Introduction

Ankara is a sprawling city of six million inhabitants. Strangely, though, it doesn’t feel like a big city at all, perhaps because it lacks the glitzy designer stores and doesn’t really have a pedestrian area. It’s a fairly modern city, and as it was designed as the capital, it is generously laid out, so traffic tends to be easier than in Istanbul.

Getting to the Airport

The journey from the Sheraton to the airport will take approximately forty minutes and costs the equivalent of about EUR22. The orange taxis have a meter and accept credit card payments. The yellow taxis don’t, and consider a meter optional.

Check-In

I’m unable to check-in for my flight on both the mobile app and on my laptop. So the first stop at the airport is check-in.

Turkish Airlines checks in on row E. There are three counters open. I queue for 25 minutes, because, apparently, every passenger has some special request or other. When eventually I reach the counter, the check- in agent tells me she’s only checking in for AJet, a low cost subsidiary. Turkish Airlines check-in is five counters down. She asks me to follow her to the Business Class counter for Turkish Airlines operated flights and apologizes for any inconvenience.

The Lounge Experience

The day before departure, I receive a mail from Turkish informing me that the Turkish Airlines lounge at Esenboğa airport is under renovation, and that, therefore, I should use the contractor lounge near gates 307/308. I think I prefer watching the traffic outside the window. So, I park myself in the café next to gate 108, from where my flight will be leaving, and have a cappuccino and a biscuit.

At around 11h30, my flight arrives from Istanbul with a delay of 45 minutes. Our departure back to Istanbul has been rescheduled to leave at 12h25 instead of at 11h55.

Boarding starts rather unceremoniously at 11h50, when the grumpy gate attendant mutters something in Turkish that I don’t understand. But the crowds stand up and approach the gate, so I figure we’re moving.

The Cabin & Seat

Let me see, this is my seventh flight with Turkish recently, and so far I’ve experienced six different cabins. Being an older B 737-800, this aircraft has a bit of an old fashioned Business Class seat. Even so, it’s still very comfortable. There are four rows for a total of 16 seats. The seat load on today’s flight is 50% in Business Class.

The leg space is excellent, and the seat next to me remains empty.

The Service & Crew

There are four cabin crew working this flight. The Business Class cabin is served by the maître de and a nice young lady with brilliant manners. While we’re still on the ground, she passes through the cabin with welcome drinks and the menu for today’s service to Istanbul.

Eventually, we take off at 12h32, just over thirty minutes late. The flight time to Istanbul is fifty minutes.

The Meal – Light Lunch

The meal on this flight is a light lunch. The mezze are some kind of cream cheese with beetroot, grilled aubergines with tomato, and some kind of meat on a bed of celery. In addition, there’s also a small salad that is served with olive oil and bread rolls. The dessert is a fig and hazelnut mousse, which is really way too rich!

Arrival

Thr trays are quickly removed, and then we’re already landing in Istanbul. They’re doing parallel approaches on the western runways, with arrivals on the outer and the inner runways, and departures on the center. Ahead of us I spot an A 330-300.

We taxi to a remote stand. The taxi doesn’t take very long. From there I take one of the Business Class busses that will take me to the terminal.

Transfer in Istanbul

From arrivals, I head one floor up to departures level, where I first clear passport control and then security. There is a dedicated fast track for passport control, but not for security. At security you only need to put your closed bags through the x-ray machine, without having to remove laptops or liquids or having to take off your coat. Although, I don’t really think it matters, because the guy at security is busy looking at his mobile. You could probably put an elephant through the machine and he wouldn’t flinch or even care.