Tifosi

My first attempt at a trip report. I needed to go to India for some family reasons and decided to make a bigger trip out of it and redeem a mini-RTW in J using up some AC miles.

For the three people on this site who may know or care about motorcycle racing, I figured I’d use the timing to go to Kuala Lumpur to attend MotoGP pre-season testing at Sepang. And Tokyo is one of my favourite cities on earth, so I always try to fit a trip in whenever I’m in Asia.

It took some work to put together an itinerary that got me to where I wanted to be and when, but also stuck with some of the better *A carriers and kept YQ to a minimum. My final itinerary became:

YEG-YYZ (AC), YYZ-IST (TK), IST-DEL (TK)
DEL-SIN (SQ) - <24 hours, overnight
SIN-KUL (SQ)
KUL-HND (NH)
HND-YVR (NH), YVR-YEG (AC)



All this for 155k miles and $199 CDN in fees.

I didn’t bother with many photos of the bits that were either uninteresting to me or were already well documented by others. Also, I sometimes just forgot to take pictures. I didn’t have room to pack my SLR so I’ll apologize for the quality of my iPhone pics. Unfortunately, that means there were plenty of sights that I couldn’t do justice.

Starting a trip with the intention of writing a TR made me realize how much effort it actually takes to put together a detailed trip report and document every detail, like many others on here do. So thanks to everyone who makes the effort.

The first flight was YEG-YYZ in AC’s domestic J in an A320. For anyone who’s flown domestic J on AC in the past 15 years, nothing much has changed. The service was perfectly friendly. Otherwise, it was the same adequate seats, same adequate food with the same options, and same unresponsive IFE. The IFE content is usually decent enough but today there wasn’t much that interested me. Luckily they had season two of Catastrophe, which, if you haven't seen it, is a comedy with a wonderful blend of equal parts sweetness and filth. Glad I found something to watch on board, otherwise I might have been forced to look out the window upon the majesty and beauty of Earth from a point of view that most humans that have ever existed couldn't even fathom. Glad I dodged that bullet.



Touched down in YYZ on time. I had 5.5 hours to kill so I had originally planned on taking advantage of the long layover fare ($12 CDN) to take the UP Express Train downtown and grab some dinner. It looked a little cold and grey out so I talked myself out of that plan pretty quick. Instead, I decided to try out the new Goodlife gym at the airport, which charges $15 CDN for a daypass. Got a decent enough workout in and managed to kill two hours. A gym at the airport is a brilliant idea. Such a great use of time that would otherwise be wasted.

And then I went off to waste some time at the AC lounge. Which meant clearing security since the gym is landside. There was a priority line which listed business class tickets as being eligible. Great. Went up to the guy at the entrance and pulled out my boarding pass. Without so much as a glance at the BP he tells me I have to go back around to the regular line. Confused, I start to tell him I’m in J and he tells me I still have to go around to the regular line. Okay. Not sure why they bother having a priority line.

On the plus side, YYZ does have some great touches. I’d never seen these departure screens before. Very cool.



And I’ve always liked the sculpture at the entry to the international gates.





At the gates themselves, there’s tables set up with iPads. Very nice touch.



After parting my way through the hordes to get to the priority boarding queue, I made my way onboard. I was in seat 7D, the last row of the rear J cabin on the TK 777.





Seatguru shows this seat as undesirable since it’s next to the lav, which is incorrect. The only thing behind row 7 is a bulkhead immediately followed by Y. Because of its positioning, row 7 is great choice since there’s no foot traffic aside from the odd FA.

The seat itself is great; comfortable with plenty of room. The 2-3-2 configuration, however, is awful. I kept an eye on the seating chart on TK’s site to try to get a seat with no one beside me. It worked. I didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to climb over me while I was trying to sleep.

Started with a (non-alcoholic) pre-departure drink. Delicious.



The live camera feature is awesome. It was a little too dark to be useful on this flight but I would love to have this option on every flight I take.



The FAs passed out noise cancelling Denon headphones (which, they made a point of letting us know, were to be given back at the end of the flight).



