#5 out of 22 Low-cost airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
39 reviews
Report No: 2023-504
Dear folks,
Welcome to this brand new trip report where I was going to head to London for a short trip. On this occasion, since I had an open ticket with Pegasus to the UK due to a cancelled flight, I was able to rebook at my convenience to this date at very short notice and head to Stansted with that ticket without paying a last minute fare.
Today's flight would be onboard the Pegasus A321neo from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen to London Stansted in Economy Class and before the flight I was able to visit the Plaza Premium Lounge in Sabiha Gökçen Airport thanks to one of the credit cards that I have.
The return leg was with British Airways on an Avios ticket and it was not reported, thus this report would be the only report for this trip.
The journey started with a metro ride from Kadıköy to Sabiha Gökçen Airport where I arrived at the airport about 1h40mins before scheduled departure time.
The metro station is linked with a passageway underground where there is a security check at the end where there was a wait of 5-10 minutes due to 1 x-ray device being open at that time.
After that, I headed upstairs to the departures level in order to proceed to security.
Since I didn't have any checked baggage for the day, I directly headed to passport control.
While there was a huge queue at the regular passport booths, I was lucky to use the e-gates which still had a queue but not that bad where I was airside in 5 minutes which was a decent wait for passport control and security combined.
There are two Plaza Premium Lounges in the international departure hall where one is reserved for people accessing via credit cards and banks and another one for paid customers.
The Marmara Lounge is the one that allows bank/credit card customers which have partnership with AMEX and some Turkish banks.
This lounge now accepts PriorityPass as well but at the time of the travel, it did not.
The lounge was not crowded that morning thus I was easily able to find a seat.
However, the buffet is very basic and much inferior than it was before.
There is also a drinks section where hot tea, coffee and soft drinks are available which was not pictured; alongside there was also a section were vegetables and cheese was available.
The lounge also has a bar but wines, spirits & digestives are not free of charge.
My selection for the day
The lounge has a pretty good view where I was able to spot the new ATC that would open soon, as well as looked at the new runway construction which is set up to open later this year.
The gate for today was 203A and since this flight was to the UK at the entrance of the gate, there was a visa/documentation check by Pegasus staff and an additional security check by aviation security officers.
While boarding was conducted by row numbers, there were a lot of passengers who ignored the announcements and tried to board early which were actually blocking the way as they were turned back.
In addition, there was a strict carry-on check since Pegasus only allows one item in the cabin per passenger opposed to one carry-on and one personal item and those who had more than one item were asked to consolidate their items or gate check it for a charge or within their baggage allowance.
Today's aircraft was an Airbus A321neo which was delivered to Pegasus in August 2022, so I could say it was relatively new.
After being welcomed by the crew, I have taken my seat 31A which was auto-assigned to me during the online check-in process. For this flight, I didn't want to pay for an emergency exit row seat as I was planning to sleep during the entire flight and the legroom pitch on Pegasus is quite decent for a low cost carrier.
A view from the window
Overhead panel
Lots of AnadoluJet aircraft at remote stands as well as one Turkish Airlines 737-800 which was there to support the AnadoluJet operation.
Boarding was completed on time and the safety demonstration was performed by the cabin crew.
Since we were ready we have started our pushback earlier than our scheduled departure time.
At that time this Turkish Airlines 737-800 arrived from Gaziantep as TK 7271 which is an AnadoluJet flight.
It would actually be great to pay for AnadoluJet and get a TK metal aircraft as the seats and the legroom are much better on TK metal.
The terminal had lots of Pegasus and AnadoluJet aircraft. At the time that we were taxiing, there was no foreign airline on sight.
Except for those at the technic hangar.
After a short taxi, it was time to take-off towards the north for this flight to Stansted.
In the air
The terminal
Almost above the clouds
And we are above the clouds
Pegasus doesn't offer Wi-Fi but they do offer a personal device streaming service for a charge, which could be pre-purchased online or onboard. Since they have made an update on this, they have eliminated the complimentary route map feature which I was slightly disappointed since it was a great way to track the flight since the new Pegasus aircraft do not feature overhead monitors.
