Turkish Airlines Business Class Boeing 787-9 Istanbul IST To San Francisco SFO review

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Turkish Airlines has one of the most extensive route maps of any airline. Combine that with Istanbul being a great city to visit, and it’s an appealing option for connecting to Europe, Asia, or Africa. I flew on Turkish Airlines in business class on a Boeing 787-9 from Istanbul to San Francisco and had a mostly great experience, with a few ways the airline can improve. Read on for my full Turkish Airlines business class review!

Business Class Award Ticket And Aircraft Details

I booked my business class award ticket on Turkish Airlines with Avianca Lifemiles. While using Lifemiles should often be left to experts and the patient, they can have some decent deals on award redemptions.

For example, my entire business class itinerary from Tbilisi to San Francisco via Istanbul cost 78,000 Lifemiles plus $101.95 in taxes and fees. I needed to transfer some Citi ThankYou Rewards points to Avianca to have enough miles for the ticket, but the transfer was instantaneous.

I did need to contact Avianca Lifemiles to get my Turkish Airlines record locator so I could select a seat, but that was a fairly painless process. Luckily I had no issues with my ticket having been issued through Avianca.

Flight Connection and Boarding Experience In Istanbul

I started the day with an early morning flight on Turkish Airlines from Tbilisi, Georgia, to Istanbul, which followed a visit to the airport lounge in Tbilisi. The A321 business class was much nicer than most intra-Europe cabins. It was much more like domestic U.S. first class with comfier seats in a 2-2 arrangement.

Thanks to being only scheduled to have a 1 hour, 40 minute connection time, I was worried about making my flight to San Francisco. The new Istanbul airport is notorious for long taxiing times. When we reached the gate on the foggy morning, it was only an hour and 15 minutes before my next flight.

I knew I wouldn’t have time to visit Turkish Airlines’ spectacular lounge in Istanbul, which is a shame.

Here’s where I had a huge lucky break. My arrival flight pulled up to gate A3, and my next flight departed from gate A2. With so many gates at IST, I could have had a huge trek through the airport, but I managed to avoid that.

However, I still had a bit of a journey to the departing gate. Arriving passengers have to go through security. Thankfully there’s a shortcut security area for passengers with less than 90 minutes to connect. There also was no queue, so I was at my gate within five minutes.

This was good, as there were still multiple passport and security checks at the gate area.

My boarding pass was checked three separate times within 20 feet. I’m all for security, but sometimes it seems a little excessive. I wonder how the first person to check a boarding pass feels when their colleague does it again right next to them.

Boarding started on time. There was a bit of chaos since there were no signs, but it also didn’t help that there were about a dozen people who didn’t understand they weren’t in business class. It’s funny how there are some common themes in any airport anywhere in the world. 

Finally, I was on my ride home, a Turkish Airlines Boeing 787-9 in business class.

Cabin Layout and Business Class Seat

Turkish Airlines Boeing 787-9 vs Boeing 777-30ER

Turkish Airlines currently flies two different aircraft types between Istanbul and San Francisco. Some flights operate a Boeing 777-300ER, while others use the Boeing 787-9. Try to note which one will be available when booking, as there are differences in the seating between the two.

Turkish Airlines’s business class section on the Boeing 777-300ER is in a 2-3-2 configuration, so there’s much less privacy, plus someone gets stuck in the middle. This configuration can be better for families and groups. These seats are scheduled to be replaced with a 1-2-1 configuration starting in 2025, which will be a nice improvement.

The seats on the Boeing 787-9 are in a 1-2-1 configuration, allowing for more privacy. These planes and cabins are also much newer. Since I often travel solo, this is my preferred cabin arrangement, so I made sure to fly on a day when the Boeing 787-9 was scheduled.

Turkish Airlines Business Class Seat Boeing 787-9

Turkish Airlines’ new business class seats on the Boing 787-9 are sleek and modern. They’re black with some grey and silver accents and were not showing any significant signs of wear. Overall, I really like these seats.

