Featured photo is of a skyscraper near our hotel.

Once Bill got final approval to go to Istanbul, he arranged to put Noyzi and Charlie in our usual “Hunde Pension”. Then we had to pick a flight. Ordinarily, I try to fly on Lufthansa, because I’m collecting points that I’ll probably never get a chance to use. But again, Bill had to use the cheapest option to get to Istanbul, and I wanted to be on the same flight with him, albeit in business class. 😉

Lufthansa or Turkish Airlines?

Originally, the company travel agent wanted to put him on a flight that would make it impossible to get the dogs to the Hunde Pension before he needed to be on the plane. I thought we might end up on an early evening Lufthansa flight that would get us to Istanbul at 11:00 PM, since Istanbul is two hours ahead of Frankfurt. We finally settled on a Turkish Airlines flight leaving Frankfurt on Monday, November 17th at 2:45 PM. It was more expensive than the Lufthansa flight would have been, and cost twenty euros more than the mid morning Turkish Airlines flight the travel agent had suggested.

I like to fly business class on flights within Europe, and probably will fly business next time we go to the USA, too, if we can afford it. I earn more points on those flights, and they offer some convenient perks, like lounge access, free checked bags, and higher weight limits for bags. I mainly like business class because it’s less cramped. I don’t mind flying economy if I sit next to Bill, but since he was flying the cheapest fare in economy and it was a separate booking, there was no guarantee we’d be sitting together. So, since we have the means, I fly business. It gives me a chance to write reviews, too. I think it’s funny that they call it “business class”, when so many businesses require their employees to fly as cheaply as possible!

The least expensive Lufthansa business class ticket I had been looking at would have been about $800. But, since we flew Turkish Airlines, which had more convenient times, it ended up costing me about $1500. Bill’s economy round trip ticket on Turkish Airlines was in line with what a Lufthansa ticket would have been– about $300.

I remembered flying on Turkish Airlines once, back in 1996, with my friend, Elaine. We flew from Izmir to Ankara, but were not able to find any other flights heading east toward Armenia. I remembered liking Turkish Airlines then, but I didn’t have especially high expectations when I was a broke Peace Corps Volunteer in my 20s. I also didn’t get the greatest initial impression of Turkish Airlines by their rather wonky Web site, which keeps sending me ads, but wouldn’t recognize my new Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles ID number. But, I resigned myself to knowing that at least I’d get the chance to experience an airline other than my usual and trusty Lufthansa.

This was a last minute trip, though, and if I’m honest, neither Bill nor I were feeling particularly excited about it. He had spent more than half of October away, and likely has to go away again in early December. Then when he comes back, there’s another conference at Ramstein, which is about an hour away from where we live. After awhile, all the “TDY” stuff gets pretty tiresome. It would have been nice to do a celebratory trip for our anniversary, rather than travel on business. But, at least Bill still has a good job, and this was a great chance for me to see more of the world.

As the days got closer to departure, I started reading up on Maslak. I knew it was far from Taksim, the area where Elaine and I had mostly been in 1996, but I read there was a metro nearby. And I remembered visiting Armenia two years ago, which has really come up in the world since I left in 1997. Surely it would be okay in Maslak… Well, as I found out, sometimes ancient cities are slow to modernize. This is not to say that Maslak is “third world”, but it was not the most tourist friendly or pedestrian accessible area. I’ll elaborate on that later.

Frankfurt Airport

On Monday, November 17th, the day after our 23rd wedding anniversary, we took a taxi to Frankfurt Airport. We weren’t even a mile from our house before we almost had an accident at the roundabout near our neighborhood. The cab driver, who happened to be Turkish, almost hit someone who violated German traffic law. Fortunately, he had good brakes and fast reflexes.

When we got to the airport, we had to search for the Turkish Airlines baggage drop. I was the first person in the business class line, and was literally standing on a red carpet as I waited for the desk to open. A very officious lady invited me to drop my bag. She asked me if I was traveling alone. I said that my husband was traveling in economy. She invited him to drop his bag with mine, which was really nice of her. I was impressed. She even put a priority sticker on his bag.

Because I was traveling with Bill, I decided not to use the business class lounge. It would have been the Lufthansa lounge, which I’ve used a bunch of times, anyway. Bill and I made our way to the gate and looked around for something to eat. I would have waited for the flight, but I get really cranky when my blood sugar tanks.

