Hello again!

I recently came back from my end of year vacation in the South Pacific, and I've been looking forward to sharing many trip reports over the last few months with you all!

We were scheduled to depart at 6:25 PM, but we didn’t push back until 6:41 PM. Previously, I mentioned that Turkish Airlines crews are usually professional but not necessarily friendly. I believe it has something to do with the culture and language barrier. However, they tend to be friendlier to Turkish speaking passengers.

On this flight, it was no exception. The service felt rushed, and the crews have a rigid personality. As you know, I’m a big amenity kit collector. I flew Turkish Airlines quite often, so I have all of the colors of the male amenity kit. I asked if I could have the female one instead, and she simply said no. She just shrugged and told me if I wanted the female amenity kit, I could just swap with other female passengers. I didn’t want to make a fuss about it, so I just took whatever they gave me.



Waiting on my seat were a pillow, blanket, and slippers. The crews then distributed the headphones, amenity kit, and menu. I can’t help but noticed the chef rushed me to fill out the breakfast order card as he wanted it done before take-off.





That said, I’ve always loved Turkish’ candlelight dining — they have one of the meals in the sky, thanks to their partnership with DO&CO. The dinner menu reads as follows:

The canapé consisted of salmon, falafel, and mozzarella, basil, and tomato skewer. The salmon was moist, warm, and tasty — it was excellent. The falafel was on the spicy side, which was good as well.



Forty minutes later, the crews and the chefs rolled out the appetizer cart. I had marinated octopus salad, salmon tartare, chicken brochette, and marinated seafood salad, as well as the soup.




They were all delicious, especially the soup.

For the main course, I had grilled wild sea bass — easily the best fish I had in the sky! It was very flavorful and moist.





Finally, the dessert trolley was rolled out with few items that were not listed on the menu — for example, cream puffs and chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla ice cream. I decided to have cheesecake, cream puff, and vanilla ice cream.



The meal service was finally completed nearly three hours after take-off, which was excessively long.

After dinner, I immediately reclined and took a 6-hour nap. As usual, the bedding on Turkish Airlines flights is very comfortable, especially with the old 2-3-2 seat configuration. Despite the lack of privacy, I find it very roomy and spacious.



I woke up briefly for a bio break. The lavatory was pretty standard on this plane, and it was reasonably clean.

I went back to my seat and browsed the movie selections. I’m not a big TV person, so I didn’t watch a whole lot throughout the flight. Luckily, WiFi onboard Turkish Airlines flights are complimentary for business class passengers, so I worked a little bit and played with my phone catching up with social media. I also ordered the cherry mousse cake from the anytime menu.



Two hours before landing breakfast started with fresh fruit and a few side dishes.



I specifically ordered homemade muesli, but I was served cottage cheese. I asked the flight attendant if that was a mistake. She said no, it was muesli. I told her, I tasted it and it was definitely cottage cheese. She then persisted that it was muesli. She finally asked the chef. The chef came to my seat and agreed that it was cottage cheese. He explained that there was a passenger in the economy who was allegedly allergic to wheat. I wasn’t too thrilled, but whatever.

There were two options for the main course: pancake and free-range fried eggs in butter. I’m sure the latter is yummy. I’m more of a savory breakfast kind of person, but I thought I’d order the pancake this time just to see if it’s any good.



The pancake was okay. It could’ve been better if there were some kind of syrup or cream or custard because the berry compote was tart.

We touched down in Istanbul at 6:20 PM local time and parked at a remote stand 17 minutes later.



Conclusion

I have to say it wasn’t the best Turkish Airlines flight I’ve had. The lack of hospitality becomes a norm as I take more and more trips with them. Of course, I had amazing crews before, like Ali and Chef Selchuk.

There is definitely room for improvement. The catering is impressive, but the service could be friendlier and personalized as it sets the tone of how good a flight would be.

That said, I will continue flying Turkish Airlines and am looking forward to sharing the experience on my connecting flight to Manila.

So stay tuned!