While in Vic falls last month I had a discussion with a US travel consultant.
She mentioned she used Turkish Airline to fly from JFK to JNB. Business class for $2200. I checked yesterday and the price was $2400. Said the service was impeccable. Two hour layover in Istanbul.

This is just a for what its worth post.

Keith

Keith,

That's amazing. Bizz class to Africa just makes the trip so much nicer.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Dulcinea:
While in Vic falls last month I had a discussion with a US travel consultant.
She mentioned she used Turkish Airline to fly from JFK to JNB. Business class for $2200. I checked yesterday and the price was $2400. Said the service was impeccable. Two hour layover in Istanbul.

This is just a for what its worth post.

Keith

Turkish Airlines are Star Alliance partners with United, South African airlines, Air New Zealand, Air Canada, etc. so you also get all the Star Alliance points to use for upgrades and free flights on later trips.

I have flown Turkish several times, excellent. My choice over SAA or United or Delta.

How does Turkish compare with Emirates?

Can firearms be taken through Istanbul?

M

I would love to fly turkish and do a stop over in Istanbul. Maybe in 2017.

Emirates is great airline - good food, service and entertainment system - but I try not to fly it. I fly coach (i am cheap) and emirates seats 10 across in coach. I have wide shoulders - I am literally wider at the shoulders than the seat is.

Turkish is 3-3-3 on 777 in coach.

Everyone who I know has flown Turkish has liked it.

You can take guns into turkey on Transit - but you will need to use a clearing service.

Mike

From past reports, they are firearms friendly.

But, their Business Class cannot be compared with Emirates, which is more expensive anyway.

I've flown with firearms through Istanbul a few times and as long as they remained in transit no services was required to clear them, unless things have changed recently.

I just checked Google Flights for next May-June and the least expensive business class seating was much more expensive than $2,400. The lowest I found was over $4,800 on Turkish. The lowest they show was British & American at $3,996.

Perhaps Turkish Airlines is cheaper on their own site?

30 hours to get from ATL to JNB is a deal killer for me. But I checked for January flights and business class was $2481.00 which is a hell of a deal.


As a comparison Emirates is 33 hours from Orlando to JNB and showing $2799.00 for business class. Still are not showing ATL to JNB.

I used Turkish air web site. Priced it a month out and just looked at JFK to jnb.
Hopefully someone finds this useful.

took it to Istanbul and back great airline

Those long layovers in Turkey are a deal breaker for me. 16 hours from NY to JNB is bad enough without adding a substantial amount of time to the flight.

quote:

Originally posted by Labman:
Those long layovers in Turkey are a deal breaker for me. 16 hours from NY to JNB is bad enough without adding a substantial amount of time to the flight.

One of my employees flew Turkish to Europe last week and had issues on both legs; the first wasn't the airlines fault, but she spent two nights in Istanbul when she planned on zero.

No issues at all with TA, including with a rifle and all that entails.

But lately, any layover or stay in Turkey has become problematic.

Erdogan has got to go.

Well that was tried a few months ago with thousands now dead, tortured in prison, or unemployed. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on another coup...

Every year I find T.A so reliable and convenient that I only use them to Almaty, Bishkek, Osh, Bishkek and Dushanbe and last year when hunting in Uganda even flew Paris - Istanbul - Entebbe : Excellent. BUT last month was different : T.A cancelled (because of snow) their TK255 flight from Dushanbe to Istanbul then it became a NIGHTMARE : no information, no assistance, no help, nobody to answer nor to care. I got stuck in Dushanbe Sheraton for 4 1/2 days at my expense(s), finally succeeded to escape by myself with Somon Air, with an unexpected detour via Achkabat (Turkmenistan)and eventually arrived home safely nearly a week late and at huge expense...

Playing around with a hunt in the forest area of Cameroon. Turkish airlines is $700 cheaper than Delta - Air France. Flight is Atlanta - Istanbul - Yaounda, only about 2 hour layover in Istanbul. If they are a reliable carrier that's going to be hard to beat and I will take a hard look at them..

I would fly Turkish ahead of Air France and Delta. I have been on all three several times. Turkish is a premier airlines.

quote:

Originally posted by Bama15:
Playing around with a hunt in the forest area of Cameroon. Turkish airlines is $700 cheaper than Delta - Air France. Flight is Atlanta - Istanbul - Yaounda, only about 2 hour layover in Istanbul. If they are a reliable carrier that's going to be hard to beat and I will take a hard look at them..

I would fly damn near anyone to avoid Delta and Air France. On my trip to Cameroon, Delta got me 4 hours late arriving in Paris, so I missed my AF flight to Yaoundé and had to overnight. The next day, AF lost both my bags and I pitched up with nothing but a carry on. Got 1 bag a month later and the second bag was never found. AF is a very bad joke....

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:

quote:

Originally posted by Bama15:
Playing around with a hunt in the forest area of Cameroon. Turkish airlines is $700 cheaper than Delta - Air France. Flight is Atlanta - Istanbul - Yaounda, only about 2 hour layover in Istanbul. If they are a reliable carrier that's going to be hard to beat and I will take a hard look at them..

I would fly damn near anyone to avoid Delta and Air France. On my trip to Cameroon, Delta got me 4 hours late arriving in Paris, so I missed my AF flight to Yaoundé and had to overnight. The next day, AF lost both my bags and I pitched up with nothing but a carry on. Got 1 bag a month later and the second bag was never found. AF is a very bad joke....

That is good to hear, I will definitely use them. Thanks guys for the info, I never would have looked at them if not for the post here on AR.