Introduction: I decided to spend my winter holidays in the Visayas, Philippines because in March it is just the beginning of dry, summer season there. Visayas is one of the Philippines' three main island groups. There are not so many choices to fly from Europe to Cebu City, capital of Visayas region with one stop. Qatar Airways offers flights via Doha and Turkish Airlines offers flights via Istanbul. Both airlines have a technical stop, Turkish in Manila, and Qatar in Davao, but at least you don't need to disembark, change aircraft, terminal, etc. Other airlines offer only flights via some European hub (mostly Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Vienna, or Munich) to Manila or Singapore after which you must connect onto a third flight with Philippine Airlines or Singapore Airlines to Cebu City. I opted for Turkish Airlines.
Check-in and lounge experience: Check-in at Zagreb Airport was very efficient. Cabin luggage was also measured. After the security control point and short walk-through duty-free zone I checked in to the Primeclass lounge. The lounge was quite busy but there was still enough space as they recently expanded it a little bit. The lounge, even without a direct apron view, is very cozy. The food and drinks offered were decent, but there is room for improvement in the hot meal section. The staff is helpful and daily newspapers are available.
In-flight experience: The first flight was from Zagreb to Istanbul departing at 8:00 PM with expected arrival in Istanbul at 00:15 AM local time after a 2 hour and 15 min long flight. The equipment was a Boeing 737-900ER with 135 economy class seats and 16 recliner business class seats. The flight was on time and service was quite impressive for the actual duration of the flight of only 1 hour and 50 minutes. Shortly after take-off we were served dinner showed on the photo below. The chicken and appetizer were very tasty. Many drinks were available.
Transfer and lounge experience: Istanbul Airport is huge as it is a single terminal under one roof. It served 76 million passengers in 2023. All gates are clearly marked, and you cannot say it is difficult to navigate through the airport, but one should be prepared for long walks, sometimes from one gate to another you need to walk around 20 minutes. It looks more like a shopping mall than an airport as the number of outlets, restaurants and bars is so high. All passengers are entitled to one-hour free Wi-Fi.
My next flight was departing at 6:15 AM so I had more than enough time to visit the lounge. iGA lounge is an extremely big lounge located on the first floor offering a wide range of main meals, salads, cold and hot drinks, snacks, and sweets. A locker room, prayer room, showers, nap zones and 4-hour free Wi-Fi are also available. The lounge is very well organised and clean. It is used by business class passengers from many airlines and certain credit card holders. Another option to enter is by paying a fee of €102 for 4 hours.
In-flight experience: My flight was delayed by 1:15 minutes to 7:30 AM and Turkish Airlines informed me about it via SMS and e-mail so I could stay longer in the lounge before heading to the gate. I really appreciated it because I could sleep longer before the long flight.
The flight to Manila is almost 11 hours long and the usual equipment on this route is the Airbus A350-900 with 297 economy class seats and 32 flat-bed business class seats. I made a seat reservation before the flight at an additional cost of €28. Seats 29 A and 29 K have extra legroom and I highly recommend them. Although it is a window seat you have direct access to toilets without waking up your seatmates. A headset, blanket, pillow, and amenity kit were waiting for me on my seat. The amenity kit consists of slippers, face mask, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, and lip balm, very nice and useful for such a long flight. Great start Turkish 😊
During the flight we were served two hot meals, breakfast shortly after takeoff and dinner two hours before landing in Manila. The entertainment system is high quality, maybe not like Emirates but still very competitive with other airlines.
After breakfast, the cabin crew distributed big bottles of water to all passengers. Between meals we were able to get free kinds of snacks in the galley, vanilla cake, cheese sandwich and salty crackers as well as unlimited hot and cold drinks. A very limited number of crew members were available between meals, probably because they were sleeping in the crew rest compartment before preparing the second meal service.
After 10 hours and 20 minutes we landed at Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport where most of the passengers disembarked and around 60 of us were waiting onboard for 45 minutes for refueling after which we started our one-hour long flight to Cebu City. Turkish does not have right to sell seats for this domestic sector. Inflight service consists of sandwiches and drinks of your choice. Even though we departed 1 hour and 15 minutes late from Istanbul Airport, we landed at Mactan Airport only 20ish minutes after scheduled time (1:20 AM).
