It was time to return to the United States after a wonderful time in Oman. I decided to build an itinerary that included Turkish Airlines, as well as SAS, because I wanted to review something new. How was Turkish Airlines? It's hard to judge an airline on a route like this, given how competitive they are from the Middle East. I booked the return itinerary through Air Canada Aeroplan and was able to get a business class ticket for 105,000 Aeroplan points. Ankara to Istanbul departing at 6:05AM and arriving at 1:10PM. The flight from Copenhagen to Miami leaves at 9:35AM and arrives at 3:05PM.
BEN SAYS:
Turkish Airlines offers an exceptional regional business class product on the A321neo, with comfortable seats, friendly service, great food, extensive entertainment, and free Wi-Fi.
How I booked my Turkish Airlines business class ticket
One of the great things about Aeroplan is that you can add a stopover to a one-way award for just 5,000 points, so I was able to add one of those here, so I could spend a couple of days in Copenhagen.
Turkish Airlines uses a contract lounge at the airport called the Primeclass Lounge Muscat, which I reviewed in the last part. We headed to the gate at around 12:30AM, 30 minutes before the flight was supposed to start. The lounge is a five minute walk from the gate.
At the gate area of the airport, your boarding pass is scanned and you are already considered to be onboard.
The crew arrived at the gate a few moments after us. I was happy that the crew had a layover and was hopefully well rested, because I had wondered if the crews did a same day turn. Sometimes I'm a bit freaked out by crews working long hours.
Business class passengers were invited to board first at the scheduled time. I always try to board first in order to get cabin pictures, without letting the airline know. A lady tried to yell at me and claim that I was cutting her in line, which I wasn't. I let her go first and then turned her away because she wasn't in business class. Hmm.
Turkish Airlines already has 30 A321neos in its fleet, with a further 58 on order, so I was looking forward to seeing what the carrier's new short haul product is like. The Turkish Airlines A321neos have a total of 20 seats, spread across five rows in a 2-2 configuration.
This is more of a domestic first class within the United States than a long haul business class. This was much nicer than what you would find on a US airline. Overhead monitors were on top of each seat, and each seat had a personal television.
The legroom was better than what you would find on a US airline.
The seat was almost identical to what you would find on American Airlines. The center consoles may look familiar. There is a storage compartment in the center armrest, as well as the power outlets and headphones and entertainment controls.
The seat controls are located next to that.
On top of that, the seats have legrests, which are typically not found on US airlines.
The center console has a small tray on which you can place drinks, and a second tray that can be extended as needed.
The seats have a privacy feature. I found them to be kind of strange. They didn't go back very far, but they couldn't be pulled forward very far. They provide a bit of privacy if you are traveling alone, but if you are traveling with someone they are just kind of annoying.
The tray table was extended from the far armrest and could be folded in half.
The seatback had a huge, high-definition television monitor, which made it different than your typical American Airlines seat.
Each seat had an individual air nozzle and a reading light.
There was a bathroom at the front of the cabin.
A flight attendant gave us pre-departure drinks with choices of lemonade, water, or orange juice. I think Turkish has some of the most beautiful non-alcoholic drinks.
The headphones were of good quality.
There were also pillows and blankets offered.
Menus were given out for the flight.
The boarding was done at 1:20AM. Business class was 75% full, and the economy was a bit more full than that. The captain informed us of our flight time at this point.
The safety video was shown a few minutes later. Turkish Airlines has a cute safety video.
10 minutes after we began our taxi, we began our pushback. The seatbelt sign was turned off five minutes after we took off.
I browsed the entertainment selection. Turkish Airlines has an excellent entertainment system with over 500 movies and over 1,000 TV shows.
The moving map feature was what I had on for most of the flight.
Turkish Airlines has A321neos with wi-fi. It's free for business class passengers, and the speeds were fast. Turkish offers free wi-fi in business class, but it is limited to 1GB of data, and that is a very high limit.
Depending on how much data you were looking for, a business class pass costs anywhere from $2.99 to $24.99.
I was curious to see what the meal service would be like on a five hour flight departing around 1:30AM and arriving around 6AM. Turkish was serving breakfast on this flight, and it was offered after takeoff.
The menu can be found here.
You can find the list of alcoholic beverages.
We were the only ones who didn't go straight to sleep because the meal orders were taken about 15 minutes after takeoff. Warm towels were distributed as service began.
30 minutes after takeoff, the first course was served. The flight attendant offered to remove the cover on the individual dishes.
The first course consisted of regional cheeses and turkey breast, and the sides included fresh fruit, olives, jam and butter, and sundried tomato and yogurt. A selection of bread was also offered. Since I was confused about what time it was, I had a glass of Turkish sauvignon blanc with my breakfast.
There were two choices for the main course, either a veggie omelet with chard, leek, potato, and sautéed mushrooms, or a Turkish flat pastry with cheese, sautéed potatoes, and grilled red pepper. I was happy to see two vegetarian options, unlike the breakfast options on my recent flight.
The flight attendant told me that I had to try the Turkish dish since no one else was eating, and that they had extras.
Both dishes were good. I decided to just work for the rest of the flight since I don't sleep well and I have a computer. The crew did a great job.
Mood lighting was kept on throughout the flight, rather than making it completely dark. I appreciated that since I was trying to stay up, but I am not sure if those trying to sleep felt the same way.
I wanted to tell you about a funny thing that happened. We initially sat in row five on the left side, but the meal moved us over to the right side. It gave us more space because the seats on the right side of row four were empty, and it meant we would be less disruptive to those sleeping.
One of the kids decided to take my window seat in row five in order to sleep, even though it had all my stuff in it, because there was a German family seated in rows three and four on the left side. I wasn't entitled to multiple seats and he was using his feet to control the television, so it didn't bother me. I found it odd that my backpack was in the aisle seat.
I love Turkish Airlines and have found their service to be excellent. Turkish people are some of the most hospitable people in the world.
Turkish Airlines service seems to come from the heart and is based on genuine interactions, which is what I love about it. The cabin chief was working in the galley while the guy in the aisle was friendly. He couldn't have been nicer.
The captain told us that we would be landing in 40 minutes. The crew was told to start preparing the cabin. Turkish Airlines does a good job of preparing the cabin for arrival, but that is not the case with a lot of airlines.
We arrived at our arrival gate at 6:15AM after a 10 minute taxi ride from Istanbul.
When it comes to assessing the quality of a product like this on a redeye flight, there is one general challenge I would like to point out. This is the exact product Turkish offers on flights between Istanbul and Europe.
This product is the best in the industry, and it can be obtained on an international flight. Turkish has a differentiated product that is unlike anything else you will find, and it is called business class.
It is difficult to compare that product on a route like this. Some days Turkish flies an A330 with a flat bed, while other days it flies an A321. A flat bed is better than a recliner seat.
I've flown Turkish's A330 business class and this product interested me more. It is hard to know where to rank this on a redeye from the Middle East, but I think it is an excellent regional business class product.
Turkish Airlines has a hard and soft product. This is an excellent business class experience, especially when you consider that it is also offered on flights to Europe. I'd fly Turkish Airlines again in a heartbeat if I could add in the great food, drinks, and friendly service.
I try to avoid redeyes in non-flat beds, so this probably wasn't the ideal flight for experiencing this product. My jet lag and pre-flight sleep helped.
What was your experience on a Turkish Airlines flight?
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