Review of Pegasus Airlines flight Istanbul → Frankfurt in Economy

Report No: 2019-503E

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to this new short series which would contain two flights onboard Pegasus Airlines for a short trip to Germany. The main purpose of this trip was to reclaim my carry-on bag that I've forgotten back in Frankfurt in March 2019 after this flight. So, I have combined the opportunity to visit some friends in Germany and stay a night over there. The cheapest airline for this route was Pegasus Airlines and the price was €129 for a round-trip ticket which is not that bad where Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines was around €200-€300. The purpose of this trip was pleasure so I took the cheapest option. This series would contain a general overview of Pegasus Airlines, the Turkish low-cost carrier.

The first flight of this series would be onboard the Airbus A320neo of Pegasus Airlines from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen to Frankfurt. This flight would be my third time flying on the A320neo of Pegasus Airlines.

The uneventful routing for this trip would look like this;

Pax for this flight:

%85-90 

ONLINE CHECK-IN

I have completed online check-in 7 days before departure via the Pegasus Airlines mobile application.

Of course, I didn't pay for seats for this flight as I was assigned seat 6D. I wasn't going to pay ₺54 for a window seat or ₺101 for a seat with extra legroom.

So, the total balance that I needed to pay was ₺0 and I have created a mobile boarding pass.

While I was walking to the bus stop to go to the airport, I have seen this Havaist bus and panicked, but wait a second. That bus goes to Istanbul Airport, not Sabiha Gökçen. From 4.Levent, I have used the E-3 municipality bus to SAW that morning.

The bus ride was around 50-55 minutes that morning.

ISTANBUL SABİHA GÖKÇEN AIRPORT - SAW

There is progress at the metro construction at SAW

To enter the building, I have used the fast-track entrance located in the middle of the building. I was the only one using the fast-track lane at that time so entering the airport was a breeze. I had access to fast-track via Vodafone Turkey.

As I didn't have checked baggage and the Pegasus counters were crowded , I skipped asking for a paper version of a boarding pass.

With the fast track lane, I was airside within 5 minutes and cleared passport control and security without an issue. They have recently installed e-gates at SAW, but the time that I was there, they were out of service.

As I had time and as Pegasus Airlines does not offer free meals, I've decided to have lunch at McDonald's.

Then I've proceeded to my gate

GATE AREA & BOARDING

While on the way to my gate which was 201A, I've spotted our aircraft ( the one on the right ) and a Buta Airways Embraer. As there was lots of time before boarding, I had went back to the duty-free area to look around.

While coming back to the gate area, I have noticed this funny entrance to the airside airport hotel.

I have boarded the aircraft around 25-30 minutes before scheduled departure time. My passport and visa was checked at the gate and then I was all set.

TC-CPY was our neighbor that day, he was going to fly to Vienna that day.

And, our aircraft. TC-NBV - He was just 11 months old.

PC 993 ISTANBUL SABİHA GÖKÇEN AIRPORT TO FRANKFURT AIRPORT

While boarding the aircraft my seat was occupied. I kindly told the passenger who sat to my seat that it was my seat; she was assigned to seat 6F and she told me that 6F is the aisle and 6D is the window seat. Later on, one of the crew came to figure out the issue. Then the passenger kindly asked me if she could have the aisle seat. I accepted as it was not a middle seat.

The seat had decent legroom compared to a Low Cost carrier.

While we were pushing back on time, TC-NBH had just arrived from Ercan and was parking to gate 202A.

At that time, the crew performed the safety demonstration manually.

AnadoluJet 737-800 parked at a remote stand

TC-CPO & TC-CPB parked in front of the old terminal.

And, TC-NBN getting ready for his flight to Stockholm as PC 1281.

A private jet

And the Koda Airways 707, which is now not there anymore.

And, after waiting 5-10 minutes for our turn, we were on the runway.

The tech shop had visitors all around the world

Turkish Technic hangar

And we're finally in the air

SAW would have it's second runway in 2020 or 2021.

The new freeway that would connect the Osmangazi Bridge to the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge freeway.