Conclusion: Turkish Airlines provides high quality hard product, plane was new, seat extremely comfortable and toilets were well equipped. Soft product is also very good, but still not so good compared to Emirates and Qatar Airways. Cabin crew members are all locals and the service they provide is not standardised like on Middle East carriers. Some younger crew members really make an effort to make sure all passengers enjoy the flight, but some of them are just doing the bare minimum without any interaction with guests and it is obvious they are not happy being onboard. I have flown with all major carriers between Europe and Far East and by my personal experience I would rate Turkish 9 out of 10 and, on the list, just behind Qatar and Emirates but well above European competitors.
Hope you have enjoyed reading my first report here!
Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.com
Best european airline
ReplyDeleteYes I enjoyed. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteWhatever we say, Turkish Airlines remains at the level, the best airline for transfers to the world, not only because of the large network (and others have large networks), but also because of the level of service, especially on long flights like yours. TK is the best and will continue to be the best option for a transoceanic flight in the Balkan region, but also in Europe. Good report!
ReplyDelete'The best airline' for transfers - definitely not. Next best after QR, EK, EY? Yes.
DeleteFor us balkan peoples, is. Ok EY or EK are n1, but for the region is TK.
DeleteFor the region, QR absolutely (except maybe SJJ/SKP). BEG and ZAG are very well linked into QR network
DeleteThat's right, I don't deny it, I agree.
DeleteTurkish has the best network in the Balkans, yes. It even codeshares to Zadar and Pula (!)
DeleteAnd Mostar
DeleteThanks for the report - great read.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteGreat report. Really enjoyed it. A bit surprised TK does not offer 2 breakfast choices on the long flight to Manilla though
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteAlso on the way back flight is 2 hours longer and they don't have light meal between two meals (mid flight) what would be nice touch for 13 hours long flight.
They have been scaling back their on board product a bit. It's only slightly noticeable (such as limiting choices), which is good for their status. And compared to all other European carriers, so long as they're on top, they can save a couple bucks
DeleteGreat report! Totally agree with quality comparison w/ other airlines. I found emirates slightly better than Etihad, due to better ife mostly.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteGreat report! I'm flying London-Manila with TK and i'm glad i booked having read that report.
DeleteThank you :)
DeleteEnjoy your flight and transfer in Istanbul
Hello, thank you for your article. I fly with Turkish Airlines few years for business and private trips. I have noticed that the quality of service is not as good as it used to be.
ReplyDeleteMy language was damaged and l haven't get answer from TA more than 3 months. Some stuff has lack of experiences. They have delays quite often.
However they have quite good offer of food and beverages.
I guess l should try Emirates.
Etihad and Qatar are a bit more expensive and services, stuff, aircrafts are better
Their biggest new issue is the delays which are becoming very common now. I wonder if it's linked to the move to the new airport? It did not use to be like this.
DeleteEmirates is an incredibly overrated airline, especially in Business. Etihad is great in both Economy and Business nowadays. Qatar is on a league of its own. My personal rating: 1) Qatar 2) Etihad 3) Turkish 4( Emirates.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. Especially about EK. It's just that their brand is extremely strong.
DeleteEmirates flies the A380 all over the world. That alone makes it amazing.
DeleteLast year, I traveled from Zagreb to Cebu in August.
ReplyDeleteThe first flight was delayed for almost 3 hours, and the second flight was delayed for 2 hours.
The food on the aircraft made me almost vomit, maybe because I ate gluten-free food.
Thank you for this report, I really enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteGreat report and an enjoyable read! I'm booked on the same route next March, but from CDG 😊
ReplyDeleteJust a tiny correction - technical stops are when airplanes land only to refuel, without the aircraft doors opening. Therefore, the stop this flight takes in MNL is not a technical one 😉 Rather, the route is IST-MNL-CEB flown under a single flight number.
Thank you :)
DeleteAnd thank you for explanation / correction. Airline companies in their itinereries use this term "technical", probably just to make it easier for passengers to understand so I just copied it from Qatar.
When you do refueling with pax O/B, doors MUST be open, pax unbuckled and cabin crew on refueling positions.
DeleteI agree that Turkish has great meals and a good product. Majority of their crew onboard and the Istanbul Airport employees can ruin the entire experience when things go wrong. It's a shame since I really like their network.
ReplyDelete