Review: Turkish Airlines Business Class Boeing 787 [IST - ORD]
Turkish Airlines Business class on their 787 from Istanbul to Chicago offers a slightly below bar experience, weighed down by mediocre in-flight service and a hard product with a few too many design flaws hidden behind its modern appearance.
Overall Rating:
This flight was the second leg of a Singapore to Chicago trip I had booked for returning home from Indonesia. Turkish Airlines also operates Boeing 777s along this route, and my understanding is that these are currently (at least in 2025) outfitted with their older 2-3-2 hard product. So you will need to be careful when booking to avoid this.
I always enjoy flying national carriers out of their home countries. It really allows you to see the ‘best presentation’ of their airline product. Singapore Airlines out of Singapore, JAL out of Tokyo, Emirates out of Dubai etc. So I was really looking forward to see what Turkish Airlines can offer out of Istanbul.
Unfortunately, however, this experience can best be described as ‘fine’. While landside was impressive, and in-flight food was good, the seat itself has some serious design flaws and the service was unfortunately lacking. Turkish Airlines has some serious room for improvement and for now I would be looking elsewhere in this market.
In This Post:
How I Booked Turkish Airlines Business Class
Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class Pre Flight
-Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class Lounge
-Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class Boarding
Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class In Flight
-Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class Seat
-Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class In Flight Entertainment
-Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class Meals
-Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class In Flight Service
Bottom Line
Photo Gallery
How I Booked Turkish Airlines Business Class
This flight was the second leg of a Singapore to Chicago ticket I booked through Air Canada Aeroplan using 87,500 Aeroplan points and 126 Canadian dollars. I wanted to check out the city of Istanbul for a couple of days, so I added a 4 day stopover for an additional 5000 points. Review aside, this is incredible value for what is effectively two separate 12 hour business class flights.
Aeroplan is probably my favorite transfer partner for Capital One, Chase, and American Express points. All at a 1:1 transfer ratio.
I found this particular availability using Seats.aero.
Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class Lounge
The Turkish Airlines Business Class Lounge in Istanbul is supposed to be quite extraordinary. With a sprawling seating complex, quality food, and some silly additions like a driving range and flight simulator? In some brief research, it is mentioned as being impressive along the lines of the Emirates lounge in Dubai.
Turkish actually operates two different lounges here in the airport. One dubbed the ‘Miles and Smiles’ lounge, and the one I will be visiting today which is the normal ‘Business Class’ lounge. My business class ticket allows entry to both, but my understanding is the only difference between the two is that the ‘Miles and Smiles’ is open to a larger variety of passengers, ie Star Alliance status holders etc.
Turkish Airlines Flagship Lounge | Istanbul Airport
The Turkish Airlines Flagship Lounge is located to the left out of security (Miles and Smiles lounge is located opposite, to the right). Confusingly the first entrance is only for handicapped individuals, so keep walking passed that to find the escalator to the lounge.
Through the entrance is a large area set aside for lockers.
Large open seating with shelves of cold drinks, snacks, and a barista station overlooking the main airport area.
Several back ‘themed’ rooms with distinct styles feel like separate ‘lounges within lounges’
These offshoot lounges overlook the boarding gates and most have a central podium with sanacks/drinks.
One had a Turkish coffee and tea station in the center
Centrally there is a large hallway with central bazar style stalls with food. Mostly empty at the moment due to it being 6am but presumably the food offerings get pretty interesting.
I wonder what they put here for lunch.
Made to order omelete station.
Various breakfast offerings – the scramble was particularly tasty.
Warm croissant station.
Central salad bar with olives etc.
Whatever they serve here for dinner must be good.
Towards the rear of the lounge you’ll find the flight simulator and virtual driving range.
Never too early for a glass of wine.
All in all very impressed with the lounge space. A bit sparse this early in the morning but based on the quality of the food currently on offer, I think this lounge deserves its title of one of the best business class lounges.
Turkish Airlines 787 Business Class Boarding
Departing from gate F8, about a 10-15 minute walk from the lounge. There were a couple of pre-boarding passport checks. With separate lines for business passengers.
Business boards through a separate door however there is only one jetbridge used.
The cabin on this Boeing 787 is outfitted with the same style/product as the A350 I flew in on from Singapore so I had an idea of what to expect.
Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Seat
Coming off of the A350 flight with annoyances of the even number seats (table in the aisle, wing to the window) I wanted to see if I could find an odd number seat, however the only available one was in row 5 which didn’t have a window. So 4K it is.
Same deal with the seat. Little tight, footwell narrow. Bigger people will have a problem getting in and out especially with the table. Lacking storage. Only really the cubby, which is criminally small. Underfootwell space is good – doesn’t crush your things with the seat like some airlines. But otherwise pretty lacking.
