Then there are other airlines that don’t push the surveys as much, but still have comment cards or surveys either upon request, in the seatback pocket, or in the in-flight magazine.

I stumbled upon this very interesting trip report on FlyerTalk.com. Someone was flying from London to Istanbul in business class, and there seemed to be problem after problem, to the point that the passenger decided to fill out a comment card. As the trip report reads:

Once I’d finished my main, the FA who didn’t get me a drink tried to take away the tray. I had to stop her as I still had my dessert to go. I asked if I could get some water and champagne, and she went off to get it. So, it took 1 hour 20 minutes before I could get a glass of something fizzy, and that wasn only by asking twice. By this time I was pretty fed up, so decided to fill out the complaints/comments form in the back of the magazine. I handed this back to the purser.

About five minutes later, she came back saying that she was very sorry that everything had gone wrong today. She seemed very concerned, especially with the onboard service. She then asked me (very politely) if I’d be able to reconsider haindg in the form saying that the onboard service was poor, and she gave me another form to fill out. From then on, the service was incredible. I was given a plate of small cakes (not sure where they came from, no one else got them as far as I could see), and my glass was never empty for the rest of the flight.

First of all, I’m shocked that Turkish Airlines doesn’t have a policy against flight attendants reading the comment cards (or maybe they do but the purser decided to read it anyway). Also, I think it was very unprofessional of the purser to ask the passenger to reconsider handing in the form.

At the same time, I’m kind of torn about this. Would you rather have a flight attendant read your comments while onboard and improve for the rest of the flight, or would you rather have a miserable flight and possibly have management have a talk with the crew after the fact (though more than likely nothing will happen)?

My brother is spending the summer in Germany, and I convinced him to make a quick trip to Seoul at the end of his stay. When he was planning his flight to Germany I was going to book him a first class award, which would cost 100,000 miles, while a trip to Asia via Europe is 120,000 miles. So for a premium of 20,000 miles he’ll be flying from Frankfurt to Seoul in Lufthansa first class and from Seoul to Frankfurt in Asiana first class. He can easily down 20,000 miles worth of booze, and he has wanted to visit the DMZ, which I visited a few years back (though not sure how great of a time it is right now).

I was looking into hotel options for him, and nothing struck me as being a particularly great bargain. But the Park Hyatt Seoul was available using “Big Welcome Back” nights from Hyatt’s very generous promotion, so I decided to pull the trigger and join him in Seoul. I wouldn’t have done it if the flights didn’t work out as beautifully.

When all was said and done, here’s my routing over the coming week:

Not bad, right? Best of all, it was a mere 120,000 Aeroplan miles. Pretty unbeatable, in my book.

I’ll be leaving on Tuesday, and I saw space on both Singapore Airlines from Los Angeles to Singapore (via Tokyo) in first class, as well as space from Washington Dulles to Tokyo in ANA first class. Singapore Airlines first class is impossible to beat, but I’ve done it before. I’ve never done ANA first class, so I decided to give them a shot. Best of all, when I get to Tokyo I’ll be able to pick up the continuation of the Singapore Airlines flight, so I’ll still get seven hours of Singapore Airlines service.

Then I’ll be spending a few nights in Singapore, first at the Crowne Plaza Changi due to the late arrival time, and then at the Grand Hyatt Singapore using free nights from Hyatt’s “Big Welcome Back” promotion. I like Singapore, though was only there for about two days during my last visit, so am looking forward to seeing a bit more.

The next portion of the trip is where I struggled with my options, since I needed to get to Seoul. I was initially set on flying from Singapore to Hong Kong to Seoul, with Singapore to Hong Kong being on United in first class and Hong Kong to Seoul being in Thai business class (on a two cabin plane), but that just didn’t sound very exciting. So I decided to push the maximum permitted mileage on this routing to the max. How?

I noticed that much like Turkish Airlines, which I flew last year, Thai is now wet leasing some 777s from Jet Airways. These planes have some of the nicest, most private suites, so I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity. The ground services in Bangkok are also among the best in the world. The first class lounge is great, and more importantly, they have a spa. As a first class passenger you get a (near) full body hour-long massage for free. Quite relaxing! So I’ll be flying from Singapore to Bangkok in Singapore Airlines business class, then from Bangkok to Tokyo in Thai Airways first class, and then from Narita to Seoul in United Airlines first class.

