A pleasant surprise, part 2 of Turkmen trip

Chef Boy R. Dee?

A pleasant surprise, part 2 of Turkmen trip                      

Since this is supposed to be a travel blog, I thought it might be nice, for once, to give you my opinion on some actual transportation choices.  What a concept.  If you read the newspaper, or received a personalized hand written card from me, you know that I am in route to Turkmenistan.  The trip over will be made in three flights, and hours of automobile travel.  In all, it will be over 24 hours portal to portal, so I have not been looking forward to this trip. 

Due to the uber thrifty (read:  cheap) company policy, I always have to fly Coach Class when traveling for the company, even on long, overseas flights.  The longest single leg flight I routinely take is 16 hours.  If you think of that in terms of an eight hour work day, then that flight is two full work days.  Yes, I am a math genius.  So, if you can imagine sitting in your office or cubicle, which has been reduced to the size of an elementary school desk, for 2 days, you can understand my lack of enthusiasm for taking any long trips.  Why is it that the people who make the seat buying decisions are always tiny people who have no appreciation for the value of leg room?

A colleague suggested I fly Turkish Airlines for this trip, so I asked our travel agent to book the flight with them.  When we got to the airport we were told that we could upgrade to seats with more legroom for $350 each.  Turkish Airlines refers to this as Premium Coach, and is what I originally asked our ticket person to book in the first place.  When we got on board and found our seats it was a pleasant surprise.  The seats were wide and spaced out.  Each chair had its own set of arm rests.  No elbow wrestling with the person next to you for use of it.  The leg room was amazing.  When seated there was about 18 inches between my knees and the chair back.  This is an unheard amount of legroom for upgraded Coach seating.  I could actually open my laptop all the way to write this without the seat in front of me interfering.  Now, the only thing interfering with me writing this is talent and brains.

The flight attendants started the food and beverage service immediately after the wheels were up and the captain had taken the “fasten your seatbelts” sign off the lighted board.  Ya know, I have never actually seen the captain do this.  He must be a very stealthy guy to be able to climb out of the cockpit and change signs without me spotting him.  I guess he does it while I am in my usual take-off and landing position:  eyes clamped shut and fingers in a death grip on the person’s head in front of me.    The meal came out and they gave us real cutlery and actual glass dishware.  And the food was delicious.  But since I had already eaten dinner, I just nibbled at it. 

Soon I noticed a guy dressed in the full chef outfit, the white double breasted coat and big white floppy hat, slowly making his way down the aisle from the galley.  He was asking the passengers how the meal was, just like in a high class restaurant. I was impressed. When I first saw him I figured Chef Boy R. Dee was a passenger on our flight.  But when he started offering the passengers a tray of desserts, I realized he was part of the flight team.  I then remembered my hardly touched tray of food sitting neglected in my lap.  I panicked.  I felt it was my duty to have eaten the food to show him his effort was appreciated, but there was no time.  So I grabbed the food tray and was just about to dump it into the seat back pocket of the chair in front of me, when the steward picked it off of my lap.  I felt instant relief.  Turns out Chef Boy R. Dee never made it back to my part of the plane anyway, so he did not get my appreciative dumb looks.

This blogpost has been very complementary of Turkish Airlines.  But be warned, If you fly in their standard coach area. The seating is pathetic.  Cramped and hot and torturous.  Like sitting thru an IRA audit when you have digestive tract issues.  The attendants just toss bits of leftovers at the passengers, like a zookeeper feeding the animals.  But at least there is no tray of food in the seat back pocket of the chair ahead of you.  That is reserved for Premium Coach Class.