Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge at IST Remodeled

When I visited Istanbul the first time, I was really impressed with their lounge. Overall, it was the most impressive and airy lounge I've been to yet, but apparently Turkish Airlines didn't think it was enough. They hired the design firm Autoban to completly renovate the lounge and just seeing this makes me want to go back for another round of baklava and everything else that is Istanbul.

From Autoban:

Turkey's national flag carrier airline, Turkish Airlines' new CIP lounge has been opened in Istanbul Ataturk Airport International Departures. Designed by Autoban's architectural standpoint, the lounge is spread over 3000m2, with a daily capacity of 2000 people.

Taking into account the primary purpose of the space - to transmit "contemporary Turkey experience" to Turkish Airlines passengers - the design concept is based on the idea of a second shell within the existing shell of the airport hall. Main structure, established by making use of a combination of global forms. These plain spheres create interior combinations by dividing the place into sections that allow transitions between them.

CIP Lounge's each module undertakes a different function. Services like resting rooms, restaurant, tea garden, library, Movie Theater and so on provide passengers a chance to experience each and every different interior. Spatial organization, that gives the sense of discovering while advancing in the lounges; is the natural outcome of the desired architectural layer that place "experience" forward.

Black channels, located in the merging points of modules, are designed to allow mechanical and electrical systems. These channels are among the vital details that bring visual balance to modules which are produced in accordance with the understanding of industrial design.

 More after the break!

[via Contemporist]

Transit Pass Collection: Istanbul (Updated)

A little while ago, I posted about the the Akbil, which was the mass transit pass for public transit in Istanbul. Recently, I went back to Istanbul and found out that they've updated their systems! As a result, I got a chance to get the new card and take a few pictures of it.

 The card is basically what we see in most areas that have made the jump to RFID. It's no SUICA (then again, that's Tokyo. Nothing is quite like Tokyo, where you can buy donuts in the train station with your card). This one uses an ePurse which is drawn from to pay for rides, but I didn't notice any major discounts over using the tokens of Akbil.

 A transit nut too? There are close ups of the token after the break...

Food Fridays: Fish Sandwiches in Istanbul

What do you get when you put a grill on a boat in a place with lots of fresh local fish? You get the Tarihi Eminönü Balik Ekmek and the other floating grills by the Galata Bridge...

It's not exactly high cuisine, but it is a popular and fresh bite to get with a kitchen that is usually actively seesawing in the water!

Back to Turkey: 15 shots from Topkapi Palace, Chora Church, and Istanbul

I'm back from Istanbul and Greece, but getting ready for yet another trip next week. Unfortunately, that means that I can't write up a good true report at the moment, but I will post some pictures as a preview of what I will be writing about when I get back.

Topkapi Palace: 

Flight Report: The Stockholm-Istanbul-Athens-Stockholm Loop

A week and a half ago, I headed back to Istanbul for a couple days before heading on to Greece for the first time. Of course, with that comes some flights and here's a quick photo set from the five flights. More flights on Lufthansa, although mysteriously I received flight credit for these flights, despite the fact that they were booked in the L and E fare buckets which aren't supposed to give any. I won't be looking that gift horse in the mouth..

Stockholm - Istanbul via Munich
Stockholm to Munich (Lufthansa):
The first flight and very good weather. The view of Stockholm is always nice and now the ground is bright green, from all the plants (which are also blooming for allergy sufferers). A standard flight, with a sub par meal: It felt like they rushed it out so they didn't have time to cook. The result was what can be seen after the break....

Arlanda, Stockholm's Airport

 Four and a half more flights after the break, along with inflight meals...

Transit Pass Collection: Istanbul

When I touch down in a place, nine times out of ten I'm going to be getting on some form of public transit to get where I need to go. I rarely rent cars and love taking the train or bus perhaps more than most, which also means that I end up with a lot of transit passes over my travels. Today I want to share with you one of the most unique I've seen thus far: The Istanbul AKBIL.

The AKBIL, which is a shortening of "Intelligent Ticket" in Turkish is a keychain pass which functions as either an e-purse (stored value) or time limited pass. It's pretty comfortable to hold, and gives you a substantial discount on transit trips in the Istanbul network. Most notably, when you use this you can transfer between services, while normally you pay every time you step onto a vehicle. It also works on rail, bus, and boat.

