Review of British Airways flight Istanbul → London in Economy

Report No: 2019-101E

Ladies and Gentleman,
Welcome to this short series of Flight-Reports which would be basically including two flights on British Airways, both on routes that I've reported before on the Euro/World Traveller cabin. However, I've decided to report these two flights to show members and visitors the progress of BA since the last two months.

I would share the links of my previous IST-LHR and LHR-WAS reports below so you would also have the chance to compare them.

The first report of this series would be another review on my westbound shuttle flight which is the BA flight from Istanbul to London. This time I would fly on the Euro Traveller cabin as usual but I'm expecting you to report this route ( possibly (from or to) the new airport ) in Club Europe as well during the end of this year. You could also see the list of my future reports at the end of my last published report. This review would also include a review of the Millennium Lounge which BA contracts at Istanbul.

So I hope you enjoy this small series of flights. The routing is available just here;

You could click on this line to see my past flights on British Airways on the exact same route from IST to LHR.

Pax for this flight

Club Europe: %100 [ Club Europe until row 3 ]
Euro Traveller: %95-100

ONLINE CHECk-IN

I have completed my online check-in for both of my segments, 24 hours before the first flight.

I have sticked to my pre-reserved seats for both of the flights.

Later on, I have generated mobile boarding passes for both flights

Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT - IST

As flights would move to Istanbul Airport on the 3rd of March, this flight would be my last flight from Atatürk Airport unless the movement would be postponed.

That day I have entered the terminal by using the E2 entrance which is the Turkish Airlines Priority entrance. I have access to use this door because of my Miles&Smiles Elite card. Even though I didn't have the card, while I was going to turn on the TK app and show my mobile card, the employee at the gate said thank you and let me pass in.

Later on, I have headed to the British Airways counters which are located at check-in island G. There was no one in front of me in the priority lane so I was quickly assisted by the first available agent. That day, there was a huge line in the regular queue. After being checked-in, the ground staff gave me my lounge voucher, boarding pass for both of my flights, bag tags and a fast-track barcode.

Boarding Pass

Lounge voucher

Fast track invitation code

Later on, I have went to the TK Miles&Smiles card desk for my Elite card to be printed. For those who wonder how I became M&S Elite you could check my mileage run series by clicking on this line. Later on I have cleared security and went through the passport control under 5 minutes as the lines were shorter than usual. Then I have headed to the Millennium Lounge ( probably for the last time ).

MILLENNIUM LOUNGE - Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT

The Millennium Lounge is one of the simplest lounges that doesn't have that much to offer at Istanbul. Unfortunately, British Airways contracts this lounge and the lounge offerings are decreasing day by day.

Today's offerings were fruits, vegetables, packaged sandwiches, cheese, olive, packaged bread, cookies and a soup.

Also you could notice that there were no Fanta, no Sprite, no Diet Coke and no Coke Zero left. As well, the amount of magazines that they offer has significantly decreased.

That's why I had a cup of tea with some cookies and grabbed a bottle of water and an ice-tea and left the lounge.

GATe AREA & BOARDING

After a long walk to gate 504, the fixed gate for this flight which is 10-15 minutes away from the lounge, I have noticed that boarding had begun at 09:20 which was 40 minutes before our flight.

The same AtlasGlobal ad was there for months, maybe years. This is the escalators going down to gates 501 - 504.

While I have arrived to the gate the first bus had already left and there was a huge queue in front of the gate. After passing the document check, I have directly boarded from the priority lane without any waiting and I was inside the second bus.

Upon arrival to the aircraft, the ground staff asked to prepare our boarding passes as the crew would check them again while boarding the aircraft. Probably, it's BA protocol to re-check boarding passes at the aircraft while the boarding is made by bus.

Fuselage shots

BA 675 Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT TO London Heathrow AIRPORT

After being welcomed by the crew, I have took my seat 12F for the upcoming four hours. Luckily, there were available emergency exit seats while I booked my flight so I didn't have to sit at those 29.5' seats for this four hour flight. For those reading my report the first time, I hold an Executive Club Silver status which allows me to pick exit seats for free on BA flights within Europe. 

The overhead panel

Our neighbor was this Boeing 737-900ER which would head to Budapest

Shortly after the doors were closed, the safety video was monitored from the overhead screens.