I get to Seoul the night before my brother arrives, and Incheon (where the airport is) is about 90 minutes from Seoul. Conveniently enough there’s a Hyatt Regency located at the airport, which is a mere 8,000 Hyatt points per night. So I booked that for the night as I wait for my brother, and then we’ll head into the city together and stay at the Park Hyatt Seoul.

Lastly I’ll be flying from Seoul to Frankfurt on Asiana in first class, which is another first for me. Then I’ll be overnighting in Frankfurt at the InterContinental using Priority Club points, before continuing to Seattle in Lufthansa first class the next day.

Overall I’m quite pleased given that the cost was a grand total of 120,000 miles and about $160 in taxes.

And of course you can bet I’ll be tweeting and twitpicking every step of the way!

I should mention, though, that this award didn’t come without some struggles. When I called to book this award the agent was of course a bit reluctant given my routing. Eventually I showed her that the routing was within 37 miles of the maximum permitted mileage plus 5%, which is what Aeroplan goes by. 37 miles on a 15,000+ mile one-way journey is what I call precise planning.

The next challenge was the connection in Washington Dulles on the way out. I had a 1hr18min connection, and they tried to tell me the minimum connection time was 1hr20min. That’s BS, as the domestic to international connection time is in fact 45 minutes, as confirmed by United. United schedules the flight from Tampa to Washington so that it connects to their flights to Tokyo and Beijing, so there was no way it wasn’t allowed. After over 45 minutes on hold a supervisor finally approved it.

Last, but not least, I called ANA to select a seat. They didn’t see my reservation and insisted they never confirmed the flight. I had to call back Aeroplan, and after an hour on hold we were once again good to go.

So it has been a busy day handling all this, but now that everything is taken care of, I’m quite looking forward to the journey!

———————————————————————-

After a great stay in Istanbul, it was time to move on to my favorite city, Hong Kong. Upon our arrival in Istanbul we had arranged to be picked up at the InterContinental at 9PM to be driven to the airport courtesy of Turkish’s complimentary chauffeur service for first class passengers. While we were in the lobby at 9PM, we didn’t see a car waiting for us. At 9:15PM we had the hotel concierge call to follow up, and as it turned out the car was waiting since 9:05PM, but we just didn’t know he was for us. Oops.

This time our ride was a BMW 5 series, which got us to the airport within about 30 minutes.

Ride to the airport

As we pulled up to the airport we had two people waiting for us, one younger lady in a red dress and one older guy with a baggage cart. Impressive coordination on their part! They helped us with our bags, and within moments we were inside the terminal. I was surprised by how nice the airport was.

IST

As we entered the terminal we first had to place all our bags through an x-ray machine. Once that was done we were escorted to first class check-in, where there was once again no line. Not only were we helped immediately, but they didn’t even have to print our boarding passes — they were pre-printed!

First Class check-in

We were escorted through security and immigration, and on the other side were driven in a golf cart to the Prime Class lounge. This was the point in the trip that I started to realize that “Prime Class” actually seems to be a contracted VIP ground service, which I guess Turkish uses for their first class passengers. I might be wrong, but that’s the impression I got.

Prime Class Lounge

While the lounge was quite small, it was impressive.

Prime Class Lounge

Prime Class Lounge

Snack selection

Inside we were urged to sit down at a table and have dinner. While we didn’t really want to eat given the big dinner aboard, the table was set too nicely to say no.

Dinner tables

The table already had bread with all kinds of dipping sauces, appetizers, desserts, and a menu. Within moments our “waiter” came by to take our drink orders and ask what we wanted from the menu. We weren’t all that hungry, so we asked to share an order of the mushroom pasta from the menu.

Table set

Appetizers

Main course

The food was truly spectacular, and the service was attentive. Solely in terms of airport dining, I would argue this lounge outdoes the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt (although I realize that’s a bold statement).

After dinner we moved over to the couches, which were a bit more comfortable. While wireless internet was free, it required sending an activation code to one’s cell phone, which is kind of impractical. We were also given a survey about the ground services. Notice the AWESOME first class ticket jacket.

Ticket holder!

