Review of Turkish Airlines flight Istanbul → Munich in Economy

This trip includes these flights

TK 1629 Istanbul to Munich ( Economy ) Airbus A321-200, Codeshare: UA 6907, IR 2629 ( you are here )
TK 1634 Munich to Istanbul ( Economy ) Airbus A321-200, Codeshare: IR 2634 (click here)

Route Overview

Pax for this flight

Business Class %100
Economy Class %95-100

Most of the passengers were transfer passengers arriving elsewhere in the world.

ONLINE CHECK-IN

Online Check-in

Simple and quick online check-in. Didn’t used my mobile boarding pass which I issued.

ISTANBUL ATATÜRK AIRPORT - IST

Entering the Airport

As my travel companion had a Miles&Smiles Elite card, I had the opportunity to use priority access. Gate E2 was crowded today and waited 10-15 minutes to pass this checkpoint. Also security process stopped at this gate for 3-4 minutes because security inspected someone elses baggage by hand.



Check-in

There were empty booths as I arrived to the Business Class check in counter. The employee there was polite and always had a smile on his face. He also double-checked passport&visa information which I entered during online check-in because he told us that most of the passengers had issues entering passport details during online check-in.



Passport Check:

Waited only 1 person at the Star Alliance Gold & Elite card queue. I was at the airside in 5 minutes.

Boarding Pass

TURKISH AIRLINES LOUNGE ISTANBUL

Lounge

Welcoming took 2-3 minutes because of an angry passenger arguing with lounge staff to rebook his Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt that has been cancelled. After tranquilizing that passenger the lounge staff checked me in. Today I chose to sit downstairs which includes more stuff than upstairs. The only thing missing compared to the first level is the cinema area and a billiards table.



Omelette bar. It’s possible to create your own omelette.



Tea&cake bar



Coffee selections today



Nuts



Fresh fruits



The gözleme station



PS4 & racing game



Drinks offered today



Alchocolic beverages

BOARDING AND BUS JOURNEY TO THE AIRCRAFT

Boarding

Before going to the gate I collected my daily newspapers at the newspaper counter near gate 214. They don't offer newspapers at the gate from flights departing from IST.

Gate 311 was a bus gate and crowded at the time I arrived. There was a short delay of 15 minutes because the pilots arrived late from their previous flight. There was no priority boarding and everyone was rushing to the gate when boarding begun.



A TK Boeing 777-300ER aircraft getting ready for his flight to Izmir this morning



Sun Country Airlines 738, parked at the hangar, getting ready for his new airline



Some aircraft at the hangar



TC-JHU getting ready for his flight to Sofia



Zagrosjet A321 parked at Onurair Technic for a long maintenance



Our aircraft, TC-JTJ, one of the newest A321 in fleet


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Named after Küçükçekmece, a district in Istanbul

TK 1629 ISTANBUL-IST to MUNICH

Seat

Was perfectly OK for a 2h30min flight. Legroom was good. Like all of the 5-row-C class A321 aircraft on the fleet this aircraft was installed with PTV’s which has Thales Entertainment System. This aircraft had USB-ports in each seat.


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Earphones were distributed by the cabin crew.



There was no pillows & blankets left in the overhead bins but the cabin crew managed to find me one in the rear section.


Before Takeoff

Safety video was shown as usual.



Also Star Alliance videos, Turkish Airlines ad featuring Dr. Oz, and video about zero waste project was shown.



TC-JOK, A333 service to Frankfurt today



TC-JZE is assigned for flight TK1409 to Vilinus



A Turkish A333, this time to Berlin-Tegel



Kish Air A321-200, his flight to Tehran-IKA was cancelled



TC-JGR, one of the oldest generation 738 of the Turkish fleet getting ready for his flight to Skopje



TK1369 to Malta would be served with this A320 aircraft



A Turkish A332 with a special livery “Invest in Turkey” , is assigned to TK1761 to Helsinki



The only A319 for AtlasGlobal arrived from SVO this morning



TC-JVF will fly to Chisinau today



AtlasGlobal Ukraine A320 arrived from Baghdad this morning



TC-JHO, a 737-800NG arrived from Hatay and getting prepared for a flight to Marseille



A Turkish A319 that would fly to Zaporizhia, Ukraine



TK1967 to BHX would be operated with this 737-800 aircraft



TC-JDN, Turkish A343 which is used for Umrah flights



Another TK A343, also used on Umrah flights



HZ-AQH parked in IST



Another TK 738 at waiting for takeoff



TC-LNF, getting ready to takeoff to OSL




Takeoff:

It’s time to depart.



Küçükçekmece district ( This aircraft is named after this district )



Atakent district



Atatürk Olympic Stadium



IFE:

The route map crashed during the flight so I could’nt take any photos. Movies were mostly recent choices around the world. Today I started a movie but I fell asleep after the first 20 minutes so I would continue the movie on my way back.



Also some information about Munich on the IFE



Safety card



Shop&Miles catalogue and Skylife Magazine ( Will have more information in the next report )



Meal:

I was sleeping when the crew served breakfast so I could’nt have it but I have seen it from another passenger. It was the same breakfast tray as my previous report TK1451. Also a flying chef was onboard but served Business Class. By the way no menu cards were distributed.

Crew

The crew was doing their job perfectly. They were absolutely nice to passengers. Also the cabin chief greeted passengers in many different languages depending their nationality. Also there was an announcement that there were cabin crews that spoke Dutch onboard.

MUNICH FRANZ JOSEF STRAUSS AIRPORT

Descending



MUC Fire Station



Terminal 1 from the taxiway



A Lufthansa A321-100 getting ready for his flight to Berlin-Tegel



Two Delta aircraft, one arrived from Detroit, the other one from Atlanta



Norweigan 737-800 would fly to PMI today.



Arrived at parking position 107, which meant gate B1



Aircraft from the gate



Welcome to Flughafen München Terminal 1B



Passport Check & Baggage Claim:

As we arrived just after a DL flight from Atlanta, the passport queue was crowded. Only 3 police was responsible for Non-Eu citizens that made me wait for 20-25 minutes. There was no priority passport check in Terminal 1 but there is a priority lane in Terminal 2.

Baggage belts were not numbered in this terminal. There was one small and one big carousel to reclaim luggages. Our baggage arrived at the small belt as passengers arriving from Delta picked their luggage from the big carousel. In addition priority baggages didn’t arrive first. Bags were arriving in a random order but our suitcases was one of the first 50 bags which arrived.



One last view of our aircraft from the baggage claim area



FIDS for Terminal 1B arrivals



Train station




Thanks for reading.