I am well aware that few are interested in reading economy class trip reports. But because Turkish has a really top notch product and there are some people interested, I decided to write one. I paid $912 roundtrip for my flights and booked mid-October. My trip to Israel was vacation, and it was great. I am still not sure what I'm doing with my inbound segment as it does not earn miles in most programs, but within a few days my outbound should post to UA.

This report has the following parts:
JFK Ground Experience
Alitalia Michelangelo Lounge
Lufthansa Business & Senator Lounges
Turkish 4 From JFK-IST
Turkish Business Lounge - Istanbul
Turkish 794 From IST-TLV
TLV Ground Experience & Dan Lounge
TK 811 TLV-IST in Y
TK Business Lounge in IST
TK 1 IST-JFK in Y
Verdict

Enjoy the trip report, and I am happy to answer questions and comments.

For anyone interested in my previous TRs.
Swiss & United from TLV-EWR LX J/UA J

Somewhere in the sky, a coffee house just flew by OS J/OS Y

An El Al Adventure! UA Y/LY J

8 Days in Panama Featuring Copa Business Class, the Westin, and the Four Points

Weekend in Paris Featuring LY Y, AA Y, Waldorf Astoria Versailles, Best Western Hotel Mercedes

My First First!! UA F/UA GF/LH J

TLV-SFO via ZRH, ORD LX C/LX Y/UA F

ORD-ZRH in LX Y

ZRH-TLV in LX Y

BA Club World ORD-NCE

I arrived at JFK around 1040am for my 1255pm departure. There was a line at business/gold check-in but after about 10 minutes I was seen. I checked one bag and agent handed me boarding passes and invitation to the Alitalia lounge. Check in was efficient but the agent wasn't exactly friendly. Premium security line moved quickly and nothing to report on that end.

The checkin agent directed me to make a right after security towards the lounge. I presented my invitation to the agent and she invited me in. The wifi password was posted at the front as well. The lounge was on the small side with tan furniture. Outlets were scarce. The lounge had some racks of Italian magazines but the only English option was Global Traveler. The men's bathroom contained 3 rooms of which 2 were out if order. Outlets were scarce but I managed to find 4 against one wall in the corner. In terms of food, there was packaged cookies, chips and crackers. There were also packaged sandwiches in a fridge. I didn't see what they were but they didn't seem appetizing. They looked old. There was a small self serve bar with plastic drink ware Standard cheap and boring alcohol as well as some wine was on offer. There was a fridge with cans of soda, tonic, and Arizona iced tea. (First time I've seen Arizona in a lounge). There was also an espresso machine and a fridge with some juice. No glass or ceramic drink ware in sight which isn't a big deal, but to me seems shoddy for an international business class/gold card lounge. The Lufthansa lounge down the hall was slated to open at 12pm so at about 1155 I went down there.

The Lufthansa lounge complex is immediately outside security to the left. I arrived and presented my credentials to the agent. She said her computer wasn't up yet and she asked me to leave my credentials with her so I would not need to stand around and wait for the system to load. I noticed another set of credentials in front of her keyboard. She also invited me to use the Senator lounge on the 2nd floor noting my gold status. I went upstairs to find a deserted lounge. It was elegant though not over the top. There was a fully stocked bar but I guess the bartender hadn't yet arrived. There was an espresso machine with ceramic drink ware, a fountain style Coke machine, bowls of fruit, fresh pastries, a hot buffet, a cold buffet, soups, and bowls of fruit. There were racks of German magazines and daily newspapers as well as some English daily newspapers. There was also a table of bar snacks with gummy bears, M&Ms, pretzels, trail mix and the like. There was wifi by T-Mobile with no password. I needed to print something, and asked an attendant floating around the Senator lounge for help. She told me to go downstairs to speak with the manager and she phoned him letting him know I was coming. The manager asked me what device the file was on and I told him I had it on my iPhone and my laptop. He had me email it to him to save me the trouble of booting up my laptop which I really appreciated and he handed me the document a few minutes later. The business class lounge was a step down from the Senator lounge as expected. Self serve bar with fewer options and the buffet wasn't as extensive. The furniture also was a step down. The Senator lounge had outlets at almost every seat while the business lounge did not. Showers were available although I did not use them. Bathrooms were on both floors and were nice. The lounge had a 3rd level but I'm not sure what was up there. Lufthansa impressed me. For a non hub operation their lounges were very well done. Nicer than United's Chicago Global First Lounge, the top lounge available at a United's Chicago hub.

