TRIP REPORT: Turkish Airlines, Zagreb - Istanbul

TRIP REPORT

Recently flew Turkish Airlines from Zagreb to Istanbul, and onwards to the US. I arrived at Zagreb Airport which was very quiet at that time of day prior to my evening flight, and upon checking in I proceeded to the Primeclass lounge.

The lounge is easy to find, located more or less in the center of the international departure lounge after passport control, across from the gates. While this lounge will not win any awards when compared to an international business class lounges at a major airport, it does have plenty of room and a decent spread of food and snacks. I didn’t overdo it with food, as I expected a good dinner meal on the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul later that evening. In addition to plenty of varied seating and tables, there are lockers where you can leave your bags if you plan to rest or nap. You could also leave your bags here while heading out to the terminal to walk or grab food at one of the restaurants.

After some light bites and some work, it was time to head out to the concourse for my flight to Istanbul. This is a reasonably short 2-hour hop over to Turkey.

Business Class on this particular international Turkish Airlines flight was nearly empty, with only a handful of people for over a dozen seats. There was also an amazing amount of space between the seats, even fully reclined with the footrest, there was extra room. It did mean you had to physically get up out of the seat and walk over to access the storage space under the seat in front of you! The seat itself also features TV screens, which are taken out of the armrest, although I didn’t watch anything.

There were 3 flight attendants for business class, so we were well cared for. Everyone was offered a choice of pre-flight beverage, I went for the radioactive red one, a departure from my normal orange, I believe this is sour cherry or something along those lines. We also were given menus before takeoff so as to get started immediately once airborne.

There were two main courses, in addition to three side dishes, starting with cheese, a small salad, mango panna cotta, and a Turkish meze sampler. All were very fresh and tasted great. For the main course, I chose the swordfish steak option with cauliflower, which was very nice. Again, you would never believe this was served on a short 2-hour flight on a 737. Afterwards coffee and tea was served and shortly after it was already time to begin our descent.

Once we reached Turkey, we spent a decent amount of time circling and turning in the pattern before we started our approach. After landing, we parked in a remote spot and had to take buses to the terminal. Since business class get a separate bus, and there were only a few of us, it was kind of barren and quiet on the ride to the terminal, which took a decent bit of time while we drove and drove around all the planes and active runways. Istanbul is a huge and busy airport.

I’m not sure if it was because we came from Croatia, or because my continuing flight was to the United States, but I had to go through another security screening before entering the terminal…unlike when I flew from the US to Turkey and I could just walk off the plane. 

In any case, the flight on board Turkish Airways was excellent and unlike what you will get on other airlines on a 2-hour flight.

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