Concerto

1. Introduction

The Autumn hit punctually with sudden cooler temperatures, rainy days and enough sunny spells to allow enjoyment of the changing colours of the leaves on the trees. Similarly, having to go back to a heavy timetable of work which required considerable preparation (practice) was a shock to my system.

Concerning travel, following the near total chaos of the summer things began calming down, although Amsterdam airport still has not got its act together. There was even a plan for each passenger to have to pay an extra €250 for using AMS airport, which I believe was quickly done away with. My own travel plans started off on an uncertain note, with a trip from Geneva to Dusseldorf and back on Lufthansa and SWISS. I booked the flights on Expedia because they simply didn't exist in the Lufthansa or SWISS systems, which use the same platform. I have developed a very low opinion of Lufthansa Group and SWISS, so it is better that I don't write too much about them here. My desire to fly with them and maintain elite status, with their appalling customer service in all respects, becomes less and less with each passing day. It would have been easy to achieve Senator status, thanks to the generous status miles offer in the first half of 2022, but I had zero motivation to do so.


Helvetic Airways operating a flight on behalf of SWISS International Air Lines


Interior of a SWISS flight on the Geneva to Zurich segment


My Pegasus Airlines flight waiting at Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen airport

This autumn I got the chance to try two airlines I didn't know, namely Pegasus Airlines (PC) and AnadoluJet (TK), and was pleasantly surprised. I negotiated Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen airport a number of times and found it to be amazingly efficient and user friendly, despite it being the airport that serves low cost carriers. In Istanbul itself I finally managed to visit the Hagia Sofia grand mosque and some other sights. I like Istanbul and it seems to manage crowds of people better than other over touristed places, such as the Cinque Terre on the coast of Liguria in Italy. It was October and I found the Cinque Terre region borderline unsupportable with all the people milling around. I appreciated many aspects of the Cinque Terre, especially the geography, but not the stupid prices, average food and the feeling I was in some mini Disneyland. Much more interesting was travelling by regional train across Italy, through Acqui Termi, Novara and Orta St Giulio (this latter is a particular favourite of mine).


Interior of the Hagia Sofia grand mosque in Istanbul


The Cisterna Basilica is a huge underground water cistern that lies under the city of Istanbul and dates back to the year 532


Coastline of Liguria at the Cinque Terre in Italy

One of the highlights was another flight in a private Piper plane, from Mönchengladbach (MGL) to Siegerland airport (SGE) in the middle of the Sauerland. That trip was an experience to never forget, especially landing at SGE in strong winds and meeting aviation legend Walter Eichhorn.


Genovese cuisine


Manually manoeuvring the Piper aircraft into its parking spot


Flying over the Rhine river near Bonn in Germany

Fabo.sk

Looking forward. Sure to be a nice series.

I was supposed to try out Anadolujet and SAW end April, but they rescheduled my flight by a couple of hours so I had myself put on TK proper. Suits me, I'll make use of free bag at least.

​​​​I wonder what you mean of golden streaks, did you end up at Nusret? Can't say I'm tempted. As I noted elsewhere on the forum, I'm more of a Thomas Keller type rather than Salt Bae type.

Concerto

Anadolujet has a surprisingly large network from Istanbul (SAW) airport, reaching all sorts of places like Bergamo (BGY), Basel (BLS) and London Stansted (STN) among others. It's not quite a low cost airlines but service is bare minimal, with a small sandwich, water and orange juice being offered, nothing else. I found it reasonably punctual, acceptably comfortable and friendly. If you are on Turkish Airlines mainline in Economy, you get the full hot meal service on most flights including drinks from the bar. Wonder how long that will continue for.

Yes, I did end up in Nusr-et in Istanbul for the golden steak, which was a large and very good quality steak wrapped in gold leaf. The whole preparation theater at the table was amazing and I will describe it a little bit later (chapter 8) along with some photos. I seem to recall it cost somewhere in the region of EUR55, so it is not something I will do again in a hurry. Let's say it was a unique experience!

gaobest

55euros for a steak feels standard in San Francisco restaurants so for the added gold leaf feels bonus. I used to import gold leaf from Germany and miss the days of communicating via email or fax for it.

I have been to a town with a name like Termi in Toscana or Umbria in Italia and I loved the thermo pool. We stayed in the actual town in 2011 and then visited the pool in 2013. While I can’t recall the exact name now, I’ve googled key words enough times to then find it online lol. We really enjoyed our lodging.