As I mentioned above, the seats are in a 1-2-1 configuration. This allows for a good amount of privacy (though not as much as business cabins with individual doors). They, of course, can be put into a full lie-flat mode for sleeping.

The two middle seats in my row were empty, so I had even more privacy. I was glad to have as few people near me as possible since there was already a person with an awful hacking cough in front of me, but at least she was wearing a mask.

My seat was 6K. I liked this seat since not only is it a solo seat, but it’s closer to the window. Each row staggers between being closer to the window and closer to the aisle. Keep this in mind when selecting seats.

Although my seat technically had two windows, a privacy wing on the side of the seat blocked a good portion of my view out that window. Lights are cleverly embedded in the privacy screen.

For seats closer to the aisle, this wing is more usefully positioned on the aisle side, providing more privacy rather than blocking a window.

The seats have air fans above them, which is nice since not all airlines have them.

If I have one complaint about this Turkish Airlines seat, the footwell is a bit narrow. The butt width is much more generous. The seat’s armrests go down to create even more space if needed.

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There was a remote control for everything and a row of illuminated buttons for key seat features, lighting, and the flight attendant call buttons.

The entertainment screen is massive. I enjoyed watching a few movies on it (more on that below).

A pair of Denon headphones was waiting for me at my seat.

There were also slippers, a blanket, a pillow, and a Ferragamo amenity kit, which included fuzzy socks, an eye mask, and some typical toiletries and skincare items.

The other features of the business class seat are also nice. A decent little storage space with a sliding door is perfect for a wallet, phone, or other small items.

There’s also a nifty little mirror that slides out.

In-Flight Entertainment and Internet

Our departure was scheduled for 8:10 am. Boarding was completed right at 8, and we pushed back at 8:15 after watching the safety video. The sun was just starting to rise.

As is the case in Istanbul, taxiing took a bit, but we were in the air at 8:37 am. The flight had originally been scheduled for 14 hours, but the inflight map showed an actual flight time of 13 hours. Our flight path would take us over the middle of Greenland.

Two cameras are on board the Boeing 787-9, so you can watch the airport action and what you’re flying over. One camera faces forward, while the other faces forward down.

There’s plenty of inflight entertainment available to watch on the large screen. I noted a bunch of movies I wanted to watch but only ended up watching a couple of them.

There was also live TV, so I unexpectedly got to watch the end of a Phoenix Suns game.

While many airlines still charge business class passengers for Internet, Turkish Airlines business class passengers get 1GB of free internet. People with Miles&Smiles Elite or Elite Plus Membership status get unlimited data.

However, the wifi coverage was spotty. I had to keep reloading incomplete pages, which ate into my 1GB allowance. You don’t realize how easy it is to use that much data these days.

Then, eventually, it became pretty much unusable. Honestly, it would have been better off not even trying to connect since it was so frustrating.

Thankfully, Turkish Airlines has announced plans to improve this service while offering it for free.

Turkish Airlines Business Class Food & Drink Service

Turkey is known for having one of the best cuisines in the world, so it’s not surprising that the country’s food is the centerpiece of Turkish Airlines’ business class product.

While boarding was going on, the onboard chef came around with the food menu and wine list. The wine list included several Turkish wines, plus wines from France, Spain, and Argentina, as well as port.

There was also a robust list of non-alcoholic drinks, including wellness teas.

The food service included breakfast at the start of the flight and then lunch at the end. An anytime menu was available in between.

The chef took orders for the pre-landing lunch main course before takeoff. I ordered the lamb chops and kebab.

The purser then came around with pre-departure juice drinks, so I had an orange juice.

Breakfast

Breakfast service started with a hot towel. The flight attendants also passed out water bottles.

I love a good Turkish breakfast. It’s quite possibly one of the best breakfast countries in the world.

The first course included a tray of meat, cheese, veggies, fruit, and yogurt.

The meal also included Turkish breakfast favorites such as bal kaymak (honey with clotted buffalo milk).

