Turkish Airlines has launched a "Fly Good Feel Good" program in collaboration with Mehmet Öz, making a big campaign which unfortunately turned out to be "Fly Good Feel Bad" for me. The following screenshots are from the corresponding videos. You be the judge and tell me if I am right or wrong.

We start with the Introduction video. I give the length of the videos as well to have an idea of the "density" of mistakes. This is 57 seconds.

Traveling with children - 2:38 mins

Traveling while pregnant- 5:44 mins

And do you know where they got the "inconvenience" from? I was curious and checked the most used Turkish-English online translator tureng.com for the Turkish word that was used, engel. Guess what came up?

The first one is wrong. It should be as in the second like "end of THE 35th week"

Jetlag- 2:08 mins

Blocked nose and ear trouble- 2:58 mins

Massage- 4:57 mins

Exercises- 8:49 mins

"A half circle" is the correct one.

Eating while flying- 1:51 mins

"I recommend that all our guests prefer" or "I recommend all of our guests to prefer"

Preparing for a flight- 1:54 mins

I do not know about you but these are way too many mistakes for such a reputable company like Turkish Airlines to make in such a short space. These are sloppy mistakes, they are mistakes that show ignorance. They're not like the below mistake of "Before traveling with youR child..." (under the allergies section in their website)

This mistake can be attributed to simple human error; we are all humans and we err. However, the mistakes in the subtitles is nothing but sloppiness and ignorance, and these are things not acceptable in such a prestigious company.

I have hundreds of articles on my website, articles with long and detailed analysis, and you know what? I definitely do not have so many sloppy mistakes. These mistakes on a campaign of Turkish Airlines are totally UNACCEPTABLE and they really owe me for my contribution to their quality. Of course, after all this work and time spent, they owe me more than one simple ticket. They could award me a hundred thousand miles for example!

Or even two hundred thousand...

It all started on the flight from Ouaga. We were about to land in 20 minutes, I had finished my book, the magazine and the newspapers. So I started playing around with the inflight entertainment program. Came across Fly Good Feel Good. I decided to have a look at what it was. I had not opened up the earphones, I said “Let me not waste it for nothing, let me have a look with subtitles.” Hay bakmaz olaymışım!

The subtitles were full of Turkish mistakes, not even simple mistakes or mistakes that are unfortunately very common these days, there were grave mistakes, unacceptable mistakes.

So I wrote to Turkish Airlines. As I am travelling to Africa these days and Turkish Airlines is almost unrivalled in Africa, knowing that they wouldn't be doing it out of their own accord, I asked for a free flight ticket to Chad, N'Djamena or somewhere else. (For my bringing up an important point to their attention.) I didn't expect them to do it, but we have a Nasreddin Hodja story: One day the Hodja is seen pouring yoghurt into the lake. They ask what he is doing and he answers “I'm fermenting the lake.” People of course laugh at Hodja, they say “Hodja, would the lake ever become yoghurt? You must be joking.” And Hodja answers: “I know it wouldn't, but what if it does?”
    So I do it too. I test people and institutions like this. I had nothing to lose by asking. However, it turned out that I had so much to lose: basically a lot of time trying to get them to accept their mistake and in the meantime, I have lost my peace of mind.

Why are the people doing crappy jobs paid, i.e. rewarded, whereas the ones with the proper knowledge, who are bothered with those mistakes and correct them are not seen as deserving any payment or compensation? Why? Why am I supposed to be fine with a simple “Thank you”? I told them, they should have said that “Thank you” to the one who did the crappy job and paid me! Sorry but that's the way it should have been. That's how things should be working. I keep telling it but nobody seems to believe me or take me seriously. Everything is upside down in this world.

What I asked was simply nothing for them. Nothing. Given that flights to Africa are never full, given that they are flying anyway, it would have cost them nothing, NOTHING. It would have earned them prestige. Okay, I am just one person, but still, you earn customers one by one. Besides, I am seriously contributing to their quality. Please have a look here at all the mistakes in the English subtitles.

"Ah we are so sorry we cannot meet your expectation, ah thank you very much for your contribution, ah we care so much about our customers."
They are just paying lip-service. You do not care about your customers by saying you care about your customers. You care by in fact caring and doing something to show you care. Same with the mistakes. I'm aware, it's not such a big deal, it's got nothing to do with flight security or their services, BUT, there is a big but, they are Turkish Airlines, they are not Banana Republic Airlines. They have Morgan Freeman in their ads, they have done this Fly Good Feel Good with Mehmet Öz. And that is exactly why these mistakes are simply unacceptable and should not have been made in the first place. Turkish Airlines represents quality, they are a most reputable company. That's why they cannot brush off their mistakes even if simple so easily. They cannot. And their trying to say they cannot give me an open ticket, making as if they cannot issue reward tickets or do anything about it infuriates me more. It would have been much better if they just said “No, we are not doing it. We are not issuing you a free ticket. Yes, the people who did that crappy job deserved the money we paid; no, for you, a simple thank you is good enough.” It really would have been much better.

You fly good with Turkish Airlines; their services are optimum. But the program they launched should have been titled Fly Good Feel Bad, because their approach makes you feel bad.


PS: Please feel free to correct my English mistakes on this site, but just in case you attempt to, no, you do not have any right to criticize me or come back to me with the same argument. I am not a company, I do not have people working for me, to check things for me, I am a solo woman trying to do the best I can; and most importantly, nobody is paying me for what I do. (And you know what? I definitely do not have so many sloppy mistakes in all my site full of long articles. I do not!) What's more, I am not on the news all around claiming “Ah look I've launched a new program!” promoting it with superstars like Mehmet Öz. If one day I achieve that status, I will take criticism and compensate anyone who contributes to my perfection.
      And you can be sure I'll compensate them generously. Very generously...