The “escorts” (middle one took care of us throughout our stay)

While the lounge is small, it was never crowded. I took the pictures towards the end of our stay there, given that there was only one other person in the lounge at that point. As I was taking a picture, that guy asked if I wrote trip reports. As it turns out it was a fellow aviation nut. We talked until his flight was ready to go, as he was heading to Bangkok.

The funniest moment had to be when his flight was ready to board. His escort fetched him to tell him the flight was ready for boarding, and since we were in the middle of talking he said “can you give me two minutes please?” She responded “actually no, sorry. The plane is waiting just for you.” Now that’s what I call service.

Our departure time had come and gone, yet we weren’t fetched yet, but we were assured that we would be called when they were ready for us. Right around midnight they indicated they were ready for us to board, at which point we were driven to the gate in a golf cart. They certainly did a good job, since there wasn’t a single person at the gate when we arrived. For a moment I was afraid we had missed the flight.

Empty gate for our flight to HKG

We were literally escorted to the door of the plane, at which point the cabin crew took over.

Turkish 0070, IST-HKG, 77W
Wednesday, August 19
Depart: 11:50PM
Arrive: 2:40PM (+1)
Duration: 9hr50min
Seat: 1D (First Class)

We were directed to our first class seats, only to once again discover that we had the cabin to ourselves. That makes three “private” cabins in a row! We were immediately offered pre-departure drinks and hot nuts, followed by amenity kits, menus, and slippers.

Pre-departure drinks… that’s literally how full they served them…. huh?

Slippers, amenity kit, and menu

Today we were served by two twenty-something year old guys. While they were friendly, they yet again weren’t particularly polished.

As we settled in the captain came on the PA and explained that we were running late because there was a problem with the cargo door. Hmmm, that’s comforting. Given that this flight has a 0% on-time rating, I have to wonder whether they have mechanical issues every day, or what the normal excuse is. He also announced our flight time would be 9hr55min, which was longer than our block time. In other words, we’d be arriving in Hong Kong way late.

Given that we had comfortable seats and were in no rush upon our arrival in Hong Kong that was fine with us. At a little bit after 1AM we finally started our taxi, and after an extremely long takeoff roll were airborne and on our way to Hong Kong.

On our way!

The seatbelt sign was turned off shortly after takeoff, and dinner service began. The menu read as follows:

welcome on board
welcome drink
salted mixed nuts

after take off
assorted canapées

hors d’oeuvres
herbed chicken breast / white eggplant
cherry tomatoes / roasted pine nuts

or

salmon carpaccio

salad
mediterranean salad

soup
potato leek soup
olive croutons

catch of the day
grilled sea bream
tomato and black olives salsa with zucchini
sautéed potatoes

spring lamb
grilled lamb chops
oven roasted red peppers
potato gratin

Asian style
chicken tikka
ratouille
steamed rice

pasta
home made mushroom ravioli
sauteed fresh mushrooms / cherry tomatoes
parmesan

cheese
assorted cheese

fresh fruit
fresh seasonal fruit

sweets
chocolate souffle
ganache sauce

tiramisu

coconut ice cream
marinated berries

Turkish desserts
selection of traditional Turkish sweets
“samsa, hosmerim, sam tatlisi” / clotted cream

ovenfresh
ovenfresh bread selection

freshly brewed
espresso, Turkish coffee, regular coffee, selection of teas

The dinner service began with the same canapés we were offered on our London to Istanbul flight. I had a Diet Coke with lime with dinner.

Canapés

Next came the appetizer, and I chose the salmon, which was delicious.

Salmon carpaccio

The salad was then served. I’m really digging Turkish’s food!

Mediterranean salad

Next came the soup. Again, I was a fan.

Potato leek soup

While I passed on the caviar, my brother didn’t. He was served a full, unopened can as shown below. Not sure whether the caviar presentation was great or awful (really depends on how you look at it, I guess).

Caviar

By this point I wasn’t all that hungry, thanks largely to the dinner in the lounge. I went with chicken for my main course, while my brother went with lamb. I wasn’t a huge fan of the chicken, as it was dry and somewhat tasteless.

Chicken tikka

Grilled lamb chops

Of course I always save room for dessert. I’d argue Turkish has some of the best desserts in the sky (although in all honesty I rarely have desserts I don’t like in international premium cabins).

Dessert

Lastly, to finish off the dinner service, we were served pralines and some sort of gummy things.

