As a cherry on top of my Turkish Airlines saga, the flight I wound up on was on operated by an ex-Aeroflot Airbus A350, which gave me many hours to review Turkish Airlines’ latest “Turkoflot” business class product.
“Turkoflot” A350 Business Class: A Fun Way To Fly
Russian flag carrier Aeroflot sold a trio of A350-900 aircraft to Turkish Airlines, which the carrier has integrated into its longhaul fleet.
Turkish removed the premium economy seats Aeroflot installed, but left intact its unique business class suites, which are spacious and include closing doors.
I ended up with seat 2K.
On the positive side, I slept for nine hours on this flight…you cannot ask for much of a better rest. It was refreshing just to sleep after days of drama surrounding this ticket.
Oddly, flight attendants made the beds directly after takeoff…before the meal service even began. Bedding included a seat topper, pillow, and duvet. It is not clear to me why Turkish conducts its turn-down service before passengers are ready for bed, but I suppose it promotes efficiency?
My seat was broken. It would not recline using the console buttons. From what I can gather, Turkish Airlines is having a lot of seat maintenance issues with its ex-Aeroflot fleet, with spare parts for the business class seats difficult to procure.
Unfortunately, the seat is not well-padded and not all that comfortable in the full upright position. When it came time to sleep, a flight attendant reached his hand under the cushion and was able to manually move the seat into the lie-flat position. In that position, I slept well (I prefer a firm mattress), but I like to partially-recline the seat while sitting up and that was not possible here.
I love the fresh squeezed juices on Turkish Airlines.
Expect a feast in terms of catering. Dinner began with mixed nuts, followed by an elaborate appetizer cart, featuring soup, salad, and a number of warm and cold appetizers. Delicious.
For the main course, I chose salmon over steak…I just don’t put a lot of faith on red meat on an airplane from a US catering facility. It was served with mashed potatoes, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes…and quite delicious.
The cart returned for dessert, with decadent baklava and apple streusel with ice cream, plus cheese and fruit.
A superb dinner.
Breakfast was served before landing, starting with a fruit plate and sides dishes including cheese, yogurt, and cold cuts. I had not one main courses, but two: an omelet followed by crepes. The crepes were SO sweet…but were quite enjoyable.
The seat includes a large monitor with hundred of movies and TV programs to choose from, plus a deep library of music. Wi-Fi internet (1GB data limit) is complimentary for business class passengers.
Service onboard was good…the guys working my side of the cabin were quite pleasant and attentive.
CONCLUSION
I don’t think I have ever had a bad flight on Turkish Airlines…this was another great one overall, despite the broken seat. I was happy to try the “Turkoflot” seats which, at least in my case, I do not prefer versus the “regular” A350 seats, though both are excellent (when they work).
I’ll post a full review of this flight, with a lot more details including info on onboard amenities, menus, IFE, and more. Stay tuned!
Was there a sauce for the salmon and the mash potatoes? Dry at altitude is not a pleasant experience.
No sauce, but it was quite good.
I’ll take poorly/under-cooked beef over fish any day. I don’t get the logic if it all comes from the same caterer.
I’m less picky when it comes to fish. If a beef is beyond medium, I really struggle to enjoy it.
As far as i know Turkish didn’t remove Premium Economy seats. They are still present in the section between business and economy cabin but they are just marketed as extra legroom seat with additional price during seat selection.
I didn’t see them, but I didn’t look closely.
Turkish, you might recall, was the first big carrier to introduce premium economy (comfort class) over a decade ago. Too bad that didn’t work out – I did four longhauhls in comfort on the 777-300ER and it was great.
While Turkish has good food, I do think other airlines like Qatar, ANA, and JAl do a much better job on the presentation (with food that is just as good).
Did you find the lack of armrests an issue at all?
In my opinion, the lack of armrests and the positioning of the controls where my arm normally rests are the two issues with those seats. Otherwise they are really good.
I’m giving Turkish one more chance this coming March. I flew them last March from Doha to Washington Dulles via Istanbul in business. The first flight was an A321 and I thought it was quite comfortable and the breakfast they served was pretty good. The second flight from Istanbul to Dulles was very underwhelming. It was a 787-9. I found the seats in business to be narrow and uncomfortable and the hard shell surrounding the seat stifling. It was the morning flight so it started out with a breakfast that was very similar to the one I had just had on DOH-IST. Service was inattentive and spotty at best. Terrible selection of inflight entertainment. The main meal, the lunch, which was analogous to what you had for dinner, was towards the end of the flight. Extremely slow service, long gaps between courses, no refills offered on my beverages, and food that was only so so. It took so long that that I thought they’d have to skip out on serving dessert because we were getting pretty close to landing. I had high expectations and they were simply not met. I’m hoping they’ll be better this year when I fly them again on DOH-IST-IAD, but at the different time channel where they serve lunch on IST=IAD first. I’ll give it one more chance. But hey – cant beat the price – 47K one way using capital one points. Thanks for your review.
You did get a good price. Hope your next trip goes much better than your last.
absolutely good price. TBD
I was in exact same seat 2k in mid-December ATL-IST
Exact same issue, having to get FA to man-handle seat position was lame…
Surprised seat not fixed in that time period.
Matthew: As a doctor, when I view some of your food photos my first (and second and third) thought is “not with a 10 foot pole”. Suggest a blog post (or 2 or 3) about airline and travel food and water safety. Street vendor food, restaurant food, tap water, airline food (among others) are each an excellent subject for discussion. With your vast experience and voracious travel appetite you’re well situated to comment. Thank you.
Unbelievable, same happened to me when I flow this A350 from Cape Town to Istanbul. Your seat is broken The flight attendant help me on board with a new seat, but I don’t like this seat. Turkish airlines normal business class are one of my favorite
Reminds me of the cubicles I had to work in for so many years. Yukkkk!
Your cubicle had a bed?! 😉
Not bad for a flight, though.