RockoHorse
May 6, 12, 2:49 pm
Details:
booked aeroplan reward YYZ-ORD-IST-JNB-etc... in Biz. ORD-IST-JNB are in biz class on turkish airlines
booked domestic IST-Izmir online through turkish airlines website.
Spouse is Aeroplan SE
Comments:
I figured i'd write this as an overview, i spent a bunch of time looking for info so i thought this might help someone in the future.
YYZ-ORD-IST:
YYZ-ORD was air canada. They gave us our boarding passes in advance, so technically we could have gone straight through at ORD but we stopped by the check-in desk to deal with something else. At the check-in desk they gave us a fast-pass card for arrival and a lounge pass to go to the swissport lounge. When we arrived at the lounge they told us that the Star Gold card would not get you in - you either have to get a pass from check-in or from the gate.
Swissport lounge was smallish, they had soup, salad, drinks, chips
(note here - i think we got the lounge pass due to biz class - i'm not sure if star gold would have got us in or not so someone else might have to comment on this)
ORD-IST:
A330-200
seats: we didn't choose our seats until check-in - the aeroplan agent told us she couldn't do it and we didn't bother to try.
inflight service - I thought they were great. Very nice people, constantly going through the cabin to ask you if you needed anything. Amazing amount of food - appetizer trolley(maybe 6 items and you could pick what you wanted), soup, choice of 3 mains, dessert trolley, breads etc. Breakfast was similar - started with a fruit plate and drinks, then a hot omelet or "toast" (corned beef and cheese).
IFE - similar movie content to aircanada. I do like the forward and down facing cameras - its very neat to watch the plane takeoff and land!
My only complaint is the seats. I know I shouldn't knock biz class but the foot rest part of the seat is weird. If you are sitting, no problem. You can manually flip the bottom part of the footrest down and it's a nice footrest, my problem is that the whole bottom section takes no weight at all so if you put it flat and you lie down you can't really put any weight from your knees down or you'll likely fall on the floor. Perhaps this is a quirk of how you sleep, if you like your feet supported you'll have a hard time with these seats - so I have to say i like air canada's beds better.
Arrivals - not really turkish airlines info but...we got off the plane and walked to the visa line. It seemed huge but it moved quickly - if you stand behind the british/german pensioners they seem to know what they are doing and the line moves fast. Hand them your money(cdn citizens $60US) and passport, stamp and you're done.
The fastpass card you got in ORD gets you through at passport check 31 (it said 30 but there was no 30).
All told very fast getting out. No idea about bags, we did carry-on.
IST-Izmir:
I booked this online and - full disclosure - i messed up and booked the wrong inbound flight. I booked IST-Izmir-Sabiha Gocken (in the asian part of Istanbul). After calling immediately and being told that there was nothing I could do about it I accepted my screw-up.
A few days before departure they Izmir-changed the return portion of the flight. I took advantage of this and called and got them to change it so the itinerary was IST-IZM-IST. They told me this was fine but I would have to talk to a Turkish airlines ticket agent in-person to get the ticket reissued.
The next day the IST-IZM flight was changed to 1 hour later. I "reconfirmed" online, but i still had a warning to talk to a ticket agent.
In ORD we tried to get this sorted, she tried but she didn't really know what we were talking about.
Upon arrival in IST we went to the ticketing desk in domestic. She reissued our ticket and told us the new IZM-IST flight had also changed and was now 1 hour later.
The next day we tried to use the kiosk to check-in and it didn't work, we went to the counter and it took her about 20 mins to print our boarding passes.
I'm not sure if this is typical for Turkish airlines - but I am mentioning as a warning as it seemed we hit as many snags as were possible (the return flight also left late) so be sure to confirm and reconfirm your flight times and expect the possibility that any and all of your planned flights could change.
IST Lounge: this was cool, perhaps this is normal but I found the fact that the CIP lounges are their own self contained airports a bit funny. At IST the domestic lounge is halfway between international and domestic. You can have your car drop you at the entrance or you can take the elevator down to the entrance from the terminal. You pass through security and enter the lounge. There was lots of food - mostly turkish pastries and fruits/veggies/soups - then you wait for your flight to be called and they bus you to your flight!
Izmir lounge: this isn't even part of the airport, stay outside, when facing the terminal walk to the far right and you'll see a building that says VIP and CIP (or you can have your merc or beemer drop you off...). Security again and voila you're in. Similar food to before. Similar setup as before.
One note - the liquids/gels/shoes thing seems to be non-existent here. We didn't pull them out once and no one cared.
seats - i didn't bother to pick seats on any of these flights, the person in ORD apparently put us beside each other, the ticketing agent in IST might have done something too.
recommendation for seats:
A330-200 - this flight had IFE and there are boxes under the seats where you put your feet. The window seats have half boxes. The middle aisle seats have none. The middle middle seats have full boxes - so you can put 1 foot under the seat and not 2.
A321 - this had no IFE so plenty of underseat room.
Inflight - both flights we got drinks and food boxes - same sandwich both ways (tomato, cheese, cucumber) + salad + dessert.
IST-JNB:
we booked this as a connecting flight allowing 2 hours for connection. Turkish changed their flight so now we have 1 hour. Apparently international-international legal time in JNB is 1 hour so here is nothing we can do about it.
this isn't for a few days so i will update this thread when it happens and see if we actually make our connection.
booked aeroplan reward YYZ-ORD-IST-JNB-etc... in Biz. ORD-IST-JNB are in biz class on turkish airlines
booked domestic IST-Izmir online through turkish airlines website.
