Turkish Airlines is one of my favorite airline brands, and also offers one of the best business class experiences in the world. That’s despite the fact that Turkish doesn’t have a particularly good business class hard product, at least not with any consistency. Fortunately that’s expected to change next year, when we’ll see the first…
Continue reading: New Turkish Airlines “Crystal” Business Class Revealed
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So I just watched a short video presentation on X and tbh, it just looks like every other new suite out there. It certainly looks better than their current business class (Stelia Symphony), but other than that, nothing special. I actually prefer CXs finishes that are more subtle and muted.
https://x.com/TurkishAirlines/status/1815404557037650387
Turkish routinely overheats its cabins and refuses polite customer requests to make it cooler. I will never fly TK ever again.
About time. I have been avoiding TK and EK like the plague because of their 777s. This new seat takes a weakness of TK's 777s and makes it a strength. This looks like a top tier product for sure.
It used to be very good airline. I am affraid I can't say that for them anymore. Since Covid their service and food is in decline. IMHO: They need to reimagine themselves to stay on the top.
As an eastern asian, I usually feel the cabin for TK is at the cooler side for me. I always had to have my jackets on or blanket covered. However I still stick with TK since it's the only sub-5k business class I can find.
In general I find JL/BR/CI often have even warmer cabin which, in my opinion, is my preference 😛 I believe for most Western European or Americans those are definitely too warm indeed (Yes, I'm still wearing jackets in PNW while all other whites are with shorts!)
I love TK Business and flying from the West Coast of the USA, I avoid the 777's 2-3-2 aircraft. This is a game changed for me as all their wide body aircraft will finally have 1-2-1 all aisle access. Still can't beat TK for price and service.
TK is not reducing the J revenue per plane for charity, Expect the prices to go up to recover the 5 seats lost.
Let's see how long they take to retrofit the planes. It looks like a really competitive product.
But if anything TK should think about doing something regarding fleet consistency with their A330s...
And there goes one of the last remaining seats in which a taller person can actually sleep comfortably. Argh.
No. They're very comfortable. I avoid US airlines because they overcool the cabins and refuse polite customer requests to make it warmer.
You see the problem that occurs if they try to optimize for each customer individually, right?
No, they're not. If you're cold, you can add clothes request a blanket, etc. But when the cabin is overheated, those who suffer cannot do anything about it.
Having said that, there's no good reason why an airline would not adjust the cabin temp either way.
Call me old fashioned, but I lol'd at the pregnant woman in the 'honeymoon suite' and the change-up in the narration.
I agree with the other comment that the current seats on the 777 are wider and more comfortable. They are especially better if you are traveling with someone who needs support throughout the flight; that is very hard to do in the updated suites which are narrow and do not provide a lot of legroom nor width space
You know what I find more comfortable? Not being inches away from someone else for 10+ hours and having to climb over them every time I want to use the bathroom.
There's a reason why airlines are doing away with this kind of seat because your opinion is in the minority. Overwhelming majority of passengers prefer direct aisle access and privacy. The stated complains about "narrowness" are largely overblown.
The seat looks fine, but I’m certainly not alone in loving the current TK 777/330 seats. They feel so roomy and are very comfy. (Take a look at A.net and Flyertalk and you’ll find loads and loads of TK frequent flyers who love the old seats and hate partioned-off footwells etc.)
Old 777 seats are excellent because they provide large open space unlike new casket style seats THY has been using for last few years.
Also, current A350 ex-Aeroflot seats are super low quality, prone to break down. During my last flight, 4 of them were inoperable. Sliding doors are challenging to close and open.
I would love to see current 777 seats to be modernized but not replaced. Casket seats are claustrophobic.
I love the "watching the clouds" bit and boasting about visibility, since TK is known for their coffin flight policy, forcing windows flight on longhaul flights for almost the entire duration.
They're a great airline but after being forced to sit in the darkness for 9 hours, until 20 minutes before landing, on a daytime flight, I don't see myself booking with them ever again. But I'll be happy to try this product on their widebody European routes, hopefully 🙂
It is a nicely done promo video for sure.
22" tellys in Business Class seems small nowadays. I would've expected 27".
Wouldn't marble add extra weight?
As the seats are being manufactured in-house, it's possible they just follow a template on a particular seat along with the associated manufacturer and go from there. And that's the beauty of a bespoke product, you can't really tell who it's from. Cathay, ANA, Qatar's Q-Suites, Singapore look nothing like the standard product.
It is made of corian, according to this article
https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2024/07/tcis-crystal-biz-suite-turkish-airlines/
I'm often really hard on Turkey given Erdogan's authoritarianism and their refusal to recognize the Armenian and Greek genocides—all relevant since the state owns a controlling stake in this carrier—but Turkish Airlines is doing the right thing here, finally. As Ben notes, their 777 with 2-3-2 business class is outdated (just like many of Emirates' 777s *cough*). Hope they actually get this cabin upgrade done in the next year or so. We'll see... In the meantime, at least the 'new' IST is nice.
Yep, really great logic judging a world class airline and calling out their leader’s “authoritarianism” when you have one of its worst examples here at home— whom also refused to recognize the genocide less taking place right now in Gaza. The hypocrisy and the alternative reality some of you guys live in is unreal.
Jk, that's quite the 'whataboutism' sandwich we got here. I'll just say, people can and should criticize their home government's policies and also acknowledge issues elsewhere. Just like, folks on a travel blog can and should critique business class seats and cabin upgrades...
They will manufacturing the seat in-house? Good luck with certification.
Well, it's already been delayed a fair chunk. I was naively assuming certification had been dealt with during that time, or that they at least have reason to believe that the end is within sight!
Flew long-haul on TK last week. Overall experience was excellent, except one small niggle with the "honeymoon" seats on our 787-9. Stelia seats?
Was difficult to converse back and forth due to the fixed "P" shaped wall that protruded out and blocked our line of sight. That wall also reduced the inside armrest width on the right seat. I'm no engineer, but it's like they put two singles together, instead of a true open "honeymoon" design?
The video appears to show a more open "honeymoon" pair with the new seats which would be a good improvement.
Stelia Opal to be exact.
Singapore's Regional Business Class on the 78X and select A359s.
Yes, that is just a lazy design. All they have is a single seat with a mirror image. Would've been so much better to have a version with much smaller privacy partition for the honeymoon and the true window seats. As it is now, true window seats have lots of wasted space between the wall and the useless partition that does nothing but block the view out.
About that "one of the best business class experience in the world"... On planes with electrochromic windows Turkish FAs set them to the darkest setting on daytime flights to the US immediately after takeoff and keep them dark the whole flights, locking out individual controls. Annoys the hell out of me. JAL FAs make the windows dark, but don't lock the controls.
Great, can't wait to try this. All my flights with Turkish are on old configurations, which are sub-par.
Flew them accidentally after AA rebooked me on TK after a cancellation. Flew an A350 and was not a huge fan of the seat since it was really tight around the shoulders. Soft product was absolutely incredible though. If they improve the hard product they will be the best in the world.
Tired of the Old seats in J. Flew SFO to IST last month,not the most comfortable. But here is a surprise one, Flew Egypt Air Dreamliner Cairo to DOH and I was pleasantly surprised at the seats.But you are Right about the J Lounges at Cairo. absolutely Horrible. even the PP Lounge is Horrible.