This week we are taking a walk down memory lane with a vintage first class trip report. I’m sharing photos and brief commentary from a trip I took in the final days of 2010 and first days of 2011 that included many first class flights from five Star Alliance carriers. As we enter a new decade, the goal of this trip report is to examine how airlines have changed over the last one. Although this trip report has never been published, I will not be publishing a detailed, word-heavy review as I do for current trip reports. Instead, commentary will be limited and the focus will be on photos. For the final post, I will summarize, as generally as I can, how premium products have changed over the last decade.
- Prior Segments
Flight #3: Turkish Airlines 737-700 Business Class Munich To Istanbul
- We had an all-day layover in Munich and checked out the airpark on the airpot premises, that included a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, former Douglas DC-3 from SWISS, and Junkers Ju 52.
- The “old” first class lounge remains essentially identical today to what it looked like in 2010.
- The Turkish 737-700 did not have “real” business class seats – just a coach seats with a blocked middle.
- Most of the Turkish fleet today has “real” business class seats in a 2-2 configuration on its narrow body aircraft.
- Dinner included a fish appetizer, cheese and olives, a small salad, and apple strudel cake on the first platter.
- The main course was white fish covered in eggplant, tomato, and pepper, served with rice.
- The other choice was beef kabobs
- No menus were distributed: Turkish now distributes menu on even the shortest flights in business class and often economy class
- Service onboard was courteous, but not friendly – I felt the language barrier contributed to this.
- We landed late in Istanbul, despite having taken off on time.
In the north part of Munich (airport is northeast of Munich), there’s the Deutsches Museum annex with many planes, at least 50.
Flugwerft Schleissheim is an aviation museum located in the German town of Oberschleißheim. https://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/flugwerft/information/
If you don’t have a car, you have to walk about a mile to 1.5 miles from the train station.