Please please please, DO NOT fly with Turkish Airlines.
Me and my family had a holiday planned in late October and early November, to Turkey and then Iran (my home country). The plan was to fly from Birmingham to Istanbul, stay in Turkey for 5 days and then travel to Iran. 2 weeks, before our flight, the issue between Turkey and Syria happened (Turkish militants attacked Syrian Kurds) and the British Government strongly recommended not to travel to Turkey, especially the southern part. I called the airline (Turkish Airlines) to change our ticket due to unexpected circumstances. They said as our ticket does not include free change or cancellation, I have to pay £1300 to change just one part of my ticket. I explained the situation, but they said the airport is safe (I didn’t want to stay in airport for 5 days). Finally, they suggested that I buy a one-way ticket, same day of my arrival to Istanbul. I paid £600 and bought the ticket from Istanbul to Tehran (as they suggested). We travelled to Iran and had a transit via Istanbul. However, when we went to the airport to came back to Birmingham, they said because we didn’t use one part of our ticket (as they had suggested over the phone when I called them two weeks before my flight), they had cancelled our return ticket!!!!!! Imagine, making a 2 hour trip to the airport, and now you have made it to the airport with a 1 year old, ready to check in your luggage, baby is unsettled because it is 1 am and doesn’t know what’s going on, and they say you don’t have a ticket… YOUR TICKET HAS BEEN CANCELLED!! I had to pay another £1200 to purchase another one-way ticket Lufthansa. So, we had a 2 hour drive back from the airport and returned the next day to finally fly back to the UK. NOT FUN AT ALL. Turkish Airlines shame on you!!! At least you could have emailed us to say you had cancelled out ticket. One year old, this wasn’t fair on him!!!
I spoke with some solicitors about the situation and they told me as my destination is out of EU, also the head office of the Turkish Airlineshairlines is out of EU too, I can’t request for any compensation!!!
If you want to travel to any country out of EU, NEVER EVER use Turkish Airlines. You won’t get any thing for any sort of delay or cancellation. Not worth to risk it. Even if you want to travel to Turkey, use a connection flight. Even swim if necessary but stay away from Turkish Airline.
If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you always have safe travels.