Turkish Delight: TK A359 SIN-MEL in Economy, VA Domestic Biz MEL-PER, Mining Charters

[SQ218]

wow thanks for sharing the details on the outback yflyer. Did they kit you up with hi vis work wear too? haha

[yflyer]

wow thanks for sharing the details on the outback yflyer. Did they kit you up with hi vis work wear too? haha

Thanks for reading, SQ218! Yes, I had to wear hi vis too, as well as safety shoes. I brought a lightweight hi vis vest from Singapore and just wore it over a Polo-T. Unfortunately the safety shoes were new and not broken in, so I developed blisters after just a day of wearing them in Melbourne, even before arriving at the mine. No fun at all!

I had to wear hi vis and safety shoes for a few days in Melbourne too, as my work there involved being onsite at Melbourne Park before the Australian Open began, while the area was still a construction zone in preparation for the event.

My colleagues told me later that when it came to safety shoes, buy the most expensive ones out there, as there was a lot of difference in comfort. Lesson learnt!

[yflyer]

Continuing with the TR...

After arriving back in Melbourne from Perth, I spent one more night in Melbourne, before heading to the airport the next evening to catch my flight TK169 back to Singapore.



TK169 was a 10.40pm departure out of Melbourne. There was only a short queue at the check-in counters when I was there at 8.10pm.

[yflyer]

My first stop after checking in was the Air New Zealand Lounge, which was the designated Star Alliance Gold Lounge for this flight.



I took a peek at the SQ Lounge in MEL as well, but by then it was closed, as the last SQ flight from MEL to SIN was SQ208, and that had departed at 7.25pm.

This was a very large lounge, with modern decor, done mainly in white, grey and black, with pink accents.



The lounge was quite empty at 8.30pm in the evening.



My first stop was the self service bar...



...where I poured myself a glass of Villa Maria Sparkling Cuvee Brut.



Not bad!

The wine and liquor selection was pretty good, with some bottles rarely seen in airport lounges, such as Plantation Dark Rum...



The dinner buffet was impressive as well.

Salads...



Sweet corn soup...



Beef brisket with chimichurri...

[yflyer]

Summer ratatouille with basil...



Spicy Cajun-roasted vegetables...



French beans in garlic butter...



Cheese...



Dessert...

[yflyer]

Before leaving the lounge to head to the gate, I also checked out the shower rooms, which were spacious and well-equipped. All the shower rooms were available for immediate use.



Overall, I thought this was a very good lounge. The facilities were great, and the fact that it was not crowded in the evening really added to the appeal as well.

[yflyer]

The aircraft operating TK169 that day was Airbus A359 rego TC-LGR. This was a one year old aircraft, a very new plane, with the same cabin config as my SIN-MEL sector.



Row 28 is the emex row, and the Row 29 window seats have no seat in front of them.



As on my outbound, the last few rows of overhead bins were filled with amenity kits and other barang barang, making them unavailable for pax to use.



As on my outbound, my seat was 42D, an aisle seat in the 2nd last row, shown here fully reclined.



As far as Economy Class seating went, this was state of the art, and very comfortable, with good recline.

This was a completely full flight.



I selected the live camera view on the IFE.



Our departure this evening was slightly delayed. We were still at the gate at 11:08pm, although stated departure time was 10:40pm.



Finally, pushback, taxi and take-off towards the south on Runway 16 ...

[yflyer]

I was amazed that the amenity kits handed out on this flight were completely different from those on my outbound SIN-MEL sector.



While the kits on my outbound were fabric, this one was faux leather. Just how many amenity kit designs did TK have?

[yflyer]

Bottles of water handed out. After so many recent flights on LCC's like Scoot, I no longer take free water for granted.



Dinner was served soon after take-off.

There were two choices of main in Economy Class: grilled chicken breast, or fusili pasta with mushroom sauce.



Wines and beer were offered, but no liquor.



Meal service in the Y cabin began from the rear of the plane.



For my main, I chose the chicken.



This was a sumptuous and satisfying meal...



There was hummus as well as coleslaw. The grilled chicken, in tomato caper sauce, was tender and delicious, and went really well with the saffron pilaf rice.

I paired it all with a white wine served in a paper cup.

After dinner, I drifted off to sleep, and slept pretty well.

[yflyer]

2 hours prior to landing, a snack was served. There was a choice of vegetarian snack or tandoori chicken sandwich. I picked the tandoori chicken.



Yum...tasty...



45 minutes to go...



I monitored progress on the inflight map...



I watched the landing on the live camera feed...



We landed at the ungodly hour of 3:46am Singapore time, 20 minutes later than scheduled arrival time of 3:20am.

Flight time today was a fairly quick 7 hours. If not for the delayed departure out of MEL we would have arrived ahead of schedule. Not that I had anywhere to go at 3am in the morning...

Once again, this was a very good flight on TK. As this was a red-eye, there wasn't much opportunity to interact with the cabin crew on this flight, but my impression of TK's cabin crew on this flight was similar to that on my SIN-MEL outbound sector: efficient, but nor particularly warm or friendly.

Highlights for me on TK169 MEL-SIN in Economy Class were the delicious catering and the excellent seat and IFE on a very nice Airbus A350-900.

The fact that they were Star Alliance also meant that I was also entitled to the usual Krisflyer Gold / Star Alliance Gold privileges such as lounge access, priority check-in and priority boarding.

On the whole, I was very happy with Turkish Airlines on this trip from Singapore to Melbourne and back, and I would be very happy to fly TK again in future.

In fact, I have a trip booked with TK in May, this time in A359 Business Class, to Italy via Istanbul, with a stopover in Istanbul on the way home. Looking forward to writing that up in a future TR!

Thanks for reading!