Menus were also handed out, including a card with breakfast options. It was nice to have that decided early rather than have to form some sort of coherent thought after waking from my semi-chemically-induced slumber. I do enjoy that every entree had "butter" in the description. Be still, my clogged heart.




The flight departed at 22:25 so I wasn’t completely sure how much of a dinner would be served since it was so far past a normal dinnertime. The service started about an hour in to the flight and was definitely a full dinner.

There were some nice touches, like magnetic salt and pepper shakers that stayed in their place, and the ‘dinner by candlelight,’ which really did add a pleasant ambience. Or, for the more cynical among you, could have made things a little cheesy.





Catering is generally worthy of all the hype TK receives. I enjoyed the mezze and especially the soup but the mushroom ravioli was bland. The mushroom pasta AC had in the lounge was better, and I did not expect to be saying that. The dessert options were brought out on a cart at the end and you could pick and choose from about half a dozen options.

As a whole, the FAs were friendly but there were a few little missteps; for example, I asked for a Glenlivet without ice, it showed up with ice. Not a very big deal, but it’s the kind of thing that you just expect to be done better. The crew were all very young, so maybe it was just a lack of experience.

One area where TK does get it right is by having spreadable butter. All other transgressions can be forgiven. I’ve become too used to AC giving out a brick of frozen butter and expecting you to somehow smear this thing on to a piece of bread without shredding it to pieces.

After dinner I took my usual long-haul-flight-sleepy-time-cocktail (an extra strength melatonin and an extra strength allergy pill) and asked the FA to make up my bed. A few minutes later, as I’m starting to pull the blanket over me, another FA takes the blanket from me and, with the best of intentions, proceeds to tuck me in. That’s the first time anyone has tucked me in since I was an infant. The problem was that I found her very attractive. Have I just formed some association between physical attraction and being infantilized? Is this how fetishes start?

Welp, if anyone needs me I guess I’ll be busy dressing up as a baby and paying Russian prostitutes to change me.

Anyway, as a bed, the seat is quite comfortable. The only problem was the cabin temperature; it was far too hot, which made it hard to get any continuous sleep. I kept waking up all sweaty. Plying myself with wine and scotch and pharmaceuticals may not have helped. I still managed about 4-5 hours of sleep, which would be enough to get by on.



Breakfast came out just after waking up with all of my selections ready to go. The banana-strawberry smoothie was especially good.

An on-time landing in IST and I was on my way to find the TK lounge that I’ve heard so much about. I won’t say much about it because there’s been plenty of reviews and TRs from better writers than me. Suffice it to say that the place is worth the hype; it’s absolutely huge and has some great amenities. I especially liked the luggage storage at the entrance. Unfortunately, the only empty lockers weren’t working, so I had to wait a few minutes for someone to leave so I could take theirs.







The only complaint I’d heard about this lounge was the crowding. Lockers aside, I didn’t quite see this at first. There’s plenty of seating everywhere and I was able to take a shower with no wait. The problem came whenever I tried to get some hot food. The pide stations and kofte stations were queued up as soon as a fresh batch was coming out, which meant that the food was gone in literally 2-3 minutes, so it’d be another 20-30 minute wait if you missed out. Which I did. Repeatedly.



I did eventually manage to get some food and it was excellent, though I’m too big of a pide fan to be objective. If they added a lahmacun station I don’t think I’d ever leave.

Made my way to the gate and it was generally chaos. Ataturk as a whole is a frustrating airport to navigate around. It’s obviously busy but it must be the worst airport I’ve been in for people stopping without warning in the middle of the hall to check their phone or a departure screen. It was like trying to navigate a slalom course.

IST-DEL was on another TK 777, but this time in a slightly different configuration. The seat itself was identical but there was only one J cabin, rather than the two on the first flight. I was in 2D.

Not too much to say about this flight. I was hoping for a dinner as satisfying as the one I had on the YYZ-IST flight so I took it a little easy on the food in the lounge. Started with the raspberry option for the pre-departure beverage. Very tart, in a good way.



