Hey everyone, Although I follow DD and DDF pretty regularly, I am not a frequent flyer by any means. For me, flying on Turkish a few weeks ago (JFK-TLV and back) was a new experience. Based on posts on DDF and what I have heard from others, I wasn't concerned at all, and therefore, it isn't really necessary to add anything but I wanted to give over my experience to the forum so others may benefit. I have commented previously on why, from an economic standpoint, I think you should at least consider flying Turkish, and why, from a moral standpoint, I don't consider it to be an issue so I will not re-hash those topics. This post is strictly about the actual experience of flying them. There are no MAJOR chiddushim here, but it may open the eyes of some.
First off, because I had a lap infant, I was able to get the bulkhead seat for the bassinet for the long-haul portions of the flight (JFK-IST and IST-JFK). This gave me a whole lot of legroom. However, I also noticed that regular coach seats also had a nice amount of legroom compared to at least El-Al.
There is an outlet by each seat so you can plug in a laptop if you feel that the 150 or so options on their entertainment system isn't enough for you. BTW, until now, I hadn't known that the Israel Antiquities Authority had uncovered remains of aircraft from the times of King David and donated them to El-Al.
The Staff on all segments of the flights with the exception of IST-JFK was extremely friendly and smiley. IST-JFK they were very courteous and helpful but not as smiley. On the TLV-IST segment, the staff even gave my baby a small bag of toys to play with (and which we were allowed to keep). Also, each passenger received slippers and a personal care pack that included a toothbrush, toothpaste, eye blinders, etc. which is something I never got on El-Al.
JFK-TLV the person at the desk had us rearrange our luggage a bit to make the weights work out better but really didn't give us an issue even though we were still a bit overweight after rearranging. On the way back from TLV, they gave us an issue over a personal item of all things but had no real problem with us being overweight on regular luggage. All of this plus Turkish allows 2 checked bags per person in coach which really came in handy.
As far as food went, JFK-IST we got the same Borenstein meals you get on El-Al. My wife liked it but I thought it was just passable. IST-TLV and TLV-IST which are 2 hour flights each, we got cold Kosher meals which had the OK hashgacha (basically chabad in Turkey). These meals were actually quite good. Fresh tasting fish. Lox. A very good vanilla pudding. And more. We were very impressed by the quality not to mention just the idea that there is an airline that serves a meal on a 2-hour flight. IST-JFK we got similar meals to the short-haul ones but they came with a hot component. Omelets for breakfast and fish balls in a cream sauce for lunch. These were also quite good although my wife wasn't a huge fan of the fish balls. They were certainly way better than the meals on El-Al which are often inedible. One really high note on the lunch meal was a syrup-soaked spice cake which was really good. My wife felt it was too heavy to finish the whole piece so I gladly ate her leftovers.
A small but very nice detail was that the bathroom had some really nice grapefruit smelling air fresheners. It was almost a pleasure to use the bathroom!
Another issue that people are always worried about is the airport in Istanbul. Well, I can say the following: if you would take away the Turkish-language signs (which have english-like letters as opposed to arabic script) and replace them with only English, I would think I was in Florida. The airport is very modern looking (aside from the minimal open-seating; I'll get to that later). There was an occasional Arab with the "shmoineh begudim" but for the most part, had I not known where I was, I probably wouldn't have guessed it was in the Middle East from the demographics. There are tons of western outlet stores in the main area of the terminal.
We made sure to get a Lounge Pass with our Ink cards before the trip so we went downstairs to the Primeclass Lounge. This was incredible for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, they had a playroom with toys and things to do for my 1-year-old daughter. She had a blast. Free wifi and power outlets were another plus. I was able to take care of some things online in comfort. They also had a table area which gave me the space to rearrange and switch out my SIM cards for when I got to Israel.
I said I wasn't a frequent flyer and so I acted like a total newbie when I pulled out my wallet to try and pay for a beer (MGD was the best they had) at the bar only to be told it was free. So to all you fellow noobs out there, everything in the lounge is free! Get the Chase Ink card and the Lounge Pass that gives you 2 free lounge entries per year. In a place like IST, you kind of need this for anything more than an hour or 2 stopover since most of the seats in the actual terminal are placed after presenting your boarding pass before you board. That means that you will findit hard to find a seat during busy times until your gate opens for boarding.
The only hiccup we had really was that we had a long delay in the airplane leaving IST for TLV. Basically, the flight was delayed for about 20 minutes at first. We realized afterward that the reason must have been that they had to ready a different plane for us. We were driven about 10 minutes by bus to the plane which was parked near the Turkish Airlines maintenance hangar. Then we taxied for what seemed like forever. The pilot then got on the PA and announced that due to the long taxi time, we had lost too much fuel to take off and would have to taxi to get more fuel (while this sounds weird, it actually happens sometimes at JFK when i listen to the ATC freq). By the time it was all sorted out, it turned out to be a total of about a 3 hour delay compared to the original departure time. Other than that, when we arrived back at JFK, we noticed some damage to out baby seat for which we filed a damage claim with Turkish Airlines.
The best part of all of this, and the reason Turkish Airlines has apparently (according to a fellow passenger I was speaking with) become the 2nd most popular airline to operate out of TLV, was the price. I could have gotten tickets for $684 per adult but I waited a bit too long and got them for $708. While you can now get Ukraine Airlines for about $650 or even cheaper if you're really lucky, this wasn't an option when I booked. Also, I know nothing about the accommodations on Ukraine and would assume they are significantly less than Turkish (although that is a hunch and based on no real facts) which makes me feel a little better about the price difference. If you are considering taking a stopover and don't want to spend a lot on a ticket or want to spend more money in Israel itself by saving on the ticket, I highly recommend it. At the very least, I think that there is a good chance that airlines like Turkish and Ukraine will put a bit of pressure on the market so that El-Al finally tries to get their act together and provide a better product and/or lowers their exorbitant prices (for which you get treated miserably and receive almost no amenities)