Delicious food spiced up an otherwise lackluster flight.
Hi there, my name is Kevin and I make honest, unsponsored and to the point narrated trip
reports about flights and hotels all over the world.
This is episode 111 and today we are flying on Turkish Airlines from Paris to Istanbul
in their lie flat business class.
For such a short flight it’s a great product that you’re going to want to check out.
Welcome to a beautiful spring afternoon in Paris as we drive to Charles de Gaulle.
If you’d like to know the exact fare that I paid, my next five videos in queue or check
out all of my gear that I use daily, pay a visit to the description below.
I’ve already professed my love for Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport in the northeast
of the city on this channel, but when I’ve done so- I definitely wasn’t referring to
terminal 2A which is where my flight would be departing today.
2A is retro, but mostly not in a good way, cramped and just has limited services available-
not taking into account what may or may not have been closed simply due to Covid at the
time of my flight, from this past April.
Checkin is a pretty cramped affair practically stumbling over the lines of passengers as
soon as you walk into the building.
Speaking of stumbling, how’d you get here?
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The business class check in area felt like an afterthought, but it served its purpose
I guess.
After around a 20 minute wait I had my two boarding passes in hand and I was on my way
to- oh, did you think I was going to say on my way to the lounge?
Au contraire mon ami.
2A doesn’t have any silly amenities like lounges available today.
Even with that sad news already in hand from the check in agent, I now had plenty of time
to kill so I decided to follow all of the signs to the Air Canada lounge just to see-
maybe, perhaps, just by the slightest of chance they were open and waiting for me to arrive.
So I walked.
By the way, this was around 17:00 so it’s not like it was super early or late, but still,
almost everything was closed at a time when I saw many airports in Europe operating close
to normal.
Spotted some interesting aircraft on the way and some even more interesting bathroom decor.
I kept walking towards what I thought at the time was a space ship, but I was wrong.
I was actually walking all the way back to 1977.
If you told me no ones been in here for the past forty years, I would have believed you-
except for the fact that there was modern day trash all over.
In fact, there was literally trash everywhere.
Since our flight was delayed and there was literally nothing else to do, let’s do a
garbage tour.
By the way, the ticket that I’m flying on today was purchased during Turkish Airlines
Miles & Smiles 30% off sale in December.
I believe all of their standard redemption rates in Economy and Business class were a
flat 30% off, making this ticket to Saigon an absolute steal.
Their website is a pain in the butt though so the only way I was actually able to book
my ticket was by calling them directly.
Our aircraft today was a 10 year old A330-300 and was the reason I chose this specific flight
departing Paris.
Currently Turkish Airlines flies around 8 times a day between Paris and Istanbul on
a mix of wide body and narrow body aircraft.
At the time of my booking this was the only wide body flight scheduled and it was supposed
to originally be an A350, which was swapped out and then back in and then out again two
days before departure.
A wee bit heart crushing, not gonna lie.
TK has a total of 50 A330 aircraft in their massive fleet of almost 400 but is actively
returning leased A330s as they modernize their fleet.
Currently they’ve also got 33 777s, 11 A350s with 15 more on order and 15 787s with 10
more on the way.
There was a lot of confusion at our gate.
Specifically about what to do with those pesky passengers that were deplaning.
It was honestly as if some of the gate staff had never been here before.
Some telling passengers to go the wrong way, some chasing after said passengers and then
plenty just standing around and watching it all unfold.
Our flight today would take off 40 minutes late and make it’s way up to 37000 feet
for our sub three hour flight landing just 13 minutes late.
Boarding began and I was second in line.
If you will, allow me to shout loud and clear that for this particular flight, I know it
is a treat to have a widebody aircraft with lay flat seats on such a short intra european
flight.
I get it, I know, well understood.
So any complaints are just about the dated nature of the seat itself, I still gave it
a great score.
As I stepped on board I quickly recognized a seat type I’ve flown on quite a few times
with Air China.
It’s comfortable, if not a bit narrow and certainly isn’t skimping on legroom.