I love your concerto TRs and look forward to more.

also as a former UAL gold member who loved Sen lounges in Germany, I don’t miss my UAL loyalty and have been “stuck” with 600k-700k lifetime miles range for a decade. Also am happy to have flown many airlines overall even if it means not getting to that million miles marker which ultimately is lifetime silver (I think) which isn’t that ace of a status.

1P

Agree 100%. Maybe because I am also a professional musician....

Fabo.sk

55 is less than I would have expected, but then this is Istanbul, last time I was there we had a 6 course tasting menu in a pretty nice restaurant for less than that.

Concerto

Well, thank all of you very much. Interesting that you imported gold leaf, gaobest. The people here come from all walks of life and I see there are some musicians here too. I really must include a couple of musical posts in future trip reports. I think that here in the trip reports forum it's ok to veer away from airlines and hotels in a couple of posts, but I've tended to not go on too much about things musical. This s a legacy of not going off topic in the main forums, of course.

I stopped in Acqui Terme, which is near Alessandria in the province of Piemonte, while travelling on the regional trains across northern Italy. The place seemed particularly charming because there were no tourists there, just normal Italian people. Cinque Terre is rather ruined by mass tourism and far too many people milling around. The whole of northern Italy is full of gems of towns and villages with amazing restaurants offering local specialities at reasonable prices.

As for the whole airline status thing, I have really been wondering if I have been wasting my time, energy and money chasing this. Just recently I have come to the conclusion that the low cost carriers have won in Europe and often provide an acceptably decent service (thinking of easyJet here), whereas the legacies have simply become awful. Coupled with that is the fact that I don't need to fly long haul at the moment and am not sure when I will need to going forward. The status is particularly useful for that, because long haul travel is most often in economy if you're a musician travelling for work. Otherwise, within Europe status is not so important or essential and, as I have discovered, it is perfectly possible to survive travel without lounge access and other perks. We will see how things develop going forward. Time for the next chapter!

Concerto

I had a look at the upcoming chapter about that gold leaf covered steak in Istanbul and I saw that it actually cost me €110, not €55. So it was indeed quite expensive. I was a bit surprised that gold leaf was edible and I quite enjoyed it. Felt like being a king for a moment!

Fabo.sk

I'd love to read about (and more to the point hear) something musical.

I am a total anti-talent to anything from attempting to sing to playing an instrument, but I do enjoy all sorts of music. Ever since I moved into my own place and set up a decent hi-fi, I've like to to scour second-hand shops and antique markets for interesting music. Had some nice catches.
Come to think of it, I need to check if any are open tomorrow, I might make a shopping outing again.

Fabo.sk

110 is more what I would expect from Nusr-et in Istanbul.

Concerto

There were a number of flying and miles promotions, including the My Challenge promo from Miles & More which was pretty lackluster. During October, a new My Challenge offer appeared which consisted of bonus status miles for 2, then 4 flight segments, which was no use to me because I have already qualified for FTL through to early 2026.


Lakeside at Montreux, Switzerland


Further along the lake at Territet, where I am living


Terraced housing in a street shaped like a crescent in the Highbury area of London


Russell Square tube station in London

- Flying Blue of Air France KLM did not have any mileage offers, but they rarely do. KLM was proudly announcing its 103rd anniversary, despite the utter shameful mess that Amsterdam airport continues to be. Iberia Plus was offering Avios with a 50% bonus, so I purchased 15,000 Avios for €201. Not the greatest deal, but it keeps my account alive
- The hotels had a number of worthwhile offers, such as an incremental offer at Miles & More culminating in 3,000 miles for three stays in Best Western hotels. The best offer was probably that of Hilton, which offered 2,000 bonus Honors points for each stay, with an extra 2,000 points thrown in for weekend check-outs.
- IHG had a couple of good offers, including a status challenge offering Platinum status after just 5 stays (and Diamond after 15 stays). Despite being already Platinum, I was accepted for the challenge so that means I will easily regain Platinum. Then in September there was a promo offering 10,000 bonus points for 5 stays, right up to 30,000 points for 15 stays. Lastly, the autumn promo offered either 2,000 points after each 2 stays, or 10,000 points after 4 stays. We had to choose and I chose the latter!