Post-dessert

Dinner was served at a relatively good pace, although the attention to detail wasn’t there, especially given that we had a 1:1 crew:passenger ratio. Glasses were often empty, my brother and I were often served courses at different times, and they just weren’t particularly attentive. There’s no excuse for such mistakes in international first class when there’s a full cabin, let alone when it’s empty. Nonetheless the meal was one of the best (and biggest!) I’ve had in the skies, so count me as a HUGE fan of Turkish food.

In my opinion, a ten hour flight is the perfect length. After dinner we had eight hours to go, so I figured I would get six hours of sleep and wake up for the pre-arrival meal with two hours to go. With massive suites and artificial stars on the ceiling, it was tough not to fall asleep, added to the fact that it was 3AM in Istanbul.

Cabin

At this point we were given our pajamas and our beds were made.

Beds fully made

Pajamas

The bed was one of the most comfortable I’ve flown in, especially with the door closed and the air nozzle at full power. I slept a full six hours, and woke up about two hours out of Hong Kong. At this point our flight attendants tried to serve us breakfast, but we asked if they could wait about 30 minutes (given that there was no rush).

I watched a couple of sitcoms, at which point we had breakfast.

Before landing or any time you like

fresh juices
freshly squeezed orange juice / fresh carrot juice

smoothie
avocado-vanilla energizer

fresh fruit
fresh fruit platter

yoghurt
granola yoghurt

cereals
home made muesli / cornflakes

“Demel” jam
strawberry / apricot

honey

cheese and cold cuts
selection of cheese and cold cuts

made to your order
cheese omelette
herbed sauteed tomatoes
panfried potatoes

or

potpouri of “börek”
Turkish style cheese and spinach puff pastries
scrambled eggs
grilled green pepper / cherry tomato

or

caremalized apple pancakes
orange sauce

ovenfresh
ovenfresh bread selection / croissant / Danish Pastry

freshly brewed
espresso, Turkish coffee, regular coffee, selection of teas

The breakfast was fresh and delicious, not to mention varied. The first course was cheese and cold cuts. Just as I was starting that course, the flight attendant plopped a fruit plate down on my tray as well. This is an example of the lack of attention to detail. Couldn’t he wait till I was done with the first course to serve me another one? This isn’t coach, after all.

Fruit and cheese/cold cuts

Next came muesli, which was delicious.

Muesli

Fruit plate

I ordered the omelet as the main course, and I’ve gotta say, it was the best omelet I’ve ever had in the skies.

Omelet

As breakfast finished up I changed out of my pajamas. Shortly thereafter we began our descent into Hong Kong. Eventually we touched down with a rather firm landing, and after a 15 minute taxi made it to our gate.

We thanked our flight attendants and were the first off the plane. While there were people waiting to meet the plane, we didn’t see a sign with our name on it (not that we were necessarily expecting one). We walked towards immigration, but after walking quickly for about five minutes we saw a guy chasing after us. As it turned out he had been waiting for us. He told us to wait, and he ran back to the gate. In the meantime about 2/3 of the plane passed us. Eventually he met us in a golf cart and drove us all the way to immigration. Nice service, although a bit late. Fortunately it still ended up saving us time.

The immigration lines were short and minutes later we were on the Airport Express headed to Kowloon.

———————————————————————-

ZRH isn’t half bad compared to FRA, but it’s not the most fun airport to transit either. Upon deplaning I headed down the escalator and had to take a train to the main terminal. Unfortunately the train runs rather infrequently, so half of the passengers from my flight were at the platform by the time the train arrived. On the other end I headed towards the connections sign, and after walking a while found the right concourse. I headed through security, and was told to leave my belt on, despite wanting to take it off (since I know it sets off the metal detectors in ZRH). As expected I got the full pat down, which really pisses me off. It’s not like the TSA, where they hardly touch you, but instead they fully grab you just about every place known to man. It pisses me off every time.

On the other side of security I realized there was no lounge in that gate area, so I had to leave security again. I headed to the closest Senator lounge, since I really just wanted to check my email. At this point I was sweating, since the terminal was hot as hell and I was wearing a coat and long pants.

