Assalamualaikum
Hi
Well that day I traveled to Turkey with my sister, I chose Turkish Airlines, as well as travelling back to Malaysia during last winter break.
I always love planes, airliners, stewards, stewardess, pilots, seats, IFE, planes windows, the wings, the rolls royce engines, everything about planes. I always watch the Air Crash Investigation, the youtube videos of landing planes, taking-off planes, plane reviews etc. I always feel happy and excited when it comes to planes. I feel free and my homesickness somehow cured after I watched some planes videos. Haha weird right. If only I live near airport, I probably always find myself at the runway gate wearing ear-muff watching planes land and takeoff.
I admire pilots, a lot!
At how they manage to land and to takeoff the plane and everything, maybe all they need is just to activate the auto-pilot mode to cruise, but it always triggers the excitement in me to see them, the pilots sit at the most front, in the cockpit, leading the whole fleet.
Okay enough about my enthusiasm.
Back to the topic, it was the first time I traveled on Turkish Airlines, and within a month gap between travelling to Turkey and going back to Malaysia. Overall it's good and nice experience.
Bound for Istanbul on this fleet Airbus A321 with 3-3 seats configuration, people often misunderstands that Airbus is always a big plane when they actually produce smaller plane like above. No matter Boeing or Airbus company, they both produce small and big planes. Malaysia Airlines uses Boeing 737 a lot as smaller fleet, and that maybe explains why Malaysians always misunderstand the Airbus. You guys may actually look at Air Asia fleets, they use a lot of Airbus A320 as their smaller carrier. Don't misunderstand. Get the concept right haha
It was an early morning flight, were there a lot of passengers onboard? I barely remember, I just wanna see my sister badly huhu
As for an Airbus A321, I didn't expect it to run as rapidly as a Boeing 737, but it did!
Speed is something I really enjoy when riding on a plane, the faster it speeds to takeoff the better.
But nothing is comparable to MAS Boeing 737, it always speeds and it's freaking enjoyable!
The sound of rolls royce engines grinding is so exciting, rushing your adrenaline!
And that's what fun about riding a plane.
It was an early morning flight, were there a lot of passengers onboard? I barely remember, I just wanna see my sister badly huhu
As for an Airbus A321, I didn't expect it to run as rapidly as a Boeing 737, but it did!
Speed is something I really enjoy when riding on a plane, the faster it speeds to takeoff the better.
But nothing is comparable to MAS Boeing 737, it always speeds and it's freaking enjoyable!
The sound of rolls royce engines grinding is so exciting, rushing your adrenaline!
And that's what fun about riding a plane.
On such a short one hour plus flight, they served full course breakfast meal and it's good. Bad thing is my stomach was so bloated, I couldn't eat.
So, it was a short flight, nothing much to say.
Reaching Ataturk Airport at 6 something.
On our way back to Alexandria, we traveled on an A319, more or less same like A321.
Again it was a nice flight, and as I said before nothing much could be said for an hour flight.
But Ataturk Airport is a very busy airport indeed, not because a lot of humans roaming around in the airport, maybe the airport is not big enough to accommodate that huge numbers of passengers, but it's because there're so much planes queuing up to land and to takeoff, in the dark you can see the plane's white strobe lights, there were like three planes queuing up to land, the most front landed, then came another one to complete the set of three! Like non-stop, and it amazed me how the ATC works on that, the planes don't collide mid-air, just don't God forbid. Same goes during takeoff, as I observed, there were two runways for take off and they make full use of it. And in mid-air as we takeoff, we could see other plane landing and it's near we can see what type of plane it is. where it's supposed to have 1 km distance at least between planes mid-air and maybe it was already 1 km, it was my first time encountered such experience huhu
22 days later...
Travelling from Alexandria again to Istanbul on same fleet and Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur on an Airbus A330-300. We had like 12 hours layover at Istanbul and for that, we got to stay at the hotel, Four Points Sheraton somewhere in Istanbul, got there by Turkish Airlines shuttle bus.
If you have 7 hours layover for business class and 10hours for economy, you should get either hotel stay or Istanbul tour, choose one. Under ONE condition, there's no alternative flight within shorter time, for example, there're two flights operating to your next destination, first one within 5 hours and second one within 10hours, if you book the second flight although it's 10hours layover, you don't get the accommodation as it's not a forced layover, instead it's for pleasure.
