Once the seatbelt sign came off, the staff came through with menus.
TK is catered by Do&Co Turkish, the same company (different branch) that does Austrian’s excellent catering. Perusing the menu, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t have been disappointed if my first, or even second choice hadn’t been available. However, here’s where things went wrong again (at least for me). By the time the starters came out, we had been flying for around 50 minutes, however, there had still been no offer of drinks.
Starter: aubergine, chicken and couscous. Very tasty
I noticed, however, that everyone else had been offered a drink with their tray. Hmmmm. The crew were nowhere to be seen. A it would happen, the AVOD system went down, so the purser came around saying that she’d have to reset it. I took my opportunity and asked for some water which duly came, although I’d have like to have been asked for a drink. When the main courses came out, I asked for a drink (the small glass of water didn’t last long – the starter was a bit salty), but the FA said I’d have to wait til she’d finished serving everyone else their food. I said I’d never been offered a drink, and she just shrugged.
The main course: Salmon, sea bass and prawn (singular). Also very good
Once I’d finished my main, the FA who didn’t get me a drink tried to take away the tray. I had to stop her as I still had my dessert to go. I asked if I could get some water and champagne, and she went off to get it. So, it took 1 hour 20 minutes before I could get a glass of something fizzy, and that wasn only by asking twice. By this time I was pretty fed up, so decided to fill out the complaints/comments form in the back of the magazine. I handed this back to the purser.
The turnaround
About five minutes later, she came back saying that she was very sorry that everything had gone wrong today. She seemed very concerned, especially with the onboard service. She then asked me (very politely) if I’d be able to reconsider haindg in the form saying that the onboard service was poor, and she gave me another form to fill out. From then on, the service was incredible. I was given a plate of small cakes (not sure where they came from, no one else got them as far as I could see), and my glass was never empty for the rest of the flight.
Just goes to show, that having a word with the purser really can make a difference. Whenever one of the crew walked by, they smiled and asked if they could get me anything else. The form I ended up handing in said I was very disappointed with both TK and BD, but that the onboard service was good.
The AVOD came back on, I reclined my seat, and for the first time started to enjoy the flight.
The cabin mid-flight
The views leaving Europe for The Sea of Marmara were beautiful. We passed Istanbul in a series of very wide loops giving some great views of the city and the Black Sea.
Ataturk Airport from the air. We would dock at the far left hand side of the terminal.
