Turkish Airlines Business Class
Bangkok (BKK) – Istanbul (IST)
09:25 (09:32A) – 15:50 (15:08A) [9:36 Hours]
Monday 16 September 2019
Airbus A330-300 (TC-JNI)
Seat: 2K
Cost: THB 89,933 (Promotion Fare)
This is a part of a trip Philadelphia 2019.
Checking In
We arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport around 07:30 and promptly proceed to Row Q, the check in for Turkish Airlines’ Business Class. There was no line in front of us for check-in so we were able to quickly drop off the bags and got our boarding passes to New York JFK Airport. We then proceeded to the Fast Track area for security check and immigration.
Lounging Around
What is new for Suvarnabhumi Airport is Turkish Airlines’ Lounge Bangkok. Although this would be my second time visiting this lounge (It is one of the better Priority Pass lounge at Suvarnabhumi), this would be my first time using it flying with Turkish Airlines. The lounge is large, and has a good selection of food, including a live Pizza station. Perhaps due to it being very new, the lounge was quite empty. I enjoyed a small portion of “Khao Tom” or Rice Porridge with Orange Juice, as I knew I would be eating quite a bit on the plane. Anyways, thumbs up to Turkish Airlines for having their own lounge in Bangkok.
Boarding & Taking Off
Boarding was called relatively very early. I think by 08:45 everyone was already on board the plane. It must have been due to the very light load as well. (This TK59 flight is the newest and third frequency of BKK-IST for TK.)
As usual for morning flight, Orange Juice as pre-departure beverage:
Menus, pillow, a light blanket, headphones, and a pair of slipper were placed on the seat area upon boarding:
Take off was quick and on time. The weather today in Bangkok is very Sunny.
The Seat
This is the current standard long-haul Turkish Airlines Business Class seat. Although I have found during this trip that they have made some minor tweaks to their seat in some of the newer plane, this A330 featured the older version of this seat. Turkish also had introduced a new Business Class seat this year on their new Boeing 787-9.
I found this Business Class seat configuration to be quite comfortable, if you are traveling with a companion. The lie-flat seat is arrange in a 2-2-2 configuration and the seat is not angled nor is it staggered. This means that the passenger is seated forward and there is no foot-well, which is great for sleeping. The seat also has a small storage to the side inside the armrest and a large shoe cubicle in the front.
The Breakfast
The menus were provided by the “on-board chefs” before take off. I inquired if breakfast would be the first service for today’s flight and he confirmed that it will be. The breakfast card was collected by the chef after we filled it out.
After take off, the service began with warm towels:
What really annoyed me at this point was that the crew asked for all of the window shades to be lowered, right after the seat belt signs were off, 30 minutes into the flight. For a day flight, I would have preferred to have some daylight, at least until the end of the first meal service.
The meal service begins with the table set up with fruit plate:
My hot breakfast choice was omelette:
Usually, Turkish has some great catering, especially in Business Class. This meal was on the mediocre to okay side. The meal service was very rush, and it concluded just a little over an hour after take-off. I really did not like the fact that I had to eat breakfast in the dark, at 10am, on a day flight.
The Sleep
After the meal service was completed, about 10 minutes later, the crew came around all the business class passengers to turn down the seat. The seat turn down consists of a thin mattress pad, a pillow cover, and a thicker blanket (in addition to the thin one given during boarding).
For this flight, I watch some movies before going to bed. I tried to sleep as much as I can on this flight, as it was around midnight New York time at this point. I took some melatonin and slept around 3-4 hours, waking up when we were flying over Iraq.
The Lunch
This would be our lunch menu for today:
The lunch service started with nuts and Coke Zero:
The starter which was Prawn & Glass Noodle Salad. I think this is supposed to be a Thai dish (?) or a fusion one, as it neither taste like Thai or Western.
Bread, butter, and olive oils; standard Turkish Airlines Business dining set-up:
I choose the Cod Fish for the main course. This did not disappoint (TK does very good seafood dishes) and is the second best dish I had on this flight. The fish was very flavorful and was cooked just right.
Following the main course was the cheese & dessert cart…
… featuring the best dish of this flight: Chocolate Cheesecake!
Apart from the slightly weird glass noodle salad, this was overall an excellent meal. I really enjoyed the Codfish and the cheese cake. I also have to mention that TK is one of the two partners of Do&Co. for their catering services (the other being Austrian), and both features very good food on board their flights.
Landing
It was a beautiful day to be landing in Istanbul. I was lucky enough to be on the correct side and was treated with a view of the Bosporus
We also passed our good old friend, Ataturk Airport, which is now used only for cargo flights.
After enjoying the views, we finally made it to the new Istanbul Airport (I was very excited). We made the (relatively) short taxi into Gate B1. After disembarking, we made the long trek to International transfer security screening for our next flight to New York JFK.
The Experience
Overall, it was an good flight on Turkish Airline’s A330-300 from Bangkok to Istanbul. I was not impressed how they forced every one to shut their blinds after 30 minutes in this flight and felt the service was very rushed. On the other hand, the seat, the turn-down service, and the food quality on this flight was very good.
Long-Haul Business Class
- Departure & Lounge: 4/5 (good lounge at Bangkok)
- Aircraft & Seat: 4/5 (good quality seat, but not all aisle access)
- Food: 4.5/5 (very good food, especially lunch)
- Sleep: 4/5 (mattress pad, but unimpressed with shades down)
- Service: 3/5 (not memorable, rushed)
- Entertainment: 4.5/5 (very good selection)
- Arrival & Time: 5/5
Total: 29/35 (82%) B-
Life Well Traveled 