And to get the accommodation, it's not like someone will call you straight away once you get out from the plane. You have to get out as if Istanbul is your destination, passing through passport control, obtain the entry stamp. For those countries who need visa to enter Turkey, please obtain it before, may do it through online as well. You don't have to collect your luggage at the belt, it won't be there~ Your luggage will be transported directly to your next flight. And don't follow the transit lines before passing the passport control as it'll bring you straight away to the gate to your next destination, and do enjoy the 10 freaking hours of layover staring at the occupied gate for about 10 flights before your turn.
And after you get out from the arrival hall, turn right and go to the Starbucks area, both the hotel stay counter and the tour manager are there. We chose hotel stay that day, I don't care if there's none of my friends chose hotel. I'd still be with my choice. I felt so tired as I spent the whole night at the Alexandria Borg El Arab Airport and some hours onboard, so I needed rest. Miraculously with me, there were Zaidah, Maya, and his boyfriend-now-fiance Amir, last winter trip travelmates, and they forced me to join them touring around Istanbul. And they succeeded. =__=
We had breakfast then we went out.
It was snowing that time, and I froze! I think I'm not a winter-person. I can be so grumpy in cold weather and so tired too.
We snapped pictures, I was almost not interested, like the hell I just took pictures here three weeks ago! And I'm not a photo-kind of person anyway, just take it for the sake of future reminiscing tools leuls~
We strolled around at Sultanahmet area, at the Grand Bazaar, directing them way as I still had my recent memory.
And on our way back to the hotel, we've been cheated by the cab driver, and it took us more than 2 hours to reach the hotel, and missed the shuttle bus as well, as we're scheduled to take the 3pm shuttle bus and our flight was at 6pm.
We asked the receptionist politely has the shuttle gone, and there he blamed us for returning back late. It wasn't our mistake for god sake! And the predicament continued, Amir then suggested that we went to the airport by cab. I was like we've been cheated by cab driver then we took another cab to reach here and again another cab to the airport?! How many bucks more we need to waste on this?
Then I've gone mental, almost yelling at the receptionist to check for the next shuttle bus, and there'd be another trip at 4pm. OMG IT DOESN'T KILL YOU TO TELL US THAT THERE'S ANOTHER TRIP WE CAN CATCH! instead of lecturing us like a grandmother~
And we managed to arrive at the airport and got on the plane. I think Turkish Airlines has to improve their ground service, some of the staff members were quite rude, they're so pissed off when we asked them more questions or to repeat what they've said as if you asked them for their kidneys. Some of them speak bad english too, maybe because of the Turkish tongue you barely understand what they say.
Working for long hours is not an excuse for you to treat your customers badly, should've known better before you decided to take the customer service job.
A330-300 or often written as A333. They always make everything simpler, eg Boeing 737-800 becomes B738.
I got to sit on 7K, It's always good to sit at the front, got food earlier, got to disembark earlier, with lavatory only 5 steps away. What's not so good is when you embark a bit later than the rest, you'll find out that you don't have space to keep your suitcase in the over-head compartment near your seat and you have to keep it a bit further at the back, so do embark earlier for the sake of your suitcase.
I always choose window seats, because as they say, we can enjoy the sky view, mehh don't simply believe it, you'd enjoy the view for like good five minutes and then you'd just shut the window because you want to sleep the whole flight~
Departed a bit late because as I said before, Ataturk is a damn busy airport. The pilots have to fight for the runway hehe hell no, they queue up to takeoff and obediently follow the ATC's instruction. There was this one deadliest accident ever in aviation history involved two giant B747s, between the KLM and Pan Am at Tenerife Airport runway; due to heavy fog and miscommunication between the cockpit and ATC. So, as passenger we have to understand the situation before getting mad at the delay.
Once the aircraft stable, we're given the refreshment; Turkish delight and amenity kit which is quite great for economy class. We got some socks, sleep mask, mini toothbrush and toothpaste, ear plugs and lip balm in the reusable pouch. Before the meal served, we're given beverages and a pack of legumes; hazelnut I think. And if you ask for soft drinks, the stewardess will give you the whole 350ml can unlike other airliners, they give you a glass of it and spare the remaining for other passengers or sometimes give the mini can of 150ml, it's Qatar I think.
The meal was good, I barely remember what they served us, just they used the whole wheat bread for bun which I didn't like huhu
I really love in-flight hot buns, if I happened to not get meal onboard which is likely impossible, at least they should have one option in case they ran out the other option, I'd be alive with like 5 buns and butter!
And Turkish Airlines also fly their chefs out together with the passengers onboard. and I think it's awesomely-rare!
