A couple of days ago I shared my picks for the best and worst airline hold music.
One of my picks for the worst hold music was Turkish Airlines, which has this music:
The thing is that on hold it’s not actually that “song,” but rather just 0:13-0:26 of that video over and over and over. “We are Turkish Airlines. We are globally yours. We are Turkish Airlines. We are globally yours. We are Turkish Airlines. We are globally yours. We are Turkish Airlines. We are globally yours.”
On the phone it’s much more low quality than the YouTube video. And I swear the lady’s voice is a lot whinier.
So what’s the problem? Well, I can’t get the song out of my head, to put it mildly. The second I wake up I chant the lyrics. When I’m stuck in traffic I do the same. And also when I’m in the shower. It’s literally all I do all day.
Today I was on the phone with my delightful mom in Florida and she asked me a question, to which I instinctively responded “we are Turkish Airlines, we are globally yours.”
This is no laughing matter. I honestly can’t get the song out of my head. Whenever I have a spare second I actually call up Turkish just to hear the hold music.
But the thing is that I really hate the music. It’s horrible. But it’s addictively horrible.
I don’t want to cause anyone else to become addicted, though please, for the love of God, someone tell me they’re suffering from the same? Someone tell me the slogan is the first thing they think about in the morning, the last thing they think about before they go to sleep, and all they think about inbetween.
Is there a support group or any level of counseling that can solve this?
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January 10th, 2013 at 11:01 pm
webazoid said,
“We are credit card churners. We are globally yours”.
January 10th, 2013 at 11:01 pm
Jon said,
YES. SO ANNOYING — and like you said, it’s on repeat! i (luckily) haven’t heard it since september, but it’s forever ingrained into my brain. thanks — now it’s looping :\ (maybe now is a good time to call and ask about my status match, since the song is already stuck…)
January 10th, 2013 at 11:04 pm
Jason said,
Just start singing its a small world after all and it’ll be gone
January 10th, 2013 at 11:04 pm
Amol (@PointsToPointB) said,
There was a week-long period when I was dealing with Turkish Airlines almost everyday … they lost my folks’ bags on a trip (I’m the designated “deal with the airline” guy in the family) at the same time I was trying to status match to them for *G and needed the card for a future trip. I was going mad as well.
It doesn’t help that their commercials play non-stop here in LA, especially during basketball games since Kobe is a spokesperson.
January 10th, 2013 at 11:07 pm
PL said,
I was sick over a weekend when I was living in Switzerland and my only TV entertainment was CNN International – which is already bad in and of itself, but is eye-gougingly bad when you combine that with endless “We Are Globally Yours” commercials.
Btw, thanks for making us all relive that painful jingle Lucky. Now I won’t be able to get this out of my head for days.
January 10th, 2013 at 11:18 pm
Murphy said,
You could have said:
“I don’t want to cause anyone else to become addicted”
before posting the video.
We are Turkish Airlines. We are Globally Yours.
January 10th, 2013 at 11:29 pm
ArizonaGuy said,
Been there. Spent half an hour on hold just to reset a forgotten PIN.
January 10th, 2013 at 11:37 pm
jpgisbd said,
“Call me, Maybe”. It will wear off over time but in the short term it is excruciating…
January 10th, 2013 at 11:37 pm
Joel said,
Head-On. Apply directly to the forehead…
January 10th, 2013 at 11:55 pm
NAIF said,
lol…i had the same issue… i kept holding for 30 minutes and then I was devastated
January 11th, 2013 at 12:36 am
Chris said,
Welcome to the group!
January 11th, 2013 at 12:39 am
Sean M. said,
Worse than the hold music is the quality of the line when they actually answer the phone. I swear their call center consists of a guy sitting on a box in the middle of a bazaar using a tin on a string.
January 11th, 2013 at 12:48 am
schmerj said,
You are not alone! I flew from Europe to Africa and return with TK in April and STILL can’t get that stupid song out of my head! The singer is terrible!!
January 11th, 2013 at 12:57 am
Groobie said,
“Aw snap! Aw snap! Come to our macaronni party and we’ll take a nap.” No parent should be subjected to repeated viewings of that “Regular Show” episode.
