How long is the layover?

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#checkthisoffourbucketlist

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I’m writing this blog on our 2nd long flight of our very long journey to Vietnam. We are on a 8 hour and 47 minute flight to Hanoi. Flying Turkish airlines has been the good, the so-so, the bad and the ugly experience so far on our trip.

First lets start with the good…..

Where have you ever flown where the chef…yes, the chef comes out to take your order for your meal in Business Class?

Turkish Airlines has not one, but two chefs onboard our flight prepping the meals and plating their freshly prepared delicacies in an exquisite manner.

The menu choices featured local Turkish foods

The meal choice variety on Turkish airlines was excellent in Business Class. The menu presentation and choices of non alcoholic beverages were amazing too. I tried the detox smoothie, homemade lemonade with fresh mint and sour cherry juice. All were delish!

Red pepper soup. Notice the candle in the little bag. The bread claims to be “the world’s oldest bread” 12,000 years ago a grain of wheat sprouted in Anatolia From there civilization blossomed. The first bread from Tas Tepeler, the world’s oldest settlement The first bread was made from the earliest wheat seeds that spread from Anatolia to the world is now in the skies with Turkish Airlines. The rolls were served in little beige bags and were a darkish colour and were warm, but hard. It was the type of roll you had to break off in pieces. The bread was very tasty with the nice salty Turkish butter.

We even had little candles glowing on our meal tray during dinner and I’ve never seen that before in Business Class!

Turkish Airlines staff make up the bed in Business Class and add a ‘mattress topper’ type covering for the seat before it is time to sleep for the evening. They also add a pillow case to the provided pillow and they gave us each a heavier blanket than the Turkish blanket which we received when we arrived at our seat. The ritual of making the bed for sleep by the crew was a very nice touch. The staff were engaging and efficient too in serving the meals and clearing away our trays so we could start to sleep as soon as possible.

We flew a 777-300ER from Pearson to Istanbul. The seat configuration was not ‘true pods’ in Business Class, but we found that the storage bins at our feet offered tons of storage for shoes and other things that we didn’t need, but might want during the flight.

The restrooms on Turkish Airlines are larger than the normal Business Class lavatory and they offered a higher end English Molton Brown hand soap and hand creme. There was also a nice Molton Brown reed diffuser in the lavatory and cologne and the staff kept the lavatory exceptionally clean and well stocked throughout the flight.

As part of any long layover at Istanbul Airport, passengers travelling on Turkish Airlines are entitled to a free “TourIstanbul” tour. Depending on the time of arrival determined what type of tour would be available. We had registered for the ‘Evening’ tour given we were arriving at 2:30pm into Istanbul and we didn’t have enough time to get through Passport Control (looked like a nightmare but the line moved fast and only took 10 minutes), and get from the Turkish Airlines Business Class Lounge near gate E9, all the way to the ‘A’ gate area, to catch an earlier tour.

When we finally arrived at the TourIstanbul desk at 6pm after leaving the Turkish Airlines Business Class Lounge at 5:05pm, we were sweating and afraid the tour would leave without us! Our tickets for the tour clearly stated we needed to be at the Tour Desk 30 minutes before our 6:30pm tour, so we literally ran to make it once we cleared Passport Control. I think we could have safely made it by 6:20pm and still have made the tour, but I guess no one wants to wait for stragglers, so the 30 minute arrival time before the tour is a good policy.

Us and about 98 other people were marched by two tour guides onto 2 waiting ‘TourIstanbul’ buses outside the terminal and we sat and listened to our tour guide as we drove the 60 minutes into downtown Istanbul. We had a lovely sunset over Istanbul which we watched from the bus on our drive.

Our guide, Esau

Our guide had us follow him to a waiting ship in the harbour in Istanbul and we boarded the ship and found a seat for the 1 hour boat ride on the Bosporus Strait. When we were in Istanbul for one night with Viking on our World Cruise in 2023 we went to a traditional Turkish bath or ‘Hammam’ instead of doing the Bosporus night cruise which some of our friends did instead.

New Mosque, Istanbul (Built between 1660-1665)

Galata Tower, Istanbul

It was a bit chilly on the water but the city of Istanbul is such an architectural wonder and it was amazing to see it all lit up at night from the ship.

After our cruise, our bus took us to a little restaurant for a traditional Turkish meal. Our guide Esau said, “Let the other bus group go into the restaurant first. I want to show you something at the top of the street.” I always love it when guides say things like that!

