In June, Turkish Airlines revealed that it would add service to two additional cities in the United States. One of those routes is now on sale.
In this post:
Turkish Airlines adds service to Dallas & Denver
Several weeks ago, Turkish Airlines announced plans to launch regularly scheduled flights to both Dallas and Denver. No further details were provided, like the start dates, frequencies, schedules, aircraft types, etc. While there’s no update yet on the Denver route, the Dallas route is now on sale.
Turkish Airlines has historically flown to more countries than any other airline in the world, and already has an extensive network in the United States. With these two new routes, Turkish Airlines will serve a total of a dozen cities in the United States. The airline otherwise flies to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington.
Details of Turkish Airlines’ new Dallas flight
Turkish Airlines will launch 4x weekly flights between Istanbul (IST) and Dallas (DFW) as of September 24, 2021. The flight will operate with the following schedule on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in both directions:
TK191 Istanbul to Dallas departing 2:10PM arriving 6:55PM
TK192 Dallas to Istanbul departing 8:25PM arriving 3:50PM (+1 day)
The 6,275-mile flight will be operated by a Boeing 787-9, featuring 300 seats, including 30 business class seats and 270 economy class seats. The flight is blocked at 12hr45min westbound and 11hr25min eastbound.
If you want to redeem miles for this route, award availability is wide open in both business class and ecnomy using Star Alliance miles.
My take on Turkish Airlines’ expansion
In general it’s awesome to see airlines adding all new routes during the pandemic, rather than just adding back routes that were previously cut. Turkish Airlines already has an extensive route network in the United States, so I’d say both Dallas and Denver are logically among the next cities we’d expect to see Turkish Airlines add.
When it comes to Denver:
- Denver is a United Airlines hub, and since Turkish Airlines is also in the Star Alliance, the airline should have quite a bit of connectivity there
- Denver in general is getting some exciting new long haul flights; Air France launched flights to Denver as of July, and now Turkish Airlines is also adding service
Dallas is perhaps the more surprising addition:
- While Dallas is a bigger airport than Denver, Turkish Airlines likely won’t have any connectivity there, since the airport is an American Airlines hub
- Dallas probably has more demand than Denver for travel east of Turkey (including India, Central Asia, etc.), though both Emirates and Qatar Airways fly to Dallas, and American also has a transatlantic joint venture with British Airways, so Turkish Airlines might have a hard time gaining market share there
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines has announced plans to launch flights to Dallas and Denver. The Dallas flights is already on sale, and will be launching 4x weekly as of September 2021 using Boeing 787-9s.
It’s always exciting to see Turkish Airlines expand further — Turkey is a lovely country with amazing hospitality, and that’s very much reflected in the Turkish Airlines passenger experience.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ new USA flights?
(Tip of the hat to @IshrionA)
Same, would love an update on DEN. Saw the TA Chairman mentioned in a speech the other day, but no details. I think TA undervalues the Star Alliance connection (and alliance loyalty) power of flying out of DEN. Can't wait to have a path other than through LHR, FRA, and MUC. (And we will almost certainly book first week tickets to IST too, just because.)
Any ideas when TK is going to launch DEN service? As my hometown airport I can’t wait for this service.
That’s a great addition to DEN. As Denver is equal distance between FRA and NRT (Tokyo) by ⭐️ Alliance carriers, UA and LH. And domestically DEN is approximately 220 miles from the EXACT geographic center of the US. Everybody flies through DEN, as the only airport in the US w three hub carriers, and even going back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Stapleton Int.l had 7 different airlines hub here. W big dog ⭐️...
That’s a great addition to DEN. As Denver is equal distance between FRA and NRT (Tokyo) by ⭐️ Alliance carriers, UA and LH. And domestically DEN is approximately 220 miles from the EXACT geographic center of the US. Everybody flies through DEN, as the only airport in the US w three hub carriers, and even going back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Stapleton Int.l had 7 different airlines hub here. W big dog ⭐️ Alliance carriers LH & UA here to connect DEN to continental Europe, fellow ⭐️ Alliance member TK will be a nice strong fit/match.
I’m waiting to board the flight from DFW-IST. Most of DFW’s F&B outlets are closed, check-in staff have no idea what they’re doing and Turkish do not have a lounge here (their reason being they only
Started flying a week ago). The term shit-show springs to mind
Ben - Can you check with your friends @ LM why the new routes are not loaded into their system? Its been weeks now
They are not running the Dallas to IST route? I tried looking and nothing comes up
@ Usman: Open complain at DOT website. Google 'File a Consumer Complaint DOT" This is the only way United or TK will listen and will refund you.
We have an award booking from ATL to IST with Turkish though United with chase miles but now would like to change it to DFW to IST, but this flight isn’t showing up on United even though it does exist when looking up Google flights. Any idea when United would get it into their system for partner airline bookings?
How are you getting direct flights to show up on United's page, Lucky? I put in the same exact dates but directs on TA don't show up. I'd be interested in transferring Chase UR to United to then book this flight, but it is not showing up for me on United's page...
Same here I just looked to see if I cou,d replace my Atlanta to Istanbul TK flight with DFW and it doesn’t show the flight at all
Is it me or DFW-IST is not showing 'wide open' award availability?
Same. I don't see any direct flights showing up whatsoever. I even searched the same dates as Lucky's screenshot (on United.com)
This is awesome, can't wait to burn up my Lifemiles next year.
So excited for this!! Denver to Istanbul!! That opens so many options for connections etc!!
@boston elite you are 100% correct. Turkish is great right until the point something goes even a little wrong...then everything goes to hell lightning fast and NOBODY you talk to at TK cares the least. I must've been on 10+ TK flights (incl. connections) in the last 6 years. All went great. Then this year, I booked a new trip and paid $800 for extended legroom seats for my family while making a reservation in...
