Review of Turkish Airlines flight Barcelona Istanbul in Economy

Airline Turkish Airlines
Flight TK1856
Class Economy
Seat 30A
Aircraft Airbus A330-300
Flight time 03:30
Take-off 08 Jul 17, 18:55
Arrival at 08 Jul 17, 23:25
TK   #13 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 776 reviews
Guillbcn
By 1361
Published on 6th September 2017
Hello guys, welcome to my first Flight Report! I've been looking at yours FR for years and today I want to try to post something dedicated to all those people who worked hard for years explaining their trips.

At the end of 2016 I was invited to stay in Colombia for nearly two months. This was my first time in Latin America, so I've been travelling for years to some countries in Europe, Africa, North America and Asia, but I've never been in this part of the world. I was very excited with the Idea and one of my first questions was: which airline will I take to get there? From Barcelona, my hometown there are quite a lot of options to arrive in Bogota. The fastest one is to take the daily direct flight offered by Avianca which is about 10h and 30 minutes (correct me if i'm mistaked). Other options are going to Madrid, Paris, and Frankfurt, which have direct flights to Colombian main city. I was searching for those options but all of them were more than 1000€ and I I found it very expensive. Another option is travel from Barcelona to the United States (New York or Atlanta) and there fly to Colombia. Again, it was very expensive.
Some months before that I discovered that Turkish Airlines was opening new routes to latin america. Bogota, Panama, Habana and Caracas. I decided to take a look at the webpage and surprisingly fares were much cheaper than those other airlines. I paid a little more than 700€ for all the flights. Route is quite longer than others but it wasn't my first flight with TK and I know the service is quite good so duration was not going to be the main problem. I bought the tickets at the end of 2016 and I was nearly 7 months waiting for the day.

A few days before my trip I decided to call to TK and make the reservation of my seats. In Turkish Airlines you can make the reservation 50 days before your flight. I decided to chose a window seat for the first flight (BCN-IST) and an aisle seat for the long flight (IST-BOG).

FInally the D day arrived. After a party night with my friends I woke up. My first flight wasn't until 18:55 so during the morning I finished packing my bag. After lunch I went with my mother to the metro and a 45 minutes trip with the new L9 left me at the terminal 1.

I went to the check in counters which are located at the right part of the terminal. Normally they are quite full and today it wasn't going to be different. Plane is big and it was quite full (not 100%). After a 15 minutes waiting I finally said goodbye to my bag. -See you in Bogota, hopefully! After the Check in they gave me the boarding cards. Of course, my bag was checked to my final destination.
photo 21317398_10212522418929014_7219911663016947002_n

After my mum's classical cigarrete at the terminal entrace, we said goodbye and I went to security controls and passport controls, which are located next to each other. Hopefully it wasn't ful at any of those sites and was very fast. So, two hours before my flight, I was next to my boarding gate, seated, looking at the right part of the terminal 1 which was quite full of european airlines. Lufthansa, KLM, Air France, Vueling… are operating in this area. Closer to me there are those "heavy airplanes" which are going far away. One of these planes was the 787 of Avianca which was flying to Bogota. Next time maybe…

photo 21271147_10212522416328949_4950456126385766236_nphoto 21317975_10212522418048992_1679323451003111871_nphoto 21271147_10212522416328949_4950456126385766236_n

Level flight was leaving to Oakland, California.
photo 21371031_10212522414368900_2383258460696512925_n


The time was running fast and people was slowly arriving at the gate. My A330 arrived too but today it wasn't at the normal gate, so all of them were full. Oh, that means that we board our A330 by bus. So, soon it was ready and boarding was made. Turkish is normally making different queques which try to "tidy" the boarding but at all it wasn't so much. So, after saying goodbye to the ground staff we boarded a bus which left us next to our new A330 (at least the cabin was new).

Ready
photo 21272595_10212522418769010_2787486422311592493_n

Let's go
photo 21371134_10212522416848962_7275578982746060489_n

So i was one of the first to board the plane. Last time I boarded a TK flight in Barcelona was in 2015 but that time I was flying on a A320 because it was the TK1852 which is operating at the morning. In 2014, when I was travelling to Addis Abeba (Ethiopia) via Istanbul I took TK 1854 which was also an A330-300. But the cabin was different today, newer. Seat pitch was quite generous even I'm not a tall person (1.70). You can also charge your phone, Ipad or whatever on the TV or under the seat. There were also pillows at every seat.