Art installation in the Cisterna Basilica underneath Istanbul


Textile shop in the Great Bazaar of Istanbul


One of Istanbul's many bakeries and patisseries selling sweetmeats, Baklava and all sorts of cakes

Then Black Friday. That was a spectacular disappointment because I had expected all manner of special offers to appear but, for my taste and needs, there was almost nothing. I hesitated about getting a basic Priority Pass at a reduced price of around £40, but I had read such overwhelmingly negative feedback about Priority Pass and the state of the lounges, not to mention actually getting admitted to the lounges despite having bought a Pass. So I gave it, literally, a pass. I can survive perfectly ok without lounges when travelling as a non status passenger. Later, in December, I started doing a daily series of online advent calendars, mostly in German, but I didn't win a single thing.


Coastline of the Cinque Terre, Italy


Monterosso al Mare is the only locality to have a proper beach in the Cinque Terre

Concerto

The business lounge in Düsseldorf was a pleasure today, with few people and a decent hot food offering. I enjoyed the Münchner Kartoffelsuppe mit Gemüsebrunoise and the hot Leberkäse mit Spätzle (not everybody's favourite, I know). The white wine selection was decent, with two German wines offered. I almost didn't want to leave the lounge, so peaceful was my stay there.


The Lufthansa Business Class lounge in Düsseldorf Airport, lovely and quiet
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If you want to eat something it's better to sit at the tables here at the far end of the lounge


This was the Münchner Kartoffelsuppe mit Gemüsebrunoise soup

The flight itself was extremely forgettable, with a lackluster crew the likes of which I have never ever seen before. The contact with the cabin crew was absolute zero. Needless to say, they didn't sell a single item of BoB catering, all the way up the plane (I checked). Granted, the plane got me to where I wanted to go on time, but I think I would rather have taken the train (were it not for being able to visit the lounge). Really, can the Lufthansa Group actually get any worse?? (Answer: yes, it can!) At my extremely conservative guesstimate, it can't get any worse because there is nowhere to descend to beyond this. Lufthansa SWISS has reached the lowest point below which it can't go. Even the US airlines aren't as crap as this. Ah well, at least with these two flights today I will pass the minimum promotion level of 2 flights to reach my Flytime offer, 1,500 miles for flying 2 flight segments.
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Boarding the flight from DUS to ZRH, which was operated by Helvetic Airways (2L)


Walking up the aisle, towards the back of the economy class section


Complimentary in-flight service on the Dusseldorf to Zurich flight operated by Helvetic Airways
​​
Rating 6.5
Seat 21D
Aircraft 290
Registration HB-AZC​​​​​​

Concerto

My 2 hour visit to the business lounge in Zurich was, despite it being really crowded, really pleasant. I somehow befriended the chef (there is a fresh food stand where a chef cooks for you) who prepared for me an excellent gnocchi with tomatoes and parmesan and, later, penne with Steinpilze (mushrooms). After the wine (best was a Pinot Noir from Mont-sur-Rolle) I hit the Williamine then the Grappa, but I shouldn't really be confessing that here.


The crowded SWISS Business lounge in Terminal A of Zurich airport


Freshly cooked gnocchi in the Zurich Business lounge


Selection of hard alcohol in the Zurich Business lounge

The flight was, as most Zurich to Geneva flights are, very pleasant and punctual. I woke up towards the end just in time for the service of chocolates, but missed the handing out of water bottles, because I slept nearly all the way to Geneva. Row 21 where I had the window seat was completely empty, whereas other rows were full. So my status gave me a bit of extra room on the flight in the sense that the seats were kept free next to me. I found it oddly quite difficult to wake up at Geneva! Cabin crew were efficient and friendly enough.


Boarding the Zurich to Geneva flight through an air bridge


SWISS aircraft movements at ZRH airport


View down the cabin from my seat towards the rear

Rating 7.5*
Seat 21F
Aircraft 32N
Registration HB-JDB

offerendum

Remember the Zurich-lounge well. Had nearly the same offerings in 5 years ago....

Concerto

Nice to know that you are here. What is your instrument? I hope that everything is going well post Covid. In the Conservatoire I find that the number of students has shot up and there is more work than ever. Same with the solo competitions, so many hopeful candidates to be coached, and reassured!

I was slightly amazed that the ZRH lounge has returned to the quality of earlier times, because everything else has gone downhill since then, especially the catering in all classes. The only problem with the lounge is the use of space, coupled with a not terribly smart layout. I predict lounge staff having to restrict access in the not too distant future.