TK 4
JFK-IST
1255pm-545am +1 (schedule)
220pm-605am +1 (actual)
Equipment: A330
Seat: 9G (Economy)
Configuration: 2-4-2

Boarding started at about 120pm. People with young children or needing assurance were boarded first. Then they called business and gold. There was a cart of newspapers and magazines on the jet walk. FAs were at the door pointing people to the right aisle but not greeting them. I was in 9G, an aisle in the 4th row of Economy. At my seat was a pillow and a wrapped blanket. What shocked me were the other 2 items. Slippers and a small red amenity kit!! In coach!! I had heard about this offering but this is my first time flying Turkish coach so it was nice to see it for myself. An hour after boarding there was still no announcement of any kind. The safety video started playing at random with no announcement. Finally, just as we were airborne there was a quick "welcome aboard" announcement. No details on altitude or flight time. I should note that each seat had a touch screen TV with gate-to-gate IFE and a USB port. I briefly scrolled thru the IFE. It was pretty boring.
The bathrooms were large by whY standards. They had wrapped towelettes, hand cream, soap and lemon scented cologne from a brand called Natural Creations. I'm not familiar with it, but they seemed to be decent quality. Shortly after take off, FAs came thru the aisle offering Turkish delight, I declined, as it's not kosher. Following the Turkish delight, FAs came around offering hot towels. A few minutes after hot towels were offered menus were distributed. Paper menus in coach are rare these days. Menu was in English and Turkish and had drinks list on a book mark. Turkish is damn impressive. All that was missing from the service were PDBs. There were 2 options for each course including anytime snack. I was just wondering what my KSML would be like. When I flew TK in J back in May '13 it was disgusting. Not bad, like KSMLs frequently are but simply not edible.
It wasn't offered on this flight but TK has free wifi on many international flights. It's so slow it barely works but I suppose it's the thought that counts . Drink carts came around and I had an Efes beer which was served with packaged hazelnuts. For what it's worth they were the same hazelnuts I got in business class back in May '13. The beer was cool and good. Unfortunately they were not serving the fresh raspberry soda I had in business class. Drink ware was collected and there was a but of a wait before the meal service began.
As the carts rolled down the aisle for the dinner (late lunch?) service, I got apprehensive. After my last experience with kosher food on Turkish, in business class to boot, I wasn't sure I wanted the tray. When the FA got to my aisle, she looked at me, looked at a piece of paper, went to they galley and got a KSML tray. No communication. Then she looks at me and says "to drink?" I ordered another beer. The KSML was by Borenstein. The tray had a wrapped bread roll, matbucha (a middle eastern tomato based dip) saut�ed eggplant, a piece of cake, a small container of water, and plastic ware. The hot main was Asian style chicken. I have to say I was impressed. The food wasn't amazing but it was good. It was edible. I ate the entire tray except the eggplant. While the meal was being served cabin lights were dimmed. I have to say the service culture on TK is odd. I don't remember it being so brusque the last time. FTers think that TK has surly FAs. I find them just indifferent. Is it a cultural thing about the Turkish people?
It took an interminably long time for the FAs to collect the finished meals. Lights went out not long after the first service was completed.
I removed my contacts and put on the blinders supplied in the amenity kit which were surprisingly good and tried getting some rest. After about 2 hours I decided to check out the galley and see what was on offer for mid flight snack. They had packaged sandwiches who's filling I couldn't determine, a plate of fruit and a basket of muffins as well as standard beverages.
Midway thru the flight bottled water was distributed. Cabin lights went on about 2 hours, 20 minutes out and a few minutes later the FAs distributed the kosher breakfasts. The tray was by Borenstein and had a packaged roll, cup of orange juice, Dole fruit cup, and cream cheese. The hot entree was an omelette with roasted potatoes which was good but not superb. 10 minutes after the KSMLs were served the cart came around for general service. I asked for orange juice which was from a brand I never heard of called "juice bowl". It tasted artificial, kinda like Minute Maid. 70 minutes out they began collection if the trays. 2 neat features if the IFE I didn't realize until the end of the flight: live view of the planes cameras and the ability to call other seats. Not sure when I will need to call another seat but it's a neat feature.
We landed smoothly about 20 minutes behind schedule.

