Turkish Air

Great experience and very good (vegetarian) food options, better than other airlines I've flown. For the price, it seems like a no-brainer (I found no one can compete on their pricing for some routes). Just be sure you're ok with any long layover, if you have one. I've actually stayed overnight (in Istanbul) both ways back in Sept 2015 and still managed to save money because the base fare was so low.

Thanks for the advice Agnes! Did you have a layover in Istanbul when you flew with Turkish

We flew Turkish Air from London to Nairobi, via Istanbul of course. They actually cancelled our return flight with no reason given about 6 weeks prior to our trip. They said they could book us the next day. Since I could not find a reasonable rate for another return flight, we spent the extra day in Nairobi, and of course, an extra night. When we asked for reimbursement, we were declined.

Other than that very unpleasant experience, they are as good as any other airline, I guess.

Did you have a layover in Istanbul when you flew with Turkish

Yes, that's what I said when I mentioned spending the night there on the way to someplace else (in that case, Malta) and on the return. The layover was too long to stay at the airport (over 18 hours or more on each end) - it was too little time to do much. Yet, since I've been in Istanbul multiple times, I just laser-focused on seeing some specific things in a short time frame.

Having said that, your flight to Paris may have a short layover so you'll just stay at the airport until your connecting flight.

I don't think this forum is easy to search, but this question has been posed many times and most respondents had a favorable review (of course you'll find people who don't but the majority of the cases were fine).

I've flown with them from Copenhagen to Kathmandu, via Istanbul and back again and I've had no problems at all. Just as good as any airline from my experience.

I flew with them from LA to Tel Aviv and back, with a layover both ways in Istanbul. I thought the airline itself was great, the plane was new and nice. If I remember correctly it was a 3-3-3 configuration in economy and I was in the very center of the plane. It was one of few planes I've been on where the "ceiling" of the plane seemed very high. Even with carry on luggage stored above my head I didn't feel like the roof was caving in on me. The food was also excellent. Great choices for the meals (there were 2 hot meals on the long flights from LA to Istanbul and back) and plenty of fun snacks available for free later in the flight, you could just wander back to the galley mid flight and grab snack cakes and the like. Also, our flight from Istanbul to Tel Aviv was less than 2 hours, yet they served us another full hot meal! I would definitely fly with them again.

The Istanbul airport was so-so. It's one those airports where passengers are kept in a common area until their gate # is posted close to the flight time. No going to your gate a couple hours early and waiting in relative quiet. They of course have restaurants and things where you can get out of the way for a bit, but we had a six hour layover coming home and there's only so long you can sit at a restaurant before you start getting dirty looks. After that we were stuck sitting in an area that resembled a mall food court for the rest of the time until our gate posted. Personally, I prefer airports where you can just go sit at your gate for a couple hours if you need to and read a book and not be in the middle of everyone constantly coming and going. This wouldn't stop me from flying Turkish Airways again, but I might try for a somewhat shorter layover, or a longer one where you could get out of the airport, as someone else suggested.

I've flown Turkish for one round trip to Istanbul and back. They were fine in that they got me to Turkey and back. Food was fine, seats were your average tight fit in coach. The one thing that I would pass on is that they keep their planes very very very warm during the flight. I had read warnings about this pre-travel, but I did not realize how serious those warnings were. I was sweating during parts of the flight and it made the 14-hour flight time seem very long.

This is a frequent question on this Forum. The consensus is that Turkish Air is great, as long as you don't mind the longer flights (since you have to go to Istanbul then "backtrack") and possibly long layover.

I had a great flight with them in 2011, but it was to Istanbul, so no connection or layover was involved. It was far superior to a US-based airline, particularly the quality of the meals.

Here are some other threads pertaining to your question (just a sampling - if you do a search you'll find even more):

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/turkey/turkish-airlines

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/turkey/136877

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/turkish-airlines-question

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/experiences-comments-about-turkish-airlines