Anyone flew Turkish Airlines RECENTLY from NY to TLV?

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amother

Wed, Mar 11 2015, 8:17 am

My husband and I are planning a trip to EY for Lag B'omer. My travel agent is a good cousin of mine and is telling me that he flies heimishe looking pple with Turkish Airlines all the time. The airline is supposed to be great, security in the airport (for our stopover) in Istanbul very tight, and the savings tremendous.

I know that many of us have strong opinions about this; I have my own as well. So, I'm only looking to hear from you if you or someone you know has actually flown this route. Can I indeed feel comfortable with the stopover at this time? I know there have been threads about this in the past, but I would like to hear from someone with recent experience.

TIA

Mrs Bissli

Wed, Mar 11 2015, 4:13 pm

I've flown LHR-IST on TK back in November. Obviously it's a shorter flight and not the same route.
They were perfectly fine, and IST airport was pretty easy to navigate.
For some reason they seem to be quite popular with Israeli backpacker types as I could hear them
chatting in Hebrew (LHR flight and TLV flight must have been on close gates when I flew). It looked
like they had a secondary security check.

wiki

Wed, Mar 11 2015, 4:45 pm

Siblings did this itinerary within the past month. Said that Istanbul's airport was cosmopolitan and less foreign than they were imagining.

PAMOM

Wed, Mar 11 2015, 6:09 pm

Did it recently also. The airport is like the more cosmopolitan European ones-- very nice and upscale. There were a lot of Israelis and a number of clearly frum famines (payot, black hats,etc).

4Sisters

Wed, Mar 11 2015, 7:24 pm

Yup, I did it last month. The airport is fine and Turkish Airlines was lovely to fly (well, aside from that they lost dd's luggage and still haven't found it.....).

amother

Thu, Mar 12 2015, 11:49 am

Thanks everyone! You've put me at ease. Based on the research I've been doing IRL I realize that those that have flown with them are ready to do it again. And those that haven't because they are afraid to, simply won't.

Now I have to decide if it's worth it to do a major vacation with a 10 month old baby or I should just stay domestic for now and do a major trip like that next year when I can leave him behind.

amother

Thu, Mar 12 2015, 12:40 pm

The only problem we had was on the way back to ny theres a couple of hours difference in flight. we were in turkish airport, overnight, overtired, waiting to board the plane in the morning. I wouldnt do it again.

Lilibet

Mon, Mar 16 2015, 9:25 am

we flew Turkish (Zurich - to Istanbul - Istanbul to to Munich a couple of weeks ago.) We were Not connecting to Israel, but husband wearing kippah, being served (very good) kosher meals. I have nothing negative to report from that trip.

That said, I don't choose Turkish for trips to Israel. We only flew chose Turkish for this trip due to complex scheduling constraints. and, as I said, it was a perfectly routine experience. Still, I have my doubts.

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