We got two full course meals for 11 hours flight, and if it's not enough, you may go to the galley to grab some food.
Most of the time I just snoozed and watch movies. I didn't read unless it's really important to read.
People always think that medical students always read medical stuff whenever and wherever.
No, I don't. I read when exams are approaching. And when the finals actually come, I live in my cave, being antisocial for like one month huhu
And dear hijabis ladies, for your comfort, you may take your scarf off and cover your head with a comfy shawl, you don't have to use pins, just flip it to your shoulder as long as it covers, maybe it's quite difficult to change in that limited and opened space, but it's not an excuse, I could even change the thick sweatshirt into some cotton shirt on my seat without my skin being seen, Malaysia's hot and I was from winter area. And refreshed my face and applied some make up *wink*
Amir and Maya were like 4 rows back and once we arrived, Maya was so surprised looking at me like I just got out from house.
So that was the journey going back to Malaysia with Turkish Airlines.
Everything's almost the same when returning back to Alexandria, except that I sobbed a lot because I left my family and I actually revised paediatics stuff onboard as finals were coming that time.
Praise the Lord, I did quite well and my wish granted during last finals. The layover was around 6 hours and we spent the whole time talking about how we miss our family badly and how short the break was and how we wish everything's gonna be over really quick and how the finals were actually around the corner. I was like so demotivated but still have to swallow everything up to focus for the finals.
Till then
Ramadhan Kareem.
Assalamualaikum.
So, it was a short flight, nothing much to say.
Reaching Ataturk Airport at 6 something.
On our way back to Alexandria, we traveled on an A319, more or less same like A321.
Again it was a nice flight, and as I said before nothing much could be said for an hour flight.
But Ataturk Airport is a very busy airport indeed, not because a lot of humans roaming around in the airport, maybe the airport is not big enough to accommodate that huge numbers of passengers, but it's because there're so much planes queuing up to land and to takeoff, in the dark you can see the plane's white strobe lights, there were like three planes queuing up to land, the most front landed, then came another one to complete the set of three! Like non-stop, and it amazed me how the ATC works on that, the planes don't collide mid-air, just don't God forbid. Same goes during takeoff, as I observed, there were two runways for take off and they make full use of it. And in mid-air as we takeoff, we could see other plane landing and it's near we can see what type of plane it is. where it's supposed to have 1 km distance at least between planes mid-air and maybe it was already 1 km, it was my first time encountered such experience huhu
22 days later...
Travelling from Alexandria again to Istanbul on same fleet and Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur on an Airbus A330-300. We had like 12 hours layover at Istanbul and for that, we got to stay at the hotel, Four Points Sheraton somewhere in Istanbul, got there by Turkish Airlines shuttle bus.
If you have 7 hours layover for business class and 10hours for economy, you should get either hotel stay or Istanbul tour, choose one. Under ONE condition, there's no alternative flight within shorter time, for example, there're two flights operating to your next destination, first one within 5 hours and second one within 10hours, if you book the second flight although it's 10hours layover, you don't get the accommodation as it's not a forced layover, instead it's for pleasure.
And to get the accommodation, it's not like someone will call you straight away once you get out from the plane. You have to get out as if Istanbul is your destination, passing through passport control, obtain the entry stamp. For those countries who need visa to enter Turkey, please obtain it before, may do it through online as well. You don't have to collect your luggage at the belt, it won't be there~ Your luggage will be transported directly to your next flight. And don't follow the transit lines before passing the passport control as it'll bring you straight away to the gate to your next destination, and do enjoy the 10 freaking hours of layover staring at the occupied gate for about 10 flights before your turn.
And after you get out from the arrival hall, turn right and go to the Starbucks area, both the hotel stay counter and the tour manager are there. We chose hotel stay that day, I don't care if there's none of my friends chose hotel. I'd still be with my choice. I felt so tired as I spent the whole night at the Alexandria Borg El Arab Airport and some hours onboard, so I needed rest. Miraculously with me, there were Zaidah, Maya, and his boyfriend-now-fiance Amir, last winter trip travelmates, and they forced me to join them touring around Istanbul. And they succeeded. =__=
We had breakfast then we went out.
It was snowing that time, and I froze! I think I'm not a winter-person. I can be so grumpy in cold weather and so tired too.
We snapped pictures, I was almost not interested, like the hell I just took pictures here three weeks ago! And I'm not a photo-kind of person anyway, just take it for the sake of future reminiscing tools leuls~
We strolled around at Sultanahmet area, at the Grand Bazaar, directing them way as I still had my recent memory.
