MatthewLAX

Very nice report! TK F hard product looks amazing--I'm really looking forward to my flight next month.

willzzz88

Oh MY GOD! I <3 the food pics and Turkey! Gosh another country to visit on my (future...) trip to Europe (I'm just a poor student for now.)

The lack of SIM problem in Turkey can happen in any country. What happened is your mobile phone's IMEI# is on the Turkish providers black-list for some reason. Most likely what happened is that their billing system noticed that from previous SIM/subscriber/session you either didn't pay your bill on-time and you have monetary settlements or something else. Since you're going back to Turkey with students in the future you should definitely take care of this with the provider. Sometimes you can even pay off the bill with a CC using a web-app after giving the SIM associated # or IMEI#. If not contact their CS.

The Tokyo pics are lovely too. I'm from Asia originally and have been dying to get back there sometime in the future. Well I'm still young and student so reading FT will make me dream for now.

BTW what do you lecture/teach?

Flying Buccaneer

Thanks for the comments, everyone, and I apologize if the photos disappeared for awhile. I slightly exceeded Photobucket's bandwidth limit, so I had to fix it by upgrading to a premium membership.

You are probably right about the SIM card, willzzz88. I still have my old Turkcell SIM card from 2008, and I should have thought about asking if it would be possible to add units to it while I was at the Turkcell shop. I actually felt a little uneasy about that SIM card when I got it in Antalya, because no one asked for my passport. My teaching schedule varies from semester to semester. It's usually a combination of operations management, management science, statistics, or international business.

mrx900

those were greats shots...esp the ones in Tokyo.........btw, what kind of camera are you using? I took with the Canon SX1, but they didnt come out that good in Tokyo...

username and password

Awesome Trip Report and photos. I have Istanbul on my extended to-do list.

UA_Flyer

I am proud to see my fellow Floridan coming up with such a magnificient trip report!!^

free2draw

Nice report! I'm excited to go to IST next month.

zcat18

Great report! It's getting me pumped for my IST trip in February.

By the way (apologies for taking this briefly off subject), how 'bout them BUCS?! (I'm a displaced Bucs fan myself, so I had to comment...)

swanscn

Well done, now I just have to convince my wife that she needs to see Turkey. Your description of the children in the lounge reminded me of a flight from Seattle to Charlotte. My wife and I were in row last a large family was occupying the two rows (both sides) in front of us. The couple across from us like us were only on this flight becasue ours to PHL had be cancelled. Also, like us they no longer were in 1st class none of us cared we just need to get home. Why is this important becasue the crews knew this and gave us special attention (headsets 1st class meals drinks etc). This did not sit well with the family they thought they should also get additional attention the term discriminate came up more than once. After a while seat belt sign on children walking on armrests and they were told they needed to take their seats. The FA was told they would not since they spilled their soda on the seat while walking across the armrest. The FA gave them a blanket and told them to take their seats anyway. This did not go over well with the parents but the children did sit down.
I did want to high five the FA but thought better of it. After the flight the family went to the USAIR club (so were we) and started complaining loudly to the young ladies at the front desk. (BTW, they were not club members). Describing everything that did happen and quite a few things that did not happen at this time I approached the young ladies and handed them my card. I told them if they needed any information about which actually happened on this flight I would gladly provide it. And that everything being told to them was not necessarily the facts since we had a ringside seat for all of it. I also added that something should be done to the traveling family not the flight crew. After I stated this the family stormed out of club. the young ladies thanked me and called special services to warn them that they may see this family as well as the gate. When we were leaving they once again thanked us and told us our comments were noted just in case there were issues later.

anat0l

Fantastic trip report.

Looks like one will never, ever go hungry in TK F. I did hear a story (another trip report somewhere) of someone being very full on TK F. Didn't help there were so few pax in the cabin that they were encouraged to... shall I say... "eat their share of the other dishes".

I'm planning to blow my BD miles in one fell swoop by redeeming on (at least, but seems like it will only be a solitary) one *A F award. I was tossing up between LH, LX, TG and TK (since NH and SQ are just impossible). What a da*n hard decision.....

david-alexis

Great TR!
Gave me some ideas.. I will soon need to go to IST for work and alays wanted spend a few days in TYO with my wife! Thanks again

pswissoz

Brilliant trip report. One of the best trip reports I have ever read. Certainly puts Istanbul back on my high priority list. Seeing these great picture of Tokyo reminded me of the 5 years I lived in Tokyo.

Cheers from Brisbane,

pswissoz

SFO777

Excellent TR with great pics. Brought back memories of our May trip to IST. Thanks for posting!! ^

worldtrav

Probably one of the best, most comprehensive trip reports I've seen. Two thumbs up.

I'm curious about the routing and award level. Please could you share how many Dividend miles you used for the ticket? Thanks.

Teacherflyer

Thanks for the interesting trip report. Love the photos.