The Blue Mosque or its official name: Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Built between 1609-1617, the mosque has a classical Ottoman layout with a central dome surrounded by four semi-domes over the prayer hall. It is fronted by a large courtyard and flanked by 6 minarets. On the inside the mosque is decorated with thousands of Iznik tiles and painted floral motifs predominately in blue colours which gives the mosque its ‘nick name’.

Inside of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul

And just like that we got a night shot of the famous Blue Mosque!. We had been in the Blue Mosque in April 2023 on the day it had reopened to the public after being closed from 2018-2023 for renovations, but we had never seen it up close and lit up at night. Cool and very serendipitous!

Our restaurant for the TourIstanbul dinner after our boat cruise

Entrance and main floor of the restaurant

The restaurant was a little ‘past its prime’ but the food was tasty and fast to arrive

Lentil soup with a tasty cabbage and carrot slaw and Turkish desserts on the side

Shish-ka-bob chicken, beef, rice and a carrot salad

Our meal at the tour restaurant was very down to earth and hearty, not fancy, but tasty.

I think I fell asleep on the bus ride back to Istanbul airport

Our bus driver dropped everyone off at entrance 7 to the airport but as we were driving by entrance 5 I saw there was a Business Class priority entrance, so we walked back to enter the airport here

We didn’t have any time for shopping after dinner as we had to be back on the bus to Istanbul Airport by 9:30pm to arrive back at the airport by 10:40pm.

The TourIstanbul experience was so much better than we had ever imagined as we thought we might be re-seeing places that we visited in 2023, but the boat cruise was a real highlight to see so many of Istanbul’s mosques and monuments lit up at night!

And now for the so-so…

The in flight entertainment system accessed from our seat using over the ear Denon headphones was at best 5/10. The movies and tv shows offered were very old, not block busters or award winning as they claimed and I scrolled through the Movies, TV, HBO Max, Nat Geo and other channels to see if there was anything interesting and frankly there was not. Maybe the Turkish movies and TV shows being offered were more popular but the English titles displayed were not good.

The Business Class Lounge in Istanbul Airport is rated the #1 Business Class Lounge in Europe.

A beautiful presentation of various salads

Traditional Turkish yogurt drink

Turkish salted butter and homemade pretzels

Turkish pastries

We were really hyped to be stopping in Istanbul and get the experience of being in the Turkish Airlines Business Class lounge before and after our TourIstanbul tour. Unfortunately the lounge just didn’t live up to its billing. The free storage lockers for our carry on bags were a nice touch but while they were supposed to work with biometrics using our finger tips to lock and open, mine would not open when we finally wanted to leave the lounge for our flight to Hanoi. We had to get the only Concierge lady to come and unlock the locker, while she had a line of 20 irate people all looking for showers or sleeper beds to deal with..

Speaking of sleeper beds, We had tried to pre-book sleeper beds for around 11pm in the lounge after our TourIstanbul tour, as soon as we arrived in the lounge at 2:30pm. The Concierge lady said that because our stay was longer than 9 hours we were NOT allowed to use the Sleeper Beds. The logic just didn’t make sense to us since we were staying longer why couldn’t we catch an hour or so of nap time?

We did get to use the showers after our TourIstanbul tour, but when we asked if the showers were fully stocked with amenity kits, said Concierge lady said “Yes”. We both were disappointed to find No toiletries other than the standard dispenser on the wall Body Wash, Shampoo and Conditioner. No toothpaste or toothbrush, hairbrush or deodorant. Weird. The showers were clean though and appreciated and made us feel somewhat human for our next long flight over 3 days of travelling.

And now for the BAD!!!!!!

Boarding in Toronto was a nightmare! Turkish Airlines staff do not staff the boarding process at Pearson so we will give them a break for the lack of direction or announcements since it is not Turkish Airlines fault but their poorly communicating sub contractors.

Boarding in Istanbul though WAS operated by Turkish Airlines staff and that was MUCH worse than in Toronto. Of course having to board a bus to get to your plane is never a sign of good things to come. But I digress….

Business Class passengers usually board first after those needing more assistance to board. But not on this flight!