And we had pushed back on time, this 777-300ER ( TC-JJN ) had arrived from Guangzhou that morning and would head to Heathrow like us.

After a 10-15 minute wait at the runway queue, it was our turn to take off.

Last view of Atatürk Airport

And we're in the air

IFE - BA 675 Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT TO London Heathrow AIRPORT

As, BA removes overhead monitors from their narrow body fleet, there is no more movies or news programs screened on this route. On aircrafts still equipped with these monitors, the route map is shown for all of the flight.

Also reading one of the magazines in the seat pocket could also entertain passengers

BA Europe Route map

List of BA destinations within Europe.

The High Life shopping catalogue was also available, inflight shopping was available during this flight.

The safety card was also present at the seat pocket.

BoB - BA 675 Istanbul Atatürk AIRPORT TO London Heathrow

As the class of service is considered as Euro Traveller on BA flights to/from Istanbul. The Marks&Spencer BoB catalogue is available for passengers requesting something to eat or drink.

You could find the content of the M&S Food catalogue for January-April 2019 here.

As there is no real breakfast at the Millennium Lounge, I have bought a mushroom and Emmental sourdough toastie for this flight. The sandwich is delicious and definitely worth the price. For those that you may have noticed, I have brought my drinks from the lounge.

Shortly after the meal, I had a visit to the lavatory which was clean at that time

A shot while we were on our way to Heathrow

Prior to our arrival, a video about arrivals and connections at Heathrow was monitored from the overhead screens.

River Thames & London before arrival

And we had landed to Heathrow, on time

The first visible aircraft was this Queen of the Skies that was going to Accra that day

British Airways A319 & A321

G-EUYF on the right side which would operate BA 730 to Geneva and EC-HUI on the left which would go to Madrid as IB 3169

G-EUYP which would head to Larnaca that day

G-EUOH was getting ready for its flight to Milan Linate

Later on, we had parked to gate A17 next to this A320 which was pushing-back for it's flight BA 662 to LCA.

LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT - LHR

And the last view of our aircraft

And, it was time to follow the purple signs for my onward connection to Washington DC.

This report has came to and end.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another report.

Coming up

This section would include spoilers of my next reports if travel plans are made. This section would appear in my recent report "except the flashback series reports" so you could have an idea what flights are coming next. Just a quick note that, flights I that I marked that I haven't flown yet could be not reported or/and not flown depending on several factors such as itinerary change, cancellation of trip, dead battery and more.

Reports marked as;
LIVE REPORT would be those reports posted few hours after the flight.
VIDEO REPORT would be available as a video report as well. The videos would be linked on the report page. ( This would be an extra feature )
These features would be available from February 2019 on some reports. 

Up next

The second flight of this series would be the next report. After a last minute change from a 787-8 to a 787-9, this aircraft was assigned to take me to Washington, DC. As I also mentioned on the routing of this serie, I would report this flight in the World Traveller cabin and the report would also contain a detailed review of the British Airways Galleries Lounge in Terminal 5 Concourse B.

Coming up

Unfortunately there is no confirmed future report at the moment except the second part of this serie. However, I am booked to 15 flights in the near future.

Future flights

For a hint of future flights, that I have booked and haven't flown yet: There are 15 unflown flights and 6 of them on the same airline ****** Airways, ( hint: just look above; it's the same carrier ) but only 4 of them would be in the Euro/World Traveller cabin and the 2 other flights would be in a more premium cabin. Also only one of these flights would be from/to Istanbul so you would also see a new destination from me as well. [February 2019 and May 2019]

Three of them would be on a new US domestic serie ( including two transcons and a short flight which is less than 500 miles ) that I would start my journey on the airport below and and fly with the airline below on their narrow body fleet both on their Airbus's and Boeing's. [March 2019]

And, four of them would be on a different carrier onboard the newest model of the Queen of the Skies and a start of return from Oneworld to Star Alliance after extending my Oneworld Sapphire status for another year. [March 2019]

For the two remaining flights, I won't give any hint except that they would be both onboard an A321. These flights are also not listed in the airport meetup section ( only available for FR members ) but I would be happy to meet members if they put their journey information on that section. <i style="font-weight: bold;">[February 2019]

So, I would suggest that you keep on touch with Flight-Report