Turkish Airlines Reviews 

Extremely disappointing experience with Turkish Airlines at Manchester AirPort – would not recommend them at all. Not to mention their complaints process is even worse and you can’t speak to anyone directly!

My husband and I were travelling Business Class from Manchester to Istanbul, continuing to Dalaman, on 17 April 2026.

At the boarding gate, a female Turkish Airlines team leader took my passport and, in front of other passengers, refused to allow me to board, claiming that my passport was damaged.

When I asked for her name, she refused to provide it. When I asked to speak to her senior manager, she refused to call them. The manner in which we were treated was rude, dismissive and completely unacceptable.

My husband was told he could continue his journey without me. We were effectively left abandoned at Manchester Airport, having been refused travel and left to deal with the consequences ourselves. My husband refused to leave me behind and stayed with me.

Turkish Airlines later described the issue as a “albeit minimal” coffee stain on the Observation page. My biometric page and machine-readable zone were completely intact.

What makes this even more difficult to understand is that I travelled to Dalaman later that same day using the exact same passport, passed through Turkish immigration without any issue, and subsequently left Turkey and returned to the UK using the same passport.

I was even told that by the complainant handler “Chris” I could’ve travelled later using dual citizenship — despite the fact that I do not have dual citizenship. Not to mention that their own gate agent was of another nationality!

I provided extensive evidence, challenged Turkish Airlines through their complaints process and took the matter to AviationADR. Despite everything, the refusal was ultimately upheld.

This was not simply about a passport stain. It was about how we were treated, being left at the airport to sort everything out ourselves, the lack of professionalism and the lack of a satisfactory explanation for a decision that completely disrupted our journey.

After this experience, I have completely lost confidence in Turkish Airlines and would not recommend them or travel with them. AVOID!

I had four business class flights with Turkish Airlines end of July and Mid August. Munich-Istanbul, Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur and back both routes. It honestly felt like four different airlines! First of all they ask you to come 3 hours ahead of the flight but then their check-in counters are not manned. While dozens of people stand in line, their staff is slowly arriving and powering up their stations. First flight from Munich to Istanbul was OK. Staff not friendly but relatively neutral. Business Class seat (1-2-1) was comfortable. Food acceptable for business class. Service not comparable to other airlines. In Istanbul the lounge of Turkish is really hard to find. I tried to follow the lounge signs but ended up at a non-Turkish Airlines lounge. Their own business class lounge later turned out to be extremely full. As a single traveler it is hard to find a free seat and you have to leave a piece of luggage there otherwise people will just occupy it despite drinks and food standing there. Continuing the flight to Kuala Lumpur at the gate was very confusing, unfriendly and uncoordinated. Even in Business Class. Someone comes to check your ticket, stamps it and then leaves you standing in the line forever. Again, no smile, no greeting. The flight to Kuala Lumpur was one of the best ever. Great staff. Awesome food. Friendly and pleasant. Nice seat again (1-2-1). Flights back to Europe were both the same unfriendly staff, no smile, no thank you. Food acceptable. Seat from KL to Istanbul good but some parts not functional. Same old movies as a month before when they were already old too. Istanbul lounge and check in process the same chaos. Maybe a bit worse. Staff at the gate was rude, no special treatment of business class. They stamp the ticket but let you stand there in line forever. When they finally start boarding the line moves a few meters and stops in front of a door where all classes wait in one big group. The plane to Munich was so old that it reminded me of the 90s (2-2-2). Economy passengers made fun of us in Business Class during boarding. One man said that we sit in the same seats, just a bit wider but pay 3 times as much. Unbelievably old plane. Unfriendly staff. Food was acceptable again. On all four flights their staff showed that they are not capable to make a simple Gin and tonic drink. On the wine I got the wrong wine and only one glass. Nothing more was even offered. The App was OK to use and gives you info as long as you are connected. Wi-Fi was free for me on all 4 flights and was a good connection.

As a membership with Turkish Airlines miles and smile program, Turkish Airlines usually send an email recommending different websites to make a hotel reservation or car rental or shopping etc.. recommending if we buy via these websites then we willvearn miles. But they don't mention that these miles did not accounting as Starus miles to help in upgrading membership tire. By the time these websites offer more higher than normal websites like booking or trip.com or expedia etc.. each time miles will be add to our membership but not as a tatus miles. Now realised this point. So, how a big company like Turkish Airline advise their customers with cheating. This called cheating since they to mention that miles are not accounts as status miles. It is only miles. So what is the benefits of adding miles. I sent too many feedback to them but their response is these miles are not account as status miles.

