Turkey and the USA are in the midst of a severe diplomatic spat and Turkish Airlines finds itself as a pawn of the Turkish state. As the carrier cuts ads in the USA, are flights next on the chopping block?
Turkish Airlines announced it would cut all advertising in the United States. Defending the move on Twitter, Yahya Ustun, the Senior Vice President for Media Relations, wrote:
We as Turkish Airlines are taking our place alongside our state and people.
This moves comes on the heels of escalating tensions between the two nations. With Turkish President Erodgan’s autocratic regime fighting hyperinflation and an increasingly skeptical public, I doubt the state-owned flag carrier of Turkey had much choice in whether to comply. This move is reminiscent of the alleged 2016 coup attempt against President Erdogan, in which Turkish rebranded its business class lounge in Istanbul to the July 15 Heroes of Democracy Lounge. Pure Orwellianism.
> Read More: Surprising New Name for Turkish Airlines Lounge
Poor Turkish Airlines. Turkish flies to 10 U.S. cities and heavily uses advertisements to drive customers to its flights. Spokesman include Morgan Freeman and Dr. Oz.
> Read More: Turkish Airlines Super Bowl Ad with Morgan Freeman
> Read More: Turkish Airlines Super Bowl Commercial with Dr. Oz
Turkish Airlines needs Americans on its flights. And frankly Americans need Turkish Airlines. Abandoning the lucrative U.S. market will represent a tragic loss not only for the airline, but for U.S. consumers. Turkish serves 120 nations, more countries than any other carrier. But with tensions escalating, it is not unreasonable to wonder whether Turkish might be instructed to cut flights next. That’s unnecessary collateral damage in this battle for checkmate.
Plunging Lira = Cheap Vacation
Istanbul is one of my favorite cities in the world to visit. With the Turkish Lira sinking rapidly against the U.S. Dollar and Euro, it merits mentioning that a holiday in Turkey suddenly becomes much more attractive.
Don’t discount a vacation to Turkey over safety fears. One advantage to despotic regimes is greater law and order. Sure there is risk, but there is risk in every major city. The beautiful east-meets-west city of Istanbul is a treasure of this world and undoubtedly worth the journey.
Sadly, this is exactly the crisis Turkish Airlines should be capitalizing on to draw customers to Turkey or to travel via Turkey. Instead, the carrier is acting as a dutiful pawn.
CONCLUSION
I don’t really try to hide my bias in this article, but here’s what I know. Turkish Airlines is a great airline: one of my favorite in the world. Furthermore, Turkish Airlines is a great asset to U.S. travelers. Thus, I hate to see stories about Turkish pulling ad campaigns or the looming threat of eliminating service. Turkish Airlines may be the poor pawn that moves at the behest of its king, but this particular pawn can sink many knights.
> Read More: Turkish Airlines 777-300ER Business Class Los Angeles to Istanbul Review
I hope they freeze all the USA-based Miles and Smiles accounts! That’ll teach those status matchin’ yankees!
Turkish Airlines is virulently anti-American. Myself and a colleague flew to Bishkek one time on Turkish because of the codesharing with AA at the time. My colleague’s luggage was misdirected at Istanbul and they refused him a seat on the plane. They later routed him through Moscow on a three day no transit visa trip. When he arrived in Bishkek, there was no luggage and no record of the luggage in their system. Fortunately one local hire spent the entire next day tracking down the luggage. Turns out the station manager deleted the records from the system because he didn’t like Americans. After we finally got the luggage, he fired the local girl. Bad move on his part as she was well connected in the community. Sometime later apparently the station manager’s legs became somewhat useless after a couple of heavies with pipes silently explained the local culture to him. He transferred back to Istanbul after a lengthy sojourn in the hospital and she got her job back.
They just got a 15 billion dollar investment proposal by Qatar, so now the Lira will stabilize. I’ve flown TK for a few years so I got status the normal way lol.
worse customer service ever! if you have an issue to diskuss, they have no office in (for example) germany, only istanbul. and then, they rarely understand english or german and they are unfriedly. it´s a nitghtmare!
Boicott both Turkish and Turkey. Mad tyrants do not deserve our money …
I also agree on the issue of bias against Americans nor would I place myself or family in potential harms way by “vacationing” in Turkey today. This has the potential to be very explosive mostly likely not but one never knows in today’s world. Turkey has been a somewhat ally of the US over the years. So you know I was in NATO and spent time at Ankara. Would go back to Turkey on a bet.
You don’t need a second opinion on your bias in this post, but I also disagree with you that Turkish Air is of great value to Americans other than cheap fare.
