After a few days at home, it was back to Istanbul for the final portion of my trip. As we emerge from the pandemic era, Turkish Airlines can once again be relied upon for a full-service experience filled with culinary delights onboard its ER in business class.
Using Turkish Airlines miles to book flights on Turkish Airlines is a great deal. Passenger boarding commenced at pm, just 10 minutes prior to our scheduled pm departure. Onboard, I was greeted by a flight attendant who took a look at my boarding pass and then pointed toward the starboard side of the plane. The Turkish Airlines business class seat on the is controversial. The cabin includes 48 seats spread over two sections with a galley between them. Many dismiss the configuration as an inherently uncompetitive business class product and I am certainly willing to stipulate I would never wish to be caught in a middle seat.
Window seats also do not have direct aisle access. Nevertheless, I do like these seats because your feet are not constrained in a small compartment. In the lie-flat mode, I find these seats quite comfortable for lounging and sleeping and when you are traveling with a companion and able to score two seats on the side, you have a lot of room to spread out and can easily converse. I was traveling alone, however, and an Egyptian man sat down next to me and began speaking.
I was fine with making small talk I rarely start a conversation onboard, but will engage , but was happy when the section of three seats in the middle remained open at the conclusion of boarding and he excused himself and moved over.
Seats are controlled by a series of eight buttons and a preferred position can be locked into memory and then recalled on-demand. Each business class seat also had personal storage under the built-in ottoman which is large enough for a bag the size of your purse or for your shoes. Flight time to Istanbul was just over 12 hours and I slept for over nine hours…it was lovely to wake up as we approach Istanbul well-rested. I find the use of mood lighting onboard not only gives the cabin modern feel, but helps in adjusting to time change and waking up.
