Review: Turkish Airlines B777 Business Class, Hong Kong to Istanbul

 

Turkish Airlines B777 business class, Hong Kong to Istanbul

Trip to the Philippines & Malaysia Flying Turkish Airlines Business Class

Flight: TK71
Departure time in Hong Kong (HKG): 23:30
Arrival time in Istanbul (IST): 06:25 (+1)
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300 (TC-JJR)
Seat: 6A
Duration: 11h 55m
Date of flight: February 20, 2024
*This is a revenue ticket, Business Class flight #254

Video on YouTube



Hong Kong International Airport, Row D

Turkish Airlines uses the check-in counters in row D at Hong Kong Airport.

Check-in

Check-in desks opened at 8pm for the 11:30pm departure. For business class passengers, D17 and D18 were used.

Plaza Premium Lounge

Although I have visited a Plaza Premium Lounge in Hong Kong before (located near gate , the one that Turkish Airlines is using is locate near Gate 60.

Boarding, Gate  34

Boarding was scheduled at 10:30pm, and which was followed with no problem 👍

Business Class Cabin

The business class cabin has a total of 49 seats, from rows 1-7. The bigger business cabin consists of rows 1-4 and behind the galley are rows 5-7.

Seat map

Seat, 6A

Personal screen and ottoman

The slippers were of gray color just like on my last flight.

Movie selection

For my pre-departure beverage, I opted for a glass of apple juice, instead of the usual lemon mint, raspberry drinks, etc. they serve.

Denon headphones

I decided to finish watching the film Barbie 👍 Sadly, Oppenheimer which I started to watch on the Cathay Pacific flight earlier that day from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong was not offered yet.

The Ferragamo kits had nice contents although I hope they would include a small perfume 😉

Take Off

We took off at 12:09am which was a bit behind schedule as they kept on restarting the IFE system.

Turn Down Service

As usual after take off, turn down service was offered.

Dining

Menu card

Wine list

Wine list

Aperitifs, digestives

Hot towels

Bottles of water

Dinner

Mixed nuts and apple juice

For my starters, I had the grilled scallop with sesame honey beef which was very good.

The seafood mix was very good as always 😋 Sadly, there was a paper/sticker on my plate behind the potatoes which I saw halfway eating my meal 👎

Apple crumble with vanilla sauce

I slept for about 4 to 5 hours which was very helpful as we were up early in the morning that day.

Snacks

In the galley, they set up a snacks bar (where I grabbed some Snickers and nuts).

Breakfast

About 2 hours and 20 minutes before landing, the lights were lightly turned on and hot towels were offered.

Sliced fruits with the usual choices

Mike had the "local option" to go with his sliced fruits: honey sesame beef, fried anchovy, preserved vegetables with bean curd.

Juice and coffee

For my main course, I ordered the waffles which was okay. Mike had the local option (fried anchovy) which he said was very good.

Lavatory

The lavatories offered Molton Brown amenities as usual.

Landing in Istanbul

We landed in Istanbul Airport at 6:08am and reached our gate 21 minutes later.

Transferring in Istanbul Airport

It was a long way to the transfer desk so be prepared if you have a short connection in Istanbul as you might need to walk really fast 😉

CONCLUSION

Just like my flight with them 2 months ago, it was overall a nice one. The crew were nice and friendly although nothing near the crew from airlines like Qatar Airways and Emirates, perhaps due to the language. The meal served were good, in fact it was nice to see some local options on the menu. Mike was able to try the fried anchovy for breakfast and thought it was very good, but then again he loves anchovies 😉 The Ferragamo amenity kit was nice although I wish they had included a small perfume like the Bulgari kits from Emirates. Sadly, their Boeing 777 business class seats simply can not compete with Qatar Airways or EVA Air as the configuration is the dreaded 2-3-2. I saw a lady passenger who ended up in the middle seat with 2 strangers on both sides. Fortunately for her, there was a free seat by the window behind me where she could transfer after take off. We decided to fly with Turkish Airlines on this occasion because we needed to retain our Star Alliance gold status, and it was also the cheapest business class ticket on our dates to Asia, around 1900 USD. Hopefully, they keep publishing good fares from Europe to Asia in the future so we could continue flying with them 😉

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