The agent at the front desk of the Senator lounge could best be compared to Carol Beer based on her attitude. If you’re not familiar:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Senator lounge

Within about 20 minutes I headed back to security, and this time insisted on taking off my belt to avoid the “royal” treatment yet again. On the other side of the terminal I was genuinely delighted to find out that my flight was leaving from a remote gate. Great, from a private international first class cabin to a Greyhound station!

Of course remote gates (scratch that, any flight out of Germany/Switzerland) means boarding is a complete free-for-all, so I just waited until basically everyone was aboard, although I was sweating like crazy in the meantime. Eventually they wrapped up boarding and I got on the last bus.

Hot gate area

A321 to LHR

The queue to board the plane could best be compared to a line for a ride at Disney World.

Swiss 0332, ZRH-LHR, 321
Monday, August 17
Depart: 12:05PM
Arrive: 1:00PM
Duration: 1hr55min
Seat: 3C (Business Class)

Once aboard the maitre de cabin pointed me to my seat. The window seat was already taken, and I was quite peeved when I saw that the person in the window not only had carry-ons bigger than mine, but also took up the space under his seat and the entire space under the middle seat. I stored my bag in the overhead bin.

As boarding finished up he suggested I move to the empty row in front of us, which I did. As the door closed bottles of water and towelettes were distributed to business class passengers, followed quickly by Swiss chocolate.

Water and towelette

Boarding finished up right on time, although we didn’t move for nearly 20 minutes without so much as a peep from the flight deck. Eventually we pushed back and started taxiing, but we came to an abrupt stop just near the runway. After a few more minutes the captain came on the PA, welcomed us aboard, and explained that we were originally delayed because they had to remove a bag from the plane, but they were just informed that they forgot to detach a headset from the nose gear, so they were sending out a car to remove it now. Oops!

It did in fact only take a few minutes, at which time we were cleared for takeoff immediately.

As soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off, service began. First there was a round of drinks, followed by the lunch service. Since this flight was only about 1hr15min in the air, service was nonstop. The flight attendant was extremely professional as well, as he memorized everyone’s name in business class.

Crappy intra-Europe business class!

AIR NOZZLES!

Lunch

While the services offered in intra-Europe business class are impressive, I would take a United domestic first class seat with zero service over this any day of the week. The business class seats are just normal coach seats with the middle seat blocked. It’s just far too uncomfortable, especially after getting off an international first class flight.

As we approached London the captain informed us that we were put in a holding pattern, although that didn’t last for more than ten minutes. Soon enough we were cleared to land, and after a quick taxi made it to London right on-time (see, US airlines aren’t the only ones that pad their schedules like crazy).

Would someone please remind me why the hell I chose to connect at LHR? It’s simply the worst airport in the universe. After walking what seemed like a 5K race I made it to the connection bus. No, this wasn’t your average quick transfer bus. The ride was long enough for me to actually expect a meal service and after a while I was fully expecting to be driven all the way to Istanbul.

Then I finally make it to terminal 3. Almost there, right? Wrong! I get in the flight transfer line, although it’s ridiculously long (and there’s no premium line either). It’s hot, I’m tired, and I simply don’t want to stand still. So instead of waiting I decide to go through immigration, go to the check-in counter to get my boarding pass, and then go through security faster thanks to Fast Track.

This did indeed work out faster. I went to the immigration line, and there was a UK/EU line and a non-UK/EU line. I went up to the lady working there at the end of the line and asked her which line was faster (I have both a German and US passport, so I could go with either, and I really couldn’t tell which was shorter due to the weird snaking of the lines). She tells me I need to use the line for my passport, and I said “yes, so which line is faster” (yeah, I was trying to have fun with her). She then says “sir, you don’t understand, you can only use the line based on your citizenship.” Eventually she gives in and tells me the non-UK/EU line is faster, so I take that one.

Within five minutes I’m at Turkish Airlines check-in, where I was immediately helped. The agent gave me my boarding passes and I explained to her that my brother should be arriving shortly (since his flight was due into LHR 30 minutes after mine). She was confused at first, but eventually understood. She also asked whether we needed a limo service in Istanbul. One of the nice things about Turkish Airlines is that they offer their first class passengers a limo service both to and from the airport in Istanbul. I had arranged this in advance, but it seems like they didn’t do it properly. This wasn’t a problem, but she confirmed they would meet us at the plane upon arrival.

