Prologue:
The following trip might have been called “My Quest for Balik Salmon”….I will cover TK in Economy and Business, the main event comes from the well-known Emirates First Class Lounge in Dubai but Instead of flying EK I will fly Qantas! Final routing; CDG-IST-DXB-LHR-CDG
In the morning of june 17th I was in the horrible T1 lounge in CDG on the way to KUL and I wanted to eat Balik Salmon, not a little but to fill my stomach with it…
Where can I find unlimited supply of Balik ? Emirates First Class Lounge ! Now time to figure out how to fly to Dubai.
My ticket to France for august already in hand, I had a tiny window to fly on 2 specific dates…
My first idea was to fly Etihad in First with AA miles but could not find any space to AUH the date I wanted, same with Emirates. BA was an option… just an option given how outrageous BA charges for an award. I decided to buy the ticket in coach with TK via Istanbul and I could taste again the pides. My first thought was to buy the ticket and land in Dubai at 6am, spend 18 hours in the First Class Lounge… my second thought was to ignore the first one… I did purchase the ticket but I went to the hotel to rest like a regular guy… Almost…
I was lucky to find 1 award seat the day I wanted to fly QF. I pulled the trigger and bought the award for 80.000 miles….
I took the only direct service train from MLH to CDG.. Awaken at 3 am it was hard to keep my eyes open.
Eventually
The check-in agent was very friendly and was surprised to see me that early... Then I shared where I came from. After 5 minutes she wished me a good flight and made my way to the lounge.
Thanks god I had the fast track to avoid the long queue. the lady with the blond hair gave me a WTF look...
When I arrived
I really enjoyed the omelette.
Jams and cereals.
Close to noon
Desert an cheese.
After my meal
After the rush of the morning departures
Hello big boy !
I passed by the Business Class.
The coach cabin.
My seat for the next 3h30
The legroom at the exit row.
The best for your leg.
The cabin itself.
The wing. I just can't get enough of it.
The IFE provides great amount of movies to entertain you.
Whenever you fly TK
We arrived at a remote stand and were driven to the terminal by bus.
========== Paris Charles De Gaulle (CDG) - ==========
========== Star Alliance Gold - Business Class Lounge ==========
========== THY - Turkish Airlines - Airline ==========
========== Ataturk Arpt (IST) - ==========
Summary:
The lounge :First off, after nearly 6 hours in the lounge I can say it's a good lounge for a business class.
It did not surprise me to see the lounge packed in the morning with the morning departures to USA and Asia.
Staff and Service : Very busy in the morning and a little rude when I requested the salmon. However aside from that incident, the service was good overall.
Design : Nicely built, I would have love to have a view on the runways.
Food and Beverage : Good quality and quantity.
Spa and Bathroom : Basic but enough to freshen up.
Wifi : the speed was good to see Netflix and get some work done.
To sum up it was a good experience.
The flight:
One of the crew had a good french and they were friendly. The main event comes from the catering. It always impressive to get such a good meal in coach.
I highly recommend TK for your flight.
1 Comments
ReplyThanks you Thomas for sharing this great report.
"Thanks god I had the fast track to avoid the long queue. the lady with the blond hair gave me a WTF look..."
- The look of envy perhaps.
I have never had the opportunity to try the *A Gold lounge in CDG, but from the looks of it and previous reports I'm not in a hurry to visit it.
Nice modeling shot in the shower room. ;)
I concur that row 8 - EMERG EXIT is the best with plenty of legroom. I was seated in 8D when I flew that plane from IST-MUC back in December.
Meals on TK are always great for the most part I made the mistake of ordering an Hindu meal from LHR-IST thinking that since the flight left LHR the Indian catering must be spectacular. What I was presented was something remote from being Hindu and I think I was given a vegetarian one instead. I can't help but think that I would have enjoyed the standard meal better.
Glad to read that you had a good experience overall.
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