Extremely Disappointing and Unacceptable Assistance Service

I am extremely disappointed and disgusted by the way passengers requiring assistance are being treated by Turkish Airlines assistance staff.

The two women working at the assistance desk today were, in my experience, exceptionally rude, impatient, dismissive and completely unhelpful. In particular, the woman wearing the orange blazer was incredibly disrespectful in the way she spoke to passengers and responded to their requests for assistance.

What makes this even more concerning is that I witnessed elderly passengers and people with disabilities who had booked wheelchair assistance in advance being left waiting, while individuals who were clearly unable to walk were being asked to walk or otherwise made to wait unnecessarily.

This is not simply poor customer service. These are vulnerable passengers who have specifically requested assistance because they need it. They should be treated with patience, dignity, compassion and respect—not as an inconvenience.

I also found some of the interactions sufficiently troubling that they came across as borderline discriminatory, particularly in the way certain passengers appeared to be treated. I will not go into the full details of what I witnessed, but the experience left me deeply uncomfortable and extremely disappointed.

Turkish Airlines should be ashamed of allowing passengers requiring additional assistance to be treated in this manner. Accessibility and disability assistance are not optional courtesies; they are essential services, and the people providing them should understand the responsibility that comes with their role.

I sincerely hope Turkish Airlines investigates the conduct of the staff involved, reviews how wheelchair assistance is being managed, and provides appropriate training in disability awareness, dignity, equality and basic customer care.

People who need assistance deserve to be helped—not made to feel like a burden.

Deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable.

Turkish Airlines uses the hold-reservation choice to take customers' money. I paid 20 euros last week to hold a reservation, then when I wanted to book it, their system asked me to verify myself via a text message, which came after the given time slot was over. I tried 6 times to do it within the time slot, but the SMS never arrived in time. I sent TK screenshots of the several trials; however, they said nothing was wrong and refused to refund the fee. So, I lost the money and the booking, because I could not verify my account due to their system error.
I made another hold-reservation booking, paid the 20 euros again, but when I tried to book it, even though I still had 3 hours left, they sent an error message, saying that the hold booking time has expired.
WHAT is TK doing???? Collecting money from clients this way? And not fixing their system errors???
Is this supposed to be one of the world's best airlines? Low-cost airlines are fairer in many ways.
After several error messages (I sent them the screenshot), I could finalize my booking via the app. I wonder if they will actually refund the fee, as they advertise on their webpage. Or this is their way of taking your money? How pathetic.

My daughter flew out of LAX 12 August, 17 year old minor. As a surfer she carries a surfboard bag with several boards inside the bag. Normal procedure is to pay fors sport equipment around $150. This time though the ground staff wanted to charge her $780 dollars, as they wanted to charge her per board in the bag. Bare in mind this only weighed 20kgs. When she said there is no way she can afford this and that her boards where initially waivered, they would hear nothing of it. I spoke to manager and worker over the phone, both not willing to give me their names, who said tough you pay it and thats that. I mentioned this is not advertised and do you charge a golfer per club, they said its a different sport. And proceeded to tear up her boarding ticket in her face. I fortunately got hold of the South African Manager, who followed this up and got her through after 1 1/2 hours and lots of trauma, the staff told her to stand there so they can take her picture, what the hell, how bad is this, she was in a state a minor. Disgusting Turkish Airlines LAX

Never flow again Turkish airlines I’m very disappointed to your airlines. We missed the connecting flight due to weather disruption in the Philippines and the connection time so tight 1:50 minutes . The Turkish airlines can’t rebook our tickets due to I’vebooke in dflycatcher one of the agencies in Skyscanner. I’m not booking n agencies anymore they’re not helpful as well. We paid our ticket to go back home or else we stocked in Istanbul. I had children during the flight. The same airlines from Manila to Istanbul and Istanbul to Birmingham but the customer care they said they can’t help me no offered any accommodation and to changed my ticket. I paid 1k pounds to flow back I have no choice

Flew from Manchester to Istanbul and back. The check in experience both sides was terrible. How you can combine expensive prices with poor customer service and survive I just do not know. Flight staff were fine.

Warning re: special assistance! I booked assistance for the flight home after having surgery in Turkey but I was left abandoned & feeling very vulnerable at IST! If you're asked if you can walk a few minutes to security (where a buggy will be waiting to help you) say NO!!! You get through security and there is no help! This happened to me & a few other ladies I know of. So my advice is stand your ground. Insist you cannot walk far & wait for wheelchair assistance! The flight itself was OK though. Comfortable seating & decent food/service.

