Update: Read my full Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class review.
I’m a huge fan of Turkish Airlines’ onboard product. I find Turkish Airlines to have an exceptional business class soft product, in particular the food, service, and amenities.
Turkish Airlines business class catering
The one major downside to Turkish Airlines’ business class up until now is their lackluster seats. Fortunately that’s changing soon.
Turkish Airlines business class cabin A330
We’ve known for quite a while that Turkish Airlines is introducing a new business class product on their Boeing 787-9s. The airline has 25 Boeing 787-9s, as well as 25 Airbus A350-900s, on order. They’re just taking delivery of their first 787, and should take delivery of their first A350 soon. Unfortunately they don’t plan to reconfigure existing planes with these new seats anytime soon.
Turkish Airlines 787-9
Anyway, up until now the airline has only shared a couple of renderings of their new business class product. With Turkish Airlines’ first 787-9 being ready to go, the airline has now shared some real pictures of the plane.
Here are some pictures of the new business class cabin:
Turkish Airlines 787-9 business class
Turkish Airlines 787-9 business class
Turkish Airlines 787-9 business class
Then here are some pictures of the new economy cabin:
Turkish Airlines 787-9 economy class
Turkish Airlines 787-9 economy class
If the seat looks familiar, it’s because the business class product is the same one that Singapore Airlines has installed on their new 787-10s. While Singapore uses those planes for regional routes, it’s still a competitive seat.
If you want to fly Turkish Airlines’ new 787-9:
- The first US route to get the 787-9 will be Washington Dulles, which will get the plane as of August 8, 2019
- The next US route to get the 787-9 will be Atlanta, which will get the plane as of September 10, 2019
Unfortunately I’m finding award availability on those routes is extremely limited — hopefully that changes eventually, as I find Turkish to be really inconsistent with making award seats available.
All things considered I’d say Turkish Airlines currently ranks in my top five global business class product. With these new seats I think they’ll squarely be in the number two spot, right behind Qatar Airways’ Qsuites.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ new business class? Are you excited to try it?
(Tip of the hat to YHBU)
I used to fly Turkish business class quite a bit to East Africa a few years ago from IAD - IST. The business class seats were simple, but always quite comfortable and good for sleeping. I flew the new configuration and seats on the 787 from IAD - IST through the new airport and want to confirm a few things that have been said on the board:
- the seats are flashy and look...
I used to fly Turkish business class quite a bit to East Africa a few years ago from IAD - IST. The business class seats were simple, but always quite comfortable and good for sleeping. I flew the new configuration and seats on the 787 from IAD - IST through the new airport and want to confirm a few things that have been said on the board:
- the seats are flashy and look nice
- they are significantly less comfortable than the older seats, and well below what one would expect from competitors.
- the seat dimensions are the smallest lay-flat business class seats I have experienced. I am 6'5" and can comfortably lay completely flat (shoes off) in every other long-haul business class I have traveled. I cannot do that in the new Turkish seats - my head and feet touch both ends. To make it worse, the space for legs is too tight to sleep on one's side - physically, there just isn't enough space to bend knees to make my body shorter. To get rest, I had to angle the seat upwards, which defeats the purpose of lay-flat seats.
- they keep the cabins way too hot.
Turkish has lost me as a customer with the new seats. The perks of the excellent food in the lounge and on the flights just doesn't make up for the supremely uncomfortable seats. Plus, the new airport is cavernous.
I booked a award ticket in business class for IST-MEX-CUN-IST on the new 787 some months ago. Had no issue find available seats. The trip will take place in Nov/Dec 2019. I have traveled with Turkish in business a couple of times, and in my view they are OK. As stated by others, the soft product is good, and to some extent better than so called 5* airlines. I don't hesitate to fly Turkish, at least on business class
The author says award availability for these routes is "extremely limited." Has anyone seen any saver availability at all for either economy or business on the Washington-Istanbul route? I'm looking at flights in the Fall, but I don't see anything at the moment.
Given these are the same business class seats as on the SQ 787X, I would say these are not ideal for long haul premium seating. Great for 3-6 hour flights that Singapore Airlines uses them for but not too much longer than that. If you are on the taller or wider side these are quite tight. Still I think it is an improvement over the 2-2-2 they are currently flying, unless traveling with a significant other.
Has anyone found a seatmap on any of these flights that has any seats in aisle F unoccupied? I don't know if they're blocked for a reason or what. Trying to get two seats together.
I've traveled this class many times last week the food was rubbish in business class little bits of rubbish
Booked Business saver from Istanbul to Denpasar and to Osaka starting next year. Excellent availability with at least 4 seats on most flights both ways. Cant wait to try it out.
@lucky
Are you sure they rank second on your list displacing the Apex on KAL and OMA???
not until I see their foot area will I rank them but all in all, they look pretty nice..The finishes are so cool...I hope for the 777 overhaul they choose this or the Apex suite if they want to overuse the 777 space
@Matt - haven't flown the A330 version, so can't comment on that. In general I find foot and knee room to be important, which makes the vast majority of modern business class seats less comfortable for me than their predecessors.
