[canucklad]

Don’t know about the rest of you….

I couldn’t imagine myself cooped up for 18 hours in an aircraft…

I couldn’t stay in my hotel room for 18 hours never mind a very restricted space, economy would be almost impossible to comprehend !

[Bucksnet]

I keep getting IST and SAW mixed up.

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

I keep getting east and west mixed up – seriously 😉

[IanFromHKG]

canucklad – 12/06/2013 15:15 GMT : I couldn’t imagine myself cooped up for 18 hours in an aircraft…

I can, I’ve done it.

HKG-LHR, two days with my girls. So far, so good. LHR-SFO, jetlag, starts to kick in, two days in the basement of the hotel I was staying in (for an offsite) – literally two days without seeing the sun. Then a night out on the town with a friend, culminating in a dash back to the hotel to pack and the red-eye to JFK (brutal at the best of times) where I spent a total of seven hours, part of it in a cab and the rest in meetings, then back to JFK for the CX flight to HKG. This normally takes about 16 hours. Only there was a typhoon in Hong Kong. So we circled, for an hour and a half, before being diverted to Manila. I can’t imagine how little fuel we had left at this point, but we had been in the air for about 18.5 hours. Add to that the time on board before take-off, and the fact that they didn’t let us off the plane for some considerable time while they tried to find a new crew to take us back to HK, and I reckon I was in that seat for 22 hours or more. Thank **** I was in their fabby new business class, I can’t imagine how miserable it must have been at the back. Would I voluntarily sit on a plane for 18 hours? Well, honestly – yes, if it meant a better journey than having to break it and spend longer overall. But if I were doing UK-Oz, and all other things being equal, I think I would try to break the journey nearer the half-way point. Mind you, a proper stop-over in Istanbul sounds quite good…

The denouement to my journey described above, incidentally, was that they were unable to rustle up a crew so we were deplaned, kept at the gate for a short while, and eventually told we would be put up in a hotel. This took a while to organise, and it was only as we were about to head off that they told us they weren’t offloading our baggage (we didn’t pass through immigration either – we never officially landed in the Philippines!). Which meant I was facing the prospect of being in the same clothes for far too long (all day in SFO, red-eye to JFK + 7 hours there, about 24 hours in Cathay’s tender care, a night in Manila but then a wait and a journey back to HK). My desire for fresh underwear at this point was becoming quite obsessive. Now, I make sure I have the necessary in my hand luggage, just in case!

[Henkel.Trocken]

I was once scheduled to fly AKL-SIN-LHR, the transit in SIN was about two hours which was OK. We were delayed leaving AKL and arrived in SIN with only twenty minutes to go until the flight for LHR departed. With the rigorous gate closure policy at SIN, I assumed I had missed the flight. Not so. I and several others were met at the aircraft door and walked to the next gate where the LHR flight was departing.

I was back in the air twenty three minutes after leaving the flight from AKL.

Never again. Now I deliberately book longer transfers as I find fourteen hours from SIN-LHR, as I’m getting ready to do now enough and I wouldn’t want to do more.

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

Interesting comments from Turkish Airlines CEO:

http://www.anna.aero/2013/06/12/30-second-interview-dr-temel-kotil-president-and-ceo-turkish-airlines/?utm_source=anna.aero+newsletter&utm_campaign=0357f1f79f-anna_nl_120613&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ecdbf41674-0357f1f79f-86869225

[NorseFlyer]

Henkel: Well done. Did you have checkin luggage and did it make the connection as well?

[JimFergusson]

Did the same as Henkel in reverse with onward to Perth. We were walked to the gate with a few others from the delayed inbound flight and our baggage arrived with us too.

[JohnHarper]

I did BKK-NYC once and only once. Never again, I was getting cabin fever by the time we got there. SE Asia to London is as long as I can bear but that’s one of the great things about the Gulf carriers for me, I much prefer two shorter flights to one long one.

[MarcusUK]

Not forgetting the 9 dead on landing at Schiphol in 2009, when all three pilots declined to notice they were falling below minimum speed, and stalled! Add the other incident over London nr LCY, language problems…

No thanks, would rather walk!

[DavidHall]

Such Wonderful News but please Turkish can you confirm if Premium Economy will be offered as I have read that this is being withdrawn, on such a long haul journey even if a reduced cabin I feel this will be such a success. I for one have clients running my own Inbound Tour Company New Zealand Encounters and our Australian division OZ Encounter cant wait to see you land in the Pacific. I uses to fly with you to and from South Africa in business which I always liked. I will call your head office in the next few day to see how we can assist you and wish yo much success. I so hope you will offer onward services to Auckland either with your aircraft of codeshare.

[Cloud-9]

David: PE, or Comfort Class as TK call it, is being withdrawn. So 18 hours in economy for Mr Bloggs: not a great prospect

[AMcWhirter]

Hello DavidHall

TK has changed its mind. See this link, posted earlier by alexpo1, and you’ll see that TK’s latest plan is to fly one-stop. It will not acquire new aircraft to fly non-stop.

http://www.anna.aero/2013/06/12/30-second-interview-dr-temel-kotil-president-and-ceo-turkish-airlines/?utm_source=anna.aero+newsletter&utm_campaign=0357f1f79f-anna_nl_120613&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ecdbf41674-0357f1f79f-86869225#

We posted a story last week confirming that TK would not offer Comfort Class in future.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/turkish-to-remove-premium-economy-seating

[Author]

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