### **OVER 3 MONTHS SINCE THE CANCELLATION – STILL NO REFUND**

My experience with Turkish Airlines has been absolutely unacceptable and, above all, extremely frustrating.

The airline ticket **was purchased through eDreams**, which acted as the travel agency and intermediary for the booking. Following the cancellation of my flight, however, eDreams has essentially **shifted all responsibility onto Turkish Airlines**: from the cancellation of the flight, to the failure to offer an alternative solution, and now to the handling of the refund, which I still have not received.

It has now been **more than four months since the flight was cancelled**, and **I am still waiting for my ticket refund**.

The most absurd part is that every time I contact eDreams for information, I receive essentially the same response: **the responsibility lies with Turkish Airlines and they are waiting for the airline to provide the information necessary to process the refund**.

In other words, according to eDreams, **everything that happened is Turkish Airlines' responsibility**.

The cancellation of the flight? Turkish Airlines.

The failure to offer a suitable alternative solution? Turkish Airlines.

The failure to issue the refund after more than four months? Again, Turkish Airlines.

Meanwhile, the customer is left completely **trapped between the airline and the travel agency**, with no concrete solution and no idea when they will get their money back.

I did not cancel the flight. I purchased a ticket, paid for it in full, and simply expected the service I had purchased to be provided or, in the event of cancellation, to be offered a suitable alternative or receive a refund.

**None of this happened.**

More than four months later, I have not only failed to receive my refund, but I have also never received a clear and convincing explanation as to why a refund procedure should take this long.

What I find particularly unacceptable is the constant **passing of responsibility from one party to another**.

eDreams says the responsibility lies with Turkish Airlines.

Turkish Airlines, as far as I can understand, has still not resolved the situation.

And in the end, **who is left without their money? The customer.**

That is the real problem.

I do not care what internal arrangements exist between eDreams and Turkish Airlines, or who is supposed to communicate what to whom. I purchased a ticket and paid for a service that was cancelled. I expect the companies involved to resolve the matter between themselves, without forcing the customer to become an intermediary between two companies.

From an international airline such as Turkish Airlines, I expected **professionalism, transparency, and above all, the ability to take responsibility towards its passengers when a flight is cancelled**.

Instead, more than 3 months later, I am still chasing a refund for a ticket that I was unable to use.

Unfortunately, my experience shows that when something goes wrong, **the customer can be left completely on their own while the airline and the travel agency simply pass responsibility back and forth**.

**More than four months since the cancellation. No adequate alternative solution. No refund. No concrete answers. Just responsibility shifted by eDreams onto Turkish Airlines.**

This is simply unacceptable.

After this experience, **I absolutely cannot recommend Turkish Airlines for important international travel**. An airline should be judged above all by how it handles problems, not only by how it performs when everything goes according to plan.

In my case, the handling of the cancellation and subsequent refund has been a complete failure.

**Four months and still no refund. And according to eDreams, responsibility for everything lies with Turkish Airlines.**

An experience I will certainly not forget, and one that will make me think very carefully before ever booking a Turkish Airlines flight again.

Don’t fly with Turkish airlines. They cancelled my bassinet seat literally 6 days before the flight and assigned a random seat saying due to operational changes. They ticketed without informing about the cancellation of the bassinet seat, expecting me to make a 13 hours flight with a 10kg baby on my lap. The operator on the phone was not even able to see the plane seat map. Terrible customer service.

AVOID AT ANY COST!!
Turkish Airlines overbooked our flight to Kilimanjaro, leaving us stranded and missing our tour at our destination. Staff were rude, yelled at us, and made no effort to communicate in English — we had to fight just to get the compensation we were legally owed. The next day, on our connecting flight, they tried to separate a mother from her 8-year-old child due to yet another overbooking. Avoid this airline.

Extremely bad customer service. Turkish airlines is the worst ever airline I have experienced with my family, they do not refund you even if you pay for the insurance on your tickets! One of my children had a medical emergency and we could not make it to the flight, the airlines response is crazy! I do not recommend AVOID AVOID AVOID.

What an awful airline. The planes are gross and dirty, seat belt and seats in business class are all broken. So glad I sprung For business class…

Very disappointing and unreliable airline. I would honestly think twice before booking with them, especially if you are travelling with a disabled person or someone who doesn’t speak English.

