Blogmas 5.2: My Experience With Turkish Airlines

Hello!

I must be spoiling you with two posts in one day!  My previous post was on Christmas food, and this one is a travel related one based on my recent flight (well, flights) with Turkish Airlines (THY).

I'd never flown long haul before, and my flight before this was from EDI - BHX which was maybe an hour long, tops. Quite a change to a 16 hour flight with one connection!

My flight route was EDI - IST - SIN (Or Edinburgh - Istanbul - Singapore) departing at 1605. I was flying with my absolutely lovely friend Nicole and if you read my Singapore post then you will know that we were flying to Singapore for the weekend so that she could see Taylor Swift in concert and I could excitedly run around Singapore. It's not essential to read my last post to understand what I'm going to talk about here but I'll provide the link anyway here <

Turkish Delights were handed out
after take off. (CONTAINS NUTS)

So my flight itinerary looked like this

Outbound:

EDI - IST: TK 1346 (Boeing 737-800)
IST - SIN: TK 0054 (Airbus A333)

Return
SIN - IST: TK 0055 (Airbus A333)
IST - EDI: TK 1345 (Boeing 737-800)

The first flight was very simple. This is where I snapped photos of my meals. It was a flight of around 5 hours so I didn't do much and I never really got a chance to speak to the crew as they were constantly on their feet.

They passed out our menus and after about an hour in the air, we were served our meals. I chose the chicken dish. It came with, I think Cacik, Chocolate Mousse, Water and oven fresh bread.  Also a drink of your choice (I chose cola.)

 

 

It was all very nice, although the cacik wasn't some thing I was very keen on.  We were given a second service not long after, where we were offered Tea and Coffee. I took the tea, and when asked if I wanted sugar, I said yes and was given a little pack which I thought was really nice. Only downside was no offering of milk, however I probably could have asked for some, but it wasn't that big a deal, I can drink tea without milk in it.

Soon afterwards was time to depart the plane, the cabin crew members were all there to see you off, I made sure to say 'thank you for your service' -- because guys, they have an extremely difficult job, and departed the plane. Time for the 3 hour wait!!

Our flight was delayed. By 2 hours. I wanted to cry, but I expected that it was going to happen. In my 'Working as Senior Air Cabin Crew' module at college, our mock assessment stated "due to thunderstorm activity, there will be expected turbulance at the arrival airport..." and so given that I looked up the forecast for Singapore that said that it was due to be stormy all the days we were there (it wasn't in reality, it was really lovely weather), I had geared myself up for some delayed flights. However while we were waiting in the waiting departure lounge, we started chatting to a lovely lady who gave us tips for getting around Singapore which was lovely!

At 3am we were all shepherded into our lanes for boarding. Our passport had been checked and stamped for quicker boarding by a SIA crew member (at least she looked like she was SIA?) which meant the boarding process went a lot quicker.

Eventually, the plane began to taxi. It went straight backwards and then... straight back... to the stance. I think a passenger had taken ill or something, but I was making my own judgements thinking maybe a crew member was being grounded because of how nervous they sounded on the tannoy?  We were told what was going on but I was so tired I can't remember. I do remember watching the ground staff and cabin crew members have a meeting through my window (I was towards the front in the Economy seats, at the window.) They talked for what felt like 30 minutes and then we were once again off!  This time for real!

We were again handed out our menus, and I was chatting away excitedly to Nicole because we were given a complimentary pack! Obviously, I had never had one before but I remember in WaSACC we were talking about how they are given out on long haul flights with the likes of Emirates, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic and I don't know why but I never expected to get one with THY!

Inside the pack there was some slippers, socks, an eye mask, lip balm, ear plugs and a dental kit (tooth brush and toothpaste)

 

 

I really loved this (is that coming across?) and so I started chattering away to Nicole about some other things you can get on long haul flights.

Like Afternoon Tea! (Which I really wanted?) and a hot towel!

And almost like magic, as soon as I uttered the words 'Hot Towel'...

 

Best flight ever? I think yes. It also smelled really nice. I was so excited!