Pegasus offers a buy-on-board menu which has plenty of food & beverage options for sale which the content is as below.
Alternatively, some items could also be pre-ordered for a lower price online at the time of booking or through the Pegasus website/app before the flight.
The menu - While the prices are high above Turkish standards, they are reasonable when considering international standards
I did sleep for about 3 hours on the flight and woke up to a sunny weather.
Shortly later, we started our approach into Stansted Airport
Descending
And we have landed about 20 minutes before our scheduled arrival time.
The taxi was short, however, it allowed me to spot plenty of aircraft starting with these Ryanair aircraft
Another one
A sister of Ryanair - Lauda
An Easyjet A320neo
And after a short taxi, we have parked at gate 22 at the satellite concourse.
Since I was on the rear part of the aircraft, it was nice to have stairs attached to both sides of the aircraft.
Shortly later, I have left the aircraft using the rear door
And while walking towards the terminal, I took this last photo of TC-RBT
It was time to walk upstairs the stairs to the terminal after leaving the aircraft
And then taking the escalator down to the transit level in order to board the transit train to the immigration hall
Since there was an Emirates flight which landed at the same time and their passengers boarded the train from the first stop of the transit, the transit that arrived was full and the arriving train had 2 carriages rather than 4 which made it difficult to board but I was able to get a spot on the first arriving transit train.
Since there were Emirates passengers in the visitors lane, there was about a 30 minute wait and since more officers showed up during the wait, the queue moved very fast.
Since British Airways stopped their fast track service at Heathrow Terminal 5 for their elites and Business Class passengers, I actually prefer arriving at Stansted since the wait is usually maximum 10 minutes here compared to more than a hour at Heathrow at the regular lane, however, this in this occasion, the Emirates aircraft arriving before us was bad luck since most of the low-cost traffic here transports mostly UK and EU citizens which are eligible for the e-gates.
Once I was out, since my hotel was close to Liverpool Street Station and I didn't want to take a 2 hour coach, I have decided to take the Stansted Express time.
Since this trip was planned last minute, I was not able to purchase a ticket in advance for the train thus I paid GBP 26.90 for the ride which was pretty much equal to my 1500+ mile ride from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen to Stansted airfare.
I was also lucky that the train at that time was delayed since the frequency intervals were 30 minutes at that time and I was almost going to miss the one at 14:13. However, I was able to board and the front of the the train left empty while the rear carriages were full.
And I have arrived at London Liverpool Street in about 45 minutes after leaving Stansted Airport and this journey has came to an end.
Thanks for reading this report and I hope you enjoyed it.
Hope to see you all on another report.
In the end, since I paid Pegasus a very low amount, my expectations were pretty low; however, the journey itself was smooth, with the airport experience at SAW pleasant, albeit a contract lounge that is going downhill every time I visit; a non-remarkable and non-eventful flight and a decent immigration wait at Stansted since the UK Border queues might be longer based on which airport you land and the time of the flight.
4 Comments
- It has significantly grown over the years and even getting larger since they are building a new runway and planning to building a new terminal.
- It's the case for Pegasus international flights since a long time due to the instability of the Turkish Liras, IMO, in order to avoid re-printing the menus every time. However, someone could still pay in TRY if they wish with the daily exchange rate.
Have an enjoyable day!
Thanks for sharing!
- Indeed, it does sound like hell after flying all the nicer products on other airlines; however, at some point if someone could sleep onboard, it's not even something that that person would realize that it's cramped. Also, at least the seats are much better than Pegasus's old seats on their older 737-800 as they were thicker meaning less legroom despite a similar pitch.
- Indeed; especially since they disabled the route map feature and some other features for free of charge, I doubt many people are paying for the streaming IFE which might not be worth the investment. Albeit, if the same system could be used to introduce onboard Wi-Fi at some point, it might be worth it though.
Thanks for reading!
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