[Saidasaad]

TURKISH AIR: A MOST HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE OF MY FLYING LIFE!!

This is about my very bitter experience with an airline that simply does not understand hospitality, rights of people, professionalism, good business relation or even basic human relationship.

This trip is about the 4th of My flying experience with the airline, (by the way I’m still on transit) and my story gets worse each time but somehow I never gave up on them...🤗 I guess it is that human part of me that loves giving several chances b4 taking off for good. 🤨

So, on the 22 of July 2018 my two lovely boys and I boarded turkish air flight TK 623/TK1980 to London Heathrow via Istanbul... I will leave some of the details of the outbound journey where my then 18 month old baby got so sick from a possible food poisoning? 🤮🤢🤒Yes I fed him some of the food served on board. We were rushed to the A and E at Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge on arrival at Heathrow airport in an ambulance.😱😢😡

So if you must fly turkish air keep
your children away from eating their food especially their dessert.

Now fast forward! Holiday was a blast with family and friends and now the home coming and the monstrous experience.👹

I tried checking in online as it is done these days but for some reasons I couldn’t. So off to the airport we arrived, 4 hours b4 our flight.... it is my tradition to be at the airport several hours b4 departure 😅.

At check in, my 7 year old and I were allowed 2 pcs of 23k each while my now 19 and 1/2 month old was allowed one piece of 23kg.☹️
Meaning, the three of us had 5 pieces of luggage including an un assembled and properly packed children’s bicycle the icing on the cake of the whole journey for my older son.🎂⭐️💫✨

On finally getting to the counter, the check in lady said my baby was only entitled to 10kg weight for his goodies and that I must pay almost £400. 😱
Half of that amount being for journey to Istanbul (I didn’t choose to transit Istanbul by the way&#128553 and the other part for my journey to Abuja!!!😳

I insisted on 23kg being allowance allowed infants on the abuja route bc I saw it on their website and..... so she consulted with some colleagues and they looked up their website and voila! My son is officially confirmed to have 23kg allowance on board! Phew! ( my first... no idea I would have many ‘phew’ moments in the next 86 hours may be more).

Next... Lady asked for the content of the properly packed ie with the right dimensions and below the 23kg allowed box which had my 7 yr old son’s hard earned bike 🚲 and was to be checked-in in his name. Then came the news of a £90 charge on bikes😳 and that bicycles are not allowed as part of free luggage allowance on Turkish air! 😱WHAT!

so Off to the website we went and again we saw our region not included in the route turkish airline charges for carrying bikes but this time they insisted and didn’t want to back down. It is £90 or we don’t go
With the bike.😩

God bless my little 7 year old for his understanding, the two of us agreed to send the bike home with my sister and cargo to Nigeria..... we left them biting the dust🤪.

So that was how we finally checked in less than an hour b4 our flight.... the race to the gates story will be told another day another place.

Now here we are at the gates just in time. Phew!! Or rather with more time than anticipated....a thirty minutes delay saved us by the bell. We were to leave at 11:30 but plane took off a little bit after 12pm and we had only 1hr 5mins transit time and a 47 min walk to the Gate connecting to my Abuja flight when we arrive Istanbul 😳.

When we arrived and plane finally touched down around 17:50 turkish time me and my poor little babies took the race of ‘home coming’ we just wanted to get home!😩 we wanted no more of the airline hostilities. By the time we got to the gate they had closed boarding meaning we have missed our flight! Phew!!!.😢😩

So to the transfer desk we went and met one of the only 2 nice people I met through out my journey on Turkish air. I received also the first and only apology through out our ordeal. 🤗👌🏽

The guy at the transfer gate said: ‘we will take u to a hotel but you will have to get a Turkish visa to go there’🤨.

Why? ?
I never planned to or wanted to enter Istanbul but my choices were too limited to turn down what seemed the best offer at the time, with two very tired and hungry kids and a 24hour wait? No choices at all but to visit the e-visa machine.

There were 4 machines in that area and 100s of people getting visas either at their own free will or forced to bc like me they could not fly immediately. That visa application turn wait was like the most excruciating ‘waiting pain’ I have ever experienced. The only machine working was the slowest ‘living computer’ alive. It took an average of 15 to twenty minutes for one person to send application and at the end where it says pls print ur visa.....Lord of a Mercy! U get the shock of ur life.... ‘sorry machine is out of paper‘

CAN’T PRINT. PHEW! PHEW! PHEW!

I just took the bull by it’s horn and headed to the passport control desk hoping they’ll have a copy of the visa. By the way I paid a whooping $110 for the 3 visas. Phew! They had a copy and were happy to stamp us into a town we were forced to visit amidst all psychological protests!

So off to the hotel booking counter where we waited for another 30mins. Then the role call came and the sweet sound of my name and my city my Abuja!
The sound of my name being called that minute was simply ‘heavenly’ !!It was finally our turn to be ‘carted away’ in a bus to a very nice hotel( this remains the only nice part of the monstrous experience). I must admit we rested very well but we missed breakfast and lunch😢.

Bus came at 3pm and off to the airport hopeful for a hitch free turkish style flight experience this time.😏🤨! Not....

As it is with already checked in passengers we went straight to the gate boarding gate area. We were there 3 hours b4 flight take off(just couldn’t afford another drama).

Phewwww! Flight delayed again for a good 55mins without any explanations but I was consoled knowing that we were at the tail end of the bad experience not knowing that there was ‘more woe’ b4 us.

6 hours and alas we are finally home and deeply thankful to all the Mercy of of our Maker! Ya Rabbil alamin! Flight touched down at 11:51 and was overall smooth, cabin crew fair but then the nightmare started at the baggage claim hall. Not the chaotic atmosphere that has become the feature of the hall, but this time it was the endless wait! Luggage after luggage after luggage were conveyed without a sight of a single one of our checked in luggage. At first I thought I was the only one who has not seen my luggage but suddenly realised that all of us on board flight TK623 were waiting in vein.

I suddenly noticed also that the belt was conveying the same suitcases through out our ‘waiting period ’ and not many people were picking from the belt... it was at that instant people started reading the tags and BEHOLD they were luggage from as far back as 2-3 days. Now I am convinced that I am in for an even longer nightmare! Phew!

Yeah I know... it is common for airlines to leave luggage behind or even loose one or 2 but for all passengers luggage to be left behind? Never heard of such! Unacceptable!

I don’t even want to talk about the inconvenience(s) caused by TA.

What bothers me now is that there is no reliable or credible information on when or how I am getting my 5 pieces of luggage or when my journey back home to Kaduna from London will come to an end.... a journey that should normally last 6 hours now has me counting my 72nd hour on road, air and oversea without any knowledge of when I will finally get my luggage to end my very PAINFUL journey with TURKISH AIRLINES!
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