Review of Turkish Airlines flight Bangkok → Istanbul in Economy

Hello and welcome to my first ever flight report!
Over the month of December and January, i was prvileged to try out three star alliance carriers during my Asia trip in Thailand and also Turkey.
The various flight reports will be the following:
TK069; BKK-IST (B777-300ER)
TG102; BKK-CNX (B777-300ER) [SOON]
TG121; CNX-BKK (B777-200ER) [SOON]
ET307;NBO-ADD (B737-MAX8) [SOON]
ET628;ADD-BKK (B787-8) [SOON]
TK607; IST-NBO (B737-MAX8) [SOON]


We have just concluded the New Years Eve celebrations and its a new year and after spending a week in Thailand touring various towns and cities, it was now time to go to Istanbul for a short visit.
Over my time in Bangkok, used their local Asian ride hailing up Grab, which was very helpful and provided top notch car service, especially during our airport transfers in Chiang Mai and also here in Bangkok.


I had a wonderful timing of 23:50 pm to Istanbul which meant i had plenty of time to enjoy my last moments in Bangkok, plus i owuld to get to sleep in the red eye flight although in the real sense i was super excited to by flying TK since 2015.


Upon leaving the hotel, we arrived to a busy roadside at the BKK terminal due to the several flights that were leaving for various Asian and European cities, took about 15 minutes to clear the traffic.


The TK check in desk was at Entrance 10, where other carriers like CZ,ET,AI and my home carrier KQ usually depart from.
The entrance area is really huge, organized and clean and it did not take long before I found my check in desk, which was in the U section


TK's check in counter was relatively busy as there were two flights to IST that were been prepared, the other one been TK067 which was operated by a A330-300 and was leaving only an hour earlier than our flight. Opposite us, was Spring Airlines which was been checked in for a regional flight to Japan.


After queing for less than 10 minutes, the check in process took a decent time, and the agent was really fascinated with the busy 'flying schedule' i had within such a short time and aksed if i generally enjoyed Thailand, of which i really did!
After check in and getting my ticket, i proceeded for security which went fairly quick and onwards to Passport control and after my last conversationn with the Thai people before leaving, i really appreciated the amazing hospitality that they offered every single place i went to and it was sad that it was time to leave the beautiful place.


I then proceeded on to Coffee club where i spent the remaining time to wait for my flight since they provided free WI-FI and had the best coffee in my opinion. the restaurant had WI-Fi although it wasnt very helpful since it was only for like 5 minutes so but the airport WI-FI still helped all through my time in BKK, it only involved a simple registration process where you put in your phone details anf passport details, the it would be saved anytime when you visit the airport, of which i found relatively simpler compared to other airports.



A random view of the airside at night, i really liked the lighting since it made it quite calm and the side i was in wasn't as much noisy or crowded which made everything better,


My gate was at E1, and when i arrived, it was already filled with people since I arrived when boarding was about to begin,
My aircraft today, TC-LJA was a 3.8 year old Boeing 777-300ER and i was really looking foward to this flight since i remeber looking at it on photos during its delivery while i was still in high school,


BKK is quite okay for plane spotting but obviously not the best but i didn't mind much since it was at night


No sooner had i settled on my chair, than the call for boarding was made where they began with mothers with young children, business class, Star Alliance Gold members then the rest wwere called in groups. The boarding was quite ordely since i believe not many paseengers a=had arrived yet as TK is among the few airlines which start boarding 1 hour prior to departure.
Newspapers are offered before boarding including mostly Turkish Newspapers and Thai Newspapers together with the New York TImes.


Blurry glimpse of the aircraft thanks to the Jet bridge mesh.


The aircraft featured the new business class seats which looked dang good! in a 2-3-2 configuration.


Here's the New Economy Class in a comfortable 3-3-3 seating, the color of the seats and the wall at the back was really aesthetically satisfying


Upon reaching my seat, i was greeted by the 10 inch In-Flight Entertainment which in photos looked really small but was the exact opposite in reality. First impression after sitting was that compared to the EK 777W, this was extremely comfortable and spacious and i appreciate airlines who use the B777W and retain the 3-3-3 configuration for example SQ among others especially for such long flights.






I had a perfect wing view for tonight's red eye flight as for me, when i always fly, i always prefer to take the last section of the aircraft because of the pleasant wing views it offers.
For the seat, i reserved it online for free which was very much appreciated.





WIth a few minutes left for the departure time, more passengers continued to enter the flight, i believe they were passengers transiting from other flights and eventually it ended up having a 100% occupancy on tonigh'ts flight.
In the background is a JIn Air B737-800 which just arrived from Gimpo (South Korea).



After a lenghty boarding process and a small event where a passenger was arguing with the crew after he wasn't seating with their partner, it got resolved and after the captain announced that the flight would be exactly 10 Hours to Ataturk Airport, we began the pushback.
TK known for it's safety videos, had a specially themed Lego inflight safety demo.



A Thai B777W parked




After a short taxi process, we took of and headed westwards for Istanbul,
Last view of BKK and what looked like the farms near the airport,



After we reached cruising altitude, I began to operate the inflight entertainment system which was really stocked with music, movies and TV series. I was very much in love with the music selection since it mostly had all the music I love and that kept me mostly entertained for the flight since i was too excited for Istanbul to even watch a movie.


Immediately, the crew handed out menu cards which is very much appreciated in economy class and i believed it was now time to experience world class economy class dining.

It contained drinks, starters and also the desert of the day, the main meal consisted of a summary of either chicken or lamb, of which i chose the chicken and to compliment it with a Lemon Juice which tasted quite good. The overall meal was just exemplary and satisfying.


After the meal service, the crew handed out the amenity kit which was odd since they usually started with it and was made by "Institut Karite" a French brand. It contained the normal stuff like toothbrush, paste, comb, pair of socks and slides which was handy for this flight.



The Inflight magazine and the legroom after full recline which was perfect


After the dinner service, the lights were dimmed to let the passengers to rest and it stayed like that for most of the time.



After a couple of hours (since I took a short nap also) the mood lighting changed and it signified the second meal service which was breakfast (having missed the snack service since i slept),


Breakfast was served and I had cheese and tomato omelette with spinach and grilled tomato together with Mango juice and it was very satisfying. They also provided bread as a side dish for the meal.



And before i knew it, all the lights were back on which signified that we were nearing completion of this wonderful flight, the crew began the process of preparing landing



The connection flights were displayed and my seatmate was travelling with his family and they were connecting to Stockholm Arlanda (ARN)



It was really dark outside despite been 6am and I thought I would've seen the sunrise but that was when i remembered that it was winter in Istanbul meaning the sun kind of rises later than usual.
After a decent approach and a perfectly landing by the TK pilots we were in Istanbul!, I was now super excited especially after seen the series of B777W of TK (photos were too burry unfortunately), I knew I was finally back at my second home :).

After a long taxi, we arrived our parking spot which was on the other side of the apron which meant we were taking a bus to the terminal, we parked near a Turkish Cargo A330F.

Last views of this wonderful economy class product before exiting from the aft side of the plane,


I could not take straight photos since i was the last one to exit and since everyone was waiting for me and it was freezing cold, I had to hurry. I really will miss the beautiful B777W


After arriving airside i had to pass swiftly through the passport control and security, afterwards I picked my luggage and got a shuttle to my hotel. IST outside, i had missed this view for sure.




In the meantime, thank you for viewing my maiden trip report and safe travels!