Review of British Airways flight from London to Istanbul in Economy

Hello and welcome to this series which would include 4 flights with British Airways. This series would contain two long haul flights in the World Traveller cabin and two medium haul flights in the Euro Traveller Cabin. All of these flights would include lounge reviews of lounges that I have been reviewed before.

The second flight of this serie would include my regular shuttle flight LHR-IST on British Airways's Euro Traveller product. This report would also include a review of the breakfast services at the British Airways Galleries Lounge Terminal 5A South.

The routing for this serie would look like this; 

Route Overview ( IST-LON )

The route overview of this route had been published in a past report so I would summarize the overview with Atatürk to Heathrow flights. Turkish Airlines operates daily 5/6 flights on this route mostly operated by their new wide body aircraft offering a full service of hot meals on all cabins, their newest entertainment system with live TV and Wi-Fi onboard. On the other hand, British Airways operates this route twice with their A320 aircraft with their Band 4 Europe service procedure.

Pax for this flight

Club Europe ( Business ): %90-95 [ Club Europe until row 8 ]
Euro Traveller ( Economy ): %85-90

London Heathrow AIRPORT - lHR

After arriving from my previous flight and I knew that my flight would depart at A gates, I headed to the priority transfer area which leads to the North checkpoint area.

Today's security experience was not that good as in both x-ray machines there were 7-8 bags to be inspected and the employees were slow. Luckily, my belongings didn't need inspection.

20-25 minutes in security, not acceptable for priority pax. Even though, Heathrow is one of the airports that takes security seriously, their security employees are too slow. And, by looking at the FIDS, I have learnt that my flight is delayed. I would have more time to spend in the lounge.

British Airways GALLERIES LOUNGE TERMINAL 5A SOUTH - London Heathrow AIRPORT

Today I have chosen to go to the South lounge as it's usually quieter than the North lounge.

The BA sign while heading to the second level where the Business lounge is located.

Even though the southern part of the lounge was busy, the northern part of the lounge was empty and I have easily found a spot.

The breakfast service at this lounge has decent amount of selections which could cover the needs of most passengers.

Porridge was also offered during breakfast.

Breakfast sandwiches

Fresh fruits

Fresh juices

Coffee bar

Magazines and newspapers offered at the lounge, there is also a TV room at the lounge which I have not pictured.

While at the lounge I have been notified that my flight was delayed even more.

As well as the incoming aircraft hadn't arrived from Gothenburg, Sweden.

Finally, the bird arrived from Gothenburg

After the arrival of the aircraft from Gothenburg, I have followed the aircraft until it reaches to its gate, otherwise I would have need more to learn the gate as at Heathrow gates are not announced until the aircraft is almost ready for boarding.

G-EUUB, one of the oldest A320 aircraft of BA based in Heathrow, had parked to gate A12. Now, it's time to head there.

Boarding pass

GATE AREA & BOARDING

As the gate is squeezed between the North lobby and the quiet zone so there wasn't enough seating for anyone. There was approximately 25-30 seats which were occupied by passengers who had long connections.

Boarding lanes were clearly marked. Priorities were respected while boarding. Boarding had started 30 minutes later than our original departure time.

View of our aircraft from the escalators

And a view from the jetbridge

We have also been waited several minutes at the jetbridge as passengers needing extra assistance were being seated at the aircraft by the ground staff. This A319 was heading to the gate for its flight to Inverness.

Fuselage shot

BA 676 London Heathrow AIRPORT TO Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT

Seat

As 12A is the exit row seat it's missing one armrest which could make you feel uncomfortable at several times but after finding a good seating position this seat would be one of the best seats in the aircraft. Luckily seat 12B was empty so I had more space than usual.

The legroom is super for a British Airways shorthaul aircraft.

Overhead panel

Earphones were present at seats, it's a good sign of a working IFE today onboard.

G-EUXG had just arrived from Rome-FCO as BA551 while boarding was going on.

Then we started to pushback 1 hours 10 minutes later than scheduled departure time. This A319 would head to Munich that day. At that time, even though the overhead screens worked properly, the safety demo was been done manually by the cabin crew.

G-EUUD had just arrived from Glasgow. I have also spotted this aircraft before it was heading to Glasgow.

G-EUPP was also going to the runway with us. It would head to Dublin as BA834.

British 777-300ER parked at Terminal 5B, just arrived from Austin, TX.

And this one was going to Austin, TX that day.

G-ZBKN was still there from the morning, it would head to Tokyo-Narita that day.

G-CIVH that brought me from Washington to Heathrow was at the same gate. This Queen of the Skies would operate BA213 to Boston that day.

This BA 777-300ER was heading to Tokyo-Haneda that day.

This Dreamliner was going to head to Seattle Tacoma as VS105

Another 777 is joining the runway queue. This aircraft would operate BA185 to Newark.

EI-DVH was heading back home to Dublin

Such as this Finnair A350 heading back home to Helsinki

SAS 737

And we started to accelerate for takeoff

Terminal 3

Virgin fleet at Terminal 3

We took of

Terminal 2

And, Star Alliance wide-bodies

Last shot of Heathrow

Photos over the United Kingdom - All in this gallery

Shortly after takeoff, the route map was activated.

IFE - BA 676 London Heathrow aırport to Istanbul Atatürk aırport

Shortly after the seatbelt signs had been turned off, daily BBC news was opened from the overhead monitors

After the news program finished, the movie Mamma Mia: Here we go Again was screened from the monitors

And now it's time to check the seat pocket. Starting with the safety card.

Business Life magazine alongside with the HighLife shopping catalogue. Inflight shopping was available during this flight.

And the High Life magazine

BA Eastern Europe destinations

BoB - BA 676 London Heathrow AIRPORT to Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT

I am not a fan of BoB on flights but this menu is much more better than those menus of US carriers. The M&S onboard menu has many different options for passengers. It's also interesting to see that BA is now continuing to sell pork sandwiches on Turkey flights. They weren't loading pork sandwiches on Turkey flights but now they are.

The menu - Today I haven't bought anything from the BoB menu as I already had breakfast at the lounge. Like all British Airways flights tank water was available at the rear galley.

During the flight I had a visit to the lavatories, which were clean while I visited.

Then I slept until our descend to Istanbul, at that time a comedy TV show was being monitored at the overhead screens.

Descending to Istanbul

Büyükçekmece area

Ambarlı port

Avcılar district

Florya district

Aqua Florya shopping center

Crowne Plaza hotel

These houses won't hear aircraft noise anymore as IST is moving. 

And, we are at Atatürk Airport

And landed

ATC

The terminal

TC-JUI had landed just before us, arriving from Kars

TC-JHD was heading to the runway for its flight to Dalaman

Remote stands

Bosphorus European Airlines aircraft

We were arriving to a remote stand as most of British Airways flights to Istanbul does. We were going to park next to this A330-300 which was heading to Kabul.

Soon we had parked but there was a problem at the ground power unit, so we were asked to stay seated until the engines were shut down. We had seated for almost 10 minutes.

Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT - IST

Later on, we were transferred to the terminal by bus.

A last shot of our aircraft

ATA Airlines 717 which is getting ready for its flight to Tabriz

KLM 737-800 which would head to Amsterdam as KL1614

Meraj Airlines A300-600 heading to Tehran-IKA.

I have cleared the passport control in the regular lane within 5 minutes. The priority lane was full of 40 Club Europe passengers and earlier flights so I have decided to use the regular checkpoint.

I have only waited 5 minutes for my baggages at carousel 1.

After picking up my luggages, I have headed to the metro station and this report has came to an end.
Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another report.