@boston elite you are 100% correct. Turkish is great right until the point something goes even a little wrong...then everything goes to hell lightning fast and NOBODY you talk to at TK cares the least. I must've been on 10+ TK flights (incl. connections) in the last 6 years. All went great. Then this year, I booked a new trip and paid $800 for extended legroom seats for my family while making a reservation in January for a March trip. Later, one of the connections changed by 30 min (United rescheduled a flight), which updated the reservation in TK's system. I then found out that whenever a reservation refreshes in their system, seat assignments are DROPPED but they don't refund you. You call, call, and call, and talk to 30 CSRs (I actually did...and even emailed their senior execs) they don't reassign the seats to you either...they simply don't care. They ask you to open a "Feedback" case online to get the refund. When you do so, they deny it. It is the worst customer service of any airline ever.
I know DEN sees UA 772s to HNL. Can any of the gates support a 77W?
DEN can handle the A380 (though there has never been A380 service), so the 77W is no problem (UA occasionally flies it here). IST-DEN will most likely be with a 787-9 though.
As KGJT-9149 noted DEN can handle 77W. Lufthansa's 747-8 occasionally has shown up, too, as did A340's in the past, both of which are bigger. I'm not actually sure DEN is setup for A380s. They can land there (the first one ever landed on a diversion a year or two ago) and I think the gate areas are large enough at the right gates, but vaguely remember hearing that the jet bridges weren't setup for...
As KGJT-9149 noted DEN can handle 77W. Lufthansa's 747-8 occasionally has shown up, too, as did A340's in the past, both of which are bigger. I'm not actually sure DEN is setup for A380s. They can land there (the first one ever landed on a diversion a year or two ago) and I think the gate areas are large enough at the right gates, but vaguely remember hearing that the jet bridges weren't setup for it and that DEN would have to upgrade a gate if regular passenger service started.
Glad to hear this. We fly frequently through/to IST from DFW and it will be nice not having the IAH connection. Though DFW-IAH seems about the same time commitment as new IST taxiing/going into Taksim square ...
I have never flown on Turkish Airlines, so this inquiry is based totally on anecdotal observations on my part, perhaps someone here might offer their own experiences: It seems for every single positive in-flight review of Turkish Airlines I read, I discover 2 or 3 negative or harsh reviews of having to deal with Turkish customer facing staff or security personnel when transferring at IST. I reside in North Texas so I regard having Turkish...
I have never flown on Turkish Airlines, so this inquiry is based totally on anecdotal observations on my part, perhaps someone here might offer their own experiences: It seems for every single positive in-flight review of Turkish Airlines I read, I discover 2 or 3 negative or harsh reviews of having to deal with Turkish customer facing staff or security personnel when transferring at IST. I reside in North Texas so I regard having Turkish as an additional option out of DFW as a bonus, but from my research it seems flying with them you have a 50/50 chance of encountering Dr. jekyll or Mr. Hyde. Are my observations accurate?
Could anyone expand further.
You are 100% correct in your observation. I have been a TK Miles & Smiles Elite Plus (top tier) member for about 5 years, and all I can reinforce is that when everything goes right, it is a great experience, but once something goes sideways, expect the worst experience you can imagine, and then double it, throw in a nonchalant attitude from everyone you encounter, and god help you if you actually have to call someone at TK!
Yep, pretty much. Though my experience with TK is not that extensive, I would agree with the above assessment. Great when all goes smoothly, but when something goes wrong, good luck trying to get it fixed.
Loving all the expansion we're seeing from Denver recently! Since European routes have been ramping up in recent years (UA matching BA and LH to LHR and FRA, AF to CDG, and now TK to IST), I wonder if we'll start to see routes to Asia beyond United's not currently operating Tokyo route. Maybe Seoul, Beijing, and/or Shanghai? It'd be cool to see UA launch flights to Paris to defend their market share and maybe even a flight to Amsterdam on KLM or United.
Doha and Dubai are 15 hrs from DFW, when TK enters to both DFW and DEN, Qatar airways and Emirates will lose ECO class. Lufthansa gets Eastern European hubs, they will probably cheaper than TK, if TK provides better connection time, they will also get a hit to Lufthansa, British has poor service but they are cheaper. Turkish Airlines gets Atlanta and Miami, they will kill DFW since AA is very expensive to Europe.
TATL flights are pretty expensive if you originate at DFW. It's always cheaper for me to originate in AUS, but I'd happily drive up to DFW to start a TK itinerary. Hopefully a new entrant like this could push fares down a bit.
TK will have no problem making DFW work even without any feed on the DFW end. It makes ATL work and other US cities it served that does not enable connections on the US end.
Turkish Airlines serves ATL which is Delta's headquarters and MIA which is an American Hub!! Both seem to be doing well so I see no reason as to why DFW cant work out !
The Denver to Istanbul flight will provide for great for connections to smaller cites in Austria and Slovenia.
Good luck! QR has like 12 weekly flights to DFW with AA connectivity & B6 code sharing.
If Turkish can make Atlanta work, which it has done for several years at this point, it should have no problem in DFW.
Great news for DFW, I have a flight booked to Instanbul from Houston, couldnt get a good connecting flight from DFW to IAH so im just driving down to IAH. Nice to see another major non oneworld carrier coming to DFW.
I'm curious as to what could be the next most likely cities Turkish would expand to... Connectivity aside, I would say Seattle, Detroit or maybe Orlando?
Any other ideas?
Probably Seattle. Orlando gets a majority of its international traffic from Europe. Flying Turkish from Europe would be a pretty big detour. As for the demand to/from Africa and Asia, I think the European airlines and Emirates have that covered. But, you never know, and I'd love it if Turkish flew to MCO!