For a brief period a few years back Turkish leased some 777-300ER aircraft from Jet Airways, which featured fully enclosed suites in first class.
Continue reading: Vienna to Istanbul via Tokyo: Turkish Business Class Tokyo Narita to Istanbul
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That sea bass looks really good! Glad you enjoyed the TK CIP Lounge- best in the world
I spent 5 days in Turkey and I have to say some of the most unfriendly people in the world. It must be the culture. BTW the best menus are of Qatar. Ben, if you provide your email address, Ill sent you pictures of my trip on Qatar.
So how does the seat compare the Cathay's BC seat? It does look more spacious, but if it's full, not having aisle access could be annoying.
Also, I love it when airlines serve hummus in premium cabins. Nothing premium about it lol
You always list business and first class mileage requirements, why don't you list economy mileage amounts ?
I agree with you regarding the crews - they gotta be one of the most disinteresting group of people that you have ever met. I even doubt their career choice and how they even passed the training. My personal belief is that Turkish is expanding rapidly and needs many F/As, and therefore standard is not maintained.
The Do & Co catering is excellent and I notice that they are offering these individual bread baskets, as well as re-introducing the canape service.
Thanks,
Adrian
MAAAN!! I never (and let me emphasize the word NEVER) get sick of reading trip reports about TK!! You just cant go wrong with TK!!
Great report ...again!!
"...as I boarded, though none made eye contact or sad anything to me."
I'm sure you meant none of the FA "said anything" to you. Though I have to agree it was a pretty sad situation...
It's not at all certain that TK is removing premium economy. According to the thread on FT ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/turkish-airlines-miles-smiles/1400322-future-comfort-class.html) there was only one news article that reported this, and then another article came out saying that TK's new 777's would have a 3 class configuration.
So it's confusing. I don't think we'll know until TK takes delivery of the new 777s or makes a firm statement about CC.
Spelling mistake you wrote 'though none made eye contact or sad anything to me' I think you mean said
whats your secret to finding Turks Business ? I have a trip in the summer to Asia but want to come back to lax via europe(IST) same routes as yours via NRT-IST-LAx. I have looked at UA far in advance and no Turks showed up. could you shed some light on this booking. thanks
With the 90,000 (USairways) miles for roundtrip to asia via Europe, can you do a stopover in EU?
=> when going to EU for a week, include a 1day visit to Tokyo...
Do&Co just delivers what the airline orders/specifies/pays for, its not always luxurious stuff :rolleyes:
One thing I noticed but forgot to mention: this isn't a knock against the quality of the food, but it is interesting that their meal isn't really catered to Japanese taste buds (as opposed to other airlines, which split the choices offered between 1/2 local to the airline, 1/2 to Japanese cuisine)...and no, 1 out of seven appetizers and a scoop of green tea ice cream doesn't count 😉
You did NOT say that Turkish's J seats come with "an ottoman that acts as leg support when you fully recline your seat." They're called Turks these days... ; )
@ wwk5d -- How does it compare to Cathay Pacific's seat? It doesn't, Cathay's is leaps and bounds ahead of the Turkish seat. I think the Cathay style seat is better in almost every way.
@ Derek -- I always list the mileage requirements for the cabins I fly, which is usually business and first class. I tend to think that's the best use of miles, and I'm all about maximizing miles.
@ Thomas Gou -- That's correct, though sad works too! 😀
@ snic -- Interesting, thanks for the link.
@ choi -- The secret is to avoid some routes. Award space to LAX is extremely rare, but take a look at JFK instead, where they have 3x daily service, where availability is very good. It's also great on their new IAH route.
@ Zz -- Yep!
@ oliver2002 -- Is there a case where an airline does Do & Co catering and it's not top notch? I can't think of a case.
@ as219 -- LOL!
Great post!
So just so I'm clear:
1) If I use my USAIR miles -- I can fly LAX-IST (STOP 2 DAYS) -NRT (STOP 2 DAYS) and then I must return NRT-IST-LAX correct? I can't just come back NRT-LAX on the return for 90K?
2) Do you have a guess when USAIR miles will be merged with Oneworld and you won't be able to use them on Turkish anymore?
@ Michael -- You could do that for 90K, though you can also just come back NRT-LAX if you want to. When will the programs be merged? If I had to guess I'd say Star Alliance redemptions won't be possible anymore in maybe six months or so.
@wwk5d - While I agree its odd to not have a separate "Japanese" menu, they did offer fish for both meals, one entree in the first meal used a very Japanese flavor profile and several of the appetizers straddled the line of familiarity for Japanese people (grilled asparagus, shrimp salad, etc.)Seems like they made an effort, but didn't go as far as some other airlines.
A small correction: Not all EU citizens can enter Turkey without a visa. (German and French passports, for example, are fine, but for instance UK not.)
Just wondering what is the purpose of the M+ and MR on the Seating controls? Is this to save your preference sitting setting? Thanks.
Disappointing to hear that Emirates wifi is slower than gogo... I thought one benefit of sat-based wifi was speed/capacity...