After calling Business Class passengers to proceed to boarding, we did manage to wrangle two of the very few seats on the shuttle bus that took us and the very packed, standing room only bus full of pushing people to our plane. But first, before we could leave the boarding gate and after we had already gone through a gate agent checking our passports to our boarding cards and checking our passports to our Vietnamese visas which I had secured myself for us online (a lot cheaper too than using Gen Visa or I-Visa service), the same gate agent comes to the packed shuttle bus and starts yelling for “MR RICHARD?????” Richard wasn’t sure the gate agent was actually calling for him, but finally he did answer. Richard had called 48 hours in advance of our first flight out of Toronto to add his CPAP machine to his reservation and the use of his CPAP to all of our flights. The gate agent in Istanbul while we are sitting on a packed bus and while everyone else around us is standing, asks Richard to open up his CPAP machine and show him the plug! Next he asks to actually take a picture of the back of the machine! Then he says “Just wait”. I mean where were we going? The bus wasn’t leaving and now everyone around us knows that the bus is not going anywhere because of this guy from Canada, with a CPAP machine he wants to use on the plane! It gets better….wait for it….

NEXT… the gate agent leaves and calls his supervisor. A woman. The woman then starts telling Richard that he cannot use the machine on the flight unless he has a prescription for the machine! SHE WANTS TO SEE HIS PRESCRIPTION FOR HIS CPAP MACHIINE WHICH HE HAS HAD FOR ABOUT 15 YEARS!!! Next the woman asks us to GET OFF THE BUS to deal with this issue, to which Richard replies “I did what I was asked which was to add my CPAP machine to all legs of our flights and I did it 48 hours in advance of our first flight with Turkish Airlines in Toronto, you figure out who to talk to because I do not have a prescription to show you.” Now we were at a standoff…..we weren’t getting off the bus and she left and started speaking very loudly in Turkish into her phone. We waited about another 15 minutes with the doors open and the other passengers looking at us and wondering why the bus wasn’t moving to the plane.

Finally, the bus started moving and I saw the first gate agent had jumped on the front of the bus. I really thought that he was going to say something to us when we got to the plane about not being able to use the CPAP machine on the fligh, or worse, denying us boarding. No, that wasn’t what he had jumped on the bus to do. In fact no one spoke to us about the CPAP machine after that. But the fact that we were met with everyone else on the bus as well as other buses getting to the flight ahead of us meant that we had to wait on the tarmac to walk up the very steep steps to our Airbus 350-900 series carrying our hand luggage and roller boards with us. Wonderful, just wonderful. When we did get on the plane we barely had any time to get settled and take out what we needed for our flight from our carry on bags. I don’t think Richard ever did get a hot towel or a drink before we took off.

What a horrible experience with Turkish Airlines staff in Istanbul.

We soon found out the purpose of said male gate agent after all. He started yelling row numbers to people getting off the next bus to let them know to board at the back if they were Row 28 or higher. I wonder why Turkish Airlines who must use shuttle buses and overflow parking for planes frequently couldn’t have figured out they need to have a staff member available on exiting the shuttle buses at the plane, instead of mass bedlam and a human zoo of people all rushing to the steps to the plane? Or is giving one man travelling with an approved medical device more important that boarding the flight in an orderly manner!

So as you can see Turkish Airlines is not without its quirks so to speak. We will fly them to Hanoi and then Hanoi to Istanbul; Istanbul to Toronto and see how they stack up vs other airlines we’ve flown in the past and give them an overall rating after all of our flights. Right now the inefficiency at the airport is quite annoying and destroys the goodwill the onboard staff and excellent meals generate.

In the meantime, its off to dreamland for me. I need to sleep now on this flight to Hanoi to try and alleviate some jet lag. I can see Richard in the pod across the aisle from me already sleeping with his CPAP machine. If he wasn’t using it I would be hearing him, so thankfully somehow, common sense prevailed at Turkish Airlines and we can both get a ‘good’ if not short night’s sleep!

Twelve hours for a layover in Istanbul is a little long especially if you do not have lounge access. If you’re adventurous though and arriving during the day, Istanbul is an amazing city and well worth either taking a free ‘TourIstanbul’ tour, or using their free bus service into Istanbul, ditching the tour, and taking the metro back to the airport for your next flight. We may do that on our return flight as we have some ideas of what we want to do given the Grand Bazaar is NOT open on Sunday and was closed by the time we got to Istanbul today. We may just have to come back on another cruise or vacation as I still haven’t got to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul!!!!