January 11th, 2013 at 12:59 am
lucky said,
@ Sean M. — ROFL, so true!
January 11th, 2013 at 1:26 am
Kai said,
SQ’s holding music has made it into my dreams. How about that?
January 11th, 2013 at 4:45 am
TG said,
So many times in the past few years have those haunting two phrases gone through my head… At the oddest moments as well!
Of course, then I flew ANA, and heard THEIR song…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HW_zGD1khk&list=FLXcO4yVtPci0_oOBZwoz49A
While quite a bit more complex and entertaining, but gets embedded in your head just as badly!
January 11th, 2013 at 6:49 am
CatJo said,
Seriously Lucky, I can’t imagine you guys don’t use Lucyphone.com (I’ve mentioned this before I think) – no need to wait on hold and tolerate that music!!
January 11th, 2013 at 7:02 am
Cristian said,
Look at it this way. It is a cheap but very effective way to build brand awareness. Everu time I see their logo or pull my elite card to enter a United lounge, the stupid song pops into my mind.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:06 am
JW said,
I spent some time during the holidays helping my parents book a flight using points…worst part of the call was the music.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:31 am
W Brian Duncan (AKA IPBrian) said,
As a person who works with telephony systems, it’s honestly an easy fix on our end. You just have to get the marketing people and the creative people to agree on something.
As a creative person on the side…I really don’t like the marketing people. It’s usually Marketing that come up with this sort of thing.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:44 am
oneeyejack said,
Yup, it’s been stuck in my head since last year. I sing it at home and my wife has never even heard the song in real life but she hates it.
January 11th, 2013 at 8:31 am
Jeremy said,
Maybe we can petition them to change the music? It drives me crazy too… and I shudder every time I know I have to deal with them.
El Al is the other offender. But their loop is longer at least and doesn’t sound like a woman on the verge of tears.
January 11th, 2013 at 8:36 am
Kevin said,
@Sean M.
His name is Peggy, he used to work for your credit card company.
January 11th, 2013 at 9:47 am
VR said,
You are not the first one!
Highly recommend a short story by Mark Twain about the same issue. It is called ‘A Literary Nightmare’ or ‘Punch, Brothers, Punch!’
Conductor, when you receive a fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
CHORUS
Punch brothers! Punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
January 11th, 2013 at 1:12 pm
Chris B. said,
Two words: Hamster Dance!!!!!
Ok, so it seems Turkish Airlines chose their theme wisely! Let’s look at it from this aspect, a popular travel blogger keeps repeating the song in his head, so he will continue to engage the airline, while he also blogs about it, causing his readers to call Turkish just to check it out themselves? Brilliant!
January 11th, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Tracy T. said,
OMG! I hadn’t heard it before I watched that video. Kill me now. My friend and I are flying TK in a couple weeks and it’s my job to call them to try to get a seat assignment. What’s worse: listening to that hold music or a middle seat in a 2-4-2 configuration for a 10hr flight?
January 11th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
David said,
Not bad!
January 11th, 2013 at 8:24 pm
snic said,
@Tracy: The middle seat is worse.
The song is truly, TRULY awful, especially when repeated 6,000,000 times. But yes, a middle seat is worse.
As for Lucyphone: the agent has to be willing to play along with the recorded instructions. In my experience (with a few different companies), many times, they just hang up – especially if they are foreign.
January 12th, 2013 at 12:21 am
flyer708 said,
lets start a petition on “We The People” at the White House website. Maybe with that, they will be forced to change that crap. I was forced to listen to that for over 12 minutes to get my business class seats assigned from IST to MLE. I hope it is worth it!! Urgh~
January 12th, 2013 at 2:48 am
Daniel said,
Hi Lucky,
I know how you feel. When I was in Istanbul earlier this year they had lost my luggage, I had the wonderful opportunity to call their customer service, for 2 days I had to listen to that horrible song as I hoped they’d reward me by finding my bags.
January 13th, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Wei said,
I tired calling them last month and it has been a pain in my mind since.
What’s worse, finally they are getting out and now you are reminding me of that again!
March 29th, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Olga said,
I woke up today while singing “We are Turkish Airlines, We are globally yours” and I have been singing it all day long today.
Bu I, on the other hand, absolutely adore this song!
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