Turkish Airlines has just announced a new feature for passengers, which I’d say is mostly good news.
In this post:
Turkish adds unlimited free inflight messaging
Turkish Airlines will begin offering unlimited complimentary inflight messaging to all Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles members on international flights. It’s free to sign up for Turkish’s loyalty program, and you’ll even be able to enroll inflight and then use the Wi-Fi.
Unlimited free messaging can be done through applications like WhatsApp, Messanger, iMessage, and others. While it hasn’t been confirmed one way or another, I suspect that it won’t be possible to send or receive pictures or videos with this service, since the intent is usually to limit bandwidth usage.
This service will first launch on aircraft with internet access by Turk Telekom, before gradually being expanded to all aircraft with inflight Wi-Fi.
Turkish Airlines offers more extensive free Wi-Fi packages to premium passengers, as follows:
- Business class passengers who are also Miles&Smiles Elite or Elite Plus members receive unlimited free Wi-Fi
- Other business class passengers receive 1 GB of free Wi-Fi
- Miles&Smiles Elite or Elite Plus members not in business class receive 400 MB of free Wi-Fi plus free messaging
- Miles&Smiles Classic Plus members receive 250 MB of free Wi-Fi plus free messaging
Why this isn’t universally great news
It’s always nice to see airlines investing not just in premium cabins, but rather in the passenger experience for all. Inflight messaging is a real value-add for travelers, and can help make time fly by (literally).
I do think it’s important to acknowledge the one catch here, which is that bandwidth is a very limited resource on airplanes, and Turkish Airlines also doesn’t have a cutting edge Wi-Fi service. The more people use inflight Wi-Fi, the slower it is.
Now, in fairness, messaging without pictures or videos is unlikely to use up that much bandwidth. But still, if it exponentially increases the number of people using the service, then it could have an impact. Personally I’d very much consider this to be a net positive.
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines is introducing unlimited free inflight messaging for all passengers. The only requirement is that you be a member of Turkish’s free Miles&Smiles program, and you can even enroll inflight. This is a lovely improvement at the airline, which I’m sure passengers will appreciate.
What do you make of Turkish introducing free inflight messaging?
I have flown Turkish Airlines many times - mostly in business class and they have been offering unlimited wifi in business class for a while so its great that they are expanding the offering. Its great for messaging and to check email but I have had trouble with connectivity -- sometimes it takes a while to connect and logs itself out so had to have patience to reconnect or wait. And when having issues with...
I have flown Turkish Airlines many times - mostly in business class and they have been offering unlimited wifi in business class for a while so its great that they are expanding the offering. Its great for messaging and to check email but I have had trouble with connectivity -- sometimes it takes a while to connect and logs itself out so had to have patience to reconnect or wait. And when having issues with the wifi, the crew onboard usually just went through the same process I would go through and then just say 'wait for a bit and try again'
The worst airline Turkish Airline and airport crew,
1. They broke my son’s wheelchair and they never brought the chair at the gate very rude people at the airport.
2. In flight monitor shows we get a free hotel and easy visa if we decided to explore Turkey that’s all big fat lie, we had 24 hours of stay and they didn’t give us free hotel despite our ticket included free hotel stay,...
The worst airline Turkish Airline and airport crew,
1. They broke my son’s wheelchair and they never brought the chair at the gate very rude people at the airport.
2. In flight monitor shows we get a free hotel and easy visa if we decided to explore Turkey that’s all big fat lie, we had 24 hours of stay and they didn’t give us free hotel despite our ticket included free hotel stay, we ended up paying $280 for a 3 star hotel and shuttle to and from hotel. Never flying with TA.
I have used TK’s free hotels many times. It’s a great service.
Taxi from IST to the area around Topkapi is about $20 each way. Decent 4 star hotels are around $100. You overpaid.
It's not a lie, but my guess is you didn't apply at least 72 hours before your first flight.
We recently did a free TK Istanbul tour on a long IST layover. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.
Free inflight massages would be more exciting
Yeah, I swear that's what the headline said the first time I saw it, too.
But I'm worried "Turkish massage" might be a euphemism for something I'm not interested in.
hahaha...love it! (I am a regular on the London/Istanbul route)...some of the staff know already that I always have a 2nd (!) red with my supper!! (Economy!!) Great airline....
The terms and conditions in the the fine print say you'd need to be a miles and smiles member and agree that miles for that flight are credited to miles and smiles program.
That headline is a *bit* misleading…
Damn I read free in-flight massaging.
Turkish's unlimited WiFi for E/E+ passengers in Business Class is great. I remember livestreaming an NFL game in HD last year without any issues on an A350. The only catch is that they block most VPNs.
The unlimited wifi for the Elite or above even applies to Economy as well!
@Hiro - I haven't flown TK Economy in a while but I recall it used to be capped (a fairly generous cap though).
Sorry, I was wrong - indeed it was capped at 400MB (just checked their website).
Just came back from flying on their 787s the last 2 weeks, and the wifi has not worked on a single flight. That's a deal breaker for me when it comes to 14 hour flights.
It takes so little bandwidth for messaging sans media
If this is similar to what United offers, then it is just text messaging and no pics or videos.