A very warm welcome to all Flight-Report members and visitors for this exclusive series of Flight-Report's which was an easy way having a Star Alliance Gold status. In addition, in this series I had the chance to experience the brand new Turkish Airlines Domestic Lounge at Istanbul Airport on the first day of its operation. This exclusive series would include 15 flights ( 14 on Turkish Airlines & 1 on SunExpress ) and 13 of these reports are flights to/from Istanbul Airport in Business Class. The other two flights are also domestic flights which are on Economy Class and they are not reports from/to Istanbul Airport. More details could be found in the routing section.
The tenth report of this series would be the another flight Turkish Airlines domestic flight; this time to Ankara. This report would also have a small review of the Turkish Airlines Lounge Domestic for the fourth time.
The routing would look like this. All reports except #2 would include lounge reviews as well.
Flight routing
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10#10 TK 2124 ISL to ESB ( J ) 737-800
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
Pax for this flight
Business Class: %100
Economy Class: %95-100
Istanbul Airport - ISL
After arriving my previous flight, I have used the escalators to go to the departures level. At the moment, there isn't a security screening for transfer passengers from domestic to domestic.
Arriving to the gate level. Our aircraft ( TC-JVN ) is even visible.
The regular gate of our flight would be gate G2a.
After a short walk I have reached to the elevators at the lounge and used them to access to the lounge.
Turkish Airlines LOUNGE DOMESTIC - Istanbul Airport
The lounge was a bit crowded as three flights ( TZX, ESB & GZT ) depart at the same time and the Elite Plus & Business section hasn't been opened yet. At the moment, all passengers are redirected to the Classic Plus & Elite & Star Gold lounge.
Business corner
FIDS
Drink bars are located all around the lounge. Just a quick note that I haven't take photos of the food offerings that day but you could find them in the reports #4 & #8 of this series.
Boarding pass
Shortly before the flight, boarding has begun from the CIP gate and we were transferred to the aircraft by bus.
As there were lots of people trying to retain status or pass to the next status at Miles&Smiles ( even flying Economy ) , there was a long wait for the elevator after arriving to the gate.
TK 2124 ISTANBUL AIRPORT TO ANKARA ESENBOĞA AIRPORT
While boarding the aircraft, the crew noticed me and welcomed by my name. They have told me that the passenger in seat 3E was seated separately from his wife so they offered me to swap seats with the other passenger. I have accepted the swap and sat at seat 2E.
Later on welcome drinks were served.
Continued by nuts and menus
And by the monitoring of the safety video
TC-JUE which would head to Trabzon was behind us going to the same place as we do: the runway.
Shortly after we took of I have opened the IFE screen to check if it's on during this flight. Yes, it's on.
In addition, as this aircraft is equipped with the new Thales IFE system, business class seats also have power sources.
Shortly after the closure of the seatbelt signs, the meal was served. It was the same meal with my previous TK 2124 flight, which was 4 days before this flight.
Smoked Salmon and Celeriac Salad
Grilled Chicken Brochette with roasted red pepper, grilled zucchini, sweetcorn mousseline
Do&Co's Chocolate Mousse
For a drink, this time I've opted for a tomato juice.
It was snowing at the Ankara region and the temperature was -10 degrees centigrade.
For operational reasons, as the captain said, we had skipped the runway and made a circle. Then we had landed to Ankara Esenboğa Airport.
Then we had parked to gate 109.
After saying "see you again" to the crew, I have left the aircraft.
ANKARA ESENBOĞA AIRPORT - ESB
Then I have followed the signs for arrivals and then for the Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge as I would return to Istanbul with the same aircraft.
This report has came to and end, thanks for reading and hope to see you in another report.
Hello again, Eryorulmaz,
Almost caught up with this big series.
Once again, beautiful lounge shots.
A familiar, but wonderful meal.
And another delightful experience in TK J.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi hometoyyz and welcome to this report,
"Almost caught up with this big series."
- Thanks for reading all the reports in this series.
"Once again, beautiful lounge shots."
- Thanks again
"A familiar, but wonderful meal."
- I hope that TK doesn't decrease their service in domestic flights. Probably they won't change it in the first years of Istanbul Airport but hope not in the far-future.
"And another delightful experience in TK J."
- Completely agree
Thanks again and hope to see you again in another report.