I zipped through security, and five minutes later found myself in the Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge. There I was invited into the first class section, which was totally empty (the Singapore Airlines Suites effect, as I’ll call it). I asked the agent to let my brother know I’m here whenever he arrives, which she agreed to.

The lounge was fine, nothing special really, especially for a Singapore Airlines first class lounge. Ultimately I wasn’t interested in food or anything else. All I wanted was internet and a shower, and they met both of those needs.

First Class Silver Kris Lounge LHR

First Class Silver Kris Lounge LHR Snack Selection

My brother arrived 30 minutes after I did, and it was nice to see him, even if about 12 hours late. We talked about our flights, and it seemed like we both had good experiences (although mine was better, and I’m sticking to it).

Since we were the only ones in the lounge there was no bartender, so my brother asked the lady at the front desk for a glass of champagne. Throughout our stay she had a great sense of humor, so she later not only brought him a glass of champagne, but….

That’s what I call attentive service!

At around 3:30PM we decided to head towards our departure gate, and were happy to have left early. Initially our flight was supposed to leave from gate nine, which is right near the lounge, but we quickly learned that it was leaving from a gate on the other side of the terminal. So after a 15 minute walk we did make it to our gate, right at boarding time.

777-300ER taking us to IST

As boarding time came around there was all of a sudden a mad rush to the rather narrow boarding area. I hadn’t heard an announcement for boarding, so I wasn’t sure if there was something they knew that we didn’t. There were literally 200 people scrunched up in a small space. At that point one of the gate agents made an announcement telling everyone to be seated immediately.

Shortly thereafter boarding was announced, starting with first and business class. As we were trying to board a passenger came up behind my brother and said “excuse me, I’m in business class.” Oh no he didn’t….

Turkish 1992, LHR-IST, 77W
Monday, August 17
Depart: 4:30PM
Arrive: 10:20PM
Duration: 3hr50min
Seat: 2G (First Class)

Upon boarding we were immediately escorted to our seats in the first class cabin. I was shocked when I entered the cabin, as it was easily the most private one I’ve ever seen. It’s worth pointing out once again that the Turkish 777-300ERs are being leased from Jet Airways, so all the seats are their designs.

The cabin has eight seats in total, and my brother and I had the two center seats in row two. We were informed that we would once again be the only two passengers in first class. Two for two!

View from my suite

My seat

Talk about privacy!

AIR NOZZLE!

The coolest thing had to be that each seat had doors which could be closed. Talk about ultimate privacy!

Suite 2K

As soon as we settled in we were offered a choice of hot and cold towels, and we both went with hot towels.

Hot towels

We were then offered a selection of juices. My brother was saddened by the lack of pre-departure champagne. The drinks were accompanied by a bowl of warm nuts.

Pre-departure orange juice and nuts

We were then offered noise canceling headphones, an amenity kit, shaving cream, and a razor.

QC2′s, amenity kit, and shaving stuff

I was happy to see that the items in the amenity kit were from Bulgari.

Amenity kit contents

Shortly thereafter menus were distributed.

Menus

Departure time quickly approached and the doors were shut. We indeed had the cabin to ourselves. The flight attendants prepped for a manual safety demo, and I just started laughing. We each had a flight attendant doing a “private” safety demo for us, and I just couldn’t stop laughing. What made it even funnier for me was that the flight attendants would never make eye contact with us (probably to avoid laughing as well), so they were acting as if they were doing the presentation for 100 people.

For about 30 minutes after our scheduled departure time we didn’t move, without so much as an announcement from the cockpit. Nearly 45 minutes after our scheduled departure time we pushed back, only to start a long taxi to the runway followed by a long queue. Eventually the captain came on to introduce himself, although he didn’t even mention the delay, let alone apologize for it.

After a quick takeoff roll we were airborne and on our way to Istanbul. The seatbelt sign stayed on for at least 20 minutes, but once it was turned off the flight attendants sprung into action.

Service started with another round of hot towels (hey, after touching so many nuts it only seemed right).

