At the end of August, we flew with Turkish Airlines from Vilnius to Bodrum via
Istanbul. This video will be a review of the connection experience at the new Istanbul
airport as well as the short, one-hour, Boeing 777 service from Istanbul to Bodrum-Milas airport.
This video is a continuation from a first flight review, which covered the
Turkish Airlines economy class, Boeing 737 MAX 8 experience, from Vilnius (Lithuania) to Istanbul.
In today’s video, we will first go over the experience of connecting at Istanbul airport,
so please do skip ahead if you want to get to the actual flight review!
But with that introduction out of the way, let’s get started!
With our flight reviewers having traveled to Istanbul twice in the
past and experiencing the Istanbul Ataturk airport during those visits,
they were excited to see what the new Istanbul airport had to offer. Indeed,
it was a mystery as to how (or if) the country was going to improve on the experience at
Ataturk, since it appeared to offer a fairly comfortable, and modern experience, even in 2018.
Arrival at Istanbul airport was smooth and passengers offloaded via jetbridge.
Entering the terminal at the far end of one of the piers,
passengers must make their way to the center of the airport to collect baggage or transfer. Thus,
they have to walk and take a long series of moving walkways to get to the transit area.
Thankfully, at the end of almost every moving walkway, there are clean and spacious restrooms
for all those passengers who had chosen to "hold it in," during their flights.
On this particular inbound flight, it took about 10-15 minutes of walking to get to the transit
area. This would certainly have taken much, much longer without the help of those moving walkways.
The first step in transiting was passport control, to enter the country of Turkey
to transfer on to a domestic flight. On this trip, it took no time at all,
as there were numerous border guards available with relatively few passengers to compete with.
On the way to finding passport control, there were a number of airport assistance personnel
along the way, eager to help find (or at least confirm) the location of certain services.
Some citizens may need to apply for a tourist visa. This can be done in advance online and
can very little time. Tourist visas can range from $15 to $80, depending on your nationality.
Applying online allows travelers to bypass the visa-on-arrival counters at
the airport - which appeared to have some long lines during this particular trip.
After our quick pass-through of passport control,
passengers heading on to domestic flights will head over to a security checkpoint. This was
a fairly standard experience, with requests to remove liquids and laptops from baggage.
Knowing that this short domestic flight from Istanbul to Bodrum would be aboard a Boeing 777,
there was definitely an expectation of boarding via jetbridge.
However, the gate assigned to this particular flight was a shuttle bus gate,
which was surprising and unexpected. These gates are located in a lower section of the terminal,
slightly away from the majority of airport shops and services.
While this area is a lot simpler than other parts of the domestic terminal, it seemed to have all
the basics. The area around the gate had ample seating and also had a simple souvenir-shop/café
along with a set toilets. There was also a workstation with a number of electrical outlets.
Boarding was initiated slightly late, but the process was carried out quickly, with
a series of buses shuttling passengers across the airport grounds to another side of the terminal.
On this trip, the swift ride across the airport provided a good glimpse of one of Turkish
Airlines' newly-acquired "Turkoflot" Airbus A350-900s. For those who haven't yet read up
on these jets, they are A350s that were initially ordered by Aeroflot but made undeliverable due to
the war and subsequent sanctions. Turkish Airlines had picked these up for its own fleet - but
had decided to go with a hybrid livery that had Aeroflot colors with Turkish Airlines lettering.
However, once this inadvertent "tour" of the airport apron was over,
passengers were dropped off in front of air stairs to board a Boeing 777-300ER.
With our reviewers’ seats located somewhere around row 50, boarding was available via the back door.
The rear section has a series of seats that are clusters of two, making it ideal for couples
traveling together. However, seating layout didn't matter too much on this particular flight
as the words "boarding completed" was announced with the plane only about 20 or 30% full.
Indeed, looking at the back section of this 777, only around 10 passengers were visible.
There might have been a subconscious expectation that the cabin of our 777-300 would be fairly
modern. Perhaps this misguided expectation stemmed from our reviewers’ previous Boeing
777 experiences with Air France and KLM, as both offered refreshed cabins on this aircraft type.
