LIN-FCO-IST-NAV-ARS-SAW Turkish Delight

Finally the day where I can go back to my beloved Turkey has come. Excited and eager to travel and meet some old friends. I call my friend who works for Alitalia and she kindly checked me in before i got to the airport. So when I arrived at the airport I went straight to the counter to collect my boarding pass and and drop my luggage. After my last swiss air flight 2 months earlier, which has left me with a damaged bag I opted to check in this time one of those bags that you use for bagpacking. Since I will be flying the Milan-Rome Alitalia's golden route i get the option to use the fast track, although not really necessary as the airport was somewhat empty. The LIN-FCO is a route only flown by Alitalia and it's mostly businessmen who fly this route. At peak times there's an Alitalia plane that leaves for Rome every 10 mins from Milan. Why is only one airline flying the route? Well the not so smart Italian govt decided to grant anti-trust immunity to Alitalia on this particular route to save the ailing airline from bankruptcy. Many airlines tried to apply to fly this routes but failed in obtaining such clearance. The Italian govt. also blocked Singapore Airlines's request to fly the MXP-JFK route, an alternative to it's FRA-JFK. This is again a choice which will be a cost to consumers. Not only prices are not so competitive but also the service offered on this route is lousy. Anyway back to Linate.... The Linate-Fiumicino route, was once one of the money making routes in Europe as literally thousand of businessman travelled each day between rome and milan the financial core of italy. And as we know it business class is where airlines make money. Nevertheless Alitalia now faces steep competition from high speed railway which brings you in 3 hours to the heart of rome instead of the outlying FCO airport.
Milan boasts 3 airport well connected in europe. Malpensa the Intercontinental Airport, Linate the city airport and Orio al Serio the low cost airport. Truth is the preferred airport is Linate, close to the city and easy to reach, a very small airport but the most convenient. Most of the european flights out of Malpensa are also to be found in Linate thus resulting flights from Linate more expensieve compared to flying out of Malpensa. The only problem.....most of the slots are held by Alitalia. But now Alitalia's immunity has expired and by the winter schedule it has to release some slots to let competitor airlines enter the market!!! :-)

My first leg will have me fly to Rome
LIN-FCO E175
Bp on hand i headed to the gate and stumbled upon and old friend who works at the airport after a quick chat i head towards my gate number.

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today's plane will be an Embraer175

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Special Desk for the Milan-Rome Route

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Alitalia has dedicated boarding lines for loyal customers

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Having been assigned an aisle seat i kindly asked the lady at the dedicated counter to be changed into a window seat. Very kind and professional she hands me my new BP and wishes me a pleasant flight.
Boarding the plane was crowdy as usual but in no time i get to my seat, the plane is some how modern and clean and seats are comfortable enough. Take off and IFS service began as soon as the seatbelt sign was switched off. This flight will only be 50 mins long.
Flight attendants come with an offering of salty biscuits or sweet ones with a choice of drinks raging from water,juices,sodas and alcoholic ones. I couldn't begin my journey with out celebrating so i got my self a prosecco and some chocolate biscuits.

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Flight was enjoyable and service adequate for such a short flight. Landing was smooth but connecting at FCO was not so nice. While waiting for my next flight i go window shopping and out of no where a Chinese pilot asks me if he can borrow my passport to buy something from a store. I let him borrow it and so he can buy a gift for his girl friend. As i understand only passengers can buy duty free stuff from the airport stores as a flight crew hold no boarding pass thus not allowing them to buy anything. The pilots speaks to me in chinese, thanking me and asking if i had the pleasure to fly with him to Shanghai not today unluckily.

FCO-IST A320-200

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Hungry as it was dinner time i run to grab a bite at an outrageously price fast food. 5 euros for 3 chicken nuggets. Ohhh airport prices!
Boarding this time was late and chaotic but after a while the manage to put everyone on the plane.
Sour flight attendants and the most totally unfriendly i ever encountered.
Take off was late. After 30 mins in flight service began, for this international 2.40 hr flight they were serving again biscuits. The flight was during dinner time and it is unacceptable that they only give biscuits, unlike the previous flight this time they were lemon flavored. What a change and what a pity for such an expensieve flight. Turkish Airlines on the same routes offers you a full course meal with dessert. I was not expecting much really but I hope Alitalia would give it some thought. People do get hungry especially fi they fly during meal times. There wasn't even an option to buy anything so you were really stuck with eating crumbles.

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Landed in Istanbul with a 15 min delay.

I arrived in Istanbul at 1.30 am

MY next flight would be at 7.20 am to Cappadocia.
I had plenty of time at the airport so I called my friends to keep company in the airport. I had to collect my bag first and fortune forgot me again, my bag was stuck in the conveyor belt and had one of its straps thorn away. So there i was at 2 am in the morning at the office to report a damaged bag. To reply was you have to report this when you get back in Milan. Alitalia has no contract with anyone in istanbul regarding damaged or lost bags so they told me i have to fix it on my own expenses and go back to italy to claim a refund.