I’ve flown Turkish Airlines many times and always loved the experience. I prefer them to most European and American ones. I’m also taking my parents to Istanbul in a couple of months. Regardless of what the government does, I’ve always found the people of Turkey to be wonderful. And I stand out as a typical, only Engligh speaking, American tourist when I travel there.
I think The US should simply tell TK sorry your rights to fly into The US has been pulled, bear in mind The turkish govt owns 49% of TK
Operationally, TK is a bit of a joke.
Flying LAX-IST-OTP saw a 30 minute delay leaving LAX turn into a 60 minute delay arriving at IST and my connection to OTP being missed and ending up in Eurobusiness (instead of actual Business) on the IST-OTP leg.
Heading back to the US, my connecting leg from SFO on VX was brought forward to inside of the MCT, resulting in another missed connection and again being downgraded (this time to Economy).
In the first case, the airline blamed security concerns at LAX (and refused to address questions of the delay being lengthened in the air, incorrect flight scheduling and the fact I was downgraded). In the second case, I was instructed to go yell at VX.
TK publish their own customer rights policy that basically mirrors EU261/2004, but refused to honour it in this case. A letter to American Express along with a copy of this document did result in compensation getting paid though.
I have also experienced operational difficulties many times on Turkish Airlines, including a missed connection and forced overnight In Istanbul on my last trip from Los Angeles to Frankfurt.
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2017/12/19/istanbul-airport-transit/
I have had good experiences with Turkish on the plane, both in economy and business class. Operationally they have a lot of issues with being late, usually due to delays at the terribly overcrowded Istanbul airport. Perhaps once the new airport opens this will improve. The planes, food, and service on board and amazing especially for the price. I’d hate to lose this option to get to far flung places much more directly than having to fly through Europe proper and then connect in Istanbul. I’ve had two issues with missed connections, the first two years or so ago, when I ended up having to overnight in Istanbul, since they couldn’t or wouldn’t put me on any other flight out of Istanbul to the US and insisted I had to take the same flight the next day, this was a coach fare but not discounted or anything. They paid for my hotel but it was a hassle. Two weeks ago I missed a business class connection and they immediately emailed me (even before the airport staff knew of the delay) and put me in business class on Emirates to get me to Dhaka the same day I was supposed to arrive. Not sure if this is a business class perk, or just better staff training since the last time. I have learned now that I need 2+ hours layover to make this likely to happen!
Sad how the US mainly uses it’s power to create turmoil in the world. While less powerful countries have to stay silent, be sure they understand the hubris, selfishness and complete disregard for international agreements that are part of the American approach now.
Not many like America as the rogue nation it has become. Americans collectively bear the consequence of that.
Turkish Airlines provides a good service giving good value, which I use frequently. Marginally better ones cost about double. If America forces it to be a pawn in the foolish fighto America has picked against Turkish interests, it is the US government that needs to review it’seems position, not Turkey who is resisting interference in it’so internal affairs that has precipitated the present situation.
I travel a lot from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to USA, Europe and Far East and used several airlines over the last 15 yeas. My conclusion is as Fellow: The best airline is Emirate , Next is TheTurkish airlines (change and improved over the last 7 years). The Amarican airlines is one of the worst and all European airlines including British airways will not be able to reach the standards of services provided by The Emirate or Turkish Airlines
Mr. Raza, I get your view that I as an American should expect to be treated poorly by Turks because of U.S. foreign policy. But no way I would voluntarily pay money to an airline whose employees treat me poorly (you make no attempt to dispute the allegations of many commenters here that TK employees treat Americans poorly, instead you focus on justifying their actions). Even if I have to pay more money, I will do so happily to avoid flying an airline whose staff shows contempt for me.
Who is at fault in an international relations dispute is irrelevant to my decision on what airline to purchase tickets from. To me, this is not a political decision, it is purely human nature to go with someone who will give you the best experience for your money. To the destinations I go to in that part of the world, LOT and UIA also keep fares low, and the Polish and Ukrainians are generally friendly to Americans.
“Greater law and order” Greater order, for sure, don’t know about greater law though…
TK is like a lot of airlines, fine when things go smoothly and terrible when they don’t. Just another decision factor when choosing what airline to fly. I’ve flown them 8 times, for me honestly they are just average, average seats, average food and definitely average service. I thought their ground services were pretty good, though. They walked me to a connecting flight when the first flight arrived really late, among other things.
Erdogan is undoubtedly a nasty piece of work, but on this issue my sympathy is with Turkey. Most of the rest of the world is fed up with American bullying, much more so since the bloated horror came into office. Utterly loathsome man ; fortunately we can anticipate that the ( usually) good sense of American voters will prevail and kick him and his neo-Nazi thugs out of office.