Hi, dear flight-report members and readers! In this FR I'd like to present a detailed review of Turkish Airlines Airbus A350-900 in a very nonstandard (for TK) layout on a flight from Istanbul (IST) to Tel Aviv (TLV), taken on 25 June 2023.
Intro
From late May 2022 to early October 2023 I lived and worked in Israel, and TLV was then well-connected to Turkey (IST, SAW and AYT), served by both Turkish Airlines and Pegasus with a load of daily flights. For the late June 2023 I planned a weekend trip to Kosovo and bought TLV-SAW-PRN for June 23 from PC and PRN-IST-TLV for June 24 (with IST-TLV for early morning 25 June) from TK.
But something went wrong: I made my way to PRN… to be refused entry for no clearly explained reason. I was given a free ticket on PC back to TLV and was pushed back to the same A20N that flew me from SAW to PRN. Back in SAW I decided not to continue to TLV and to spend the weekend in Istanbul.
So I went to TK sales office in SAW and for some fee deleted PRN-IST segment, which I was no able to take, leaving only IST-TLV. In Istanbul I rode metro lines from SAW, visited some parks in Asian part of the city, where lime trees were blooming (a nice surprise), rode a ferry to the European part of the city and took the new metro line to Istanbul Airport.
Important to notice that 24 June was the day of Prigozhin mutiny (eventually failed) in Russia. Even though I left Russia 16 months before, you'll see further why it was important in the context of this flight.
Istanbul Airport
I find Istanbul Airport to be one of the most impressive airports in the world. If you visit all its concources, it would be a good physical exercise (I once made this exercise in 2020 and was very exhausted after). I got to IST by midnight, and at that moment, 7 hours before the flight, expertflyer was showing seatmap corresponding for a standard TK A359 (I even changed a seat to an exit row one for free at the check-in desk). Then I cleared border control and went for a sleep in the terminal until the morning.
The Aircraft
This flight TK784 was operated by 2022-built TC-LGL. My brain was so sleepy before boarding, that I didn't think that this reg means something special…


The 2L door upon boarding.

The Business Cabin
When I got onboard and look left, I started to turn awake. This business cabin looked abnormally luxurious for TK's new-gen widebodies…




The Premium Economy Cabin
When I turned right and saw the premium economy cabin, I eventually became awake. I knew that TK got rid of W very long ago (the last time I saw W cabin in TK's widebody was ISL-GRU flight on TC-JJK 77W in February 2016, when TK's older 77W had large W cabin with recliner seats, similar to narrowbody fleets business seats). I eventually realized that I got a jackpot: a standard dull A359 was swapped at the last minute to the so-called Turkoflot. These A359s with 3-class C28_W24_Y264 layout were built for Aeroflot (which received before first 6 units), but due to 24.02.2022 and sanctions SU was unable to receive them. So, 4 units (TC-LGI/J/K/L) went to TK, and from late 2023 6 others (with the same layout) went to Air India - so-called Indoflots.
The premium economy cabin consists of 24 Collins Aerospace MiQ seats in 2-4-2 layout. Though, TK doesn't market them as W (AI, in contrast, do) and sells them like "economy plus" (I guess, if you have high tier in TK's Miles&Smiles program, you can choose these seats for free).




The Economy Cabin
Then follows the economy class, consisting of 264 seats in 3-3-3 layout, distributed between two cabins: the front one between the premium economy and 3L/R doors, and the rear one between 3L/R and 4L/R doors.
The front economy cabin.







The rear economy cabin.

















The Economy Seat
My seat was 29K in the rear cabin. The flight TK784 had an remarkable feature: it used to be almost empty (obviously, the reason for putting a widebody on this flight was good load for the return flight) and there were a lot of empty 3-seater blocks in the cabin. I got 3 seats for myself.
The seat model is Collins Aerospace Aspire. The seatwidth between armrests is listed as 18". I was unable to measure the width, because IST security took off my tape, but I measured it approximately with my arm, and it seems like the width is a bit less - kind of 17.8". The seat feels very comfortable. Before I flew several times in Collins Pinnacle seats, and they were very good for longhaul flights. It seems like the newer Collins Aspire is even better. The row pitch is very good.
The seat has adjustable headrest, a very modern IFE (Panasonic eX3) with large and crispy screen with USB and USB-C ports, coat hanger, bifold tray table and cup holder, seat pocket, and universal power socket underseat. Waiting on the seat was pillow.









The seat pocket contained only safety card.

The crew handed simple headset (needless to say that the crew were very nice on this flight, which was also a jackpot - nowadays TK is known for the "random" quality of its crews). On different TK flights I got nice crews and quite bad crews.

A standard TK advertisement. The IFE has quite a large selection of content, but I didn't explore it much.

The overhead panel has airvents, which is very nice!

The Flight
Boarding complete and beautiful moodlighting is turned on.


The best part of IFE in (almost) any A350 is the camera with multiple outside view. With the forward camera one can see the tug being connected to the front gear.

Safety video is played and pushback begins.

The moodlighting is turned to orange.


Moments before takeoff.

At takeoff toward Black Sea beautiful condensation due to Prandtl effect appears on the wing for a moment.






At the cruise altitude the breakfast is served. The meal is without hot dish, which is standard for TK flights under 2 hours, but anyway it's pretty good. On most intra-EU flights of this length you get nothing but water.



Time to stretch the legs.
Couple of views of the front economy cabin…


… and of the rear one.


The lavatories are pretty standart, but equipped with cosmetics, as usual in TK's widebodies.





Meanwhile we're overflying the Turkish Riviera coast near Antalya and starting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.



The seatback with the seatmap as we're flying near Cyprus.

The cabin is lit with blue.

Seatmap during descent to TLV.

Spoilers deployed.

"Fasten seatbelt" sign is on.

Israeli coast in sight.




Crossing the coastline.

Gear down.

Flaps in the landing configuration.

Touchdown.




The Economy Cabin After The Flight
The rear economy cabin upon disembarkment…







… and the front one.







The Premium Economy Cabin After The Flight
The premium economy cabin upon disembarkment in some more details.






The Business Class Cabin After The Flight
The crew allowed me to visit the business class cabin. Thanks a lot for their hospitality!
This cabin, consisting of 28 suites, based on Collins Aerospace Horizon seats, is literally the best business class in the world, eclipsing even the QR's QSuites! These A359s were the pinnacle of how far Russia (and its show-off) got when it was the part of the global world, and how tragic was its decision to break out from this world from 24.02.2022. And this flight on the shining A359 with the best cabins in the world, similar to the ones Aeroflot got before 24.02, happened the next day after Prigozhin mutiny - how deep Russia has fallen since…










And now it's time to say goodbye to TC-LGL and to the friendly TK crew. It was a very memorable flight on a memorable date…
