TheDiningExperienceOrg

There is a new lounge in E? Since when?

YuropFlyer

It will open 1st February

From the pictures released today ("VIP opening"), it looks quite decent (albeit a bit fake "Swiss") - maybe finally the times of precooked items somehow called "food" and salad out of 20kg buckets in ZRH - at least when flying from the E gates - are over..

BA Humbug

Greetings from Istanbul with a mini trip report! For the outbound sector anyway.

The flight left from the D gates this morning, both cabins bursting at the seams. My seat mate in 1a was a Turkish fellow who was flying an EU carrier for the first time...he asked the purser if he was on the right plane, because he thought business class seats were supposed to be bigger, like on TK! o he kept mumbling "unbelievable" throughout the flight.

Flight was 2.5 hours, 3 hours gate to gate including a tremendous landing bounce resulting in an aborted landing. I don't know airplane terminology but I'm guessing it was a huge tailwind coming from the south as the first time we tried to land i looked up just before the bounce and the screen said we were clocking a ground speed of close to 200 MPh

Food options were scrambled eggs with potato wedges or a quiche with tomato. No, not a tomato quiche, but a plain quiche with tomato on the side ! Champagne for those inclined on this morning flight was Duval leroy.

Fast track immigration cards were handed out soon after breakfast, although I do nothink have a photo of that.

Swiss lounge D was quiet, and like its main lounge in a/b.

Pictures speak 1000 words and as I'm on a tablet I'll save myself from carpal thumb-el and let them do the talking.

Edit: resized pics!

Concerto

So great to get some feedback, really appreciate it. Usually people just book these offers then the whole thing disappears and we get no word as to how it went. All the same matt, do you think you could possibly format your pictures so that they're not so big?

YuropFlyer

You don't have a Super-FULL HD 3920*2400 Monitor?

Actually yes, please make your pictures smaller. They're killing this thread even on regular full HD. Thank you.

I won't expect anything from the seats (as I know LX), but that breakfast really isn't too much.. maybe I should grab something from Burgerking in the terminal

Concerto

Yeah, I'll probably get this photo posting thing wrong myself when the time comes, I find it quite tricky successfully posting pics here. Looking at the catering picture I'm glad I booked economy on this deal because I don't think I'll be missing much except a handful more P-class miles. The seat is the same, the food no big deal and I get lounge access anyway in economy with my card.

klausa

...or the E SEN lounge ?

YuropFlyer

Don't tell everyone our super-secret plan

Concerto

Well, business class was beyond crap on tonight's LGW-GVA on LX, which makes me feel happy I didn't bother booking it on this deal. I ranted about it over on the SWISS forum and decided that even at half price, or whatever it was here (33 or 39 francs), it definitely is not worth it. Keep the money and spend it in Istanbul. I mean, it was so seriously crap tonight that I am now VERY curious to have feedback about your experiences. The breakfast pictures above, from mattking2000, looked really underwhelming.

What sort of mileage are you getting in P on the Istanbul route?

YuropFlyer

750+Exec Bonus per leg on M&M. Not much to write home about, but some other programs do yield slightly better results.

I'll also report about my experiences. Have booked one RT trip in C and one in Y (when the price dropped even more for Y I couldn't resist) so I'll be able to compare.

klausa

5K per leg on O6. Only reason I booked the biz upgrade - if the miles post correctly I'm gonna book few more of those and use it as my *G requalification run.

(I hope I won't anger the "*G is too cheap!" and "SEN lounges are overcrowded and shouldn't be accessible to *G" crowds...)

Concerto

O6? What is O6? Surely the miles should be a minimum 750 which becomes actual mileage when the true distance is greater? Or is it a flat 750 all over Europe? If so, then that's really not worth chasing.

klausa

O6 is Avianca Brazil. And it is indeed, sadly, flat 750 across Europe in M&M.

cfischer

@ 4390 qualifying miles r/t on United nothing to sneeze at. Also nice RDM on United. Not a great product, but there is a hot meal, no middle seat and you get to sip Champagne while enduring the flight.

So yes, this works for some and not for others. We all knew what we were getting into when booking this

BA Humbug

Came back today, with a ~20 minute delay. due to heavy outbound traffic at IST.

The trip to the airport was rather smooth sailing for Istanbul, although I can't say the same for the taxi driver going back into the city....

When I got to the airport, there was the pre-security before they let you into the actual airport. They didn't display the check-in counter rows for Swiss, so it took a little bumbling around before finding the LH counter to check in (I had checked baggage, because I found some Turkish wine I actually liked!)

I was given the fast-track immigration pass and an invitation to the Millenium Lounge (!! ) Having never been *A Gold nor traveled on *A J through IST, you can guess where I went for the first time and nearly overdosed from all the food/wine intake... I won't post photos of that lounge as it's well documented with much better photos than my camera phone, google is your friend

Interesting anecdote about immigration: I entered Turkey with an HKSAR passport as it doesn't require e-visa or to pay the VOA fee (US$70 I think?). I had no problems getting in but on exit, the immigration guy was furious at my lack of an e-visa. I pointed out that it was not a Chinese passport but rather HKSAR (Special Administrative Region) but he was having none of it and dragged me off to a back room for about 15 minutes while he went looking for several (!) supervisors. After several officers came in and inspected, there was some rapid-fire Turkish being exchanged, then one officer who just boomed "SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION" and the initial officer begrudgingly trodding off to find a stamp. I never understood why people would want to prevent you from leaving a country, in the absence of outstanding warrants

At 16:50 the TK lounge boards showed "Boarding" for the flight, so I made my way out to the gate...only to find that the incoming was so delayed it was just arriving at the gate. There was additional passport/ID checks before the gate so I decided to just slum it and wait in the departure lounge. People were already lining up for Y. I bumped into a Swiss couple as well as the pilot who were all on the same outbound flight as me yesterday (I'm guessing they're flight enthusiasts -- I didn't understand all of the heavily accented Swiss German, but from what I gathered, the girl was invited into the cockpit to watch the landing! ) I suspect they're members of VFT or even on FT here

The flight was more or less uneventful. Dinner service consisted of Beef Tenderloin (which was actually quite good -- the texture felt like it had been soaked in muscle relaxant or something!) mashed potatoes and veggies, or a sundried-tomato stuffed pasta. Two red wines, one Italian and one Swiss -- didn't get the name of either. The Swiss one was rather heavy. Priority baggage was non-existent.

All in all, it was a reasonable price for intra-Europe (I've had Y tickets around this price before), and my main objectives, in order of importance, were:
1. Get another stay for Hyatt this year
2. See/try out/experience the TK J lounge
3. Get more points (~1100 each way on AC) than a K class booking.
4. (avoid give my roommate's girlfriend who came over for the weekend some space)

Would I do it again for the same price? Likely (especially if #4 repeats itself )
Was the experience superior to LX Y? Not really, except for the TK J lounge. Seriously, stuff yourself here and take a nap on the plane.

Meal (served on one tray):


Gate lice (T-70 minutes before departure)!


Passport/ID check: