Hello from Frankfurt! After flying Turkish Airlines’ A350 business class from Chicago to Istanbul, I connected to Frankfurt in Turkish Airlines’ A330 business class (I booked the entire itinerary for 45,000 Turkish Miles&Smiles miles).
I was excited about this flight, as it was an opportunity to fly in a new (to me) Turkish Airlines configuration. Specifically, this flight was operated by an A330 with Turkish’s regional configuration, so this is the carrier’s “worst” wide body business class product.
I had flown Turkish Airlines’ standard long haul A330 business class, and I had also flown the carrier’s former Jet Airways A330 business class. So, how does the regional A330 business class compare? Let’s take a look…
In this post:
Turkish’s regional A330 business product is solid
Turkish Airlines has a subfleet of five A330-300s that used to fly for Japan’s Skymark Airlines, and I was on one of those planes.
These aircraft have 40 business class seats, spread across seven rows in a 2-2-2 configuration.
While they’re definitely not as comfortable as the carrier’s long haul business class product, it’s still a comfy ride, especially when you consider that Lufthansa just offers its standard intra-Europe business class on this route.
Seats have way more legroom than you’d find in domestic first class within the United States. Furthermore, seats have AC power outlets, USB-A outlets, Wi-Fi (free for business class passengers), and live TV, so they have all the modern amenities Turkish has on other aircraft.
For a 2hr40min flight, this is a more than sufficient product, so much better than you’ll find on virtually any other airline in Europe.
What made this especially nice is that the cabin was less than one-third full, and everyone else was seated in the first three rows. Meanwhile I was seated in the last row, so below is a picture of the cabin inflight.
Turkish’s delicious inflight catering
While Turkish Airlines’ regional catering isn’t as extensive as what you’ll find on a long haul flight, the selection was still excellent. Menus were distributed, which is always a nice touch.
Lunch was served on this flight, and that consisted of a starter of smoked salmon with prawns. There were also Turkish style fried aubergines with tomato sauce and yogurt, a cheese plate, and homemade eclairs.
For the main course I decided to mix things up and not order fish for once, so instead I had the ricotta cappellacci with beluga lentil bolognese, which was tasty.
An example of genuine Turkish hospitality
As mentioned above, this flight was very empty in business class. During boarding I was talking with Bahadir, the very friendly business class flight attendant. We were talking about Turkish Airlines, the new A350 I had just flown, etc., and eventually the conversation changed to him asking me if I had ever had raki on Turkish Airlines before. I hadn’t, so he insisted he serve me some after takeoff.
Sure enough, after takeoff he brought me that, along with a glass of water.
Not only that, but he brought me a tray with both the cheese plate and the mezze. “Raki is best not to drink alone, it should be enjoyed with mezze, so I brought you this.” I’m guessing they had catered a lot of extra meals based on how empty the cabin was.
When I talk about how I find inflight service on Turkish Airlines to range from good to exceptional, this is an example of the genuine hospitality that I love about the airline.
For example, I find that if I ask about a particular Turkish dish, or say something nice about it, the crew will often say “oh you must try X,” almost as a point of national pride. I very much appreciate that.
Bottom line
I finally had the chance to fly Turkish Airlines’ “worst” wide body business class, which is on the A330s that used to fly for Skymark Airlines. While the plane didn’t offer flat beds, it was still a great experience, with comfortable seats, delicious food, free Wi-Fi, extensive entertainment, and very friendly service.
In many ways, Turkish shines even more on short haul flights than long haul flights, given the huge difference compared to what you’d find on short haul flights with competitors.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ regional A330 business class?
This may be their worst widebody, but I flew "business" class on their worst narrowbody from Belgrade to Istanbul - narrow pitch, narrow width, middle seat blocked economy style seating. My "feedback" was answered by their surly "customer service" department saying they did nothing wrong. BTW this wasn't the aircraft type displayed during booking. I really love their long haul widebody product and have flown it many times, but their current pricing is uncompetitive.
Just on a slight point of order, while the aircrafts came from Skymark, the interior did not. TK chose to outfit the planes with this layout. Skymark had an all premium economy layout with 2-3-2 seating for the whole plane.
My wife and l used Turkish airline buisness class afew years ago,(we usually use Emirates) . We found well below Emirates. On the return journey from Cape Town to Malaga my seat was dirty and didn't lay flat, when we reached Turkey at 1.0 am there was a made rush with by everybody for the plane that was on the sat outside in the rain a d freezing cold, as buisness class we had to...
My wife and l used Turkish airline buisness class afew years ago,(we usually use Emirates) . We found well below Emirates. On the return journey from Cape Town to Malaga my seat was dirty and didn't lay flat, when we reached Turkey at 1.0 am there was a made rush with by everybody for the plane that was on the sat outside in the rain a d freezing cold, as buisness class we had to queue with all travellers classes ( Emirates have order 1 first class then buisness then coach) We complained, no reply completely ignored, needless to say never use Turkish airlines again
Strong LTU/Air Berlin vibes there, except for the modern-ish IFE. Found those seats comfy back in the day, although they operated intercontinental flights. Guess it was easier to please people, as it felt like pure luxury back then (prior to having experienced any sort of a lie-flat seat).
But most "modern" seats - regardless of US first class type or proper long haul biz seats - can match the seating (as in not lying...
Strong LTU/Air Berlin vibes there, except for the modern-ish IFE. Found those seats comfy back in the day, although they operated intercontinental flights. Guess it was easier to please people, as it felt like pure luxury back then (prior to having experienced any sort of a lie-flat seat).
But most "modern" seats - regardless of US first class type or proper long haul biz seats - can match the seating (as in not lying down) comfort since the oldschool ones actually make use of something called padding, which appears to be absent in most configs nowadays regardless of cabin class
The saddest part of Turkish Airlines is the lack of availability of TK in Aeroplan. Have only been able to score one return flight to Europe via Toronto since 2015. Never anything from YVR or SEA or even LAX/SFO. I probably have to use a VPN and pretend I live in the US.
TK is a great airline, good service, nice food. Before COVID they had great offers reduced fares in C and plenty of opportunities to book award flights on the basis of the promotional awards chart.
Not anymore. Tickets now are expensive and getting a flight out of Chicago for 45.000 points is like finding a needle in the haystack. They normally charge 115.000 points. And on many routes you don't find a single 'promotional' award opportunity for months on end.
That's why they're called "promo", and not "standard". You've been fattened up by their 45k J fares and swayed to think they are the norm when they have always been the exception. Now, if they adjust their rates to, say, 70-90k, then that's another matter.
I've always had great crews, service and delicious meals intra Europe in Business class so LOVE connecting in IST! That is why we always try to book TK when flying to Europe out of MEX. I wonder if they still do the free city tours if your layover is long enough?
@ jdink -- Yep, I believe they still offer that program!
jdink, not only do they still do the city tours, there is also a generous stopover program. Sadly, flights originating in MEX do not quality, so you would have to take a positioning flight to the U.S. or Panamá to qualify.
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/flights/stopover/
Oops, flights originating in MEX do qualify, sorry for the error but happy that it works out better for you.
How do you get in to take photos of the empty cabin? If you're already telling them you're a blogger to board early, you might be getting special attention...
@ Tevi -- As I mentioned, the flight was very empty in business class. I was the only business class passenger who boarded in the first 20 minutes. Everyone else showed up shortly before departure. I'm guessing they had tight connections.
I flew this product from MAD to IST in late June. I specifically booked the flight because it showed a330. The others were on a321. I was expecting the long haul BC seats since I had flown with that configuration to and from LHR and MUC before. I was disappointed to find out that this was the product. Of course, it is better than Iberia or Pegasus that also fly the MAD-IST route but it...
I flew this product from MAD to IST in late June. I specifically booked the flight because it showed a330. The others were on a321. I was expecting the long haul BC seats since I had flown with that configuration to and from LHR and MUC before. I was disappointed to find out that this was the product. Of course, it is better than Iberia or Pegasus that also fly the MAD-IST route but it was still a let down. I wonder why they are not reconfiguring these five aircraft.