After finding the proper gate, we walked back the way we’d come and ended up having sandwiches at a cafe in the middle of the airport. As I ate my overpriced tuna sandwich, I couldn’t help but miss the restaurants in other airports. For some reason, Frankfurt Airport doesn’t have the greatest selection of eateries. But then, I could have gone alone into the lounge and had whatever Lufthansa was offering. The beer was good, at least!

Our flight to Istanbul ended up being about 20 minutes delayed before we could board. I thought it was because of the weather, but my German friend later told me there was also a lot of traffic at the Istanbul airport that affected the flight to Frankfurt. She explained that Istanbul has the second busiest airport in Europe, and is the largest privately owned airport in the world. Having now seen the new airport, which was opened in April 2019, I can understand why traffic might have been an issue! I’ve also just learned that the airport isn’t even fully built yet. That will happen in 2027.

Turkish Airlines flight from FRA to IST…

Once we got on the plane, I was legitimately impressed. On short to medium haul Lufthansa business class flights, you get a seat that is just like the seats in economy class, but the middle seat is empty. On my Turkish Airlines flight, I had a bigger seat with a console between me and the guy in the aisle seat. The leg room was very generous. I probably could have extended my legs without touching the seat in front of me. I actually did do that on yesterday’s flight. The seat had an extra pillow and was well padded and generously appointed. I didn’t test out the seat’s adjustability, but on yesterday’s flight back to Frankfurt, I noticed the lady sitting next to me was using the leg rest that made the seat look like an honest to God recliner! It was just way better than what I’ve typically gotten on Lufthansa in business class.

Below are a couple of pictures that show how much space I had between my knees and the seat in front of me. Granted, I’m short, and I have short legs, but this was the most generous leg room I’ve seen on an airplane in many years.

A flight attendant came around with pre flight drinks. She had lemonade, still water, orange juice, or strawberry juice (or raspberry– can’t remember now). I opted for the orange juice, and it was delicious! She’d even put a slice of fresh orange in it. It tasted like it was freshly squeezed. I think on Lufthansa, they give you bottled water.

Once we were in the air, the flight attendants brought out menus. On that flight, we had a choice of kebab or roasted salmon. But the meal started with Turkish appetizers which, frankly, I couldn’t easily identify. There was also salad, cheese, warm bread, and a double chocolate cake. I enjoyed some Turkish white wine, as well. The salmon was surprisingly delicious. It was not dried out or overcooked, as I would have expected it to be. I really enjoyed the Turkish styling with tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, potatoes, and spinach.

Our seats didn’t have screens on the seatbacks, which was fine with me. I was enjoying taking photos from the window, as you can see below… A lot of people were watching videos on their personal iPads.

As we got closer to our destination, we were even further delayed. At one point, the pilot was going to land, but then abruptly aborted. I thought it was because of high winds, but my German friend had been tracking the flight and said it was likely due to aviation traffic. We ended up being almost an hour late landing. But the service on the flight was excellent.

One of the flight attendants was especially service oriented. I got up to use the lavatory and hadn’t noticed it was occupied. I stood in the aisle, and the man who was ahead of me was in there for a long time. When he finally emerged, the flight attendant asked me to wait a moment. I soon got a fetid whiff of why she’d asked me to wait! She went in there quickly cleaned the commode, sprayed air freshener, and even put down a seat cover for me. WOW!! That was impressive, and much appreciated! She really took one for the team!

We finally landed almost an hour later than expected. Bill and I were both pretty tired once we got on the ground. We had to go through passport control and wait for our bags, which took awhile… but at least they came out together.

Then we found a cab to Maslak, which was driven by a very friendly local who drove like a madman. He commented that our hotel wasn’t the best for tourism. He was so right about that. I was a bit alarmed as he pulled up and a Hilton staffer came out and swept the car for explosive devices! But for better or worse, there we were in Istanbul, in an area full of skyscrapers and bright lights. It was definitely urban.

Checking in at the Hilton…

A friendly Hilton staffer invited us into the hotel, and I put my purse and computer on an x-ray scanner. Bill and I walked through a metal detector, which really took me aback. I guess they’ve had some trouble recently. We checked in, and were assigned room 1711. More on that in the next post…