The menu was a little abbreviated compared to the earlier flight. So were the portion sizes. It ended up being a much lighter meal but it was satisfying enough.



I managed about three hours of sleep and woke up with 1.5 hours to go, hoping there’d be some breakfast served. There wasn’t. The arrival time was 5:15 so I suppose that’s still practically the middle of the night. Still, it would’ve been nice to step off the plane and not be immediately hungry.

The bigger problem was when I went to pick up my luggage. Despite the priority-tagging, my bag came out at 6:45, a full 1.5 hours after we touched down. No matter how long you think something will take in India, it’s always a good idea to double it.

But, minor annoyances aside, I’ve arrived in India. I’m typing this up the morning of arriving and in the three hours I’ve been in India I’ve seen enough to make me realize what an entitled piece of garbage I am. The levels of abject poverty are sobering. I know the Indian economy has been growing for years, and with it the middle class, but when you see the poverty in the cities you realize the sheer number of people who won’t ever have the opportunity to take part in that growth. And I just sit around complaining about not getting to have enough free food in the posh airport lounge. Ugh.

More to come.

eigenvector

Nice review, thanks for all the detail. Been a little while since I did TATL in J on TK and I just booked a YYZ-IST-KTM so it's good to see a recent review. The cabin temperature is definitely a chronic issue on TK (or one might say, a cultural difference). Last time I flew with them it seemed half of my fellow pax were sleeping without any covering due to the warm temperature.

mikelazaro

Is that Anthony Bourdain waiting in line to the right...? Great TR!

Gnopps

Thanks for the great report! I also found it strange when the TK crew wanted to tuck me in... I flew them in C IST-DEL and was surprised about the light meal as well, I kept waiting for the rest to arrive :-)

offerendum

The lounge is one of the best J-lounges on the market and compares with many F-ones. Such a shame I won´t fly TA in the near future.

benjahman

looking forward to this one! thanks for sharing

mad_atta

Great report, Tifosi! And that's one of the funniest things I've read in a TR in a long time

jlisi984

+1 haha

Tifosi

I’ve just wrapped up my nearly weeklong visit to India. I spent the first few days dealing with some family matters, so there’s not much to tell there.

I arrived back in Delhi the day before Republic Day. Despite the fact that parades normally fall just after genocide and slavery on the list of ‘worst things ever inflicted on humanity,’ the Republic Day parade actually looks like quite the site to behold. I would have planned my schedule around attending the parade if I had realized it was happening while I was in India. Unfortunately, I had already made plans to travel to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on that same day.

I’m not sure if security was stepped up in advance of Republic Day or if what I encountered was the status quo, but there was definitely a heavy military and police presence throughout Delhi, and throughout India for that matter. We encountered regular police and military checkpoints where the vehicle and our documentation were searched, security screenings before entering the Metro (which caused huge queues and delays), and security screenings before entering any major tourist site. I’ve travelled to enough countries where there was a strong military presence, but, as a Canadian who never encounters such things at home, it’s still a little unsettling to be frisked by soldiers with automatic weapons when you’re just trying to go out for some dinner. It was more surreal when I came across a military post in Punjab where there were two machine gun posts in an otherwise normal intersection. And I don’t mean “machine gun” in the colloquial sense; I mean belt-fed heavy machine guns. I suppose you can’t be too careful when you’re dealing with the threat of exploding cows.



That being said, the military we dealt with were always polite and professional. The same can’t always be said for Indian police, but that’s another issue altogether.

Driving in India really is an experience. Despite all appearances, it’s actually much more orderly than you would think. You just need to throw out all preconceived western notions of “safety” and “waiting your turn” and “not dying in a fiery wreck.” Being driven around through traffic in an auto-rickshaw is a great experience where you’re constantly aware of just how close you are to being run over by a truck. It’s great. Not that I want to die, of course, but there’s something to be said for not necessarily knowing that you’re going to live.