@ Matt -- Indeed, most A330s do have flat beds, but a handful don't. For the future, if the cabin has six to seven rows, then you know it's this product.
As far as why the airline doesn't reconfigure these planes go, it seems that Turkish doesn't actually care all that much about product consistency. That's not surprising when you consider the pace at which the airline has grown.
@Imagine flying this to BKK
On IST-BKK you'll get regular A333 with lie-flats for sure.
TK uses these aircrafts for short-mid haul routes to be able to offer more business class seats, e.g. to EU or to some Middle East Destinations.
Definitely not their worst business product. Flew on a TK 777 recently from Istanbul to London and it had a middle seat in business.
@ Nika B -- That's an interesting point. I think most people would still consider the 2-3-2 fully flat business on the 777 to be better than the 2-2-2 recliner seats on the A330, but admittedly we all prioritize different things. Of course ending up in the middle seat on the 777 isn't ideal.
Did you get stuck in the middle seat with strangers on both sides?
I’ve taken 100+ of business class flights on TKs 777 and I dont think that I’ve ever heard of anyone being in a middle seat surrounded by strangers.
For a <3 hour flight within Europe, I understand how this product stands above most carriers. But when I boarded this cabin for a 7 hour overnight flight IST-NBO, I was very disappointed. The one consolation in boarding early is that I could watch others in J step aboard the aircraft. For nearly each of them, you could see the initial look of confusion upon boarding turn to disappointment that the hard product was much...
For a <3 hour flight within Europe, I understand how this product stands above most carriers. But when I boarded this cabin for a 7 hour overnight flight IST-NBO, I was very disappointed. The one consolation in boarding early is that I could watch others in J step aboard the aircraft. For nearly each of them, you could see the initial look of confusion upon boarding turn to disappointment that the hard product was much less than they thought they were paying for. Luckily, I had booked QR on the way home which was an exemplary product on both legs.
What do you mean by within Europe. Turkey isn’t Europe. Just because they are in Eurovision. Culturally, geographically and politically they aren’t Europe.
One reason they will never join the EU is that Turkey is the back door to mass illegal immigration.
@ Mano -- Yeah, I wouldn't be happy about getting this product on an overnight flight, can totally relate to the frustration there!
@ Icarus -- Istanbul Airport is geographically in Europe. And I think the more important point is that all other airlines offer their intra-Europe product to Istanbul, whether it's AF, BA, IB, KL, LH, LX, or OS, just to name some.
@Ben
Constantinople is not Turkish, despite the illegitimate Turkish occupation and their propaganda renaming it Istanbul.
Time to let go and join the 19th Century ........ oops, 21st Century, Max.
Greek nationalists who never got over their lost wars with the Turks barely got out of the 14'th century, forget about joining the 20'th or the 21'st.
You lost all the wars with the Turks. Get over it.
Turkiye, the official name of the country, is no longer participating in Eurovision.
@Icarus
And the EU is paying Erdogan millions so that the masses of people will stay in Turkey and not go to Europe.
Never had seen so many people looking for work to feed their families. Wages are very low.
Turkish Airlines' hub is in Istanbul, on the European side of the Bosphorus. Turkey is already a member of OECD, NATO, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation for Europe. The country is better off without the sclerotic dinosaur known as the European Union and nobody with any musical taste cares about the Eurovision anymore.
Still not in Europe.
Turkish Airlines was voted the Best European Airline for eight consecutive years by Skytrax. Suck on it.
Another reason why Skytrax is a joke...
SkyTrax lol By the way, I didn’t say they were a bad airline did I? I said Turkey is not in Europe. They wish they were, but will never be.
Wow. I’m usually a huge TK fan, but I didn’t think that they used these birds on long-hauls. I have a couple of upcoming 7-9h trips in TKs a330s (in business) and would be very unhappy to find recliners onboard. That said, I really like their standard a330s :)