Spouse is Aeroplan SE
Comments:
I figured i'd write this as an overview, i spent a bunch of time looking for info so i thought this might help someone in the future.
YYZ-ORD-IST:
YYZ-ORD was air canada. They gave us our boarding passes in advance, so technically we could have gone straight through at ORD but we stopped by the check-in desk to deal with something else. At the check-in desk they gave us a fast-pass card for arrival and a lounge pass to go to the swissport lounge. When we arrived at the lounge they told us that the Star Gold card would not get you in - you either have to get a pass from check-in or from the gate.
Swissport lounge was smallish, they had soup, salad, drinks, chips
(note here - i think we got the lounge pass due to biz class - i'm not sure if star gold would have got us in or not so someone else might have to comment on this)
ORD-IST:
A330-200
seats: we didn't choose our seats until check-in - the aeroplan agent told us she couldn't do it and we didn't bother to try.
inflight service - I thought they were great. Very nice people, constantly going through the cabin to ask you if you needed anything. Amazing amount of food - appetizer trolley(maybe 6 items and you could pick what you wanted), soup, choice of 3 mains, dessert trolley, breads etc. Breakfast was similar - started with a fruit plate and drinks, then a hot omelet or "toast" (corned beef and cheese).
IFE - similar movie content to aircanada. I do like the forward and down facing cameras - its very neat to watch the plane takeoff and land!
My only complaint is the seats. I know I shouldn't knock biz class but the foot rest part of the seat is weird. If you are sitting, no problem. You can manually flip the bottom part of the footrest down and it's a nice footrest, my problem is that the whole bottom section takes no weight at all so if you put it flat and you lie down you can't really put any weight from your knees down or you'll likely fall on the floor. Perhaps this is a quirk of how you sleep, if you like your feet supported you'll have a hard time with these seats - so I have to say i like air canada's beds better.
Arrivals - not really turkish airlines info but...we got off the plane and walked to the visa line. It seemed huge but it moved quickly - if you stand behind the british/german pensioners they seem to know what they are doing and the line moves fast. Hand them your money(cdn citizens $60US) and passport, stamp and you're done.
The fastpass card you got in ORD gets you through at passport check 31 (it said 30 but there was no 30).
All told very fast getting out. No idea about bags, we did carry-on.
IST-Izmir:
I booked this online and - full disclosure - i messed up and booked the wrong inbound flight. I booked IST-Izmir-Sabiha Gocken (in the asian part of Istanbul). After calling immediately and being told that there was nothing I could do about it I accepted my screw-up.
A few days before departure they Izmir-changed the return portion of the flight. I took advantage of this and called and got them to change it so the itinerary was IST-IZM-IST. They told me this was fine but I would have to talk to a Turkish airlines ticket agent in-person to get the ticket reissued.
The next day the IST-IZM flight was changed to 1 hour later. I "reconfirmed" online, but i still had a warning to talk to a ticket agent.
In ORD we tried to get this sorted, she tried but she didn't really know what we were talking about.
Upon arrival in IST we went to the ticketing desk in domestic. She reissued our ticket and told us the new IZM-IST flight had also changed and was now 1 hour later.
The next day we tried to use the kiosk to check-in and it didn't work, we went to the counter and it took her about 20 mins to print our boarding passes.
I'm not sure if this is typical for Turkish airlines - but I am mentioning as a warning as it seemed we hit as many snags as were possible (the return flight also left late) so be sure to confirm and reconfirm your flight times and expect the possibility that any and all of your planned flights could change.
IST Lounge: this was cool, perhaps this is normal but I found the fact that the CIP lounges are their own self contained airports a bit funny. At IST the domestic lounge is halfway between international and domestic. You can have your car drop you at the entrance or you can take the elevator down to the entrance from the terminal. You pass through security and enter the lounge. There was lots of food - mostly turkish pastries and fruits/veggies/soups - then you wait for your flight to be called and they bus you to your flight!
Izmir lounge: this isn't even part of the airport, stay outside, when facing the terminal walk to the far right and you'll see a building that says VIP and CIP (or you can have your merc or beemer drop you off...). Security again and voila you're in. Similar food to before. Similar setup as before.
One note - the liquids/gels/shoes thing seems to be non-existent here. We didn't pull them out once and no one cared.
seats - i didn't bother to pick seats on any of these flights, the person in ORD apparently put us beside each other, the ticketing agent in IST might have done something too.
recommendation for seats:
A330-200 - this flight had IFE and there are boxes under the seats where you put your feet. The window seats have half boxes. The middle aisle seats have none. The middle middle seats have full boxes - so you can put 1 foot under the seat and not 2.
A321 - this had no IFE so plenty of underseat room.
Inflight - both flights we got drinks and food boxes - same sandwich both ways (tomato, cheese, cucumber) + salad + dessert.
IST-JNB:
we booked this as a connecting flight allowing 2 hours for connection. Turkish changed their flight so now we have 1 hour. Apparently international-international legal time in JNB is 1 hour so here is nothing we can do about it.
this isn't for a few days so i will update this thread when it happens and see if we actually make our connection.