Welcome drinks of strawberry and lime provided shortly after taking my seat. Both were delicious.
Headphone hanger outside cubby. Convenient plug and usb charging tucked behind the locking cubby door. Seat options are difficult to customize – can put them towards takeoff mode, lounge mode, bed mode. But can’t individually adjust back or leg rests like on some products.
Available mattress is quite thin, but better than nothing. Bed was set after reaching cursing altitude, and before meal service.
During the flight I discovered my seat was locked for some reason – unable to move. It needed a manual reset in order to re-enable the adjustments.
The location of the media controller is just above the armrest. This means that every 15 minutes you will bump this armrest and the screen will light up. You cannot disable this.
Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class In Flight Entertainment
Decent sized touch screen. Pretty responsive. No Bluetooth (spoiled by Starlux). Some live tv news and a sports channel. Exactly 754 movies, and 1741 TV programs. Which is a pretty robust selection.
The TV tilts down a bit for bed mode.
Has 1 gig of free WiFi for business class passengers. Might have different options if you are a Turkish miles and smiles member as well. Free messaging services that don’t use the data allowance. About 5mb download speed.
No tail cam on this flight – just the nose cam.
Pre-flight ad rolls are a bit intense. 2 safety videos (first in Turkish, and then English) followed by an ad for their bread, an ad for the airline itself, and an ad for the Boeing 787. Finally there is a (fortunately skippable) ad for how great their media selection is. Yikes.
There *might* be some sort of casting availability with Turkish IFE, but I was unable to get it to work.
Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Meals
This is what is touted as the ‘stand out’ experience for Turkish Airlines flights. Already impressed by their catering out of Singapore, I was really looking forward to what they had to offer out of Istanbul today.
Cheffy was around to pass menus and take orders for the second meal service (breakfast must be set)
Very extensive menu – looking forward to the trolly.
Breakfast
A breakfast starter was passed around and a drink order was taken.
Olives and cheese were quite nice, though could have used a few more olives. Oaty thing was so-so.
Appetizer was cleared and I was asked which main I’d prefer. I went with the poached eggs and spinach. I was tempted by the toast but worried it would be soggy.
The egg was perfect, not sure how they can do a runny poached egg on a plane but I am impressed.
After a little nap I woke to try the ‘detox’ juices and a bit of popcorn and pretzel. I was brought chia chips instead of pretzels for some reason, and the popcorn was stale. But the juices were both nice.
Similar to my A350 flight from Singapore to Istanbul, flight attendants are up and down the aisles doing ‘something’ but seem to be uninterested in clearing trash.
Second Meal?
About 3 hours until landing, flight attendants are around with various drinks. A Mexican Mocktail, and a few other mocktails. Mood lights come back on and hot towels are passed out.
I of course ordered a Turkish coffee – with a Turkish delight. Came also with warm nuts.
Cana[es delivered shortly after. Rolly thing was ok, bread a bit soft. Meatball was nice and whatever the thing is in the center was good too, though the breading was a bit soft.
Bread side tray was then passed around, along with their moody dining candle.
Here comes the trolly – different offerings this time. How fun.
No idea what I got but all was nice. Standouts being the tomatoes and mozzarella.
Shortly after, mains were brought out. I went with the mixed kebab which was delicious.
And then the desert trolly was around with coffee, tea, etc.
I think fruit in a cup looks better than fruit on a plate.
Last but not least, a box of thank you chocolates was provided.
Turkish Airlines Business Class In Flight Service
The service on this flight was more or less the same as the flight I just took from Singapore to Istanbul. Great at the start and during meal service, but seemingly non existent (unless specifically requested) at other times.
I am starting to wonder if it is because there is so much work involved in the trolly process that they get a bit jaded during the rest of the flight.
The trash conundrum still confuses me, surely they are instructed to proactively clear trash. This has been the norm on every other carrier I have flown with. Even economy class on US airlines flight attendants are up and down the aisle several times per flight to clear trash.
Bottom Line
The mediocre service and ill designed hard product are a pretty big letdown. All of the pieces are there – a great landside lounge experience, excellent food, and unique touches. But ultimately I feel there are so many other airlines offering 1. a better hard product, 2. comparable food (admittedly without the pomp) and 3. true ‘first class’ level service, that Turkish Airlines just falls short for me when it comes to considering an airline to fly long haul with.
I think a refocus on resetting service standards will do Turkish Airlines a world of good. It felt as if they were just ‘doing their jobs’ and nothing more. Which is perfectly ok, but if they want to categorize themselves amongst the Emirates, JAL and Singapores of the air travel industry, one would expect better.