You can post anything relating to your experiences or things you want to say about airlines you’ve flown with.
I’ll start it off: do you know when the pilot lands and everyone starts clapping? Don’t you think that’s a liittlee bit patronizing. That’s just like if you’re a driver in a car and the passenger claps down your ear every single time you park.
Uhm… I will tell you about my worst flight experience. It’s Turkish Airlines.
VCE - IST last September, a route which I flew pretty often due to my special relation to
Istanbul, one of my favorite cities in the world.
Here in Europe it’s usual that Business class seats look like the Economy class ones. Airlines such as BAW, DLH, AFR, KLM and THY just block the middle seats of the first two or three rows, and call this “Business Class”.
VCE was pretty busy that Saturday, long queues everywhere…
But finally we got the bus which took us to the apron where the very old Airbus A320 was waiting.
Just after exiting the bus I felt a little earthquake: the daily flight from Dubai arrived. The heavy 77W touched the ground only 200 or 300 meters from my position. Great feeling.
For some reasons only the rear door was open, so we had to pass next to the extremely loud APU before getting in the plane.
Short taxi to runway 04R, but very rough takeoff initiated during the line up. Shortly after, a sharp right turn which let us feel like many Gs where pushing us into our seats.
The windows were pretty dirty, but apart from the light turbulences above the Balkans it was a pleasant flight.
No IFE screens, but Italians are very mouthy.
Food was delicious.
While descending and on approach to the airport you have beautiful views of Greece and the area around Istanbul (not for me, I sat on the aisle seat, but my girlfriend enjoined).
Landing: it was on runway 05, where in the first moment you’re above the Mediterranean, and one second after above the runway. Very hard landing and fast recovery of the flare, so we first slammed into the ground with the main gear, and moments after also with the nose gear. For a few seconds I felt like I was in a roller-costar.
It wasn’t that windy outside…
Luckily we had our seat belts still fastened on the taxiway, 'cause we braked hard to avoid a near crash with a Saudi Arabian A320 coming from the right (their fault)!
I thought that the guys in the cockpit didn’t like their jobs and/or were newbies…
But this horrible flight was recompensed with a very pleasant holiday in Istanbul and a very smooth return flight (with two captains in the cockpit!).
My only Turkish Airlines flight was from DLM to MAN (Dalaman Airport to Manchester It’nl Airport).
It was when a Thomson Boeing 737 needed maintenance at Dalaman because the delay was like an hour, they decided to put us on Turkish Airlines.
The crew was very friendly! While parked, the crew let me use the lavatories on-board. The takeoff was very smooth and relaxing, like I said the crew was talking to everyone on the aircraft and were very friendly. On approach to Manchester Airport, there was next to no turbulence and landing was extremely smooth. Like smoother than normal. We parked up at the gate and was able to collect our bags and go extremely quickly!!
Sad to hear about your experience with Turkish, maybe just one of the pilot’s bad days?? :P
A lot of people dis Ryanair because they say they are crap however how many times have you heard Ryanair having a crash or an accident related to Ryanair?
They are a solid airline in my opinion and there pilots are just as skilled and experienced than any other airline!