Bonjour from Toronto! - the greatest city in Canada and very happy to share my first solo adventure with you all. The Mrs gave me permission to fly away as a birthday celebration. Since I love scuba diving, I decided to go back to the Philippines to get some dive time and meet up with friends in Manila. With the usual magic from a FT friend, tickets were booked 3 months out from departure with outbound on TK, intra Asia on PAL/SQ and finally inbound on QR/AC. For hotels, stayed strictly with Marriott to meet with double night promo to retain Titanium status. In the end, landed up with the following itinerary:
Turkish Airlines J - YYZ - IST - MNL
Sheraton Manila - 1 night
Philippine Airlines Y - MNL - PPS
Four Points Sheraton Palawan - 4 nights
Back in Manila for 2 nights
Singapore Airlines J - MNL - SIN - KUL
Serangoon House Singapore - 1 night
Aloft Kuala Lumpur - 1 night
Qatar Airways J - KUL - DOH
JW Marriott Marquis Doha - 1 night
Qatar Airways J - DOH - ORD
Sheraton Chicago Airport - 1 night
Air Canada J - ORD - YYZ
Kicked off birthday celebrations with dinner the day before flying out. Mountain of delicious lobster for me!
A gorgeous day to fly out of Canada’s worst airport - Pearson International (IYKYK). Found the TK check in desks at pier E aisle.
Even though the J line took 15 minutes, it was still faster than waiting in the Y line which was snaking through the roped lanes and spilling out and in front of the pier. One of the TK agents was trying his best to muster everyone into lines but was failing miserably through no fault of his own - people were just not listening and/or not caring. To add on to the chaos, the belt stopped working and bags had to be stored in a separate staging area to the side until the belt was fixed. Luckily, the bags made it onto the flight since I was tracking with iPhone airtags.
With the security formalities done fairly quickly and after the long walk to the international pier, I made my way to the AC ML lounge only to wait for 15 minutes to enter. Had a quick meal with choices being decent and killed an hour before heading to the gate.
Thank goodness I was not flying Air Satan today - many delays and/or cancellations. The flight to Dubai was cancelled due to the flooding but didnt know at the time. Hooray for cloud seeding.
Gate area was pure chaos with everyone lining up in every direction and from different angles - I just stood off to the side until the announcement for business class to board was called and then made my way (politely and gently as all Canadians do) through the horde.
Once on board, made my way into the mini cabin and the last row. The 777 plane has a 2-3-2 configuration and while it lacked privacy, it was really roomy and was more preferred over the A350 leg to MNL (more to come on this).
LOTS of leg space.
Menus were already at the seat.
A member of the cabin crew came around offering PDB’s and I went with the raspberry. Other choices were orange and lime.
Pushback was on time and after the long taxi to the furthest end of the airport, we rocketed off into the night sky.
Mood lighting
Cabin crew came by later with a hot towel and beverage choice which was provided along with the meal choice before take off. There were two onboard chefs (one for each side) and it was an interesting interaction. The chef on my side came by to take our meal orders.
Chef: “Would you like the soup along with the other appetizer - yes or no?”
It was an interesting way to phrase the question and while it came across as abrupt, I understood that it was well intentioned. No harm done.
The crew also came by to put the bedding cover over everyone’s seat before the meal service started.
I did have the corn soup but forgot to take a picture - just envision a thick yellow soup with chunky bits in it - was meh and I only had half.
Next came the salmon tartar and celeriac salad which was superb.
Filet of beef - well done and was ok. Cutting beef with a butter knife is a fun exercise. Veggies were good.
Ending with the Portuguese tart which was good - hard to mess it up.
After the meal service was done and tables cleared, I hit the bed for a few hours and woke up 3 hours before landing.
Breakfast was served 2 hours before landing.
Fresh fruit - skipped half of it as it was cold and hard.
Cheese Omelette with potatoes
Meal service was done within an hour and then another hour till landing.
Quick and easy landing and we were at the gate within 10 minutes after a slow taxi.
As you mention, these seats are really spacious. If you get lucky without a neighbour, these old seats are a lot more spacious than most modern seat designs. Of course, if you do have a neighbour, it can be awkward with the lack of privacy. Food looks great, as expected for TK.
Thanks for sharing!