Review: Turkish Airlines TK824 – Business Class

After a lovely week spent in Istanbul, we take our flight to Beirut, the second stop of this Aeroplan award ticket.

Between Istanbul and Beirut in business class with Aeroplan miles

Istanbul was love at first sight. This city of 15 million people is of course steeped in history, but you’ll also find neighbourhoods that are truly different from one another. Public transit is well organized and made it easy for us to explore the city.

We take the metro that connects downtown directly to the airport. It’s not yet clear exactly when the new airport, whose construction is nearly finished, will start receiving flights, but it doesn’t seem easily accessible from the city just yet.

There are two security checkpoints to go through: one on arrival at the terminal, and a second one after check-in, which we did via the mobile app. There’s a line dedicated to business class for the security checkpoint.

The airport layout isn’t very complicated. It’s one long corridor, and the Turkish Airlines lounge is at the end of it.

The Turkish Airlines business class lounge in Istanbul

We know this lounge well, I’ve been through it several times, and Jean-Maximilien did a thorough report on it during his trip to Hong Kong.

Handy: you can leave your carry-on bags at the entrance.

The lounge is starting to show its age, but the offering remains solid. We decided to have a light breakfast, trying some simit.

Afterwards we had a coffee in a quiet corner. In the morning, the lounge is relatively calm. Things pick up in the evening when many passengers are connecting to Asia, since those flights take off overnight.

Time to board, and our gate is a good fifteen-minute walk away, in a basement hall, so boarding is by bus.

Turkish Airlines flight to Beirut

It’s a short flight but with a long-haul aircraft. We know Turkish’s Airbus A330-300s by heart. They have 64 of them, almost double their Boeing 777 fleet. They also have 787s and A350s on order.

Boarding is quick, and the captain announces a calm flight that will arrive a bit early. The menu is handed out along with the welcome drink; we’re not disappointed, especially for such a short flight.

We’re happy to spot a 747, even if it’s an all-white cargo plane.

Last views of Istanbul, but it’s just a see-you-later!

The meal is served directly on a tray with a glass of champagne. I chose the kofte, grilled meatballs.

We fly over the Mediterranean.

We approach the Lebanese capital. Landing gives us a beautiful view over Beirut.

The airport was barely occupied, which was lucky. Paul Papadimitriou of the excellent Layovers podcast advised me to literally run off the plane, because the customs wait in Beirut can be so long. But we arrived at the right time and at the right gate (the closest one to customs), so we didn’t wait at all and were the first at the counter. Another pleasant surprise: we didn’t have to pay for the entry visa.

Conclusion

Turkish Airlines is one of the airlines I appreciate most, not because it’s exceptional in the comfort it offers, but because the experience is consistently solid. We hope it stays an accessible airline without surcharges going forward, especially after Aeroplan’s acquisition by the consortium led by Air Canada.