Upon disembarking I made my way to the initial security questioning done for passengers traveling to sensitive countries. There was no premium line but the line moved efficiently so I didn't mind as much. The premium line for checked luggage screening was non existent and was thru fast. The Turkish lounge is located at the other side of the terminal and the terminal was packed with very slow moving people. I made it to the lounge a few minutes later, where I scanned my boarding pass and entered. The lounge apparently was renovated and doubled in size but I didn't notice anything different from my last visit to the lounge. There wasn't a single open seat anywhere in the lounge so if it did double it didn't seem to have helped. I went straight for a shower. Turkish shower rooms have glassed in rain showers with a toilet and sink. There's also slippers, a robe and towels. By the sink there's a boxed shaving kit and shampoo is in dispensers in the shower. The lounge was hot and after I left shower room I was tempted to go right back. I ordered a cappuccino from one of the many coffee bars and managed to find an open seat in a corner. A MAJOR DRAWBACK OF THIS LOUNGE IS THE LACK OF OUTLETS. Seriously, what were they thinking?
The food selection looked impressive and there were a number of stations cooling made to order food. There were also several bars serving coffee and tea, carts of wine, and wall slimed with refrigerated racks of beverages. At 810am I left the lounge in anticipation of boarding at 820am.

TK 794
IST-TLV
920am-1120am (schedule)
945am-1145am (actual)
Seat: 7C (Economy)
Equipment: 737
Configuration: 3-3

Boarding started 20 minutes late and I was quickly waived thru the second inspection. As I boarded FAs at the door did not acknowledge passengers. I was in the 3rd row of coach, though this flight had standard intra-Europe business. TK actually has a proper short haul business product, or at least used to, so I'm not sure why it was coach seat with blocked middle. The flight was mostly uneventful. The kosher meal was catered out if Turkey and consisted of a roll, crackers, cheese and vegetables and something else I'm not remembering. It was pretty decent. I mostly drifted in and out of sleep for the flight. I bolted off the plane and cleared customs quickly. Bags took a little while to come but for the first time in a whole my priority bag was actually among the first!!

I arrived at TLV around 530am for my 740am departure and headed to B area where TK check in is located. In TLV your bags are screened before check in and there is a line for it. This isn't very well known as it's not posted anywhere but premium passengers are supposed to walk on the side to the front of the queue to be admitted for screening. This time I waited quite a bit before being screened and got the usual battery of questioning. My bag was scanned and tagged without incident and I proceeded to business class/gold check in. There were 2 desks, on of which was opened and I was seen immediately. My bag was checked straight to NYC and I was issued boarding passes for both flights as well as an invitation to the Dan Lounge. Lines at security and passport control were bad and I wasn't thru the whole process till about 615am.
I went to the Dan Lounge in the C concourse. I noticed on the way that there was a new Dan+ Lounge exclusively for BA premium passengers. This visit to the Dan Lounge was no different than my many others. There were a plethora of loud Israelis, and the wifi was slow. Outlets are also scarce here. On offer was cookies, bread and yogurt. Glass bottles of soda, a coffee machine, bottled "juice soft drink" and Tuborg beer were on offer. No hot options or substantial options of any kind really. No real selection of magazines or newspapers either. It's a subpar lounge but adequate. Certainly better than sitting in the terminal. As boarding was called for 655am I left the lounge at 655am. I got to the gate around 7am to find the gate virtually empty with no one working at the desk. A few minutes later there was a general boarding call. No premium boarding call first or separate premium line. Interestingly the gate agents boarding the plane were wearing Aegean Airlines lanyards.

