Here we are for the final leg of my travels from IST back to LHR. I had chosen to stay the night in IST as I wanted to rest and visit the TK ticket service office. It also gave me the chance to try out the new A350 and for which I have posted some photos in the A350 thread. I took a land side room at the Yotel. This time a larger room with king size bed. They claim you can fit three people in the bed. You would need to be very good friends. The room was actually very comfortable compared with the tiny one I had before. It cost me EUR131 booking ahead and you do want to book ahead. Someone else was arguing with the receptionist over the walk in rate which was over EUR200. Rather than eat at the hotel, I chose to go up to the restaurant area above the departure level. There is a Turkish restaurant as well as Burger King and another pizza type place. The Turkish restaurant was my choice and I had a respectable meatball dish with EFES beer for TL107. Not too bad for an airport. After a good nights sleep, it was easy to re-check my luggage and head through to the M&S lounge. This was around 7:00AM. And this is how IST looks at that time from the M&S lounge.


The M&S lounge was fairly quiet. The former salad bar that was covered up previously is back with limited offerings for breakfast.


For hot food, there was what looked like scrambled egg and lentil soup. I have never thought of lentils as food, so the small mousse pots and cake was my choice. Cheese buns were also plentiful. The selection in DAR was better!

TC-LGB had been moved to gate D13 during the night which was not too far away. They were already boarding by the time I got there, so the gate was not busy. Two air bridges were in place, but they were only using the rear one. The front may have been reserved for the crew. It was looking pretty busy back in Y, but J was no more than 25% full. We departed on time. There is not much reason for delays these days. The flight to LHR is only 3.5 hours or so. Which means just one service with drinks from the usual menu. Did we get what the promotional screen in the IFE promised?...



OK, IST-LHR is not intercontinental (DAR-IST was). No surprise, this is what turned up.


The cheese bun had become a cheese and tomato bun, but that did not make it worth eating. The table on the new A350 seats is very good at least. with plenty of space to work with a laptop or eat. By the time I had sent a few emails, posted here and looked at the news it was time to land. No time for a film, I have seen all the ones worth seeing and quite a few of the ones not worth seeing too. We arrived in to LHR 20 minutes early. Another cold damp day, this time with a little snow. We don't see that much any more in the south-east of England. T2 was fairly quiet with minimal queues for immigration and the usual level of organisation we have come to expect in the UK... Also following tradition the business class and priority luggage came out last. That was it apart from the journey home contending with a closed M20 motorway.

So there ends my first business flight since early March. That was with SAA, something that sadly may never happen again. My next TK flights will be much sooner, but with my family and out to Tashkent. However, we will be in Y for that. Then most likely back to Africa and possibly using Rwandair for some regional flights. I was happy to have had the chance to be on the new A350 in J. I did not and would not pay for it with money, expiring miles was the right way to do it.