For the trip to Agra, there’s not much I can say that wasn’t already covered in more detail and with better pictures than worldtraveller73’s excellent trip report. We arranged a tour through out hotel that included a car to the train station, a round trip on the Gatimaan Express, a car and driver in Agra, a tour guide, and then a return car ride to the hotel. We could certainly have arranged all of this for cheaper but without having had adequate time to plan and do the research ahead of time, it was easier to just pay for convenience.

We had a choice between hiring a car and driver to take us from Delhi or taking the train. We chose the train. The advantage to the train is the short ride to Agra and back and the fact that you don’t have to deal with any traffic. The downside is that the Gatimaan Express only does one round trip a day, which means an early start and ~7 hours in Agra. Seeing the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort –which, realistically, is all you need to see- doesn’t take nearly this long so be prepared to waste some time during the day.

For those who use a guide, this will almost certainly mean that your guide will take you to some unnecessary shops where you’ll be given a sales pitch and he’ll undoubtedly earn a commission on anything you might purchase. In our case, we were taken to a marble shop where the owner’s ancestors had been some of the craftsman who worked on the Taj Mahal. The techniques had been passed down through the generations and now you could buy items with similar materials/techniques. It was definitely impressive and cool to see, but as a whole it was completely unnecessary and being given the hard sales pitch just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Aside from this bit of the tour, our guide was great. When discussing India, he mentioned, “in India, everyone’s in a hurry, but no one is on time.” That pretty much sums it up. It’s a crazy, hectic place, but somehow nothing seems to get done, or at least not in any way that could be considered efficient or effective.

I’d say my favourite memory of India is the absurdity of animals and people just going about their day-to-day business next to each other, like it’s a normal thing. From monkeys running around the city to bulls eating trash next to the side of the road to having to yield to a camel while driving, it’s a surreal place.







Otherwise, if I’m honest, I’m a bit relieved to be leaving India. I find that visiting less developed nations is a rewarding experience, but often only in hindsight. While there you’re too focused on navigating hectic, disorganized cities, dealing with cultural and language barriers, and worrying about hygiene with food and water. It leaves very little of your mental capacity for actually enjoying the experience and taking something away from it. I’m sure that in a few days or weeks from now I’ll look back at the week as an enriching experience. For now, given the fact that India’s biggest export may be GI tract infections, I’m just glad I didn’t get sick.

Tifosi

It seems like a minor thing, but it might be enough to turn me off of TK for an overnight flight if I have another option. Not being able to sleep properly really takes away from a huge benefit of J.

Ha! Or at least his Turkish doppelgänger.

Glad I'm not the only one!

I've never been in an F lounge so I'll take your word for it. It's definitely a great lounge.

Thanks for reading.

I'm glad you two have gotten so much enjoyment out of my new and confusing sexual identity.

eigenvector

A week in India and no stomach issues? Luck is on your side, my friend.

SKYEG

Excellent report, thanks for sharing!!!

I've never seen that sculpture at YYZ with no one sitting/leaning against them!!!

flyalways

It is interesting you say that but I met him in that lounge in Nov 2015 !
He was kind enough to agree to give me a selfie with him :-) So
he definitely was there in the lounge and my picture shows him wearing a
black shirt...

F.A.

offerendum

The 3 pictures are really cool, 3 very different views^

Tifosi

Apparently you’re supposed to show up to DEL three hours early. Given how things in India usually work, I thought this was prudent. I arrived at the airport exactly three hours before my SQ flight to Singapore and ran into what I feared would be the first of many problems: I nearly wasn’t allowed into the terminal since I didn’t have a printout of my ticket. At the entry to the terminal building, a guard checks everyone’s ticket to ensure they’re on a departing flight. No departing flight, no entry. That must make things a bit difficult for those seeing off loved ones. I tried to pull up my itinerary on my phone but I didn’t have roaming data so I wasn’t able to open the PDF attachment. He was all ready to refuse me entry but luckily the AC app lists your contact info when you save an itinerary, and my email address is my name. It’s hardly official since it does nothing but list a flight number and an email address, but it was good enough for him.

On the one hand, I appreciate that security is important. But, in my experience, much of the security in India is largely for appearances sake and seems easily thwarted. During the security checks at the sights in Agra, for example, essentially everyone ‘beeped’ when they went through the metal detectors but no one was searched once they went through. Very reassuring.