Turkish Airlines' business class food was brilliant on a recent flight Toronto - Cape Town. The seats were old fashioned but comfortable. Service was good but not outstanding. Came back on Economy. Food still very good but the seats were awful. I am not tall and my knees were a couple of inches from the seat ahead. How a six-footer can fit in heaven only knows. I'd fly Turkish again, but only business class. I flew both the A330 and the 777 in both directions.
Also they keep their cabins way too hot!
My other concern with the 787 is that the flight attendents control the window tint. I wish my window to stay open. While QR gladly accomodates and unlocks the window many other carriers behave as concentration camp matrons so I avoid this air craft frequently. I do not want someone else controlling my window.
My other concern with the 787 is that the flight attendents control the window. While QR will gladly keep your window open many other airlines attendents behave like concentration camp matrons on this subject which is why I avoid many flights on the 787.
I could care less about sleeping. I am concerned that window access will be difficult. Any thoughts? With the current configuratuion the window is great.
Just flew Turkish and I feel like they are overhyped. I've flown nearly all the major biz class products at this point, and the service both on the plane and in the airport were pretty disorganized. The effort is 10/10 from each employee, but the higher level organization seems pretty hit or miss. The food was really great in flight and on the ground, but weird things like collecting headphones an hour before landing and...
Just flew Turkish and I feel like they are overhyped. I've flown nearly all the major biz class products at this point, and the service both on the plane and in the airport were pretty disorganized. The effort is 10/10 from each employee, but the higher level organization seems pretty hit or miss. The food was really great in flight and on the ground, but weird things like collecting headphones an hour before landing and not providing a replacement, trouble understanding that I wanted my meal after I woke (even though it was 'dine on demand') etc...
In the brand new Istanbul airport, the wait for a shower was over an hour at the business lounge. The food was amazing, but the wifi was terrible. The decor at many locations in the airport felt worse than Ikea's cheapest offerings.
I would fly Turkish again, but I'd prefer **many** biz class products over them. I'm shocked that you would consider Turkish to be second behind Qatar with this seat; I'd fly Singapore Biz, Japan Airlines, and many others before flying Turkish again (if the hub was better, they'd still be behind Singapore, JAL, and others, but at least I would have a *little* more understanding for you ranking them second...)
I was able to get saver award space on TK 787 from Panama City, Panama to Istanbul.. My trip actually starts in GDL_PTY_IST_BCN. All Bus. for 75K United Miles. Currently unable to select seats but flight is not until late October, so not worried about that. I have loved TK current hard product in the past and certainly their soft product. I can't wait to try their 787.
BTW total flying time is 25hrs. Should be fun.
i love turkish business class! and am excited to try out their new seats and planes.
i fly out of ny. any idea when they will fly their new 787-9 out of jfk? i'm flying to ist in late july, and i'm hoping my return flt in mid-Oct will be the new plane (fingers crossed).
Thanks for the pics Lucky, just assigned myself seat 4A which should be a real window seat according to the pics. I also like that the headrest is not protruding, makes for a much better bed in sleeping position.
TK is my new go to airline, following last year QR total downgrade of its ffp.
I'm flying from DPS on this later this year. Any idea if the foot area is really cramped, like on Lufthansa? I'm really tall and have big feet.
@Not Lucky, have you flown TK 330 and 777 in J? Although the seats look exactly the same, for some reason I think the J seat in 777 is far more comfortable for sleeping than the one in 330.
I continue to see this as a massive downgrade. TK has been supremely comfortable for sleeping. I've flown that seat on SQ a few times, and while it's not a bad seat, it's not remotely in the same class for sleeping. Yes, I'm in the minority who puts sleeping comfort above privacy and aisle access (because if I'm asleep, those things are irrelevant).
I booked IST-IAH via MEX with Aeroplan IST-MEX is on the 787-9.
iirc, TK will be fling this plane on their IST-MEX-CUN-IST route. I think I checked for space a while back and did see award space out of MEX. This is an interesting route to fly, imo.
TK are a great airline. I've switched to them as my preferred provider to get to Europe. I'm looking forward to seeing the new airport later this month - new business class seats can only be another plus.
Very nice. Love the color scheme.
From the pictures the seats look amazing! I do wish Turkish would install a true Premium Econ though. I always am in Business Eastbound as I need to sleep, but sometimes Westbound to save miles or money, I'll choose a true Premium seat as I don't have to sleep.
In any event, I can't wait to try these new seats out when they finally hit SFO and I'll take that 31 hour flight to try them out.
DPS-IST availability is pretty wide open as a 789 route.
Better than Scamtrax 5-star airline LH but worlds over
Looks like an amazing product for a “3-star” airline!
Wow the finishes in both J and Y are sharp. Looks like a pretty good product.
But you have a problem with how Turkish Airlines deals with passengers running with large dufflel bags into washrooms when landing on US Terra Firma :)
The same supplier of SQ's new regional J seats (on their 781 and 359)?
That seems like a generous ranking since, as you often state (and I agree with you), “business class is all about the seat”.
You need a lot of J class review trips towards the end of this year, to test these new products (TK, BA, VS, etc) and to rank them properly!
This is exciting development. I find it extremely frustrating that TK is very inconsistent about award seat or upgrade availability. It is like rolling the dice even if you are a TK elite/elite plus member.