Review: Turkish Airlines Business Class, Stockholm-Istanbul

Christmas and New Year in the Philippines flying Turkish Airlines Business Class

For the second time after three years, I will be celebrating Christmas and New Year in the Philippines, together with the Singelresor group. We are a group of 16 although I guess it could have been more. Our program starts in Manila, the capital city and after that, we fly to Cebu to explore the oldest city in the country. Then we have four nights in Panglao where we visit the famous Chocolate Hills, the Philippine tarsier, and do the Loboc River Cruise among others and of course enjoy the white sand beaches of the island. Then, we fly to Boracay, the world's best island for 2016 according to the readers of the Condé Nast Traveler where we celebrate New Year. From there, we fly back to Manila and take the long bus ride to Banaue to see the 2000 year old Banaue Rice Terraces. Finally, once we are back in Manila, we visit the famous Pagsanjan Falls before taking our evening flight back to Stockholm. As I am currently doing this trip, you can check my trip report on flyertalk for the updates.


Review: Turkish Airlines Business Class, Stockholm-Istanbul
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Review: Turkish Airlines B777 Business Class, Manila-Istanbul
Review: Turkish Airlines Business Class, Istanbul-Stockholm

Turkish Airlines Business Class meal, Stockholm-Istanbul

Flight: TK 1796
Departure time in Stockholm (ARN): 17:35
Arrival time in Istanbul (IST): 23:05
Aircraft: Airbus A321-200
Seat: 2B, transferred to 4A
Duration: 3h 30min
Date of flight: December 23, 2016
*Revenue Ticket, Business Class flight #121

Check-in, desk 44

While on the train on the way to Arlanda Airport, I checked the Airport's app to find out the check-in desks for our flight.

We arrived a little more than 3 hours before departure so we had to wait till the check in desks opened. When our turn came, we were helped by a friendly agent in desk 44 (for business class passengers) who did the check in process efficiently.

Fast track was again very helpful this time of the year since the queue for economy class passengers was quite long.

Stockholm Arlanda Airport Terminal 5

Duty Free shops, Stockholm Arlanda Airport T5

The new Volvo S90 ad 😉

SAS Gold Lounge

We spent the rest of our time before boarding in the SAS Gold Lounge which had very good food selection: salmon, meat balls, tomato soup, rice salad with vegetables and spicy tuna among others. I also checked Flight Radar's website to find out where the Turkish Airlines B777 with the BatmanVSuperman livery was and found out it just flew to Manila earlier that day which meant we missed it by one day.

Aircraft, Airbus A321-200

Turkish Airlines A321-200

Boarding, gate F61

Gate F61 before boarding time

Boarding started at 5:15pm starting with business class passengers. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 5:35pm so it was obvious the flight was delayed.

A cart with newspapers was placed outside the door before boarding.

As I boarded, I was welcomed by one of the flight attendants and the in flight chef.

Cabin

The business class cabin has a 2-2 configuration from rows 1 to 5 with 8 of the 10 seats occupied.

Seat, 4A

My seat, 4A was a window.

Seat pocket with IFE magazines, etc.

Reading lamp

Spacious legroom

Seat controls and IFE controls are located outside the left armrest.

Foldable tray table (located under the left arm rest)

Safety Onboard Card, IFE magazines, etc.

IFE controls and headset

Personal screen

Around 5:50pm, the captain came on the PA to welcome us onboard.

A few minutes after settling in, I was offered some predeparture beverage by the inflight chef ...

... and I chose the raspberry drink.

Moments later, the cabin chief came on the PA to welcome us onboard and give us some flight info.

The inflight safety video was played around 5:58pm which was followed by some newspapers being offered. Take off around 6:10pm which went smoothly.

Dining

As soon as the seat belt sign was turned off, the inflight chef offered some hot towels which was followed by the menu card and beverage list being offered by the cabin chief.

Menu card

Business class menu, Stockholm to Istanbul

Moments later, the inflight chef took the drinks order and I settled for a glass of apple juice.

Wild Salmon and Avocado, smoked Eggplant salad, Turkish Style bulgur salad and yoghurt

The appetizer, desserts (Home made apple meringue tart) and my apple juice were all served in one tray as is the norm on Turkish Airlines.

The cart with the main course and bread.

For the main course, Mike had the Grilled Swordfish Brochette which according to him was very good 😋

I on the other hand chose the Sauteéd Fillet of Beef which was also very tasty 😋

It was a bit turbulent by this time so it took some time before they started the coffee/tea service.

I had my usual green tea.

Toilet & Lavatory

The lavatory had the usual cologne and hand & body lotion from Eyup Sabri Tuncer.

Turkish Airlines A321 business class lavatory

Airshow

Airshow enroute to Istanbul

The captain once again came on the PA to give us updated flight info including our arrival time of 11:05pm as scheduled.

Landing in Istanbul Airport

We landed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport at 11:05pm as scheduled and reached gate 224 six minutes later. Beside us was an aircraft from Turkmenistan Airlines. Cool to see a not so common airline out here 😉

CONCLUSION

Again, another great flight in Turkish Airlines business class! I loved the fact that the seats were real business class seats and not the typical economy class seats with the middle seat being blocked. The food was very tasty specially the beef as it was very tender. The pace of the meal service was also perfect as it was not too slow nor too fast. Despite the fact that we were delayed from Stockholm, we still landed on time in Istanbul Airport which was a great thing. Overall, I really enjoyed flying with Turkish Airlines. To all the crew on this flight, "Teşekkürler!" 😊


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