Last step of this business trip in Turkey: the return flight to Paris on Turkish Airlines in economy class on an A321.
Ground experience
My flight from Izmir will stop in front of a gate but we will be disembarked by bus. It was a 777 that was certainly going to leave on an international flight so they certainly found it more convenient to park it in the international terminal directly and take the passengers by bus to the domestic terminal. But that’s still a bit of lost time. The police and security checks are quickly completed and I go to the part of the terminal reserved for international flights. Dilemma: my boarding gate is at the very end of the terminal (i.e. very far in this airport) and the boarding starts in 15 minutes. Do I have time to visit the beautiful Turkish Airlines lounge?
My flight is at 12:55 and boarding is announced at 11:55. I tell myself that they must take a nice safety margin and that as usual the boarding will start 30 min before the departure. So I take a break in the lounge.
I anticipate my departure a little, in case… But I rushed for nothing, so the boarding will start at 12:25. Good reflex of a well-informed traveler but I pity the people who ran to finally find themselves waiting 30 minutes at the gate.
Boarding
The boarding finally starts. Absolutely no respect of priorities, the “economy” line activates even before the priority line.
When I get to the counter my boarding pass goes “beep”. Upgrade ? No way! My 5A seat becomes a 28D. Second time in less than a week that Turkish does it to me after my Istanbul-Izmir.
I ask the lady how this is possible and she tells me that I should not have had this place because row 5 is a business row. Except that at Turkish, single-aisle aircraft generally have 3 or 4 business rows, with only some 737s and 321s having 5. In addition, I had taken care to check the cabin plan and the filling of the aircraft on ExpertFlyer to evaluate my chances of upgrade and indeed there were only 16 seats in business so 4 rows.
I ask her if she is making fun of me and she laconically replies “that’s how it is and you have an aisle seat, you could have had a middle-seat”. I don’t let her do it and by a miracle she finds me a 7D! Still in the aisle but at least not in the rear of the cabin! Anyway…
The seat and the cabin
I enter the plane and, surprisingly, the business class has only 4 rows!
I finally got a good seat that is not selectable on the app and is only assigned in door. I am next to the “jumpseat” of the staff and there are only two seats side by side, the location of the third being the jumpseat facing the cabin.
Next to the jumpseat:
Plus I won’t have a neighbor so I can spread my stuff out on the seat next to me.
Only drawback: no window so no spotting or photos of the outside in flight.
As I have already said many times, I find the economy cabin of the single-aisle aircrafts of Turkish Airlines much nicer, more premium in appearance than that of the twin-aisle aircrafts, and even the seat more comfortable. In any case the legroom is better on this A321 than on the A330 already taken a few weeks before and the seat is softer than on the 777 taken a few days earlier.
Photo of a “normal” row of seats.
The screen is a very decent size but I prefer to watch my own movie selection on my iPad anyway. It is however in my opinion smaller than on the A321Neo taken a few weeks earlier.
As on my outbound flight I will find the touchscreen interface very unresponsive. It’s like they don’t want us to fill out the satisfaction survey.
No USB ports on the other hand, a less pleasant lighting than on the A321Neo: you can see that it is still an old model cabin. Overall, without surprise, I will find the flight less pleasant than on the Neo.
We are finally ready to go. A l’heure.
Here we go or 10 interminable minutes of safety instructions “made in Lego” since we are given them in Turkish and in English.
In flight and service
The temperature in the unit is cold and several people ask for blankets.
Service begins 40 minutes after takeoff.
Today it will be beef or pasta. My front neighbors ask for the beef. I bend down a little to see what it looks like and I see two tiny balls fighting in the middle of the rice. I’m hungry, I’ll go for the pasta, more substantial in my opinion.
It is quite well presented and even quite appetizing.
Well, the people in front send back their balls and ask for pasta, complaining about the quantity….
Meanwhile, the person on the other side of the aisle is also complaining. She had obviously ordered a “special menu” which was obviously “forgotten”. And to hear him tell it, it’s not the first time this has happened to him.
So I tackle my meal.
As always at Turkish, the bread is hot (well, not on my way out) and the metal cutlery gives a different impression than the plastic ones you find too often elsewhere.
However, the tray table is not stable and leans dangerously. I will have to constantly prevent my pasta from ending up in my lap, not very pleasant.
The starter is a kind of cottage cheese.
Insipid as can be, I will pour almost all of my pepper sachet into it to try to give it some taste.
Then the pasta.
Okay, I shouldn’t have expected much from a vegetable pasta dish, but it’s really as insipid as the starter. Its only merit is to fill my stomach. Moreover the dish is more lukewarm than hot.
The dessert will be fine. Fresh and light.
Finally, only the wine will raise the level of this meal rather below the standards to which the airline has accustomed me.
As always on this kind of flight on Turkish the staff will take a long time to come and clean up and will then be invisible in the cabin. Maybe it’s due to the fact that on a single-aisle aircraft they only have the back galley to sit in, the front one being taken for business class, but that doesn’t exempt them from showing up from time to time.
Nothing else to add but big turbulences at the arrival in Paris like I had not had for a long time.
The Crew
Not much to say. Polite and professional in the service, he disappeared as soon as it was over. On the other hand, the person I had to deal with on the ground for boarding must not have found the meaning of the word politeness in the dictionary.
Bottom line
Between the “bug” of the seat allocation, the boarding without respect of the priorities, the very disappointing catering….it is far from the standards of Turkish.
Oddly enough, on this series of 4 flights in the week, three had notable bugs on boarding and/or service.
It would be a pity if Turkish Airlines, after having moved to a superb airport, starts doing like Air France.
For your information, the routing :
- Paris-Istanbul : Turkish Airlines Economy
- Istanbul-Izmir : Turkish Airlines Economy
- Izmir-Istanbul : Turkish Airlines Economy (pointless, no review)
- Istanbul-Paris : Turkish Airlines Economy (here)
Articles similaires
Review : Turkish Airlines Economy, Istanbul-Paris, A321Neo
Review : Turkish Airlines economy, Paris-Istanbul, A330
Review : Turkish Airlines Economy, Paris-Istanbul, A321
Gothenburg-Istanbul on Turkish Airlines in business class: truly another world
Review :Turkish Airlines Business Class, Istanbul-Izmir, Boeing 777-300ER
