Review: Turkish Airlines Business Class Airbus A350 [SIN - IST]
FROM:
Singapore [SIN]
TO:
Istanbul [IST]
CABIN:
Business
SEATMAP:
Airbus A350-900
DATE:
February 2025
Turkish Airlines Business class on their A350 from Singapore to Istanbul offers a slightly below bar experience, weighed down by mediocre in-flight service and a modern looking, but ill-designed seat.
Overall Rating:
This flight was the first 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.
All in all this experience can best be described as adequate. While the food was good and cabin was attractive, 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 A350 Business Class Pre Flight
-Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Lounge
-Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Boarding
Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class In Flight
-Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Seat
-Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class In Flight Entertainment
-Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Meals
-Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class In Flight Service
Bottom Line
Photo Gallery
How I Booked Turkish Airlines Business Class
This flight was the first 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 A350 Business Class Lounge
Turkish airlines does not currently operate any proprietary lounges in the Singapore airport, so Business class passengers have access to the Marhaba Lounge. Which is also a priority pass lounge.
Flying out of Istanbul I will get to use the new Turkish lounge there, which is supposed to be quite impressive. So I am looking forward to that.
Marhaba Lounge | Singapore Changi International Airport
The Marhaba Lounge is located to the right out of immigration, up an escalator and along a back wall.
It is a good sized lounge, and pretty quiet at 9am. Furniture is a bit worn. There is no interesting view but there is plenty of seating and charging ports.
Good food selection for breakfast, with a salad bar, eggs and tomatoes, noodles, meats, and beef gyudon.
The stir fried oriental tomatoes and eggs were particularly tasty. Staff was attentive and frequently made rounds to clear plates etc.
Restroom facilities were a bit small, but clean. And guests have access to complimentary shower rooms.
Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Boarding
Departing from gate C22, about a 10-15 minute walk from the lounge. There is a separate security queue for business class passengers, however there was no line for either as most passengers were already in the boarding area.
Boarding began about 30 minutes late, due to a slow catering truck and finishing fueling it seems. Boarding was with separate jet bridges directly into the business class cabin.
Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Seat
First impressions of the seat are good. A pleasant, modern, color palate with a large screen. Even number seats have the wing portion along the window, with the console along the aisle. Which initially I thought I’d prefer, due to the additional privacy from the aisle. But in practice I think the odd seats with the inverse with easier aisle access and a marginally better window view would be better.
The wing here on the right bumps up against your arm on the armrest. Making it feel tighter than it actually is. The dining table also becomes problematic as it really locks you into your seat. It would be easy to get out if the aisle to the right. But alas. This feels designed as purely an aisle side seat, and Turkish has used them for all the seats to save a bit of money.
A small, but locking, cubby area. With a universal plug, USB charging, noise cancelling headphones, and a large amenity kit.
Slippers and blanket are located in the footrest which is smartly designed. The footrest is raised so your shoes don’t get crushed if you place them to the front of the footwell.
Disappointingly, the shutters were entirely manual which gives off an air of cheapness in this business class cabin
Mattress toppers are added post dinner. Wafer thin, but any extra added cushion is welcome.
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.
Has nose down and tail cam which is cool. Haven’t seen this on a flight since on Emirates years ago.
Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class Meals
This is what is touted as the ‘stand out’ experience for Turkish Airlines flights. So I was really looking forward to what they had to offer out of Singapore today.
Upon sitting, a welcome drink offered. Lemonade raspberry or orange juice and water. Lemonade with bit of mint. Quite nice.
The ‘on board chef’ passes around the menu. And comes by a bit later to take the mains order.
Very extensive menu – looking forward to the trolly.
Lunch
A pre lunch drink order is taken at about cursing altitude. 20 minutes or so into the flight. Flight Attendants are then around to set the table and pass out warm nuts with the champagne.
Bread service followed shortly, with the ‘worlds oldest bread(?)’
Now for the alleged highlight of the experience, Flight attendants are out with the appetizer trolly.
I obligatorily tried a bit of all.
Soup was excellent, shrimp and guac bowl was lovely. Apple mix was nice, tuna was nice, and the salmon on the cucumber was especially tasty. Only miss here was the calamari rings which were a little uninspiring.
The Chef was along with extra bread just before mains were brought. Steak was cooked to a nice medium/medium rare. Tender with a good sauce. Potatoes and veg were good too. Though could have used a slightly better knife to cut the steak. I may have well been cutting with the handle.
There were no additional drink pours offered during the meal, so had to use the call button to request. They were quite responsive to this even during meal service which is great.
Desert trolly was brought by after, with a good selection. As well as coffee and tea offered.
Apple walnut tart and vanilla ice cream, with grapes and cheese for me. All quite good.
Breakfast
Breakfast service began about 2 hours before landing. Fruits and a few side offerings, with an omelet main and chocolates after.
Omelet was pleasant. Airline breakfasts never tend to be spectacular.
Really nice chocolates.
Turkish Airlines Business Class In Flight Service
The service on this flight was a bit lukewarm. During meal services I thought it was good, however outside it was really lackluster
Service lacked the attentiveness I am used to from the Asian carriers I typically fly. No introductions, not proactively asking about drinks beyond the preorder drink, however to their credit they are quite quick when the call button is used.
Mid flight I ordered a cappuccino and a (disappointing) fruit plate and no one bothered to clear the plate and cup for about 1.5-2 hours. I was passed over several times. I’m sure they would have cleared if I specifically requested them to, however one would think that clearing rubbish from passengers should at least be a semi regular occurance.
To top it off, before landing, flight attendants were up and down aisles to collect blankets and headphones. But not the trash.
Bottom Line
Before I went on this flight I did a bit of pre-flight research. There was quite a bit of hype surrounding them, as a leading airline. All in all I left disappointed.
For me, the service is a huge part of an airline experience. Food and hard product can be lacking but a top notch service experience can still set an airline ahead. However, this particular flight had frankly ‘casual’ service. This coupled with a lackluster hard product discourage me from wanting to use Turkish Airlines business class in the future. Especially as a West Coast USA traveler with access to no fewer than 5 superb trans pacific carriers that all put Turkish Airlines to shame.
We will see if anything is improved out of Istanbul