TK 811
TLV-IST
740am-940am (schedule)
757am-953am (actual)
Seat: 10C (Economy)
Equipment: A321
Configuration: 3-3

When I boarded there was an FA at the door greeting customers. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this plane had TK's short haul J seats unlike the intra-Europe J on my previous flight from IST-TLV. I also found that the seats had the standard entertainment systems on the Lon haul fleet but no USB ports sadly. Also no headphones, pillows or blankets though I did notice blankets in J. As I expected, 20 minutes after boarding there still wasn't so much as a welcome aboard announcement. As boarding commenced the middle seat next to me remained empty and I hoped it would remain so. I noticed a chef in full regalia serving PDBs in business while economy pax still had no crew interaction. Cabin lights went off at about 730am. I overheard an FA speaking Israeli accented Hebrew which I thought was odd but I guess makes sense on a TLV flight. A safety video played and we pushed back at right about 740. FAs walked down the aisle offering headphones and then menus. I still love how TK offers menus in coach, although none were offered on my IST-TLV segment last week. I guess the service could be standardized a bit but on the whole it's superb.
Not long after take off the seat belt sign went off and a cart rolled down the aisle to begin the service. I was curious to see what my KSML would consist of. My KSML was from Istanbul and labeled with a production date was January 19, 2014. Talk about fresh! There was a plate with 3 slices of cheese, some olives, 2 cucumber slices and some cherry tomatoes. One plate had 2 sugar cookies. One plate had what I think was a potato burekah of some kind but whatever it was, it was good. There was a also a roll and packaged crackers plus burger and cherry jelly. I had orange juice with my breakfast which was quite good. On my previous TK flights they took too long to collect the trays. On this flight I had barely started my roll when trays were collected.
The remainder of the flight passed uneventfully and I mostly just read on my iPhone.

I reviewed this lounge for my visit on the inbound so I don't see a need to review it again but I will note a few things I didn't note in the previous review. Apparently Turkish is working on a major (badly needed) expansion of the lounge. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary on my visit last week but on this visit I heard a lot of construction noise but I'm not quite sure where it was coming from. I decided to check out the prayer room that I had noticed previously but never entered. There was a sign listing prayer times for Istanbul as well as rugs on the floor and a single chair. There was a shelf of Islamic holy books and a copy of the Qur'an. Next to the prayer room was a room with faucets and hand showers stocked with towels and slippers presumably to wash up before prayer. Perhaps it's expected in a predominantly Muslim country but I thought the bath area was a nice touch. I also noticed that at several of the fresh food stations, food was being loaded directly from the kitchen on to galley carts. Again, talk about fresh food!
They also had tanks of fresh lemonade, fresh sweet iced tea and fresh raspberry soda. I loved the raspberry soda when I tried it last year in TK business and was disappointed I didn't see it in coach or in the lounge on my previous visit. At one of the many coffee stations in the lounge I asked for iced coffee and was told they didn't have. So I filled a cup with ice and made my own. The attendant was impressed. Later on, I filled another cup of ice and Went to a coffee station and asked for a cafe latte. The attendant saw my cup of ice and proactively offered to make my cafe latte in the ice glass. It was delicious. The lounge wifi was decent but not great. One problem with this lounge that I can't stress enough is that there are very few outlets and they are mostly in inconvenient places and the seats by outlets go fast. TK must do something. Also, as a kosher passenger there is virtually nothing to eat here beyond fresh fruit. While I certainly applaud TK for the abundance of fresh food it would be nice to have some options. Even packaged pretzels would be appreciated.
I went to the front desk of the lounge to check status of my flight as it wasn't yet showing on the lounge monitors. I witnessed a family with Etihad Business class tickets hold invitations for a third party lounge arguing that because they bought business class tickets they should be admitted. The desk staff were having clear difficulty remaining civil while trying to explain that the Turkish lounge was only for Star Alliance business passengers and not anyone with a business class ticket. Another man tried fighting his way in with Star Silver. I totally empathized and when I was Star Silver I wanted lounge access too but guidelines are clear.