And on our way back to the hotel, we've been cheated by the cab driver, and it took us more than 2 hours to reach the hotel, and missed the shuttle bus as well, as we're scheduled to take the 3pm shuttle bus and our flight was at 6pm.
We asked the receptionist politely has the shuttle gone, and there he blamed us for returning back late. It wasn't our mistake for god sake! And the predicament continued, Amir then suggested that we went to the airport by cab. I was like we've been cheated by cab driver then we took another cab to reach here and again another cab to the airport?! How many bucks more we need to waste on this?
Then I've gone mental, almost yelling at the receptionist to check for the next shuttle bus, and there'd be another trip at 4pm. OMG IT DOESN'T KILL YOU TO TELL US THAT THERE'S ANOTHER TRIP WE CAN CATCH! instead of lecturing us like a grandmother~
And we managed to arrive at the airport and got on the plane. I think Turkish Airlines has to improve their ground service, some of the staff members were quite rude, they're so pissed off when we asked them more questions or to repeat what they've said as if you asked them for their kidneys. Some of them speak bad english too, maybe because of the Turkish tongue you barely understand what they say.
Working for long hours is not an excuse for you to treat your customers badly, should've known better before you decided to take the customer service job.
I got to sit on 7K, It's always good to sit at the front, got food earlier, got to disembark earlier, with lavatory only 5 steps away. What's not so good is when you embark a bit later than the rest, you'll find out that you don't have space to keep your suitcase in the over-head compartment near your seat and you have to keep it a bit further at the back, so do embark earlier for the sake of your suitcase.
I always choose window seats, because as they say, we can enjoy the sky view, mehh don't simply believe it, you'd enjoy the view for like good five minutes and then you'd just shut the window because you want to sleep the whole flight~
Departed a bit late because as I said before, Ataturk is a damn busy airport. The pilots have to fight for the runway hehe hell no, they queue up to takeoff and obediently follow the ATC's instruction. There was this one deadliest accident ever in aviation history involved two giant B747s, between the KLM and Pan Am at Tenerife Airport runway; due to heavy fog and miscommunication between the cockpit and ATC. So, as passenger we have to understand the situation before getting mad at the delay.
Once the aircraft stable, we're given the refreshment; Turkish delight and amenity kit which is quite great for economy class. We got some socks, sleep mask, mini toothbrush and toothpaste, ear plugs and lip balm in the reusable pouch. Before the meal served, we're given beverages and a pack of legumes; hazelnut I think. And if you ask for soft drinks, the stewardess will give you the whole 350ml can unlike other airliners, they give you a glass of it and spare the remaining for other passengers or sometimes give the mini can of 150ml, it's Qatar I think.
The meal was good, I barely remember what they served us, just they used the whole wheat bread for bun which I didn't like huhu
I really love in-flight hot buns, if I happened to not get meal onboard which is likely impossible, at least they should have one option in case they ran out the other option, I'd be alive with like 5 buns and butter!
And Turkish Airlines also fly their chefs out together with the passengers onboard. and I think it's awesomely-rare!
We got two full course meals for 11 hours flight, and if it's not enough, you may go to the galley to grab some food.
Most of the time I just snoozed and watch movies. I didn't read unless it's really important to read.
People always think that medical students always read medical stuff whenever and wherever.
No, I don't. I read when exams are approaching. And when the finals actually come, I live in my cave, being antisocial for like one month huhu
And dear hijabis ladies, for your comfort, you may take your scarf off and cover your head with a comfy shawl, you don't have to use pins, just flip it to your shoulder as long as it covers, maybe it's quite difficult to change in that limited and opened space, but it's not an excuse, I could even change the thick sweatshirt into some cotton shirt on my seat without my skin being seen, Malaysia's hot and I was from winter area. And refreshed my face and applied some make up *wink*
Amir and Maya were like 4 rows back and once we arrived, Maya was so surprised looking at me like I just got out from house.
So that was the journey going back to Malaysia with Turkish Airlines.
Everything's almost the same when returning back to Alexandria, except that I sobbed a lot because I left my family and I actually revised paediatics stuff onboard as finals were coming that time.
Praise the Lord, I did quite well and my wish granted during last finals. The layover was around 6 hours and we spent the whole time talking about how we miss our family badly and how short the break was and how we wish everything's gonna be over really quick and how the finals were actually around the corner. I was like so demotivated but still have to swallow everything up to focus for the finals.
Till then
Ramadhan Kareem.
Assalamualaikum.
