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This Turkish Airlines Business Class Review is from our flight on a 777-300ER from San Francisco SFO to Istanbul earlier this summer. We booked as an award flight, using Chase Ultimate Rewards points that we earned from our Sapphire Preferred signup bonus as well as points from our Ink Business card and transferred to United MileagePlus.
Prior to boarding, we had access to the United Polaris Lounge at SFO.
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The boarding area was crammed, and boarding was delayed by about 25 minutes.
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Turkish Airlines Business Class Cabin and Seat
On the 777-300ER, the 49 Turkish Airlines Business Class seats are in a 2-3-2 configuration (four rows in the front cabin, three rows in the second business class cabin after the galley), which is frankly cramped and old fashioned these days for business class.
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Each seat is 22 inches wide, and a pillow was at each seat.
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There is a privacy divider between seats that is simply pulled forward manually:
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The shared arm rest dividing the seats had the seat control, along with menus and amenity kits.
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The men's amenity kit by Hackett had all the basics: sleep mask, dental kit with toothbrush and toothpaste, socks, earplugs, lip balm, body cream.
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The women's amenity kit bag by Coccinelle was similar, except with a beige color scheme for the bag, sleep mask, and socks, and it added a hair tie.
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The power outlet wasn't easy to find, at least for me, as it was in a recessed space underneath the arm rest in the dark.
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The noise-cancelling headphones are by Denon:
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Here's the IFE controller, which is to the side of the seat (we'll show the available movie options in our forthcoming video review):
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The ottoman beneath the TV screens doubles as a convenient storage compartment:
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On top of the ottoman were slippers, which I appreciated (often European airlines don't provide slippers even in business class).
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After settling into our seats we were offered a pre-flight welcome beverage, including water, fresh orange juice, Turkish lemonade, or a strawberry drink.
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My son enjoyed his strawberry drink:
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Before take-off the in-flight chef asked us for our pre-meal drink selection, as well as our main course preference.
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Here's our Turkish Airlines Business Class Video Review:
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Turkish Airlines Business Class Menus and Dining
Menus, which were at our seats when we boarded, were as follows:
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We were brought oshibori hot towels on trays, which I appreciated.
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A cozy touch, just as in Qatar Qsuites Business Class, are the “candlelights” brought to enhance each passenger's dinner.
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My son sampled the sour cherry juice, and it was so good that I chose it as well for my pre-dinner drink, to have with the mixed nuts.
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The seafood appetizer was fine, with the shrimp the tastiest part, although nothing to write home about.
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My son's mozzarella and tomato appetizer tasted far fresher than the seafood:
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A bread basket was offered as well:
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There was no red meat option (perhaps Turkish Airlines is trying to keep its passengers healthier) so I chose the fish, a Turbot, which was overcooked and not good.
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Fortunately the Turkish baklava and raspberry brownie with chocolate sauce were terrific, and the highlight of the meal.
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After the meal crew brought bottled water to passengers, although by the time we had breakfast all the bottled water had run out, and only airline water was available (which we don't recommend drinking if you can help it).
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After spending a restless night (see below) I was tapped brusquely on the shoulder by one of the crew a little over an hour before landing and asked if I wanted breakfast. Since I wasn't sleeping well anyway, and we had an onward connecting flight from Istanbul, I had breakfast. The strawberry banana smoothie was disappointing, considerably worse than what we make at home. I should have gone with the fresh squeezed orange juice.
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I liked the presentation of the fruit, chicken and smoked turkey, cheeses, and Greek yogurt, and the pineapple, strawberries, cheeses and yogurt that I ate were all good.
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The waffle was of course not crispy, but very nicely served with vanilla sauce and strawberry and raspberry compote.
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Turkish Airlines Business Class Flat Bed
Even before our dinner was served, crew came by to cover our seats with quilted mattress pads, with a pillowcase for the pillow. While the mattress pad is a nice touch (most business class products don't offer a mattress pad), these are rather thin, don't expect the memory foam pad available in JAL Sky Suite Business Class. After the meal, I reclined my seat fully into a flat bed, but the hardness of the bed and the way the seat protruded into my lower back was very uncomfortable. I really regretted forgetting to bring my Thermarest inflatable mattress pad, which would have helped greatly with the bed comfort. Even using the duvet as an additional layer didn't help much.
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I didn't think I got much sleep at all, but apparently I did doze off since my husband and son said they were woken up in the middle of the night by another passenger, seated in one of the middle Business Class seats, who was shouting in Turkish (perhaps a panic attack) and had to be restrained by the crew.
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The Verdict
Our Turkish Airlines Business Class flight was a decidedly mixed experience. The 2-3-2 seat configuration on the 777-300ER is an old product and far from ideal for solo flyers, since middle seats and window seats don't have direct aisle access, you have a seat mate, and there isn't the kind of privacy you'd have in a solo window seat on many other international carriers, especially Qatar's Qsuites Business Class. On the other hand, for passengers who dislike the cramped footwell of Qatar Qsuites, Turkish Airlines Business Class offers greater ease of movement for legs and feet, although the bed length of 76 inches is a bit short for taller flyers unless they sleep on their side and bend their knees.
Dining was fine, and enhanced by the “candlelight” and trolley service for the appetizers and desserts, although my fish was very overcooked. The highlight of both meals was dessert. Note that Turkish Airlines is terrible to fly if you have an anaphylactic allergy to nuts or anything else: just don't fly Turkish Airlines if you have a significant allergy.
I found service fine, about the same as on Qatar and many European carriers and worse than on the better Asian carriers such as JAL, ANA and Singapore Airlines, although according to my husband, the crew he interacted with had a hard time understanding him, perhaps a combination of his mask, his being in a window seat and thus harder to hear, and the crew's English skills.
I found the bed very hard and uncomfortable, and regretted forgetting to bring my Thermarest mattress pad with me.
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Let me guess-did you have another leg to Moscow? 🙂 Also, why didn`t you use Thank You points for those flights-was it because it is a peak season and there were no 45K redemptions available?
No, our onward Turkish Airlines flight was to Paris. It’s actually more cost efficient for us to use Ultimate Rewards points, since we earn so many of them with bonuses, including 5X category bonuses.