WARNING: Traveling with Turkish Airlines
The worst airlines to travel with are Turkish Airlines. Unskilled airline pilot, untrained customer services, no customer service escalation process and no clear Airlines Business operation policy.
Here is real example from a passenger (hid name to protect the person) traveled with Turkish Airlines from USA to Asmara, Eritrea:
Depart: 10:55 PM ⋅ Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Logan Intl Arpt (BOS) – Boston, MA, United States
Arrive: 03:35 PM ⋅ Thursday, November 27, 2014
Ataturk Arpt (IST) – Istanbul, Turkey
Transit to Asmara, Eritrea (Planning to arrive November 28, 2014
On the following flight date and time but it did not)
Arrive: 02:10 AM ⋅ Friday, November 28, 2014
Asmara Intl Arpt (ASM) – Asmara, Eritrea
Terminal Information: DEPARTS IST TERMINAL I
Flight Duration: 1:50
Class of Service: economy (W)
Aircraft: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A319-114 (jet), number of engines: 2, capacity: 124, pressurized.
The airline pilot was unable to land reason: could not see the airport and retrieve back to Saudi Arabia waited for few hours at the airport. Try to fly back to ASM Airport again, could not land and went back to Saudi Arabia airport and waited. The 3rd time the airline pilot told all the passengers could not land due to heavy fogs now we have to go to Turkey. When they get to Turkey US Citizens have to pay visa and other unexpected costs and more days of delay. Emotional damages, stresses due to no clear communication between Turkish Airlines and travelers.
The worst is one of the passenger miss the flight; Turkish Airlines deleted the Itinerary / Ticket Information for no show when the plan was boarding. Days and weeks gone by Turkish Airlines not willing to resolve. Someone give me customer services to call and ask them to fix this issue when I call at 1800-874-8875, the man told me go to Turkish Airlines office but when I told him there is no office in my city or the state and he told me to go to fly to Turkey, that is nonsense. I asked to speak with managements to escalate but he said no we don’t have that kind here.
To all travelers try to avoid using Turkish Airlines specially going to Eritrea you are on your own risk. Do not deceive by the cheap price but there is hiding issue that the Turkish Airlines may not tell you when they sale you the ticket. They have the highest cost fee to make flight change / amendment $400+.
The tickets were sold as non-exchangeable, non refundable, non transferable and non re-routable. Your ticket(s) will not have value due to the no-show status on the airport regardless your reason(s). You have to buy new ticket or make you more suffer talking to them they do not care once they got your money!
Welcome to verify any of the above stated here above and if you need more information or need more clarification contact us. Turkish Airlines seems lack of inelegance, they could save lots of money of the airline fuel and easy on the passengers by communicating well, how they operate. Operation policy should be clear to all employees when travelers need help. We also contact the Turkish Airlines on social media and told us to contact us in private but they ignored once we sent in private.
By Saba,
Staff writer for Eritrea Today