However, after stepping on board, it was clear that it was an older jet.
Registered TC-JJP, this aircraft is 11 years old. By the looks of it, it’s quite clear
that the aircraft hasn't had a cabin refresh since first being assembled by Boeing in 2011.
According to Planespotters.net, the jet once had a three-class configuration
but was then converted to just two classes in 2016.
The 777 is now fitted with 49 seats in business class and 300 seats in economy class.
As might be expected of a widebody, the seats, even in economy class, were spacious and all
fitted with an inflight (IFE) system. Each seat also came with a footrest, which was a nice touch.
All economy class seats also had a small metal nub that allowed
passengers to hang jackets or other articles of clothing.
Thus, despite the blue and red cloth seats looking worn down and fairly tired, the
cabin was quite comfortable - and certainly more than enough for the one-hour flight to Bodrum.
The content within the IFE systems was robust and diverse, and would be the same as the systems
found on the recently-flown 737 MAX. This flight would also include the standard "#HelloTürkiye"
and "Pangea" video commercials after take-off - which, as noted in the previous review - simply
become an annoyance after viewing the first time. This is especially the case for such
a short flight, if you have something that you'd like to watch - and with limited time to watch it!
Unfortunately, accessing and enjoying this content would not be as smooth
as on the newer Boeing 737 MAX 8 that was flown hours prior.
Indeed, the systems that were installed in each seatback were quite old. Although
these screens were touch-sensitive, the screen sensitivity was severely lacking,
and the systems were also just quite slow to respond.
To compensate for this, all systems came with a remove control.
While using these remote controls make it a little bit easier to navigate systems,
it's certainly nowhere near as fast as using a modern touchscreen. In addition to these minor
challenges, the screens were quite dim - even at full brightness. Thus, it was quite difficult to
enjoy any kind of inflight entertainment on this flight. Good thing it was only a one-hour service!
One nice feature onboard this aircraft was the pair
of external cameras connected to the entertainment system.
When landing gear is down, passengers have a few from the front. While the aircraft is in the air,
passengers can watch the view provided by the camera below the aircraft's bellow.
Just 20 minutes after take-off, cabin crew came through the cabin to deliver the inflight meal.
Perhaps due to the fact that we were on a fairly short domestic flight,
we were only served with sandwiches. However, it was impressive that hot sandwiches were served,
which were filled with cheese, tomato, and finely chopped olives. Accompanying
the "meal," was a choice of drinks. In this case, only water. soft drinks, and juice was available.
The sandwich tasted quite good. The cheese was soft and had melted nicely into the bread,
making it delicious.
The flight was smooth and quick, and provided a beautiful sunset view of Turkey's coastal
and inland landscape. The aircraft touched down on time and offloaded via air stairs.
Once firmly on the ground, passengers were then directed to the patiently waiting shuttle buses
which delivered travelers to the terminal.
The flight experience was quite pleasant, even if it was on an older aircraft.
Just like the first leg of this trip operated by Turkish Airlines,
the carrier and its service puts North American and European airlines to shame.
Even for a one-hour domestic flight, passengers had access to an inflight entertainment system,
along with a hot meal and beverage. Contrary to what you might experience on a North American
airline, none of this required extra payment, and was all included with the price of the ticket.
While the seats and their inflght entertainment systems were getting quite
old, the flight was still comfortable: The flight attendants were great, and
expectations were not only met, but were exceeded. At the same time, this older interior may not be
as nice for longer flights. Indeed, at the time of this video’s production, we can see that this
exact aircraft is also deployed internationally - recently completing flights to New York,
Tokyo, and Miami. In these circumstances,
it might not be as enjoyable to fly up to 13 hours in this dated cabin with its slower IFE.
Ultimately, it’s quite likely that the relatively empty cabin went a long way in making the entire
experience even more comfortable and pleasant. However, we can say with some certainty that even
with a full cabin, this flight experience would have garnered a positive review.
Have you ever flown with Turkish Airlines on a domestic flight?
Share your experience by leaving a comment.