Flight Review: Turkish Airlines Business Class (I) A330-300
Flight#: TK1854
From: Barcelona (BCN)
To: Istanbul (IST)
Flight time: 3h 30min
Aircraft: Airbus A330-300
Turkish Airlines is one of the great global airlines and I had long been looking to experience their business class. This opportunity finally arrived when I was invited by the airline to fly to Istanbul for a preview of the new culinary experience, which I reported about for AeroTime (therefore the inflight catering experience I describe here in this review will possibly be out of date by the time your read this, although only to get even better!).
This flight report concerns only the first leg of my trip, which was flown on a wide-body A330-300. Since the return trip was on a narrow-body Boeing 737-800, the cabin experience was a bit different and I will post a separate flight review.
Full disclosure: this trip was courtesy of Turkish Airlines, the opinions are my own.
PS: for the Turkish Airlines A330-300 economy class review check this other flight report.
Pre-flight Experience
I completed the check in on Turkish Airlines’ mobile app and it was really smooth (one of the smoothest I have tried in-app recently).
Turkish Airlines does not have its own lounge at Barcelona airport (for my review of Turkish Airlines business class lounge at Istanbul airport you will have to check my return trip report), so it uses the “Joan Miró Lounge”, which is one of two lounges at Barcelona El Prat airport shared by several airlines.
Here are some pics from the lounge. Pretty correct, if nothing spectacular (particularly when compared with Turkish Airlines own lounge at Istanbul).
The Cabin
Although at 3h30min it is a short to medium haul flight from Barcelona to Istanbul, Turkish Airlines uses a mix of wide-body and narrow-body aircraft to operate the multiple frequencies it has on this route throughout the day.
My flight to Istanbul, therefore, gave me a chance to get the THY wide-body experience, if only for a relatively (for this type of aircraft) short flight.
At this point, it is important to remark that, regardless of whether you are flying business or economy, there is not one single Turkish Airlines wide-body aircraft experienced.
From what I’ve been told, A330, B787, B777 and A350 have all different cabin product variations, with the A350 being the latest and most modern one, with privacy suites and other features that are not found on A330s like the one I flew here.
Turkish Airlines operates the A330-300 in a two-class configuration, with 28 business and 261 economy class seats. The business class cabin is arranged in a 2-2-2 layout.
And this is when I came across what is perhaps the most singular element of the cabin experience. Let’s see what I am talking about..
I think it is the first time ever that I come across this type of seat. They have a rather peculiar two-piece setup when you are seated, with a wide gap between the seat proper and the smaller foot rest in front. The two pieces would become one if fully reclining the seat (although I didn’t do that since it was such a short flight that there was no time to sleep!)
The seat itself was comfortable enough. It has a small personal lamp besides you that can be focused on a specific spot. You have a large armrest on the side that is wide enough that you can leave stuff without interfering with the other passenger next to you.
There is not a lot of space for storage: none in the seat itself, although there are two small compartments between the two seat back screens, plus additional space for reading materials next to the foot rest and some more below of it.
There was also an electricity socket to recharge electronic devices
A rather crude separation panel that can be pulled out of the side, but other than that the seat does not offer much in the way of privacy (which was not an issue in this case, since it was not a particularly long flight).
As a side note, the bag in which the individual blankets are packed may be efficient and offer some convenience, but aesthetically doesn’t transmit much of a premium feel.
Food and Amenities
Food is, undoubtedly, one of the strongest, if not THE strongest point of Turkish Airlines.
Not for nothing, the presentation of the airline’s new inflight menus was a top level event, taking place with all fanfare at a palace in the center of Istanbul and attended by the airline’s top brass and journalists from around the world. Turkish Airlines has even dedicated chefs onboard its aircraft to cater to business class passengers on all flights longer than 7 hours.
Even if what we tasted was still the “old” menu (which is now being refreshed by the newly launched catering experience), the food was absolutely superb and spent a good chunk of the three and half hour flight to Istanbul enjoying it.
Upon boarding you are offered a non-alcoholic drink, usually a choice of lemonade, orange or berry juice, plus a bag of hazelnuts (a type of nut of which Turkey is a prime producer)
Here you can get an idea of what we were served: starting with mezes, then I chose the swordfish, which was absolutely excellent.
Interestingly, all courses, including desert, except the main were served at once and, when the time comes to serve the main, the crew comes with the trolley where they show you the options first, which is a nice touch that helps you decide.
The one thing that I was a bit surprised is that, unlike in other airlines’ business class, was not asked whether I preferred tea or coffee or other drinks at different times throughout the flight. You can of course ask for it if you feel like, and you are asked when menu orders are taken, but don’t recall additional rounds after that.
Inflight Entertainment
This A330-300 was also fitted with 15.4 seatback screens and the airline’s inflight entertainment system, which has a very extensive selection of movies, series and other audiovisual content.
I didn’t use it since there would hardly be time to watch a movie given the duration of the flight and I had plenty of other things to do (a point of note is that, unlike in the return flight, I don’t recall the crew offering earphones, although maybe they distributed them when I was having a little nap).
I did use the flying map, of course, to track our progress on a pretty much straight line across the Mediterranian.
Inflight wifi is free for business class passengers and it worked great throughout the flight, so I could do quite a lot of stuff, such as catching up with email, checking some websites and even posting some stuff on social media.
Our Take
Turkish Airlines has a nice business class. I wouldn’t say the cabin felt state-of-the art, although this is, I think, aircraft rather than airline specific, since THY has aircraft with more modern cabins in its fleet, such as the A350s. In any case, the older seats on the A330-300 compensate the lack of privacy with the fact that this setup offers a huge amount of space.
Also remarkable on this flight were the high speed wifi and, above all else, the amazing food quality! Food is perhaps the strongest point in the whole Turkish Airlines experience and I am not surprised that they keep investing to make it even better and unique.
Service was perhaps a bit more hands-off that I would have expected on business class, for example, could have done with some additional coffee or drink offerings or a pair of earphones (regardless of the fact that if you really, really want it, you can ask for it)
So, despite this particular cabin not being the pinnacle of what Turkish Airlines offers in business class, the experience was very good overall.
Btw, if you wish to see how the Turkish Airlines A330-300 economy class is like check this other flight review.