I was all prepared for step after step of extra layers of bureaucracy or security but that was actually the only hiccup I had. Check in went very smoothly and there was a priority J/F line for immigration with zero people in queue. The regular line had over 100 people queued up. After that was a proper security screening and I was on my way to the SQ lounge. All in all, I went from entering the terminal to being airside in about 15 minutes, which meant I now had over two hours to kill in the lounge before boarding.



In the departure area there appeared to only be two Star Alliance lounges, and the LH lounge didn’t open until the evening.

The SQ lounge was nearly deserted. When I arrived there was one other person.



There was a decent food spread, largely untouched throughout my stay. At its peak before boarding there were maybe eight people in the lounge.






This flight was on an A330-300 in SQ’s regional configuration, which means angled flat seats. I know SQ uses this configuration for some of the longer flights to Australia, which could be a little uncomfortable. In the flat mode the top of the footwell comes down right on top of your shins so you wouldn’t be able to turn to your side or move around very easily while sleeping. This was perfectly comfortable for a daytime flight though, so I was happy.

I do like the colour palette used by SQ. The browns create a very warm aesthetic.





One problem I had was not finding the seat controls. I looked all over and could not figure out how to adjust the seat. I knew there were two possibilities: either the seat isn’t adjustable or I’m an idiot. I have it on good authority –namely, every girl I’ve ever dated- that I can be a bit, shall we say, obtuse, so I knew the fault lay with me. I asked the FA and she politely pointed me to the little panel on the armrest. Oops.



Service was perfectly friendly and a full lunch was served. The menu listed a special traditional Indian meal by some fancy-pants chef and a regular meal.







I was never actually asked which I wanted; I was just given the regular meal. This was fine by me since I didn’t want the Indian meal but I found it odd that I wasn’t given a choice.













Descent into SIN, looking over the freighter traffic in the harbour.


On-time arrival in SIN and, in a surprise, we had to go through a security screening upon arrival in order to enter the airport.

Even though I only spent about 15 minutes there upon arrival, the airport already seemed excellent, with a logical layout, cool sculptures and art, while being exceptionally clean.



The entry card was a great reminder that they’re not messing around here when it comes to law enforcement.



Singapore was an excellent ~22 hour palate cleanser after the full on sensory assault of India. I was happy to be in a place where I could drink tap water, eat meals without fear of the consequences, and not be ankle deep in poop all the time.

I took an Uber from the airport and used the Uber Pool option that, for those who don’t know, charges a lower fare but you share the car with others who are heading in the same direction. In this case, there were three others who were heading to their hotel in Geylang which was more or less on the way to my hotel in Chinatown. After dropping them off the driver mentions that this is the red light district of Singapore. Apparently, to Singaporeans, my disinterested “oh, okay” is translated as an enthusiastic “please, tell me more!” so he proceeded to give me a detailed run down on the goings on, including the types of girls, when they all come out, prices, and so on, all while he did a few laps of the area so I could see what he meant. It was actually quite the eye-opener since I didn’t expect buttoned-down, by-the-book Singapore to not only tolerate such things but to actually make prostitution legal.

After that, having built a rapport, he decided to give me a quick driving tour of Singapore along with some advice for my short stay. It was actually pretty great. He took me around the CBD so I could see the Marina Bay Sands, the roads used for the Formula One track, and let me know where to eat that evening.

Advice on where to eat especially came in handy because nearly everything was closed for Chinese New Year. I knew CNY would fall on the weekend I was in Singapore but I didn’t realize what a problem this would be. As great as the celebrations and festivities were, nearly nothing was open the entire time I was there. I went to the Tiong Bahru Market on Saturday morning only to find that almost every stall was closed.

