Sometimes the best Turkish Airlines customer servicestory doesn’t begin in Business Class. It begins with a middle seat, a sold-out flight, and one exceptional employee at Istanbul Airportwho decides to make a difference.
Her name is Jamila Bilgin, and she works for Turkish Airlines in Istanbul.
What Jamila did for me before my Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Helsinki took only a few minutes. But those few minutes completely changed the way I looked at the airline.
And the remarkable part of this story isn’t really the upgrade she gave me. It’s what one employee taught me about customer service, hospitality and the enormous difference a human being can still make in an increasingly automated world.
It Started With Seat 26B on TK 1267 IST-HEL
Last week, I was traveling from Izmir to Istanbul and onward to Helsinki with Turkish Airlines.
I am a Star Alliance Gold member through my United Airlines status. Having flown almost four million miles with United, airports, boarding passes, upgrades, and airline procedures have been part of my life for decades. In Izmir, I asked whether there was any possibility of changing my seat for the Istanbul-Helsinki flight.
There was a good reason. My boarding pass showed 26B. A middle seat.
For someone who flies as much as I do, there are few things less appealing on a longer flight than seeing that letter “B” on a boarding pass.
Because my ticket was issued on United Airlines ticket stock—an “016” ticket—the Turkish Airlines system had limitations when it came to changing my seat. By the time I checked in, there were no aisle or window seats available.
The staff in Izmir tried, but there was apparently nothing they could do.
So I accepted my fate. 26Bit would be.
Then I Met Jamila
When I arrived at the gate at Istanbul Airport for my Turkish Airlines flight to Helsinki, Jamila Bilginwas working the flight. The first thing I noticed was her smile.
Not the obligatory smile that sometimes comes with customer-service training. This was different. She seemed genuinely happy to be there. She greeted passengers warmly and carried herself with the pride of someone who liked her job, liked her airline, and understood that, in a way, she was also representing her country.
When it was my turn, I decided to try one last time. “Would you mind checking whether perhaps an aisle or window seat has opened up?” Jamila looked at her computer.
She checked. Then she gave me the bad news. Unfortunately, the flight was completely full. I thanked her and started to walk away. That should have been the end of the story. It wasn’t.
“Sir…” – I turned around. Jamila was smiling. “But I have good news.”
She handed me a new boarding pass. For a moment, I didn’t understand what had happened. Then I looked at the seat number. 1F.
Jamila smiled again. She had upgraded me to Business Class. A few moments earlier I had been preparing myself for seat 26B. Now I was holding a boarding pass for 1F.
Appertizer and main course on Turkish Airlines Istanbul – Helsinki Flight
But the remarkable part of this story isn’t really the upgrade. It is the person who made it happen.
One Employee Can Change an Entire Company
Companies spend extraordinary amounts of money trying to create brands.
They hire advertising agencies. They employ consultants. They sponsor events. They attend trade shows. They build elaborate public-relations operations and create slogans telling us how much they care about their customers.
Yet sometimes a company’s entire reputation is sitting behind a counter at an airport gate.
For me, on this particular day, Jamila Bilgin was Turkish Airlines.
She reminded me of what hospitality can mean.
She didn’t have to make a speech about customer service. She didn’t tell me how important passengers are. She simply saw an opportunity to make someone’s journey better—and she did it.
That little boarding pass changed much more than my seat. It changed my mood. And, more importantly, it changed how I felt about Turkish Airlines.
Like many frequent travelers, I have accumulated both wonderful and frustrating experiences with airlines over the years.
There are outsourced call centers where conversations can feel mechanical, and employees seem unable or unwilling to solve even simple problems.
I remember a Lufthansa gate agent who wouldn’t help me get onto an earlier flight because I was holding a United Airlines boarding pass.
I have experienced the frustration of trying to communicate with airline media-relations departments, including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, ANA, and many more, only to receive little or no meaningful response.
I have attended travel-industry trade shows where representatives of major companies sometimes seemed to have forgotten the most basic principle of hospitality: people want to feel that they matter.
And then there is United Airlines.
After almost four million miles of flying with United and reaching its highest lifetime status, Ihave had many occasions when its people went out of their way to make things right when I brought a problem to their attention.
I especially remember the years when I seemed to know everyone working for United in Honolulu and many of the flight attendants. It felt like a big family.
That human connection mattered.
We Are Losing Something
Today, that kind of connection is becoming increasingly rare. We live in the age of artificial intelligence, automated telephone systems, chatbots and computer-generated answers. Technology can do extraordinary things. It can make companies faster and more efficient.
But efficiency isn’t the same thing as hospitality.
AI
Anyone who has spent 30 minutes arguing with an automated system knows the feeling. You explain the problem. The computer doesn’t understand. You try again. It gives you an irrelevant answer. You search desperately for the magical combination of words that might finally connect you with a knowledgeable human being.
Something that should take two minutes takes half an hour. Instead of creating loyalty, the experience creates frustration. Instead of making customers feel valued, it makes them feel like numbers – never able to do anything more than what their program dictates. That is why people like Jamila matter more than ever.
The Most Powerful Advertising in the World
Airlines should remember a simple truth:
Customers pay the bills.
They buy the tickets. They fill the airplanes. They recommend airlines to their families, friends, and colleagues—or tell them to stay away. And sometimes the smallest gesture can create more goodwill than an expensive advertising campaign.
Jamila upgraded one passenger from 26B to 1F.
That was one seat on one flight from Istanbul to Helsinki. But now I am telling her story to more than two million readers. Some of those readers will tell their friends. Others will tell colleagues, family members, and neighbors. That is how reputations are really built.
- Not in corporate boardrooms.
- Not through slogans.
- Not through press releases.
They are built one human interaction at a time.
Thank You, Jamila
So I am writing this for two reasons.
First, to say thank you. Thank you, Jamila, for a wonderful flight to Helsinki. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you for taking pride in your work.
And thank you for reminding me that behind the enormous machinery of a global airline there can still be a person who notices another person and thinks:
Maybe I can make their day a little better.
You did. But I am also writing this for Turkish Airlines—and for airline executives around the world.
- When you find employees like Jamila Bilgin, recognize them.
- Encourage them.
- Promote them.
- Learn from them.
- Because airplanes can be purchased. Lounges can be built. Seats can be redesigned. Advertising campaigns can be copied.
Genuine hospitality cannot.
It comes from people. Last week, I walked up to a Turkish Airlines gate in Istanbul hoping for nothing more than an aisle or window seat.
I walked onto the airplane with seat 1F.
But I left Helsinki with something much more valuable: a renewed belief that great airline service is still possible when a company empowers good people to do good things.
Jamila, I don’t know where your career at Turkish Airlines will take you.But I hope it takes you far. Perhaps one day, all the way to the CEO’s office. And if that happens, I hope you remember that passenger who approached your gate worried about seat 26B. Because I certainly will remember you.
Thank you, Jamila Bilgin.You didn’t just upgrade my seat.
You upgraded my opinion of an entire airline, and an entire industry. If you happen to read this, contact me at eTurboNews , so we can recommend you for our Amazing Travel Award (Former Hero Award)
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