Our A330 today had a total of 28 seats in business class in a 2-2-2 configuration.
There are no missing windows or seats with extra legroom, so it’s mostly down to your
own preference when it comes time to select your seat.
For today, I was very very very happy in 4K.
Very happy because my seat changed around five times, always somehow getting a bit less
desirable.
Like I said, originally I was booked on an A350 and selected my seat.
That flight was a day earlier though since my connecting flight was canceled and I had
to leave Paris a day later.
So I was assigned an aisle seat on the new A350 flight.
I changed it to a window, then the aircraft swapped… you see where this is going.
The flight was fully booked and the call center told me the only thing to do was check the
seats daily.
So, I did and luckily just one window seat opened up.
To me a trip report without take off and landing clips is simply, not a trip report.
As we check out some of the seat features I’ll note one interesting thing about this
cabin configuration is that in the middle section in front of the first row is a small
station that almost served as a bar during the flight- a bar in that that’s simply
where the crew prepared the drinks- it wasn’t a walk up bar like Virgin or Emirates.
Old as it may be, the in flight entertainment system did have a decent variety of movies
and TV shows available and I really appreciate that they include the IMDB rating for each
movie.
No individual air vents but it was freezing on board, just like I like it.
Pillows and decent headphones were at the seat and I was gobsmacked when I saw that
Business Class passengers each get a free gigabyte of wifi for free.
Still cannot believe this isn’t more common, at least for premium cabins.
Pre Departure drinks were served from a tray, with juices or water on offer.
The tray table popped up from the center console and was plenty large for all of your tray
tabling needs and also pivoted so you could squeeze out if need be.
Paper menus, which we will take a look at soon, were handed out and the safety video
began rolling as we started our taxi to the southeast corner of the airport.
I’ve already featured 19 airlines on the channel.
I have videos in queue from seven more airlines and I have flights in the next six months
booked on around 25 more airlines… and still, I’ve not found a flight on Emirates that
fits into a single one of my itineraries.
I’m still trying though!
Might just need to take their flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong once it reopened.
We’d be taking off to the west today before making a uey.
The spool up and take off is coming up next.
Our route tonight would take us over the Alps, though it would be too dark for a good view
and then straight as an arrow down to Istanbul.
Meal service started sooner than expected which i suppose should be expected for a multi
course meal on such a short flight.
While I did enjoy the food, enjoyed it immensely actually, I do wish that their menus were
a lot more descriptive.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time traveling from west to east in Turkey some years ago
so I knew what I was being served, but Turkish Mezze isn’t descriptive enough for a four
part starter.
My main, Grilled Turkish style meatballs with vegetable casserole was delicious though and
the best thing I had from this and my next TK flight combined.
The bathrooms were kept clean throughout the flight and were stocked with Molton Brown
products.
By the time dinner service was complete we were already crossing over the Balkans and
beginning to ready the cabin for our descent.
Not much to say about the service but let me just note quickly.
Everything was all friendly and smiles and quite efficient as the flight began- but as
the meal service was underway, something about the tone of the crew shifted.
They still remained efficient but just became more robotic.
It could have been a long day for them, I can understand it, but just not the service
level I was expecting.
On our way towards Istanbul’s new massive airport which is quite a ways outside of the
city itself, making for a pretty dark approach.
Considering the airport has one of the largest passenger terminals in the world, you’d
think there would be a gate for us- but no, a remote stand it was.
But let’s be honest, I do love walking down the stairs and standing next to just about
any wide body aircraft- especially a really well lit one.
Then we were off on our long, most of which took place underground the massive apron.
We were dropped off and that's when the flight display boards broke the bad news to me.
My next flight caught a 4 hour delay.
Yay.
That drama will be in the next video though.
For now, let’s get into the Flip Flop Score.
Overall, for the price paid and the fact that it’s a short European flight, it was a pleasant
experience with the exception of the terminal experience and service on board.
I really hope you enjoyed this trip report today and if you did I’d invite you to please
give it a thumbs up and subscribe for much more content to come.
Next up, the continuation of this itinerary on my way to Saigon.