Turkish Airlines carry-on baggage restrictions--how strict are they?

They absolutely will not care .... except on the day that they do. If they do, why risk it. I suggest you watch Midnight Express (1978).

I suspect I flew them Houston to Istanbul to Budapest and back 30 times over the years. Often enough I knew 2 flight attendants. TA has some of the best staff I have experienced on an airline. They treated me with respect and I returned it by following the rules. I csn think of a few times when I had my carryon measured. Personal item too.

As Mr. E wisely said, there's no way to know if they will enforce the rules until they do. Best to meet their guidelines as best you can. I don't know about Turkish Airlines, but on my recent Delta flight as we were boarding, they announced which zones would probably have to gate check their bags due to space. I also don't like checking a bag but did so on a recent trip - it survived and so did I. Just don't put anything you need immediately in it (e.g. medications, contact lenses, etc.)

I also want to give myself the option of bringing an extra carry on
as I'd like to pick up souvenirs and will be away from home for a
total of one month (though not all that time will be spent in Turkey).

Try searching the forum for "packable bags" and you'll get a host of suggestions for something you can stash in your carry on that you can use coming home. https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=1y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=packable+bag

Are you feeling lucky? [/clint eastwoood]

I fly Turkish Airlines regularly, I'm actually a big fan, and my experiences with how strict/not-strict they are about enforcing their carry-on bag limits is: it's completely random. They are actually VERY strict sometimes, and other times they do not pay any attention at all to it. Once, checking in for a long-haul international business class ticket, they weighed and measured our carry-ons, and told us our carry-ons were too heavy (we were forced to split up the contents of our carry-on into two carry-ons, which together weighed the same, but they said that was OK...go figure). From a logical standpoint this was insane - presumably they weigh bags to ensure the aircraft weight and balance is managed, but we ended up carrying on the exact same stuff, just separated into two containers). Note that typically in business class, most airlines are a lot looser about cabin baggage rules. Not that airline on that day, for us.

On another TK flight, everyone had big, heavy rolling suitcases as carry-ons (they all looked about 10X as heavy as the stated weight limit) but nobody batted an eye.

So based on my experience, I don't think one can predict how loose or strict they will be. My suggestion is to prepare accordingly, and don't expect eveything to make sense.

Thank you Mr. E, CL and David. Based on your comments, I'm going to check my roller suitcase and just carry on my backpack and small purse and hope for the best!

Turkish has been consistently generous but strict with their weight requirements in my experience. They weigh your bag and slap a "cabin baggage" sticker on it if you are under the weight limit. Then, they check every carry-on for the sticker. No sticker means an automatic gate check.

Once they took pity on me and let me go 0.1 kilos over the limit when my carry-on was full of camera gear. But that's not the norm.

Oh my gosh. In that case, I guess it's a good thing to check a small suitcase in case I need to take things out of my carry-on backpack and transfer them because of weight restrictions.

From Turkish Air

For your Economy class travels, you may take one piece of cabin
baggage with a maximum dimensions of 23x40x55 cm (21.65 x 15.75 x 9.06
inches) and a maximum weight of 8 kg (17.6 lbs). You may also take one
piece of personal item measuring 40x30x15 cm and weighing a maximum of
4 kg (8.8 lbs). For your Business class travels, you may carry two
pieces of cabin baggages, each measuring 23x40x55 cm and weighing 8
kg, not exceeding 16 kg in total. You can also take one piece of
personal item measuring 40x30x15 cm (15.75 x 11.81 x 5.91 inches) and
weighing a maximum of 4 kg. Infant passengers are entitled to one
piece of cabin baggage weighing up to 8 kg on domestic and
international flights regardless of Economy or Business class.

The inches and pounds are my addition to the text in the website. But there is a lot of fine print so read it for yourself. This is one of the best carry on baggage explinations I have seen. They did a good job of explaing everything that can happen. https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/any-questions/carry-on-baggage/

Honestly, in spite of Mr. E’s “warning” I somehow doubt you’re going to wind up in a Turkish prison as depicted in Midnight express because your luggage was overweight

But the truth is it really doesn’t matter what anyone on here says. All of us can tell you that we got away with the steamer trunks but if yours is overweight, and weigh it, you pay A defense of people on the Internet told me I could get away with it has never ever worked anywhere in the world. I will be boarding Turkish Airlines tomorrow and because I knew my luggage would probably be overweight when I booked the ticket I booked the one that included luggage.(we are going to a wedding which required extra shoes and clothing. That’s what’s pushing me over the weight limit.)

A defense of people on the Internet told me I could get away with it
has never ever worked anywhere in the world.

But I have found that showing the police the post on the RS Forum that said it was alright will get you through without ending up in the Marmara Penitentiaries Campus.

Carol, I'm jealous. My favorite airline.

We’ll be flying Zagreb to Istanbul the end of October on Turkish Airlines. It will be our first flight with TA and am hoping our experience is as good as everyone says.
Even though we use carry on, we will check our bags so there is no confusion about weight or size. Ours is a direct flight.

Update

On the flight from ATL to IST last Thursday they weighed and tagged all carryon luggage

Carol, so those that were carryin only, who did not have to go to the checkin counter and instead went directly to the gate had their bags measured and weighed a the gate? I am actually glad to hear that.

Thanks for the update Carol. I’ve decided to check one bag when I get to the counter and make sure they are ok with my carry on backpack