For my main course, I opted for the cheese and sucuk (sausage) wrap. It was a simple but tasty dish. You can’t really go wrong with melted cheese.

As the meal ended, we hit a bit of turbulence, adding some special effects to the dumb stunts they were doing in “Fast X” in Rome.

Any Time Menu

Following breakfast and a movie, I put my seat into lie-flat mode. I was able to nap on and off for about 4 hours. This was from around 11 am to 3 pm Istanbul time, which was from midnight to 4 am San Francisco time – the perfect window to be sleeping in to minimize jet lag.

My sleep was aided by not going to bed the night before, thanks to my 5 am departure from Tbilisi. The comfortable seat also helped.

When I woke up, I was feeling peckish, so I got a cheese sandwich and chocolate vanilla cake from the anytime menu, along with a Coke Zero. I then watched “Summer of Soul.“

Lunch

So far everything about the flight had been great. Service had been decently good for breakfast and the anytime meal, and I was happy that I’d been able to sleep for a while.

However, the lunch service was different from the rest of my flight experience.

The meal started about 2.5 hours before landing, so there was plenty of time for the meal service. However, everything was rushed.

First, there were nuts. These were not served warm, unlike most airlines.

There were also bread and accouterments, along with a battery candle to add a nice bit of ambiance.

A cart came around with appetizer selections. I like it when airlines do this since you can have dishes in mind from the menu while also picking what looks nice.

However, there was just one cart for both aisles. The cart also started from the front on both aisles, so my seat was one of the last served in the whole cabin. This took so long that some passengers were already on their main course by the time I was starting the mezze.

Even though this had taken so long for most of the cabin, the service was still rushed by the time it got to me. I tried asking about what was available, and the flight attendant brusquely handed the plate to me after I’d selected three items. I guess there is a limit.

That said, the shrimp and salmon were excellent. In my experience, cold seafood does well on airplanes.

The flight attendants continued to move pretty quickly. I’m not sure why it suddenly became so urgent. As a result, it was not a very relaxed meal service.

At no point was there any turbulence or announcements of its potential, and the weather was just fine when we arrived in San Francisco. It was as if they’d just decided they wanted to be done with it all ASAP.

My main course showed up when I was halfway through the appetizer since they had taken so long to serve it, but then started rushing the rest of the meal. I also asked for something to drink twice and never received it.

The kebab was great, though the lamb chop was a bit tough. I had to pick it up to eat it since airplane knives are useless.

Finally, the lunch service ended with a dessert trolley. This, again, was in the same order as the appetizer trolley.

I enjoyed the tiramisu, clotted cream ice cream, and baklava.

Meal service wrapped up with about an hour of flight time remaining. The flight attendants then made people put on shoulder belts with over half an hour to go, which I have never seen before. On other airlines, that’s usually part of a final check just before landing. Again, there was never any explanation of why everything was being rushed.

The flight landed around 10:35 am, about half an hour ahead of schedule. By then, I was happy to no longer have to be anywhere near the Turkish Airlines flight attendants who had treated everyone like a nuisance for the past couple of hours.

Turkish Airlines Business Class Review Summary

Overall, I had a decent business class experience on this Turkish Airlines flight. I loved the seat, and the food was excellent, as one would expect.

I slept well in the comfortable seat and was able to watch a couple of movies from their vast selection of inflight entertainment.

However, the service steadily declined throughout the flight. This was a shame because it took away from what was otherwise a great experience.

I have no idea why the crew always seemed rushed and rude during the second service.

They also didn’t come around to bring more drinks or anything else during the flight, though it’s possible they did so while I was asleep. That said, I only slept for about four of the 13 hours. Anything else I got outside of the main meal times I had to ask for (and even then, I didn’t always get it).

Turkish Airlines has a solid hard business class product on the Boeing 787-9 and great food, but the service could be improved. With the amount people pay for business class (or, in my case, use miles), they deserve better.