I am seeking some advice here. 2 questions in particular.
1. Is ebookers.ch a reliable site to purchase airline tickets?
2. Anyone has experience with Turkish Airlines?
I am looking for a flight from Zürich to Singapore and with ebookers.ch I found the cheapest deal of 898 sFr to fly with Turkish Airlines. Would appreciate any kind advice. Thank you all in advance.
Yes, eBookers.ch is fine. I've used them myself and am satisfied.
Turkish Airlines is also a decent carrier. You'll be very comfortable with them.
Will your journey require a several-hour stopover in Istanbul? Consider costs of having to be in transit for this time. Ever had an inexpensive meal in Departures? How many hours sooner would you arrive - and more comfortably - by paying CHF150- 200 more to fly direct?
I never used ebookers.ch but I did use TK for ZRH-IST-SIN last December. To be honest, I wasn't very impressed with them. Found flight attendants to be unfriendly and inattentive. The food wasn't very good either. However, TK was the cheapest flight i found by 400CHF...and in that sense, it was worth it for me.
I use ebookers.ch for flights, car hire and hotel bookings and so far had no probs with them. Find the service very helpful. Cant advice you about TK because I have never flown with them.
Thank you all for your input. I will proceed to use ebookers.ch but still considering Turkish Airlines. What about Air France? Anyone has experiences to share? What are the chances of their pilots going on strike? Seems to happen quite a fair bit ya?
ebookers.ch is very reliable but I couldn't say the same about Turkish Airline. Flew with them once and will never fly with them again, everything about them sucks. Don't expect to be checked through, if your destination requires a stop over in Istanbul. The air crew is unreliable and rude, worst of all there's no inflight entertainment. Oh and the turkish they clapped when the plane lands.
It's really strange that Turkish Airline is now part of Star Alliance group.
As for Air France, avoid if you're require to do a stop over at CDG airport. CDG is rated no.1 in terms of delays and forgetting to inform its passengers about it.
Personally I never had a problem with transits. This particular flight has a 2hr layoff which I feel is comfortable enough to get from one terminal to the other, check in and relax have a cuppa before boarding again.
Most of the other flights also require transiting at some point. Only Singapore Airlines fly direct but that would set me back by 400 sFr at least.
Oh dear sounds absolutely horrid. That is exactly what this flight would require - a stopover in Istanbul. Putting up with rude aircrew is bearable given that those on some budget flights in Europe are even worse I believe. But for such a long haul flight there is no inflight entertainment that really sucks.
Strangely though the last time I flew with a certain budget carrier to Barcelona, the people onboard all cheered and clapped when the plane landed. Looks like its not restricted only to the Turks ...
I was trying to access the site last night but it was undergoing maintenance. The cheapest fare I found was something like 1300 sFr. Will go check it out now.
I use ebookers.ch all the time for personal and business flights and I've never faced a problem with them....
one tip...in case this is a personal vacation, you might want to consider purchasing the optional insurance which is offered along with the flight. The terms and conditions differ for each flight, but its quite cheap and offers you protection against any cancellation/sudden illness which might strike you...just check it out...
as far as the Jet Airways B777 are concerned, I've flown them 4-5 times in the past and I was quite impressed... they are wide bodied, have more leg room, the seating is quite comfortable, and the personal entertainment screen is the biggest I've seen so far...not aware tho if Turkish uses them or not ....
Also Emirates is offering a scheme wherein they offer you 50% off on a 2nd ticket to a destination and back...effectively you are halving your ticket cost .. altho the scheme is targeted more towards couples and people flying in pairs, as the same flights (and days) have to be used on the onward and return journeys