Review: Turkish Airlines A330 Business Class

Foreword

We should not have taken that flight. In fact, we were scheduled for a flight from Istanbul to Bangkok with Turkish Airlines, followed by a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur with Thai Airways.

However, in the taxi from downtown Istanbul to the airport, we realized that our flight between Istanbul and Bangkok was scheduled with 5 hours delay: departure at 06:00 in the morning instead of 01:00.

Three « damaging » consequences:

• A night to spend in Istanbul airport
• A change of flights between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur
• Much less time for our short stopover in Kuala Lumpur (23H originally…)

In short, we were determined to do everything we could to find an alternative. Go to the « business » counter for flight changes!

Problem: it is a flight reward Aeroplan and Turkish does not have « complete control » of the situation. As a result of 1 hour of negotiations, we managed to get Turkish Airlines to get us on the direct flight between Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur.

Triple « winnings »:

• We leave at the same time as before: 01:00
• We arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 17:00 (i.e. 4 hours rather than originally planned in our plans)
• The ticket obtained has been booked by Turkish Airlines, so we will earn Aeroplan miles for this flight!

However, this change had a significant impact on the rest of our journey (which, I remind, was composed of a single Aeroplan air premium as part of this mini-world tour in 1 week: 155,000 Aeroplan miles in business class).

Among other things:

• a consideration of non-show for the flight between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, which could have affected the whole rest of our route: fortunately, Aeroplan has restored the situation thanks to our call as soon as we arrived in Kuala Lumpur rebooking all of our following flights
• a change in the value of our MPM (maximum mileage permitted): Aeroplan now considering that our mini-world tour started in Istanbul and no longer in Montreal (which will be an issue when the next day we decide not to go to Hong Kong but to go to Osaka)
• check-in difficulties with Singapore Airlines and ANA for our following flights

In short, we would have enough to give a 2-hour lecture on this story!

Business class boarding with Turkish Airlines

We reach our boarding gate after several hours spent in the Turkish Airlines Business Lounge in Istanbul at:

• Take a shower
• Eat
• Relax

The cabin

We get on board quickly through the business class passenger line.

The business class cabin is arranged in 2-2-2: that is, 2 seats with left windows, 2 central seats and 2 seats at right-hand windows.

We opted to be placed in the center seats so that we could get up without interfering with the passenger seated on the aisle side.

However, you will notice the huge place reserved for the legs: the ottoman is unattainable in a sitting position.

The seat

Although the cabin appears as old-fashioned compared to other newer business class cabins (including Turkish’s new business class on its B787), the seat remains comfortable and most important: it’s a flat bed at 180 degrees.

Several storage spaces are available: between the screens or under the ottoman. In addition, the pillow and comforter provided are nice.

While boarding continues, the crew serves us refreshments including a Turkish Airlines homemade cocktail.

I take this opportunity to discover the accessory kit reserved for business class passengers.

This one is quality and I keep it to store my travel accessories!

The meal

During boarding, the chef comes to take orders.

Here is the menu for this flight:

Our choice for this dinner:

• Best of Turkish Meze
• Traditional Dolma Varieties and Karniyarik
• Traditional Turkish Dessert Potpourri

And another dessert offered graciously by the crew:

• Chocolate Raspberry souffle

Everything was excellent and I highly recommend this Turkish option if you are travelling on Turkish Airlines!

After about an hour and a half of flying, it’s the end of the meal. It’s high time to go to bed!

Breakfast

After 6 good hours of very appreciable sleep, we get up for breakfast.

45 minutes later, we will arrive on time in Kuala Lumpur.

Conclusion

An excellent flight on Turkish Airlines that we highly recommend to all our readers, especially since this company does not charge any carrier surcharge for flights booked on Aeroplan.You can collect Aeroplan miles by using the following cards: