byzantium here we are again
Hello all and welcome to this next episode to Istanbul.
For History lovers like I am, this town is an absolute must.
When I check in, LH is offering this upgrade to move to J, which is quite tempting as it is cheaper than AF/KL but I was told by the famous LH senators Esteban and Chevelan that it is not worth it.
The whole return journey with Turkish Airlines was just €20 more expensive, but half of the trip was to be operated in a Boeing 737Max9 , and no offence but I am not sure how much we could trust the Boeing validation team..
Miles & More claimed: 364
Miles Status earned: 500
Enchainement de vols
- 1
- 2Lufthansa FRA - IST
- 3
- 4
Checking in with the Lufthansa app is quite easy, although I feel the application could be a tad more user friendly.
Lufthansa does offer an application to read some digital press too, but which only works if the user's phone is connected to WiFi, which defeats a bit the purpose of an application I guess.
Just like on the previous flight, I was promissed an A321Neo which became an classic A321 on the day.
at FRANckfort - FLUGHAFEN FRANKFURT AM MAIN
Lufthansa did impress me as it organised a mini bus for the 5 pax of the LH1298 flight to be driven to the gate directly.
The great benefit for me was to be able to do some great plane spotting, LH is known perhaps like Delta, to like some good old planes like this A343.
Some of LH's American friends.
The lady in charge of our group even escorted us all the way through passport control to our next gate, something I must say I haven't seen many times before.
Not a big fan of this washed out blue-ish Air Canada livery.
So here is our A321.
C'est bien notre vol…
We are on time to the gate, except about 10 before the departure time the - not so charming dare I say friendly - lady at the counter makes an announce saying there is a problem with the plane, the airline will have to find another one and they don't know which gate we will depart from.
I receive a text at exactly the same time with this time our next gate, and apparently not so many people installed the app because of lot of the Turkish folks start to follow us..
Always nice to receive some notification from the airline, which is not always the case.
Luckily the new gate is not so far away, and the B terminal not so big neither.
There is a lot of Duty free shops on the area.
B30 gate doesn't have any jetways which means boarding will happen with a paxbus.
at the goethe
I am intrigued by this sculpture which reminds me a famous FReporter :p
Wine is more expensive than beer, we are not in France anymore :p
When in Rome…
The sausage wasn't small neither (let's not bring the size matters discussion).
Boarding is started following strictly the groups order.
onboard the a321
it seems that our plane wasn't painted all the way through right, we still see some of the old livery underneath it.
Aircraft: Airbus A3216231
Tail number: D-AIDK
Engines: 2x IAE V25200
Age: 10 years
Layout: Y200
Named: Iserlohn
A view from the bus.
The infamous door moment.
Onboard we find again the NEK seats, just like it is the case across the entire LH group fleet.
Most planes since left the terminal.
Never been on a B748 (yet!).
The A321 safety card.
Some of the drawings are quite funny… It is forbidden to just seat on the slide…
and that a guy is sending her ex girlfriend away to pick this blond guy hand.. !
The Mordor Tower..
We are about to take off from the 18L runway.
Never understood why the A319 and A320 of LH have CFM56 engines when the A321 have the Roll Royce's IAE2520
The beautiful Alps.
The BoB menu
which claims to have only fresh of products of the season… with a cherry / avocado sandwich.. in February LOL
We chose for this german sparkling wine for €7, not too expensive I guess which officially takes us to premium economy XD
Cheers to all!
Beautiful sunset, but picture not so beautiful!
We land in IST with some showers and a colder weather than at FRA, shame.
at istanbul - new airport
The airport is just HUGE, and despite its size, we have to wait a few minutes for our gate to become available.
The airport is so big that even an A321 looks like a small E170 in comparison.
Everything is just built in a giagantic scale.
And my miles statement for this trip.
Hotel bonus
We stayed at the Hilton, which was confortable but not the most charming hotel neither.
Can you spot my laptop?? The one that has FR on it !
This is the first time we stay on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, not sure I will stay again on this side as there isn't much to see.
Brrrrr.... I shiver at the sheer thought. Not even for free, thanks.
Wine from Pilpintuland in the Goethe bar!! Two bad the real Goethe didn't have it. Werther would have had a happier ending, I think. haha
Funny how those sausages are called "frankfurter" in English, but "vienesas" in my country. Hopefully this won't lead to civil war between the two cities. lol
Infamous, you say? :O Why is that?
You mean cherry tomatoes, right???
That's right. Add an apple for 200 euro and you are in LH business class.
Thanks for sharing, Chris!!
It’s an inside joke thing in the French side. It doesn’t make sense in English nor have any cultural translation really.
Chris, try to avoid phrases like this in English, we don’t really get it. Thanks
Oh. I feel I have been un-frenched. ?
Ahah nah don't worry
But you could also start your "moment", I guess you are already notorious for your very dry (and British) humour so that could be your "door"
To Kevin, ok I'll try not to mention it again
Hola Che! Mi amigo! Gracias por el comment!
I know right, I fell the same about these Max brrr
I am sure that would have changed his philosophy in a good way ahah
oh yes THAT door moment ahah!
Well I see Kevin has given you an explanation below, I will complete his answer below too
I didn't want to swim in opulence neither ahah
Thanks!
Meh, I remain unimpressed by LH short-haul Y...I won't be jumping shit to *A anytime soon ?
Holy crap, 9 EUR for a glass of wine is criminal in Europe (outside of the UK, where it's sadly normal). You can get a whole half bottle or carafe for that much in France.
It's kind of sad that short-haul Y within the US is actually better than this since at least US carriers have power and some form of IFE on most planes. Sitting in NEK ironing boards with nothing to do and no way to keep devices charged for 3h is not my idea of fun! I will say that the older LH A321s are more spacious than average with the relatively low-density Y200 configuration vs most other airlines with 212-220 seats...but of course that will change with retrofits to the new cabins.
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Kevin, thanks for the comment :)
Yes I am really not impressed by LH neither unfortunately.
I am starting to translate some reports - not all of them - at least the Business flights reports (the return flight to come was in J). And I actually thought that we don't see a lot of Lufthansa on the english pages so that could be useful.. to Fly LH or not!!
such a disgrace I know!
and to make it worse the wine is so bad for that price
A lot better. The only thing that Europe does better is the lounge access. Otherwise if it wasnt for miles hunt, there isn't much point of flying these legacies that are identical to low-cost carriers: a seat that isn't really impressive, lack of entertainment and BoB.
Thanks for your comment!
Thank you ChrisB for the sharing ! Istanbul's new airport size is probably leaning Erdogan's ambitions ! 7€ for that kind of beverage is correct despite the fact that free catering is limited to two chocolates ! I totally understand your point of view in the way that B737-800 is known for it's good technical conception whereas B737-9max not really. I am not a real big fan of B737 series but it is difficult to avoid it in Europe for the moment. However, TO is odering airplanes built by Airbus like Easyjet, KLM, Lufthansa... so I think it will be easier in few years to take other airplanes. Is the seat comfortable enough for a three hour flight ? See you !
Hello dear Yann and thanks for the comment
I know right! Part of me feels that soon this afternoon is going to be renamed after his own last name!
you can avoid them more perhaps in Europe with the A320 being present on most legacies, and the fact the KLM is switching to Airbus but Ryanair still has like 400+ B738s
Really not that keen on flying the max again- just flown it once.
The seat is actually more confortable than what it looks like but it wasn't the best experience for 3 hours of flight no.