TK away to London & Helsinki

[andye]

Went down to mumandye's place in Camberwell on the bus next morning. Helped her out a bit mounting a picture frame and sorting out some boxes of keep-or-throw stuff. Wished I could have stayed longer but will devote more time when I'm back later in the year.

Back up to Paddington to pick up bags. Took the Heathrow Express (a bit exxy but quick). Check-in with AY very efficient.

AY1338 leaves from T3 so those who know, know it's a potential lounge extravaganza (see LHR T3 lounge crawl Saturday 6 June 2026)

I've done the crawl (mostly as OWE) a few times now but am now only OWS and given the geographical separation have never visited the Amex lounge

Overall pretty impressed. I'd rate it above all except QF and CX J lounge offerings and, for me at least equal to BA/AA F.

Buffet is decent and the coughtails a real highlight. They seemed relatively "masculine" which suits me. The Breakfast Marteani was a Paddington's delight:- tea and marmalade in a glass

 

[I love to travel]

Yes, agree the gates are a bit of a hike. Makes it difficult to judge one's lounge time. I handed in my shower buzzer as I wasn't going to fit one in.
Was aboard the 4h A321 TK1931 to London pretty efficiently
J Seats are very good on a par with QR medium haul, above QF/VA J domestic and streets above Eurbusiness

What is the recline like on those seats?

 

[andye]

What is the recline like on those seats?

Pretty similar to QF/VA Dom J or international Y+

 

[andye]

Then adjourned to the Qantas lounge. Very pleased to see they had my favourite Plymouth Gin and settled in

Its the first time in T3 that I haven't felt the need to go to the CX lounge which is a compliment to QF

 

[andye]

As I've made the 3h LHR-HEL trip a few times in Y, I had picked a Comfort seat for extra legroom. AY1338 is now an A350 (3-4-3) so maybe the ordinary Y would have been OK. (There was late J award availability but as its not an awfully long flight and my Y seat was non-cancellable, I didn't take it up. The J seats looked similar to the TK IST-LHR ones)
I was in window and told the person next to me that he was welcome to the armrest.
Not to worry-the aisle didn't show up. Middle moved and I was now in better than Eurobusiness (minus the food)

 

[andye]

Arrived pretty late into HEL but plenty of taxis.
Checked into the Radisson Blu Plaza. I am top tier due to the Avolta status match Club Avolta (formerly RED by Dufry) status match with potential future Radisson status
I'd been hoping to get a juicy upgrade (top tier are supposed to get the best room available) but ended up with a top floor minor upgrade (with shub) with some sweets and bottle of water. I did check and the hotel was full so late arrival probably went against me.

 

[ellen10]

@andye , Just a quick question about IST airport. How long was the walk to the gate from the lounge. We only have a short stopover, so wondering whether it is worth the attempt to visit.

 

[andye]

@andye , Just a quick question about IST airport. How long was the walk to the gate from the lounge. We only have a short stopover, so wondering whether it is worth the attempt to visit.

It was about a 15 minute briskish walk.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'd been hoping to get a juicy upgrade (top tier are supposed to get the best room available) but ended up with a top floor minor upgrade (with shub) with some sweets and bottle of water. I did check and the hotel was full so late arrival probably went against me.

Most hotel chains check the status of people checking in that day in the morning or even the previous evening. So it really shouldn’t matter what time you check in that day to get your status recognition.

But sometimes the hotel systems don’t talk properly to the chain status systems

@andye , Just a quick question about IST airport. How long was the walk to the gate from the lounge. We only have a short stopover, so wondering whether it is worth the attempt to visit.

It can by very long if you get one of the distant gates ( and there is little travellator assistance.).

This was 850m

 

[andye]

Most hotel chains check the status of people checking in that day in the morning or even the previous evening. So it really shouldn’t matter what time you check in that day to get your status recognition.

But sometimes the hotel systems don’t talk properly to the chain status systems

View attachment 445547

Maybe it was the quite cheap rate I was on that pushed me down the queue

 

[andye]

The hotel is pretty well located, a few minutes from the central railway station One stop to the conference centre and the organisers had negotiated free (you had to put a link into the Helsinki travel app).

Conference impressive as usual. Notable higher number of high-quality nursing and allied health researchers scoring prestigious plenary podium sessions. When I started going, it was an almost entirely doctor's event

There was a small executive lounge above the restaurant, open from 5-8pm. Simple cold buffet, beer and wines.

 

[andye]

Helsinki was pretty balmy for the first 2 days. Lots of people out and about on the Thursday night.

Then worked out it for the big match. Finland V USA in ice-hockey

Returned to the hotel restaurant and had a pretty nice steak tartare and potato salad

 

[andye]

I was hoping to do some sightseeing after the conference finished on Friday lunchtime but it was as wet as the current Sydney May.
Had checked out first thing and stored baggage. Was a bit surprised to find out that booze was not eligible for the Radisson Rewards 10% discount (though food and soft drinks were)
Set off for the airport on the train (it was free after all) then discovered that the TK checkin only opened 3 hours before departure (had done the same thing last year getting a QR flight in ZRH: wrong alliance for the hub).
Schlepped around the arrivals restaurants for a while. Priority security for J but no such luck with the e-gates. At least two Tokyo flights a little earlier meant there were lots of people in the non-EU line.
Allocated lounge was the Plaza Premium. I usually like these (HKG PP is very good) but food and drink very underwhelming. Staff nice and friendly though and views of tarmac

 

[andye]

HEL-IST was a pretty similar set-up to the IST-LHR flight in an A321.

Decent food again

Views over Finnish lakes

 

[andye]

Landed at IST. Quite a long taxi and to a bus gate but was an exclusive one for J pax.
Pretty much straight to the lounge, though nearly went to the museum (another time perhaps). There were some replica statues dotted around the concourse.
Booked shower and stowed carry-on. Not all of the chef's stations were operating
at 11.30pm but plenty to try
Showers were decent

 

[andye]

Another hike to one of the further gates Gate came up as "boarding" over and hour before departure. It wasn't but I can kind of understand the need to chivvy people along.
TK54 IST-SIN is a B777. The layout is very different to the A350 at 2-3-2. Although the leathers and trim looked in good condition, I'm guessing it's an older product. The bed seemed only almost lie-flat and the screen at feet seemed a long way away. The handset was clunky and more annoying was that they only had half the "Band of Brothers" episodes loaded so I couldn't carry on from where I left off.

 

[andye]

On the other hand, the chef was there and the food (particularly the lamb chops) was very good

I did sleep very well also

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Indeed, the 777 configuration is one of the first generation lie flats. What it lacked in privacy it made up for with bed length (on most carriers, some skimped) and having a wide, unrestricted foot space. and no sleeping on an angle.

The downsides were lack of privacy, and potentially playing footsies with your neighbour. Some carriers got around the ‘footsie’ thing by installing a vertical gap in between the footwells where they stored the safety cards and in-flight magazines. Gave a slight barrier between the footrests, but not on TK.

 

[andye]

Had a longish layover in SIN. I've transited plenty of times but only been into the city once (and then didn't get to see much as the young children promptly started to show signs of gastro).
Took a taxi to Raffles and visited the Long Bar. Im not a fan of the Singapore Sling so tried a Plantation Punch (which was good but 80% ice) and Gin Sling (the precursor Sling and more to my taste)
Very warm in Singapore even in late evening

 

[andye]

The SilverKris lounge has been completely revamped since my last visit a few year's back. Overall, I thought the space and food better but maybe a slight drop in drinks though. Champagne was Piper Essentiel. The Courvoisier XO was high quality for a J lounge ($390 a bottle in Aus duty free)