ARN-SEA Flight Report: Update 1: Escape from Europe!

As mentioned in my previous post, getting out of Europe over the last few days has been extremely difficult. There have been major problems with snow and ice in Heathrow (LHR) and Frankfurt (FRA), which has stranded thousands of passengers and made getting to flights, even if they are running but at a different airport basically impossible. In my case, it was a true escape from Europe situation and I am very lucky to not be stuck back in Stockholm! Here's my flight report, plus what happened to make the report possible.

I was originally supposed to be flying in to FRA, but my flight was canceled the night before. After a "quick" call on skype to Continental (CO) and the Lufthansa(LH), I was rebooked on a flight at 6a with LH. I was not looking forward to the 3:30a bus that I would need to catch to get to Arlanda (ARN), but at least I had a seat. The next day after a night bus and train to the airport, I was checked in (no baggage) and sitting down in the lounge when my flight's status went to the dreaded "Inställd" status. The flight was canceled.

There was one shot left to get to FRA, which was a SAS (SK) flight at 9am but nothing was certain at this point. If that flight flew and if I was on it, I would be able to make the connecting flight, since flights were still leaving from FRA, but nothing was landing due to ice on the runway. An even "quicker" (50 minutes on hold) call to CO later, I wasn't really any better than I started. They weren't able to get me on any flights until Friday and didn't even see that I was booked on a LH flight that morning! They canceled the segment that was on my ticket to FRA so I could check in if I got to FRA, but that was it.

I manage to get put on the SK flight to FRA, but that too soon went from "On Time" to "Nytt besked 0900", which means "New information at 0900". When that shows up, it's never good. That flight wasn't leaving anytime soon (and didn't leave until 3pm that day!).

At this point, I'm looking for options. There was a CO flight to Newark (EWR), but I couldn't get standby on that. There was a flight later in the day to Istanbul (IST), which then put me in Chicago (ORD) the next day. And finally, there was a SK flight to ORD that left in 45 minutes. The very nice agent in the lounge put me on standby for that, but had to help other people to get on the same flight so couldn't get me a spot to SEA right then. I would have to get to ORD and then figure out how to get to SEA in the end.

A dash to the gate and through border control, and now it was a waiting game. Would I get on? Continued in the next post...

Turkish Airlines: ARN-IST round trip

This is my first experience with Turkish (TK) and overall they seem like a reasonable choice for where they fly, although the tickets from Stockholm to Istanbul are not the cheapest in the world. Ticket prices for destinations further off, however, have been pretty good for advance fairs to the far east (which yield decent mileage runs).

ARN-IST

On the way down, it was a A319 with a “soft” first class: A movable curtain and a choice not to fill the middle seat determined how much “first class” there was. Although I was in economy, I was seated in row 7 and it seemed to have more leg room than most economy classes I’ve been in (much more than my seat in row 21 on the way back).

The food was surprisingly good and menus were passed out ahead of time to tell us what we would be getting. In my case, I decided on the herbed chicken breast which was a clear step up from the normal airline chicken. All meals on Turkish comply with Muslim dietary requirements, but alcohol is also provided if desired (at least on this route).

One area that I think Turkish could use a little more attention is in their selection of movies: Predators and Day and Knight were the movies chosen on the flights there and back, respectively, and both start off fairly early with scenes involving flight mishaps. In Predators, the main characters start off in free fall with a semi-functioning parachute. In Knight and Day, the main character crash lands a plane in a field. I’m not sure if this is meant to suggest that if something bad happens it’s survivable or what. It also didn’t help that the landing into Istanbul was pretty rough, with winds, rain, and the plane moving in directions that it normally does not.

To give you an idea about how much rain there was, this is a photo from near where I was staying. It was literally a river as wide as the sidewalks and street combined!

IST-ARN

On the way back up, we were in a 737-800 and I was seated in an aisle seat back in row 21. The flight itself was uneventful, and an early morning flight. Again, menus were passed out and this time the meal was a surprisingly good scrambled eggs with a bit of turkey ham toast. Generally, I would say that the food on Turkish seems to be more flavorful and better than most. Turkish tastes seem to be fairly well adapted to flight, where the lack of humidity affects the way we perceive taste and makes virtually everything taste blander than it actually is (no kidding!)