Why did i ever fly with this airline?

IST-NAV A321-200
I finally met my friend and brought them as a gift a bottle of russian vodka since alcohol is expensieve in turkey.
We decided that waiting at the airport would have been boring so we headed to the sea side and drank my gift until dawn. By the time the first sunlight began to light the city I was already drunk so my friends got me into a taxi and did all the check in for me. Somehow i managed to board the plane, eminonu in this case.

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I went straight to my seat and slept. This was an hour long flight. So desperately needed to sleep before continuing my journey later on which involved an 1 hr of bus ride.
I was woken by mid flight by my seat mate, a turkish man who spoke no english. Luckily enough i do speak a little bit of turkish and discovered that he had my breakfast in his hands. What a nice thought.

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What a nice breakfast after the miserable dinner offered by Alitalia. Cheese Sandwich, olives and yoghurt. I eat everything and fell back asleep. The second time my seat mate wakes me up this time with a cup of tea in his hand, he tells me to drink it all. Same story, i fall asleep again after drinking the tea and the next thing is the plane was already parked at the stand and people were already leaving the plane. My seat mate gets the chance to tell me to take care and leaves. I finally arrived in cappadocia where i will begin my bagpacking. As i wait to pick my bag i notice this ad.

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IMAG0633.jpg 174.8KB 1 downloads the place is simply amazing. It is a must to visit and to get on a hot air baloon. Fairy chimneys, amazing valleys it felt that i was in another planet.

To quickly finish the report after 4 days i head back to istanbul to meet more friends whom i will be going to Fethiye with. Fethiye is a place near the greek island of Rhodes. Another amazing place of Turkey. Since we will be around 80 people travelling together this time we travelled on a bus....a 15 hrs bus ride to paradise i call it.

Flying back to Istanbul I fly out from a city called Kayseri to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport
The plane this time is operated by Anadolu Jet a low cost subsidiary of Turkish Airlines. Well not so low cost since food was free. The only difference was the 15 kgs vs the 20kgs on turkish airlines of free baggage allowance the rest the flight was enjoyable.

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The flight back from IST-FCO was again bad if not worst than the previous flight inbound to Istanbul. Terrible english by the flight crew and serving you drinks was like they were really doing you a big favor. Unhelpful in putting your luggage on the overhead lockers and ordering you around like they are your boss. This will never happen if you fly most of the asian or middle east airlines.
Oh well it is useless to compare Alitalia to the likes of Cathay pacific, Singapore Airlines,Emirates,Qatar airways etc...
I seriously got better service on ryanair.

The flight from FCO-LIN on the other hand was great. Crew was excellent and friendly. Good english and helpful. One of the flight attendants explained an Iranian couple how to get to their hotel from the airport. Now this is what an airline should work like.

Overall impression
Alitalia service is not constant over it's network, with the flight between LIN-FCO being of good IFS to miserable service on international flights.

Turkish Airlines still manages to surprise me. Even for a short flight i get a very tasty sandwich, better than most of the sandwich sold in places such as pret a manger or DeliFrance.

Next Flights will be on Eurowings to Oslo via Hamburg, SAS to Copenhagen, Lufthansa to Frankfurt and Berlin and last Swiss Air back to Milan.

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I wouldn't compare what could be described as a broken state with mainland Turkey. For the record, Northern Cyprus isn't part of Turkey - politics aside, its supposedly a separate country - the mainland is unlikely to be comparable.

Don't listen to Peter j , trust me it's one of the most beautiful and peculiar places i've been to, Cappadocia is worldwide known and get to try the authentic turkish hospitality, plus Istanbul is really beautiful! Few Cities blend east and west and Istanbul is one of those. So if you happen to travel to Turkey, I tell you to go. Don't be stuck into common prejudice that people have. I can't tell you how many times people asked me why I was going to Turkey, or wrong assumptions about them being arabs and other stuff. I did travel a lot around Turkey and have to admit that is one of my favorite countries. ( Im not turkish so no bias here) and a lot of things that people told me were in the end simple statements made out of ignorance. Be a travel not a tourist.

I'll post some of the pictures i took in turkey:
The Cappadocia Valleys
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Lights in the Grand Bazar
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The Library of Ephesus
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View from Cengelkoy(asian side of Istanbul)
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Butterfly Valley in Fethiye
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I've been to a lot more places from north to south and from east to west! I was trying to sneak into Syrya last January but was told it was too dangerous so I gave up in the end.

Talking about Northern Cyprus I've been there as well, true indeed is that the Turkish Cypriot part pales compared to the greek side, Nicosia is not the place to visit. Northern Cyprus has plenty of beautiful beaches and landscapes a little bit off the beaten track, so you get to enjoy the place away from the very touristry places such as Aiya Napa ( It's full of brits in the summer drinking and partying till dawn) if that's what you look for a vacation then Aya Napa is perfect because it has a great sea and a secret called Kavo Greko.

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