I booked the ticket for my mother, who is a disabled person and also has a language barrier. Because of the delay on the first flight from London Heathrow, she missed her connecting flight in Istanbul. Her original layover was only around 1.5 hours, but because of the delay, the connecting flight left without her and she was left with a 22-hour wait for the next flight.

The whole situation was extremely stressful for her. Getting proper assistance was very difficult, and even the hotel arrangements were not handled properly at the time. We were basically forced to pay for the hotel ourselves. She also had to pay for a visa because of the situation.

We later contacted the airline and asked for reimbursement. We provided bank statements and proof of the expenses, but they still refused to properly reimburse the costs. They even asked for receipts for the visa, despite the fact that it was an online visa payment where there was no physical receipt provided.

The customer service was also extremely poor. There was very little understanding of the fact that the passenger was disabled, travelling alone and could not communicate properly in English.

Overall, a very unreliable experience from start to finish. Delays can happen with any airline, but the way Turkish Airlines handled the situation and supported a vulnerable passenger was extremely disappointing.

I would not recommend this airline, especially if you are travelling alone, have a disability, or have a language barrier.

It should be rated No-stars, but the system provides a minimum of one-star. TK failed miserably to tackle a cancellation of flight. The second leg of flight was cancelled, but their system handles the entire journey as one flight. I tried through the app, the website and the chat, but none could handle my request which was simply requiring to maintain flights as daytime.
I will not be in a hurry to book more flights on TK and definitely not recommend it especially when involving a transit…

Be aware Turkish airlines lies about layover hotel accommodation. When I booked my flight from YVR to Jeddha I searched every possible option to find flight with short layovers and the only option on my dates was an 12 hr layover. Based in their policy I am eligible for hotel accommodation. I called Turkish airlines to avoid any issto make sure and they checked for me and she said there is no other option and I am guaranteed hotel stay. I booked bussiness class for more than $7,000 and when I arrived to the airport, Turkish airlines lines denied my eligibility on the basis there are other options with short connections. Big lier. Even business lounge didn’t provide me with solutions and simply they told me to go and book on my expenses with no sorry for this scam and inconvenience. I will NEVER EVER FLY ON TURKISH AIRLINES AGAIN!!!

Landed in Istanbul for a connecting flight and discovered my ticket had been deleted, an error later confirmed by Turkish Airlines' own reservations team as internal. Instead of a straightforward fix, I spent hours at the transfer desk being turned away, spoken over, and mocked by staff, and was refused even basic help placing a phone call while stranded with a connectivity issue. It was only resolved minutes before check-in closed, and only because my travel agent intervened directly with Turkish Airlines' reservations team, not because of any help from staff at the airport.

I submitted a formal complaint requesting:
• Written acknowledgment that the deletion was Turkish Airlines' own error
• Investigation and accountability for staff conduct
• Retraining for the staff involved
• A commitment to addressing bias and misogyny toward travellers
• My return flights honoured without additional cost
• Reimbursement of the cost of the journey given the distress caused

It took roughly three weeks to get a reply. When it came, it didn't address a single one of these points. The entire substantive content was one line: "the information given to you complies with the rules." No explanation of what information, or what rules. It also contradicted what Turkish Airlines' own reservations staff had told my travel agent on the night about who caused the error in the first place.

Cabin crew on my actual flights were genuinely lovely, this is entirely about ground handling and how complaints get handled afterward. Be cautious, especially travelling solo, and keep records of everything.

Additional Statement to My Complaint

I would also like to add that, based on my repeated experiences with Turkish Airlines, I would advise anyone planning to book a flight to carefully consider their options. Even if it means paying slightly more with another airline, it may be worth it to receive better service, more respect, and better treatment as a passenger.

As for me personally, I have reached the point where I will never choose Turkish Airlines again. This is not because of one isolated incident, but because I have experienced problems with the airline more than once. On these occasions, I felt that instead of taking responsibility and trying to find a fair solution, the blame was placed on me as the customer.

What is even more disappointing is that I never received a proper apology for the problems I experienced, nor did I see any genuine effort to improve the service or address the underlying problems faced by customers.

I am not writing this with the intention of insulting the company. I am writing because I am deeply disappointed by my experiences. As a passenger, I believe I have the right to be treated with respect, to receive proper service, and to have my concerns addressed fairly when something goes wrong, rather than being blamed and left without a satisfactory solution.

I sincerely hope that Turkish Airlines will take this complaint seriously, not only to address my experience, but also to improve its services in the future so that other passengers do not have to go through the same experiences that I have endured.