Originally Posted by biggestbopper
Well, I was trying to finalize a trip for two in August to IST via LHR using miles, but just couldn't get anything in J (had a hold on Y seats except for rtn from IST to LHR which never cleared).
I just returned from Turkey and wanted to share my experiences on BA J. Flew to IST on a 767 (Club Europe), returned from ESB (Ankara) on a BMED A320 (Club World).
What a difference between the 2...
BA 767 J seats were literally the same as economy, maybe a couple more inches in pitch, and the middle seats blocked, but we had window-aisle, so no difference there. No menus, although choice of two nice entrees. No inflight entertainment at all.
The
BMED A320 is fitted with just 124 seats, 22 of which are Club World (NOT Club Europe), basically all the way back to the exit row. These seats are the same old cradle seats before BA went to NCW. You get printed menus, personal video screens with 8 video channels (very small though), and according to the inflight guide, some planes have AVOD and in-seat power (not the plane I was on). 5 flight attendants for 124 people (I think AA has 3 in most 737-800 flights with 142 seats). IMHO, just the seat makes it worth it to fly to/from ESB instead of IST.
Granted, Ankara is not as nice as Istanbul, but if you are travelling around Turkey, it makes sense to fly into one and out of the other, especially if planning to visit Capadocia which is only 4 hours by road from Ankara.
Also, although I was not on an award ticket, availability to Ankara seems to be pretty good, for example, there were only 8 seats taken out of 22 on our flight while Economy was pretty full. Right now there is zero availability in Club Europe to/from IST in August. Only 6/7 days in August don't have availability to/from ESB.
Flights continue on to Damascus (Syria) and Khartoum (Sudan) so they depart at different times every day of the week. Flights to Ankara arrive very late at night (20:55, 03:20, 00:55, 03:00, 02:55, 22:10, 00:55), but the returns are fairly reasonable (11:25, 07:35, 09:40, 11:25, 13:25, 08:25, 09:40).
And FYI, GB Airways (another BA franchise partner) flies to 2 other cities in Turkey: Izmir and Dalaman. GB Airways service is very similar to mainline BA.