section was absolutely delightful.
Delayed getting out for no good reason. Tight connect lead to a missing bag in Hamburg. Waited two hours at the airport to get the bag from the next flight.
Flight delays made me miss my connections. I almost missed my connecting flight because I had to get my luggage and go through immigration and then back into the airport. Connecting flight said it would be my problem if I missed it. I had to be rerouted through another city and came in 3 hours later than expected and had to hire an uber to get me home when I had everything planned out
Extremely tight connection in Frankfurt. Tickets with one hour layover are not realistic even with first flight being on time. Just barely made it and ran most of the way. 😬
Staff are really not attentive. Seem rather disinterested in attending to the customers in general.
Food was OK.. nothing to rave about but it was tasty enough. Many choices to choose from for entertainment. Seats tight but comfortable. Flight attendants cheerful & helpful.
The flight was smooth and on time. Check-in and boarding was very efficient. The flight was very comfortable and there was good entertainment and food on offer.
Short flight. No food, no entertainment. Airport very busy but moved quickly.