Hot towel

At that point the flight attendants asked us what we wanted to eat and drink. The menu read as follows:

welcome on board
welcome drink
salted mixed nuts

after take off
assorted canapées

hors d’oeuvres
selection of Turkish “meze”
tabbouleh / marinated shrimps
“pastirma” air dried beef / Turkish style fresh artichoke in olive oil

or

buffalo mozzarella & sundried tomatoes
grilled vegetables / pesto

salad
Mediterranean salad with feta cheese and grilled artichokes

special from Turkish cuisine
beef “kulbasti”
Turkish style grilled beef fillet
creamy eggplant puree / rice / grilled tomato and green pepper

chicken selection
grilled chicken breast with fresh herbs
pan-fried vegetables / potato puree

pasta
home made rigatoni
creamy parmesan sauce
sauteed broccoli and zucchini

cheese
assorted cheese

fresh fruit
fresh fruit platter

desserts
chocolate & hazelnut mousse cake

freshly brewed
espresso, Turkish coffee, regular coffee, selection of teas

ovenfresh
ovenfresh bread selection

Turkish desserts
“fistikli kadayif, kalbuda basti” / clotted cream

I’m a HUGE fan of this type of food, so I was excited, despite not being all that hungry.

First came the canapés, which were delicious.

Canapés

Then the table was set. Overall the presentation was great. I loved the rose, but the stem was wrapped in tin foil. It seems to me like they could improve the presentation on that just a bit.

Table set-up

For the first course I went with the tomato and mozzarella. Simply delicious.

Buffalo mozzarella & sundried tomatoes

Bread basket

Then came the salad. Once again, fantastic.

Mediterranean salad with feta cheese and grilled artichokes

My brother went with the steak for his main course, while I went with the pasta. I know pasta isn’t all that creative, but I had a steak on Swiss and wasn’t all that hungry. My brother enjoyed his steak, but I have to say my pasta dish was probably in the top five pasta dishes I’ve had anywhere in the world (including Italy), let alone on a plane.

Beef “kulbasti”

Rigatoni

Then came the cheese cart. I passed, since I was saving some room for dessert.

Cheese

For dessert I went with both the mousse and the Turkish dessert. Both were incredible.

Dessert

My brother ordered a Turkish coffee, and he was a bit surprised by how thick it was.

Tar or coffee (after a single sip)?

The meal was truly delicious. As far as the service goes, all I can say is “meh.” The flight attendants were friendly, although they were unpolished and seemed to lack the confidence to serve a first class cabin. We had two flight attendants taking care of us (that’s a 1:1 ratio), yet our glasses were frequently empty and we always had to ask for refills.

After dinner there was about an hour to go to Istanbul, so we decided to try out the suites (although we’d be doing that more comprehensively a couple of nights later on our Istanbul to Hong Kong flight).

I watched a couple of sitcoms, while my brother started to watch a movie. We closed the doors, which does indeed make for a private experience.

Closed doors

Our progress

Before we knew it we were beginning our initial descent, and the flight attendants brought us one last treat — a small cheesecake square and a chocolate covered strawberry.

Post-dessert

At this point the flight attendants were advised to prepare for landing, and we began a gradual descent, which ended with our not-so-gradual landing. It was by far the roughest landing I’ve experienced in the million or so miles I’ve flown. Not only was the landing rough, but as we were at maybe 30 or 40 miles per hour the pilot all of a sudden slammed on the brakes, bringing us to a complete stop on the runway, as the plane cradled back and forth a bit as a result.

As we got to the gate we thanked our flight attendants for a pleasant flight, and at door 2L were met by two people holding a large sign with our last name on it. They introduced themselves and said they’d be taking us through immigration. They helped us with our bags and pointed us towards the golf cart waiting for us right at the gate. This turned into quite an adventure, since the terminal was packed and immigration wasn’t far away at all.

Golf cart

We were driven to immigration, where they took care of our visas and waved us through in no time. They escorted us to the lower level, where a very nice Mercedes S class was waiting to take us to our hotel.

Transfer car

Not only was the car nice, but so was the driver, and he knew how to drive. I don’t even want to guess how fast we were driving, but after a long couple of days we were at the InterContinental Ceylan Istanbul in no time.

To be continued….

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It was the end of May and I had no real international premium travel booked for the summer. I was going to be busy, so time was limited. My brother and I try to take one big trip together every year (some of you might remember our trip to Malta last year), so this seemed like a good time to plan something together. Unfortunately my brother is in an accelerated MBA program which leaves him with virtually no time off, since he has summer classes as well.

