Review of Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Milan in Business

Routing

Arriving into Istanbul

After arriving in Concourse D from SFO, I walked back to the center of the terminal to access the lounge.

Signage to the lounge is clear heading upstairs.

Turkish Airlines Business Lounge

The lounge is upstairs, but a boarding pass check is done before the escalators to filter out passengers that are accessing the wrong lounge since the entrance to the Miles and Smiles Lounge is on the other side of the main concourse.

Entering the lounge, I head off to the left first to grab a shower.

The showers and day rooms are all managed at the desk at the end. Shower rooms were available immediately and I was escorted to my room.

TK's shower rooms are decently appointed although not the largest.

Plenty of amenities are offered.

After my shower, I went back into the lounge to grab a snack. Walking by the business center.

Storage lockers where you can put your belongings on display.

The lounge is busy at this time of day since there are large blocks of TATLs departing in the early afternoon, but it is still large enough to offer free seats.

I grabbed some manti from one of the chef stations as a light snack.

Plane Spotting

Feeling tired and full, I decided to just wander the airport for the next two hours to kill time during a longish layover and see the sights since Istanbul offers an excellent mix of carriers that don't serve North America.

Jazeera Airways (J9) A320neo arriving from Kuwait City.

Iran Airtour (B9) A300-600 arriving from Mashhad.

Uzbekistan Airways (UK) A320neo departing for Urgench.

Air Arabia (G9) A320 arriving from Sharjah.

Ural Airlines (U6) A320 arriving from Sochi.

Berniq Airways (NB) A320 arriving from Benghazi.

TK B77W departing for ORD.

Our plane arrived from Colombo, so I went down to the adjacent bus gates to get some views. Our flight was supposed to be operated by an A350 when I booked the ticket, then 48 hours before departure I was notified of a seat change from 8K to 5K and looking at the seat map it was going to be a regional configuration A330. Then 24 hours before departure, I got another seat change notification from 5K to 4K, this time the cabin would be a long-haul configuration A330. Our plane today would be TC-JOL, a 9 year-old A330-300, with TK's C28 (2-2-2) and Y261 (2-4-2) configuration. It is named Aydin after the city/province.

Boarding

Our flight was leaving from Gate B1 and there are document checks to enter the quarantined gate area. Inside, business class passengers were instructed to line up at B1(A) and economy passengers at B1(B) to enable parallel boarding.

The destination is confirmed.

Boarding started on-time, but then we were held in the jet bridge for 10 minutes. Eventually we were released into the plane. Warm greetings boarding through 1L. I was guided through the galley and down the aisle. The crew was surprisingly still wearing the old uniforms.

The cabin is laid out in 2-2-2 configuration using the Aura Lite seats also found on the B77Ws.

Seat Features

My seat today. The space is of course grand with 76" of pitch and having no seat mate makes any privacy concerns a non-issue. Pre-placed on the seats were a pillow and headphones were placed on the side.

The pillow is okay, but I grab the one from the seat next to me as well for extra cushion.

The screen is large, but has to be since it is so far away. Below the screen is the large ottoman for storage and the literature compartment.

The ottoman can comfortably fit a backpack.

Literature is the safety card and airsickness bag.

The cabin is not private, which is the major criticism of Aura Lite seats despite their luxurious foot space for sleeping. But not an issue for a short 2.5h flight with a light load factor.

The center console features the seat controls and tray table.

Storage around the seat is limited, with just a small side compartment. This compartment also houses the head phone jack, USB-A port, and 110V universal outlet.

Behind your shoulder is the IFE remote.

No Denon headphones on this flight in favor of a standard on ear product.

There is a pull out privacy panel as well though I kept it closed with no seat mate.

Pre-Departure Service

The FA came down the aisle offering PDBs from a tray. I took the lemonade and a water.

Menus are then handed out along with a packet of roasted hazelnuts.

Unlike the previous flight, these are still the old menu design. There is the choice of 3 mains along with a decent drink offering.

Departure from Istanbul

We were soon ready to push back, an EK A380 next door.

The safety video played in Turkish and then English.

OZ B772, AH B738, and SV A333 as we start our taxi.

IrAero (AO) Sukhoi Superjet 100 pushing back for Sochi. My first time seeing one in person.

We hold short of runway 35L for our shorter sister to depart.

Belavia (B2) B738 arriving from Minsk.

Rossiya (FV) Sukhoi Superjet 100 arriving from Moscow.

It was then our turn to take off and we started our run down 35L at 16:33, ~15 minutes late.

Goodbye Istanbul.

We were quickly over the Black Sea before making our u-turn to head back into Bulgaria.

Meal Service

Meal service started quickly with the distribution of hot towels.

The tray was then brought out containing starters, cheese, and dessert.

The starter was Salmon Carpaccio and Prawn with Celeriac Salad.

The small dish was Köpoğlu, which is Turkish style fried aubergines with slow roasted tomato sauce and "süzme" yoghurt.

Breads were also offered from a basket.

A simple cheese plate offering.

I ordered just a cup of the Turkish black tea from Rize with my meal since I still had a drive ahead of me on arrival.

For the main, the other options (chicken or swordfish) didn't sound appetizing so I stuck with the Homemade Artichoke Mezzelune. I had this on my last IST-MXP flight and it was good and did not disappoint this time either.

After the meal, I asked for a glass of water and a cup of the digestive tea that was served with a smile.

The meal service ended as were exiting Bulgaria with a hot towel.

Mid-Flight

After the meal, I went back to the lavatory near 2R. The galley on this A330.

The lavatory was clean and appointed with Molton Brown products.

I took a nap and awoke as we were crossing the Adriatic Sea.

The IFE interface and content is the same as the previous report. There is also complimentary Wi-Fi (1GB) for business class passengers, but I have unlimited data with my TK status.

We were soon crossing into Italy north of Venice.

Flying over Treviso with TSF visible in the bottom left corner.

Arrival into Malpensa

Our approach into MXP as the cabin was prepared for landing.

Flying over BGY.

Reaching Milan, Centrale is visible on the right as we approached over Linate.

Beautiful views over Milan as we loop the city center.

My best capture of the Duomo.

We started our short final into MXP after circling the city center and heading north..

The urban areas were quickly replaced with countryside.

Circling Abbiategrasso to align with Malpensa's runways.

The Ticino River that establishes part of the Lombardy-Piedmont border.

The large SARPOM refinery in Trecate.

The town of Lonate Pozzolo just off the end of the runways.

We race our shadow to the runway.

We touch down on runway 35L at 17:53, ~15 minutes early.

Looping past the U2 operations at T2.

We take our gate at T1 next to the airport equipment parking lot.

We were quickly out and on the solitary walk towards passport control as the only non-Schengen flight arriving at this time.

No wait at immigration using the e-gates and I was through to the baggage claim just 13 minutes after touching down. Not too many exotic non-Schengen arrivals in the evenings and the bags were circulating by the time I got back from using the bathroom.

After collecting my bag, it was out into the terminal and on my way down to the rental car center to collect my car.

I'll leave off this series here as I start my stay in Lombardy, thanks for stopping by.

Flight Information

Turkish Airlines, TK1875
Equipment: Airbus A330-300 [TC-JOL “Aydın”, delivered June 2015]
Departure: 16:15 (ATD: 16:33)
Arrival: 18:10 (ATA: 17:53)
Flight time: 2:20