A bustling Saturday lunchtime at the Hawker Centre


I did manage to find one stall that was open and had some char siew and noodles, which was excellent. After that, I decided to head off to Orchard Road in the hopes that things there would be open. I had slightly better luck on Orchard Road but there was still plenty that was closed for the holiday. Eventually I came across the food court at Ion Orchard, which was actually bustling. There were enough choices that I had a hard time deciding on what to eat. So I had a snack whilst deciding on what to have for lunch. Followed by a light meal, and then some dessert. And then, feeling peckish, I grabbed something to eat. It didn’t help that I had 50 SGD in my pocket and absolutely nothing else to spend it on since nothing was open, so I kept eating. All in all, the food was great but everything was about double the price you’d get at a hawker stand.

My first impression of Singapore was very positive, being impressed with its interesting, modern architecture. After wandering around all day though, this quickly started to feel very sterile. It was a little too commercial and slick and clean. I like cities that have a grittier side to them, sometimes just as a contrast to the posh areas. It seems to be a very pleasant place to live, but as a visitor there’s definitely a finite amount of time I’d prefer to spend in Singapore.

I have no doubt there’s more interesting stuff there than shopping malls but it’s hard to find on such a short trip. You’re always aware of the time and constantly feel a clock ticking down in your head. The experience made me think of cruises or those ‘7 cities in 10 days’ Europe tours and the like. I understand the appeal of those types of trips but this constant time pressure usually keeps me from enjoying a city and feeling like I’ve discovered it in any meaningful way.

After I was done with my gluttonous lunch, it was time to start heading to the airport. I took the MRT since I had some time. As a whole, the public transport system in Singapore is excellent; very quick, clean, and easy to use. I arrived at the airport quite early so I figured this would give me some time to explore. I was through priority check-in very quickly and then had a few minute wait at immigration. There was no priority F/J immigration queue. Once through, I went off to find the SQ lounge. At the entrance, the lounge attendant let me know that I was able to use the J lounge, located next door. So off I went. Despite my initial excitement for the SQ lounge, I was now filled with disgust that I almost sat down in the regular lounge with the proles. I need a shower just thinking about it. The SQ J lounge was excellent with a great food spread and plenty of comfortable seating.

The time flew by and soon enough it was time to start heading to the gate. I headed off to find the gate and was impressed by the plethora of shops, comfortable seating areas, and green spaces. Even outside the lounge, Changi seems like a great airport to have a connection. At a certain point, I realized that I despite my certainty that I was airside, based on the fact that the I had access to the lounges and duty free shops and was through immigration, I had never actually gone through security. The security at Changi is actually prior to the gates but after you’re airside, which creates this sort of purgatory where you’re neither airside nor landside. It was odd.

I was excited for the flight to KUL since it was not only the first time I’d been aboard an A350, but the first time I’d even seen an A350.



Unfortunately, it was a short flight so it was almost a waste to have such a great hard product. The seat was a full lay-flat with plenty of storage compartments. The footwell is angled towards the fuselage which, at first, I thought awkward, but when I tried it out I realized it was great at angling you away from the aisle, which made things much more private.



Storage in the rear of the seat




Even includes a mirror


Easier to find seat controls




This storage bin opens when you press on it, but it’s right where my elbow was for most of the flight so I kept accidentally opening it.


In this pic I’m sitting all the way towards the left edge of the seat. You can see the excessive width but how much room is still left to my right.


The seats feel very private. Even more so in flat mode.


There were no menus on this flight and we were informed that due to the short flight time, the only options were a small meal of either a smoked salmon sandwich or a chicken sandwich with only tea or coffee as a beverage service. After the day I had I wasn’t even close to hungry but I went ahead and had the smoked salmon sandwich for you, dear reader. Otherwise how could I accurately provide a trip report. I suppose some would consider this type of selfless action to be heroic. Who am I to argue.





The total flight time was 39 minutes, so it was definitely a quick lunch service and I understand the need to limit the options to keep things streamlined.



Once we arrived in KUL it was a very quick process through immigration to baggage claim. A great feature at the baggage belt was a screen telling you how many minutes until the baggage is expected to arrive. Really, all airports should have the same. All in all, my flights on SQ and experience in SIN was great. I can see why they are thought of so highly. If only SQ wasn’t so stingy when it comes to redeeming *A rewards in J.