Şile district

It's pretty interesting that Pegasus Airlines now offers wireless entertainment onboard their aircraft. To use the service, passengers should enter their personal information.

And the menu

The route map function is free of charge.

Our estimated flight time was 2h40mins.

There were Turkish and International movies available in the IFE system. However, passengers should pay €1.99 for the entire flight to access the movie option.

As you could notice, most of the movies are recent releases.

The travel guide section is free as well. So, I have used that section to read information about the city that I would visit: Frankfurt.

Frankfurt would not be that hot according to the weather section, however, it was warm during my visit.

The seat pocket content. The Pegasus magazine and the BoB menu

Pegasus International Route Map. I didn't know they were flying EIN-CMN; however, it's a publication error. They have recently started their SAW-CMN flights.

Some more information about the Personal Device Entertainment System.

The BoB menu

A view from the air. After the seatbelt signs had been turned off. The crew, first appeared to get orders for hot dishes.

Then, they appeared for the second time for the Buy on Board menu. I have benefitted from the 2x Ice Tea = €5 promotion and bought temporary earphones as mines were not working.

Somewhere over Austria. The flight was pretty eventful. There were two unexpected events during the flight. About an hour before landing, the crew appeared for another time as the Buy on Board cart was passing through the cabin. One of the passengers from the rear rows came to the crew serving another passenger, touched the crew from his shoulder attempted to take a photo of him, that lady was angry and was shouting "Tell me your name!", I didn't understand what was going on, however, the cabin supervisor went to talk to that angry lady and calmed her down. 2-3 minutes later, a passenger bought something from the Buy on Board menu and handed a €50 bill to the crew. The crew told her that they only have €10 change at that time so they would give the rest after the trolley run had completed; however, after the crew went three rows behind, the lady shouted to the crew and asked where is my change, the crew told her that the service hasn't been completed yet and they still don't have any change money. The cabin supervisor tried to calm down that passenger but he wasn't that successful. The cabin crew ended up asking passengers if they could split a €20 bill to a €10 and two €5's. After that, the crew handed that passenger her change money. All other passengers, received their change after the service had ended. The crew had a hard job with these strange passengers but they remained in a professional attitude throughout the flight.

Route map

Before our descend, I have used the rear lavatory which was clean at that time but passengers were not wiping the sink as they should do, so the sink was not clean. There was no toilet paper in one of the lavatories and the crew had immediately, put new rolls to that lavatory.

Frankfurt as we started our descend

Guess the airport

And after our turn back to Frankfurt, we were going to land from the west.

And we had landed on time.

The Terminal 3 construction site. I'm betting that this terminal would open before Berlin Brandenburg Airport.

A LH A319 and a HOP! aircraft parked at remote stands.

Tui Airways 737-800 in the Tui Blue livery

EI-DPV parked at a remote stand

And VP-BFA getting ready for his flight to Moscow, we were going to park at remote stand V114.

FRANKFURT AIRPORT - FRA

After saying goodbye to the crew, I have used the front stairs to disembark. It was strange that the border police was not present at that time. Normally, they would have done visa checks just at the airplane door for flights arriving from Turkey. The last view of our aircraft

We were bussed to Terminal 2E in Frankfurt, as an Emirates A380 had arrived before us, the non-EU line was a bit crowded but as all desks were open it took 10-15 minutes for me to clear passport control.

As I didn't had any checked baggage, I have left the baggage claim hall. Now, it was time to head to Terminal 1C to claim my carry-on bag.

As the Skyline was not working, transfer buses were present and due to the traffic it took another 10-15 minutes to reach Terminal 1. At least, I was able to take a seat as the bus was nearly full.

And finally, I have claimed my carry-on bag that I have forgotten back in March. There was nothing missing so after filling out a form, I have left the Lost&Found office. After that, as I was the only one exiting Terminal 1C arrivals, I was stopped by the customs officers and questioned if I had something to declare. As I had nothing to declare, everything was set and I have left the baggage claim hall in Terminal 1C.

Later on, I have went to the regional train station to go to my hotel in Frankfurt.

So this report has come to an end.  
Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another report.