As my boyfriend Sam happens to have a birthday every year, it was time again to have small trip as his birthday present. Being the cold month of February I first looked into travelling to a slightly warmer and sunnier destination like Morocco, but the only interesting flights being either on Ryanair or Transavia and way too expensive for what they were or a long layover on TAP in Lisbon. In the end I stumbled upon a good hotel price-quality with the Fairmont Quasar in Istanbul and fair flight prices and timings on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul.

We opted for the morning flight departing at 7:50 in the morning from Brussels, as in winter there is a 2 hour time difference between Belgium and Turkey we arrived just after 13:00 in Istanbul.

For the early departure from Brussels Airport we travelled on the first airport bound train in the morning from Antwerp to Brussels Airport. After which we had time to visit the Diamond Lounge using our Priority Pass membership.

Even though Brussels Airport opened a new The View lounge at the B-Gates this was closed at our time of visit, presumably to finish up some last details and we were directed to the ‘old’ Diamond Lounge for our visit, it’s still the same as when we flew with Tuifly to the Dominican republic so you can read our review from back then. 

The boarding gate for the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul was B04, right next to where the stairs to the lounges stood in the terminal, so only a very short walk. 

We had to wait a bit before boarding started. Once started it was handled very efficiently using boarding groups, which they also strictly adhered to, everyone that was trying to board before their time was sent back to join their group.

They started boarding Business Class and Star Alliance Gold customers first, followed by rows 20 and upwards. As we were seated in row 19 we had to wait for the third group, rows 15 to 19 to be called. Thanks to this system boarding was quite orderly and efficiently.

Flight TK1942
From Brussels (BRU) 7:50 (9:08) to Istanbul (IST) 13:20 (13:54)
Flight Time 2 hours 46 minutes
Airbus A321-200 TC-JSV “Ilgin”
Delivered to Turkish Airlines in August 2015

Inside Turkish Airlines offers a relatively ‘premium’ cabin layout for a European airline on a short-haul aircraft.

The Business Class cabin had proper 2-2 recliner seats, meanwhile in Economy there are leather seats in a 3-3 configuration with adjustable winged headrests and individual seatback entertainment screens for each person.

Basic earphones to use with the IFE where put on the seats for everyone. The IFE was already functional on the ground, so you could start watching something as soon as you were settled in. Upon hearing the “boarding completed” sentence we could see that the entire plane was completely filled, except for the row of two seats behind us next to the emergency exit. We kindly enquired that if it would be possible to change to those seats after take-off if they were unoccupied.

The cabin crew said we could move immediately if we wanted, it was no problem. Thus leaving our broadly built neighbour on the aisle with his own row for improved comfort for both us and him, he was very fast getting up to leave us out.

We were happy we did the move as the plane would still be on the ground for over an hour as the plane needed to be de-iced as it had been snowing overnight and the wings where covered in ice and snow. As of course all flights leaving Brussels Airport that morning had to be de-iced that meant there was a wait for available de-icing trucks. I managed to almost completely watch a movie before finally pushing back and taxi to the runway.

After take-off the crew got up to get ready for the in-flight service. Turkish airlines is one of the rare airlines in Europe that still hands out complimentary meals in Economy.

We were served a hot Turkish flaky pastry with feta cheese and spinach and mushrooms on the side.

On the tray was also a cube of water, a container with some slices of cheese, tomato and olives.

Another container with a rather bland and dry chocolate cake.

There where also a cup of butter, a cup of cherry jam , some salt and pepper and a refreshing towel. The cutlery package also contained real metal cutlery, always a hint of luxury in Economy Class.

The crew also came around with hot breads. And of course you could have another drink of choice with the meal (I had an apple juice) and some coffee or tea when they cleared the trays.

All in all I found it to be a very delicious and qualitative meal for Economy class, here you can see Turkish airlines really invested in its catering by using Turkish Do & Co. The meal wasn’t really to Sam’s liking, he did try every dish and had to admit it was a good quality but just not his taste.

The rest of the flight was quite smooth sailing, with some chops when crossing over the alps and other mountain ranges on the way.

The pilots managed to make up some time inflight as despite leaving Brussels an hour and 18 minutes late, we only landed with a delay of 34 minutes in Istanbul. I also thought the new massive Istanbul airport to be quite impressive compared to the Old Ataturk Airport I flew in last time.

We docked at a jetway and only had a relatively short walk across the spacious and clean terminal following the signs to the nearest immigration checkpoint. Unfortunately this was temporary closed off as it was really busy they have real-time signs to direct passengers in the right direction but did not make use of it at this time, making us walk to a closed checkpoint before making us walk across to the other side of the terminal for an open checkpoint. If they had switch the real-time signs this would have avoided some lost-time and confusion amongst passengers.

In the end we did get through to the arrival immigration, and with our passports stamped we were on our way into the city. We decided to take the metro into the city as it stopped quite close to our hotel. the metro station is a quite a trek from the main terminal building however, here you can see once again how big the scale is the new Istanbul airport was built on.