Hi and hello back to my flight reports!
This report consists my trip to South Africa for travelling and visit friends. My schedule is as follow:
TK TLV-IST Y A332 - http://flight-report.com/en/report-9054.html
TK IST-CPT (via Johannesburg) Y A333 - http://flight-report.com/en/report-9066.html
TK JNB-CPT Y A333 (Same plane, same flight from Istanbul) - YOU ARE HERE!
SA CPT-JNB Y A346
TK JNB-IST Y A333
TK IST-TLV Y A320 - http://flight-report.com/en/report-10094.html
Background:
Me and my family planned to fly to South Africa to meet friedns and celebrate a b.day for one of them. We decided to went nearly christmas, because there is a vacation from school. We used our United Miles and payed 37.5K for each direction. We hadn't so many choices to fly from Tel Aviv to Cape Town on Star Alliance, our choices were Ethiopian Airlines (TLV-ADD B738, ADD-JNB B77L, JNB-CPT SA A319) or Turkish Airlines (TLV-IST TK A332, IST-JNB-CPT TK A333). We decided to book TK flights, as we can stay at the CIP lounge, TK service is better than ET and TK flight is a red-eye flight as not as ET flight.
Turkish will start non-stop Cape Town service from November, I think that flights will be operate also on A330-300. It will cut the flight length from 13h10m to 11h.
Connection in Johannesburg Airport:
I landed at 6.20PM and my flight to IST was schelude to 7.45PM. In my opnion the airport has a good contidion but the transafer to the international terminal can be longer than excepted. The main hall at the Terminal:
Security checks and immigration efficlency were faster than excepted.
A panoramic view:
Durning my connection I was entered into the Duty-Free shops which are OK and I hear a call of (Mr. Paz go to gate 24 immidetaly!!!). I left everything and run into gate 24, which is a bus gate.
Our plane, TC-JNO, A330-300 from the bus window:
Turkish Airbus A330-300 or an old Boeing 767-300ER of El Al to taking me home? I chose TK!
Safety video:
Seat pitch on TK A330 is tight:
each seat has a power outlet under the seat, USB and HDMI connection:
Cabin before taxi:
South African A340-300 had been parking next to us:
Before takeoff:
Bye Johannesburg (By local people: Jo'burg)!
I asked for coke durning the pre-meal service:
Dinner included mashed potatos, vegetebales, sliced chicken, 2 salades, ban, cheese and a honey cake i guess. I orderd to drink orange juice and Efes beer (Turkish local beer, "Efes Pilsen", "Andoulu Efes")
After watching one or two movies we were behind the Ecuator line, passed Nairboi and the Kilimanjaro:
Durning the rest of the flight I tried to sleep the 4 hours until the breakfast service but I was seated next to a Danish family that their kids starting bother me and put their legs near me till I was talking to their parents….. ugly and horrible.
Breakfast service was started 1h30m before landing and included an omelette, sliced fruits, ban and some cheeses.I got water and coffe for waking up, Meal was just OK, nothing more above it:
Landing:
We landed at 5.15AM in Istanbul Ataturk Airport. Disembarking the airplane:
We got a bus gate and the temparture was 0 degrees at this time….. so cold and unexceptable!
Hi Yonatan!,
It seems that TK is offering a great JNB-IST product. When I flew EK on EK764 (a flight with almost identacal timing), I didn't get a 2nd hot meal. TKs catering looks great. See my FR (recently published).
Hi MrMax,
I really like your EK report, and I would like to try one of their flight (maybe on MXP-JFK or GIG-EZE routes).
IST-JNB flight time is about 9 hours, and IST-DXB flight time is about 7.5 hours so that's the reason for getting a light meal/snack and not a hot meal like on my flight. Sometimes I prefer to get a cold meal than a omelet with a lot of oil and un-baked ban. Thank you for comment in my report!
South Africa is popular this week, with 2 reports in a row from Jo'burg! TK offers a great product for Economy, aside from the seat pitch that looks tight. Catering looks good as always ok TK, they are known for their good catering.
I hope you had a good time in South Africa. It is one of my favorite places I've visited and hope to go back in the next few years.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Kevin the manager!
I had been seen that you like South Africa so much! South Africa is a great choice for vacation and it's my 4th time there! TK offers a great product, nice cabin crew and great meals, But I think that I will stop using their flight as the attack in Istanbul last weekend. Next report will be about the A346 of SAA on CPT-JNB route, stay here!
Sounds good! Don't hesitate to put bonus tourist pics of South Africa :-)
It is sad about the attacks in Istanbul. I hope it doesn't hurt TK's business too much.
Great staff there. i believe you had a wonderful flight and i have never been to a place where temperature get to zero i hope i will mange when i visit Istanbul. how many hour is it to fly from JHB to IST?