- Joined
- Nov 12, 2012
- Posts
- 27,716
- Qantas
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- Virgin
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- Star Alliance
- Silver
After a few minutes a FA looked out and looked very surprised to see a bunch of people looking hopefully up at her! We boarded the B787-800, DOH-IST (abt 3.5 hrs) and I settled into 2E. The overhead bins are pretty small. the ones above the windows took 'normal sized' carry-ons, but wouldn't take the maxis that some people carry. The ones over the centre are tiny - good for a jacket but that's about all.
Like some SQ cabins, front row would be much better if you had to overnight - a wide foot-cubby.
Warm nuts and a drink after leveling-off - I chose spicy tomato juice (at 8am), but full range of drinks on offer .
Breakfast choice was Arabic. It was just OK (just plain).
Like I've said before, the mountains in eastern Turkey are spectacular, especially in winter:
I'm not sure about that dog-leg over eastern Turkey; I didn't notice it. This time we tracked up over Iran, which frankly I'm, more comfortable with as opposed to Iraq. Iran are allies with Qatar.
We landed about on time, then faffed around the taxi-ways, eventually coming to a gate near the end of one of the piers. New IST is huge. A very long walk down the pier (helped by I think 6-7 travelators)
Then down a level and more long walking to immigration:
No assistance with what queue to join, but 'Other nationalities' seemed a good bet. Went straight up to an immigration officer with my eVisa, no probs and through. More walking and travelators to the baggage hall (huge!!) with lots of duty free shops in and about the carousels (Sydney and Melbourne obviously have a lot to learn, here!! ). This doesn't do it justice -try to see how far down it goes; and I'm about 6 carousels in.
Through the green lane, out to land-side. Eventually found ATMs right down to the right as you exit; then a taxi from the rank - again, very straighforward.
New fanging freeways through the countryside; hit a bit of traffic in the city (travelling between about 12:30 and 1:30pm) and at my hotel in about 50 mins - impressive, considering. 145 TL, (A$36) which was about what I was expecting. I paid cash, but CC available.
Like some SQ cabins, front row would be much better if you had to overnight - a wide foot-cubby.
Warm nuts and a drink after leveling-off - I chose spicy tomato juice (at 8am), but full range of drinks on offer .
Breakfast choice was Arabic. It was just OK (just plain).
Like I've said before, the mountains in eastern Turkey are spectacular, especially in winter:
I'm not sure about that dog-leg over eastern Turkey; I didn't notice it. This time we tracked up over Iran, which frankly I'm, more comfortable with as opposed to Iraq. Iran are allies with Qatar.
We landed about on time, then faffed around the taxi-ways, eventually coming to a gate near the end of one of the piers. New IST is huge. A very long walk down the pier (helped by I think 6-7 travelators)
Then down a level and more long walking to immigration:
No assistance with what queue to join, but 'Other nationalities' seemed a good bet. Went straight up to an immigration officer with my eVisa, no probs and through. More walking and travelators to the baggage hall (huge!!) with lots of duty free shops in and about the carousels (Sydney and Melbourne obviously have a lot to learn, here!! ). This doesn't do it justice -try to see how far down it goes; and I'm about 6 carousels in.
Through the green lane, out to land-side. Eventually found ATMs right down to the right as you exit; then a taxi from the rank - again, very straighforward.
New fanging freeways through the countryside; hit a bit of traffic in the city (travelling between about 12:30 and 1:30pm) and at my hotel in about 50 mins - impressive, considering. 145 TL, (A$36) which was about what I was expecting. I paid cash, but CC available.
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