TK 1
IST-JFK
125pm-520pm (schedule)
Seat: 33H
Equipment: 773
Configuration: 3-3-3

As boarding was called for 1225pm I left the lounge at 1230pm and got to the gate at about 1240pm as I stopped to browse duty free. I had to clear 2 security checks and boarding passes were collected and only the stubs were returned. I got to the gate and there was nothing going on. After a short while boarding was called. While they announced that premium pax got to board first but it wasn't enforced. Upon boarding the chef and an FA were at the door but neither acknowledged me as I've come to expect from TK. Also no welcome announcement of any kind as expected. I was surprised to discover that this plane was wifi enabled. While it's free it's painfully slow and barely works so I wasn't expecting much. We pushed back at 133pm and there was finally a welcome announcement. The seat next to me once again was empty. This plane had Economy Comfort unlike the one I came here on. TK is phasing it out but I'm not sure what the schedule is.
At the seat upon boarding was a pillow, wrapped blanket, wrapped slippers, and wrapped headphones. But no amenities kit on this flight. At 145pm we parked and the pilot announced we were 22nd in line for departure. He called flight time at 10 hours, 25 minutes and altitude at 34,000 feet. Shortly after take off they announced that wifi was available and as expected it didn't work. They also announced there was live TV. Turkish delight was offered as well. They also offered US customs forms. Then hot towels were offered. I started watching The Lake House. The headphones were average but the audio quality was bad. Hot towels were collected and another cart came down the aisles that seemed to have amenity kits but I couldn't be sure. They were amenities tins with a map of the world and a blurb about a Turkish explorer. They reminded me of what Swiss offered in mid haul J. They had an eye mask, socks, ear plugs, lip balm and were sealed in plastic wrap.
Entertainment was paused frequently for announcements. Nothing especially important that couldn't have been made while we were on the ground. Menus were distributed after the amenity kits. A cart rolled down the aisle with drinks for the first service. Drinks were served with packaged nuts. Drinks were collected and the food cart came out for the main service. My KSML came. It was dairy. The hot main was salmon which I didn't touch as I don't eat fish. On the tray was some kind of quinoa or couscous, a bread roll, crackers and some kind of apple crunch. I had more diet coke with lunch. After a little while trays were collected and tea, coffee and water were offered. I had coffee. Cabin lights were dimmed an bottles water was distributed. I started watching My Sisters Keeper just before the meal service. I found the audio once again to be bad quality. Not sure if it's the headphones or the system in general. Cabin mood lighting was turned on which was kind of cool. The cabin was reddish-orange and lavender. I watched A Beautiful Mind next.
About 2 and a half hours out I heard the noises of carts being prepared for the final service. Cabin lighting was brightened as well. The tray contained a warm snack which was some kind of fish, a bowl of an I identified vegetable and unidentified carb, some sort of lemon thing, water, a bread roll and crackers. I had more Diet Come and this time returned the tray mostly full. I made an additional attempt to get the wifi but failed. 15 minutes out the seatbelt sign was turned on. Cabin lights were also illuminated to full brightness. Landing was smooth, but oddly for about 10 minutes after we parked, the cabin lights were off and people were groping around the cabin with their phones as the only light.

Turkish offers a very solid all around product. They are definitely a cut above their competition, offering menus, slippers and amenity kits even in economy. My sole complaint about the onboard product is the KSML. It seems that the food is always awful when departing Turkey as TK insists on sourcing the good locally. In terms of ground product, I think it may be smart to operate 2 lounges on both sides of the terminal rather than one large one. It would also be nice if the lounge had a spa.

The Europe/Turkey regional J standard is to block the middle seat.

On my return they had a more proper J product similar to domestic first class on US carriers. On my last TLV-IST segment in May 2013 they had a similar product.

Thanks for TR. Sounds like a reasonable choice for a flight in Y...will have to consider them in the future