Wing view before Pushback

photo 21314760_10212522417928989_5155308153422634256_n

Well, we started our pushback on time. Safety video was played and flight time announced was about 3 hours with a very nice weather on route. Today we took off from runway 25R.

Cabin crew take your seats for take off
photo 21314548_10212522419849037_8249711005789951664_n

We took off some 45 minutes late due to traffic congestion. Bye bye Barcelona, see you at the end of august

photo 21370986_10212522414568905_2500779640390358077_n

After take off we turned right to the sea and we found some clouds which were avoided by the captain. Even that we had light turbulence while crossing some of those. After that we reached clear skies and seat belt was quickly swichted off.

photo 21272372_10212522419449027_3896018368153277844_nphoto 21314472_10212522419329024_2216632982720072094_nphoto 21369637_10212522413528879_190522109595111030_n

Soon cabin crew started working and dinner was served. As some of you know, TK cutted the in-flight service some months ago and today no menu was provided. Choices were between chicken or pasta and I chosed the second one. I love pasta. Meal wasn't bad but also wasn't the best. Appetizer was a salad and a yoghurt for dessert which was quite good. Overall good meal.

photo 21370879_10212522415568930_2162983403907901757_n

By the time, we were flying to the east…

photo 21272407_10212522414168895_6989434249771822393_n

And it started to get dark and dark…

photo 21314773_10212522413808886_7730139083191151713_n

After the meal crew passed throught the cabin offering coffee or tea. I requested a Coffee to enjoy the views out with a drink.

photo 21462552_10212522416008941_2217999411624382916_n

After the coffee, my seatmate (who told me he was flying to Gaziantep) went to the toilet so I also took a short cabin walk. Toilets are located in different places in these new airplanes. Two at the front, two at the middle (on older version there were 4 here) and two more at the back. I went to the rear galley and I started talking with the crew. I requested those loukoums which a few years ago were served in economy class. Nowadays they are served only in business. That's a big problem because i loved them and I don't know what are they made of. They offered me a few of these turkish delights. The cabin crew was very friendly in this flight.

Back to my seat we were getting closer to Istanbul…
photo 21369239_10212522416608956_3708724548484555178_n

And a few minutes later descent started. Those who have been in Istanbul know that landing is quite long so there is a lot of queque to land. Today it wasn't going to be different but at least the weather was excellent and I could take a few pictures of the city.

photo 21369411_10212522417488978_8472283637629151270_nphoto 21371020_10212522420249047_4845337850037713295_n

Descent was veeeeery smooth

photo 21272620_10212522415808936_3611818401851831593_n


Cleared to land!

photo 21272322_10212522412088843_844175653450285039_n

So we touched down at 23:25, after an almost 3h flight. It was a very smooth landing, well done captain.

photo 21314796_10212522420409051_7601735807189213658_nphoto 21314649_10212522413128869_878355338612703666_n


We taxied to a remote stand. After disembarking a bus took us to the terminal and from there I took a look at the gate for my next flight, the long one to Bogota. But this is another FR….

Thank you for reading!! I'm so sorry for the possible mistakes I can make but as I said, it's my first FR and I hope to improve those mistakes on the following FR's.

I hope you enjoy it.
See more

Verdict

Turkish Airlines

8.6/10
Cabin9.0
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi10.0
Meal/catering7.5

Barcelona - BCN

8.9/10
Efficiency8.5
Access10.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness10.0

Istanbul - ISL

7.3/10
Efficiency8.5
Access7.0
Services6.5
Cleanliness7.0

Conclusion

Very nice flight with Turkish Airlines! If you have any question or any suggestion just write a comment. Thanks!

Related

4 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 411942 by
    Carlotherocks 91 Comments
    Hello Gui :)
    Initially thank you very much for this report and good job! I remember when I started to write reports here 2 years ago and how I wanted to do all my best. I really wish you good luck for future and considering the good level of this report, I'm sure you will improve in a very short time
    Cheers. Carlo ;)
  • Comment 412395 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Hi GuillBCN,

    Great job on your first reports! You definitely have a natural talent for flight-reporting! A little piece of advice--you may want to blur some of the personal info on your boarding pass pics, such as the ticket number and part of your name. As this is a public site, one must be careful not to post too much personal information.

    Again, great reports and welcome to Flight-Report!

Login to post a comment.