Not too long later and we were getting our meals served. I think I had beef on this flight? I didn't take a picture of it. But it was nice. We again had water and chocolate mousse with it and we started talking again about how excited we were about landing in Singapore. Nicole was panicking thinking we were going to arrive super late on the Saturday because we were delayed by a couple of hours (we didn't, by the way) and she started to get her hopes down again about how Taylor would never want to meet her. Thankfully that little story ends in Nicole getting an upgrade, me getting her old ticket so getting to go to the concert and she got to meet Taylor Swift!  It was an eventful weekend.

I'm on a tangent again.

After a few hours, and after being asked to close the window shade, getting excited because the seat backs had a kpop playlist and also buttons to let you see the front and bottom cameras of the aircraft as well as a live flight map, Nicole went to sleep, and I plucked up the courage to walk into the galley to talk to the cabin crew.

Is this or is this not a Sherbet Aurora, though?!

I was so nervous about doing this because I didn't want to risk disturbing them in their duties! I know how much they have going on and was fully prepared to be told that I couldn't stay and chat but the girl I talked to, positioned at door L2 was ridiculously lovely. As soon as I asked if I could chat she immediately lit up, she smiled, she laughed, she offered me a drink and let me sit in her seat! I think her name was Yasemin?

I asked her questions about her life as a crew member. How long she had been flying (she said 8 years, which took me by surprise because she looked so young!) and I decided to try and revise my WaSACC module by asking her if she was in the No3 position, tell her the door positions (correctly) of where all the cabin crew (ie, No1 this door, No2 that door... etc) were positioned and she seemed really impressed that I knew it all. (I can be a bit of a show off.)

Her English was really good but I think there was a few communication barriers between us. (I feel so bad when I depend on people speaking English, I think its cruel of me to go to other countries, for example, and expect that my language would be spoken when I can't speak theirs.)

A while later another cabin crew member came into the galley, he was also really nice but I didn't catch his name.  They spoke to each other in Turkish and I left them to it, sitting quietly and not wanting to interrupt. They ended up doing a stock check,and then Yasemin left for her break so I talked to the male cabin crew member, who asked me why I was still awake. I told him "I'm trying to stay up as long as I can to stop jetlag." (It worked btw, I had no jetlag on my outbound or my return)

His English was a lot better than Yasemin but that was probably helped by his other experience working for a British flight operator who I won't name. He told me I could ask anything that I like and he also seemed to have been flying for 8 years, and so I decided to ask him questions like 'where has been your favourite place to fly to?' 'when was the last time you had to do a flight to Singapore' etc. Obviously the first question is one of those overwhelming ones where you have no idea where to begin, but he answered it.  He was very cheery and welcoming, and he told me that he enjoyed his job.

He then told me that he was also about to go for his break and different crew were going to take over, but he said "If you have any other questions, just hit the call bell". I thanked him for helping me out, and thanked him again for doing the job he was doing and told him how much respect and admiration I have for cabin crew. It was probably a bit much but I was also very, very tired.

I then went to my seat and slept for a bit while listening to the playlist I had made on my seat back.

After my sleep we were offered breakfast, which I tried my best to eat, got another drinks service and a few hours later we landed in Singapore.

All of my flights on this route were great. The only issues I had to deal with were making sure my seatbelt was on at all times due to the turbulence, and crying while flying over India because I saw a shooting star.

All the staff were polite, respectful and courteous. I don't have a single bad thing to pick out about it. I'm also super grateful to the crew for taking time to talk to me. I definitely see myself flying with Turkish Airlines again.

Before I flew I was prepared for the worst, I had heard only bad things about the airline but experienced the opposite? Yes, they were cheaper to fly with but the service was still excellent.

Anyway, that was my experience flying with Turkish Airlines, if you have any questions about the service, about what I learned in the "Working as Senior Air Cabin Crew" module or whatever, feel free to leave a comment and I will answer it.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time, be excellent to each other.

______

Remember, I have a giveaway running until 15 December.

Here's the link to the post if you are interested >> ( here ) <<
Two prizes up for grabs; from Lush, Metal Panda and Bomb Cosmetics.