Review of Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Strasbourg in Economy

Hi,

welcome to this review of my last TK flight on this trip I took in September 2023. Here's the complete trip:

After another morning of visits in Istanbul, we headed out to take the metro in Kaghitane to the Airport

It takes around 25 minutes to get to the Airport, which is located 45km outside of the city. All for the price of 45 TL (1,40€).

Let's head to the terminal.

That building is huuuuuge!!

And the inside is… well huge too!

The FIDS tells us where we need to check-in.

We head to the Miles and Smiles check-in area.

A very nice agent checked us in and in no time we head to passport control and security:

it took us less than 10 minutes to get all of this done.
Airside, IST is just a big mall.

It tooks us 5 minutes to fin the lounge:

Like the rest of the airport, it's huge. Did I say huge again? Well…

It's also crowded but we still found two seats.

There are many different seating areas, as well as some entertainment for younger travelers

It's already 2pm and I'm hungry! TK offers some live dining:
beef, chicken and some vegetables here:

Soups:

Manti, these are little turkish style ravioli.

or the famous "pide", the turkish pizze.

sufficient to say I had a very nice time here and enjoyed some great food!

After two hours of lounge time, we head to the gate, C2 this afternoon. Just outside the lounge, that's nice considering how huge this aiport is and how long the hypothetical walk could have been.

Boarding started at 15:45.

Our plane ride today is TC-JVK, a 7-year old 737-800.

Business Class:

and what matters to us today, Economy Class:

Seat pitch is not great, like on the past 3 flights with TK.

The cabin is quite modern with a brand new IFE.

On our right, another TK 737.

This time the middle seat remains empty, meaning that we get some extra space.

The usual ad is shown on the screen, as well as the safety video.

The crew handed out earphones.

Boarding took a bit longer than expected, and we pushback 13 minutes behind schedule at 16:28.

The taxi part is long but entertaining with a lot of different planes to spot:

We're ready for take off at 16:40.

Bye bye IST :)

And we're leaving Turkey and entering Bulgarian airspace.

IFE is great on TK, movies, TV shows… everything you need can be found there, although it can be quite "old" like with Young Sheldon S2 (2019) :)

Soon enough the crew began the meal service.

A choice between beef and pasta is offered, along with a warm bread roll and the beverage of your choice.

"Real" cutlery, a very good point for TK.

Köfte beef covered with cheese, rice, tomato and some beans.

A coffee was offered after the meal.

After two hours of flight time we started our descent into SXB. Here's the Rhine Valley, Germany to the right and France on the left.

Final approach over the north-eastern suburbs of Strasbourg.

Landing at 18:23.

Taxi was quick… so quick when comparing with IST ;)

and we parked alongside Royal Air Maroc's E190 at 18:29, 4 minutes behind schedule.

I surely hope to take this plane next year!

Passport control took us less than 5 minutes, although only 2 officers were on duty this evening.

and then we took a stroll to the train station…

where the train takes us to Strasbourg in 10 minutes!

Thanks for reading!
Jules