When I used it on a Lufthansa 744, it was very fast for being over the Atlantic Ocean... about as fast as a 3G hotspot with only one computer on it... much better than gogo.
I've got a SIN-IST booked in TK business class in a few months. But that's on the A330 -- is the A330 business seat different to this one? I was under the impression that it was an angled-flat rather than fully-flat.
Unfortunately Turkish has horrible customer service. I will never fly them again (ground service sucks, in air is fine).
Does Turkish ever release LAX-IST business class seats for United award redemptions? I've checked the entire month of december using the ana award tool, but maybe im doing something wrong!
@ Hugh -- Correct, the A330 has angled flat seats in business class.
@ Sam -- It's the toughest route on which to find award space, though it's not impossible to come by.
I've flown TK short-haul (intra-europe/mideast/etc.) several times and have found them excellent for all the reasons you wrote in your post. Plus, Istanbul and the IST lounge are fantastic as well.
The problem is that I'm GRU-based and I've been dying to do GRU/IST on TK, but they're extremely stingy with their award space. I have literally never seen a business class seat on offer on this route -- the times I've looked, obviously. Between them and JJ, being GRU-based is rough! 🙁
Lucky, interesting how you found the cabin crew to be cold. Compare to this crew: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G97_JGce7_E
If I had to average out all the TRs I've read about TK, the main problem with the cabin crews seems to be they are usually not quite as polished as FAs on other airlines. Some are friendly, some are cold, some are polite but efficient, etc. A wide variety, to be sure, but the main knock against them is they're not the most refined crew out there.
I'll be flying an award ticket in Biz from PEK thru IST to ZRH, with a long layover in IST. Flying into IST on Turkish Air, continuing to ZRH on Swiss. Does any of this qualify me for lounge access at IST?
the most overrated airline in the industry. i dont believe the "voted best in europe" thing for a second
Turkish does fly from IAH to IST on a 777 as well. I thought about checking out that flight, if I can find some good avail in the fall. Unfortunately, I missed a good opportunity on a business class fair for $2k on that same flight.. :(..it would have been great to rack up some eqm lol. Great review!
Can you enter the Turkish Airlines lounge in IST if that is your final destination? I will be flying business class next month and since my ticket is an open jaw, I will not be departing from IST on business class, only arriving. I would love to see the lounger if possible. Thanks!
Just to clarify the answer to my own question from months ago, now I've taken the flight: it turns out that it's angled lie-flat on the A330-200s, but the A330-300s have basically the same fully flat product pictured here. I guess the aisles must be a lot wider on the 777 because the 2-2-2 configuration is the same.
I flew the A330-300 from SIN to IST and it was a great flight, very comfortable. My one regret is that I slept through dessert.
@ Hugh -- Keep in mind the configuration on the 777 is actually 2-3-2 and not 2-2-2.
Just booked two ATH-IST-JFK biz seats for Xmas Eve on Turkish using 45.000 Aegean miles + about $308 per ticket. Considering Aegean miles are crazy easy to get in Greece through a variety of credit cards (up to 16 miles per euro in some occasions!), I consider this a steal!
Last week I flew TK on MUM-IST sector. I had booked an economy ticket. At check in the staff was offering an upgrade to Business Class for US$ 300/-. I got excited as this was a steal when compared to the regular business class fares available for this sector. I also got the opportunity to check out the massive lounge in the brand new Mumbai T2. The check in staff informed me I will be awarded Jet Privilege miles as they have an arrangement with Jet Airways. Upon getting on the Plane I found out it was a Boeing 777-300 which was leased from Jet Airways. One of the cabin crew was having Jet Airways badge, I asked him regarding this he said TK has leased out the Aircraft from Jet hence some crew from Jet also works in this flight to assist the Turkish Crew.Over the PA they even announced welcome onboard TK 721 operated in association with Jet Airways!I checked it was an Indian Registered aircraft with the starting letter allotted to Indian carriers VT.
The business class cabin was reverse herringbone with 1-2-1 config. It was a very old aircraft with a lot of rattling. The personal screens were a challenge to stowaway.Not much of a choice in the entertainment system. No wifi on board.Seats worn out. Overall very sub standard cabin.I have flown on much better economy class cabins on other carriers than this TK Business Class Cabin! The food was nothing great. As it was an early morning flight the only good thing for me was I could get a good 4 hour sleep as the seats were lie flat.
I felt paying even US$ 300 for the Business Class upgrade was not worth for this quality of cabin. In the return sector also the same aircraft was used. I guess for the MUM-IST-MUM sector TK is using the leased out Jet 777.
Last month December, i flew Lisbon to Tokyo and back, in turkish airlines, in business class, and it was awesome.
The crew was friendly, always looking in the eyes and constantly asked if everything was OK!
Only downside , I think, were the pilots. No wonder the turbelence and not land the plane. Let him fall 🙂
I have posted the picture of the airshow map on a dedicated my moving map FLICKR page:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/129399630@N06/
We are going BC on TK from their new departure point, San Francisco to Istanbul this May and we are very excited. Thanks everyone for this input.
Which Turkish Airlines USA destinations generally have the best award availability?