travel – Page 3 – Hooked On Points

After going through security which was super painless (I’m looking at you TSA) – I was spit out into the airside portion of the terminal and boy is it gorgeous.

Since I was there on a 14 hour layover, I decided to just camp out at the airside Yotel. I was able to book based on an hourly rate and was cheaper compared to a full nights rate. What I did not know at the time was that the Turkish J lounge had sleep rooms with specific requirements but c’est la vie.

Check in was smooth and I made my way to my assigned room. It was very spacious compared to the Yotel at Changi Airport.

After a comfortable 10 hour stay, checked out around midnight and had 4 hours till take off. Walked back to the central area to find the entrance to the TK J lounge.

After scanning my BP at the automated gate, I was let into the main lobby area

Locker area off to the left of the lobby and sleep rooms / shower further down past the lockers.

The lounge was very busy around midnight when I entered and then cleared out after an hour. It was difficult to find seating initially but as people were leaving, I started to get better seats far away from everyone else.

I went to find food and there were only a couple hot dishes available at this time which was fine. I missed the kebabs which I was told were really good.
Chef was serving veggie stew, rice and beans.

Found the pide station!

Five choices for consumption – all were so good.

There were two dessert and drinks stations.

The UEFA attraction

Other areas of the lounge

Went to check out the shower lounge – lack of ventilation if you are having a hot shower.

Overlooking the terminal

Waiting for my gate number to be posted

Had a good lounge experience overall – very open and airy but be warned of how crowded it can get during peak times which is probably all the time except between 12am – 5am.

Kicked off birthday celebrations with dinner one day before flying out. Mountain of delicious lobster for me!

A gorgeous day to fly out of Canada’s worst airport – Pearson International (IYKYK). Found the TK check in desks at pier E aisle.

Even though the J line took 15 minutes, it was still faster than waiting in the Y line which was snaking through the roped lanes and spilling out and in front of the pier. One of the TK agents was trying his best to muster everyone into lines but was failing miserably through no fault of his own – people were just not listening and/or not caring. To add on to the chaos, the belt stopped working and bags had to be stored in a separate staging area to the side until the belt was fixed. Luckily, the bags made it onto the flight since I was tracking with iPhone airtags.

With the security formalities done fairly quickly and after the long walk to the international pier, I made my way to the AC ML lounge only to wait for 15 minutes to enter. Had a quick meal with choices being decent and killed an hour before heading to the gate.

Thank goodness I was not flying Air Satan today – many delays and/or cancellations. The flight to Dubai was cancelled due to the flooding but didnt know at the time. Hooray for cloud seeding.

Gate area was pure chaos with everyone lining up in every direction and from different angles – I just stood off to the side until the announcement for business class to board was called and then made my way (politely and gently as all Canadians do) through the horde.

Once on board, made my way into the mini cabin and the last row. The 777 plane has a 2-3-2 configuration and while it lacked privacy, it was really roomy and was more preferred over the A350 leg to MNL (more to come on this).

LOTS of leg space.

Menus were already at the seat.

A member of the cabin crew came around offering PDB’s and I went with the raspberry. Other choices were orange and lime.

Pushback was on time and after the long taxi to the furthest end of the airport, we rocketed off into the night sky.

Mood lighting

Cabin crew came by later with a hot towel and beverage choice which was provided along with the meal choice before take off. There were two onboard chefs (one for each side) and it was an interesting interaction. The chef on my side came by to take our meal orders.

Chef: “Would you like the soup along with the other appetizer – yes or no?”

It was an interesting way to phrase the question and while it came across as abrupt, I understood that it was well intentioned. No harm done.
The crew also came by to put the bedding cover over everyone’s seat before the meal service started.