I needed to be back home by August 24, which is when my classes started, while my brother couldn’t leave before August 14, which was when his summer term ended. Well, that kind of narrowed down our options. Nonetheless I was determined to find a good award which would maximize both our in-air experience and our destination cities. As most of you probably know, getting there is at least half the fun for me.

While we had no clue where we specifically wanted to go, I had a general idea. I was sitting on 240,00 Aeroplan miles (Air Canada’s spun-off frequent flyer program), and Aeroplan had recently liberalized their routing rules to allow awards from the US to Asia to go via Europe. For 120,000 miles per person in first class, this seemed like the perfect award.

There were two products I definitely wanted to fit into this award. First, we both wanted to try Swiss’ new first class product, which is on their new A330-300′s. Swiss is also one of my brother’s favorite airlines, since they have his favorite champagne in first class (stay tuned for that). I also wanted to fly Turkish Airways on one of their leased 777-300ERs from Jet Airways, which are flown from London to Istanbul and Istanbul to Asia. They also seemed to have amazing ground services in Istanbul.

This worked out well since Istanbul was always a city I wanted to visit, and I figured we could also visit Hong Kong, a city I have visited many times but my brother hasn’t. It would be a good opportunity for me to put my “tour guide” skills to the test.

Anyway, piecing together this itinerary was quite an adventure which took a couple of days, but I couldn’t have been happier with the end result. After a surprisingly quick one hour call to Aeroplan, and 120,000 miles and $200 in taxes per person later, we were sitting on this award.

Day 1, TPA-ORD, UA0859, 0909-1055, United Economy, 2hr46min, 320
Day 1, ORD-ZRH, LX0009, 1915-1100 +1, Swiss First Class, 8hr45min, 333
Day 2, ZRH-LHR, LX0332, 1205-1300, Swiss Business Class, 1hr55min, 321
Day 2, LHR-IST, TK1992, 1630-2220, Turkish First Class, 3hr50min, 77W
(Stopover, two days)
Day 4, IST-HKG, TK0070, 2350-1440 +1, Turkish First Class, 9hr50min, 77W
(Destination, three days)
Day 8, HKG-BKK, TG0639, 1845-2025, Thai Business Class, 2hr40min, 333
Day 9, BKK-MUC, TG0924, 0050-0715,  Thai First Class, 11hr25min, 346
Day 9, MUC-ZRH, LX1101, 0930-1030, Swiss Business Class, 1hr, AR1
Day 9, ZRH-JFK, LX0014, 1300-1545, Swiss First Class, 8hr45min, 333

For more details about why I chose this particular routing, see my original post on the award from back when I booked it.

You’ll probably notice that my award starts in Tampa but ends in New York. This is because of Aeroplan’s ten segment award rule. Flying back to TPA would have taken two more segments, which would have put me at 11 segments. Also, given that my classes started the same day I returned home, I decided to just book a $99 ticket on DL from JFK-TPA. Thanks to my Northwest Platinum status I was expecting an upgrade as well, so that was no big deal.

In the end our award trip would be 10 segments and cover over 24,000 miles. I hope through the report you’ll see why I’d choose such a crazy routing when there were more direct routings, and most importantly why getting there can be half the fun…

The best part is that there is plenty of award availability, even for several passengers in premium cabins. The first class product is easily the best all around product to Europe from the US, and the business class product is among the best.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Then check out this Kevin Kostner commercial:

Click here to view the embedded video.

It really was just like that, for better or for worse. The food was truly spectacular. I lost count after about nine courses. The hard product was the best out there, probably better than Cathay Pacific’s (which was previously my favorite). Where it got interesting was the ground services and the onboard service. The ground services were simply magnificent, almost uncomfortably so. Being driven through the terminal in a golf cart with two personal assistants and being escorted every step of the way almost got uncomfortable at times. It just wasn’t as discreet as Lufthansa ground services, for example.

The onboard service was the biggest disappointment. The flight attendants were friendly, but they were execeedingly unpolished. They seemed to lack the confidence to serve a first class cabin. This isn’t really surprising given that Turkish doesn’t have First Class aside from their leased 777′s from Jet Airways. You really do “feel like a star” in that the flight attendants almost seemed tongue tied when trying to communicate with us, as if we were celebrities they were nervous to talk to.

Either way, the onboard service could use some training, but everything else was incredible.

Me saying that probably means it won’t….