Review: Turkish Airlines Business Class, Stockholm-Istanbul

Turkish Airlines A330 business class, Stockholm to Istanbul

A few days ago, I flew in Turkish Airlines business class on one of their A330s from Stockholm to Istanbul. The seats were definitely the business class seats you would expect to have and not like the economy seats with middle seats being blocked which you´d find on SAS, Lufthansa and British Airways when flying intra-Europe. Find out more on this flight through this post.


Flight: TK1794
Departure time in Stockholm (ARN): 11:25
Arrival time in Istanbul (IST): 15:55
Aircraft: Airbus A330 (TC-LOG)
Seat: 2K
Duration: 3h 30m
Date of flight: October 1, 2019
*This is an award travel, Business Class flight #202

Video from my YouTube Channel 📺

Stockholm Arlanda Airport Terminal 5

I arrived in Stockholm Arlanda Airport Terminal 5 around 9:55am and thought I would drop by the check in desks even if I already had my mobile boarding passes.

Check-in, Desks 39-44

There was one special check-in desk for business class passengers (desk 44) and as soon as the agent was free, I was helped with the check-in process. He checked the expiration of my passport since it should be valid at least 6 months after arrival in Bali. Moments later, I was given my printed boarding passes as well tags for my hand carry bags.

Fast Track

Turkish Airlines uses SAS Lounge which is located near gates 1-10 so I used the security check nearest the lounge which is the one located to the left of the check-in desks, and not the main one located to the right.

SAS Gold Lounge

I only stayed for about 10 minutes in the SAS Gold Lounge since I wanted to be at the gate early, aside from the fact that I would also need to go to Passport Control.

Breakfast spread

Aircraft, A330

Our ride to Istanbul 👍

Boarding, Gate 18

There was another passport check by the gate so I was glad I came early. At 10:48am, boarding started beginning with business class passengers and those who have status.

There was a trolley of newspapers outside the door just before boarding the plane.

Business Class Cabin

The business class cabin on the A330 consists of seats from rows 1-7 in a 2-2-2 configuration with a total of 40 seats. There were 13 seats occupied on this morning flight to Istanbul.

Business class cabin

I chose seat 2K while checking in online the day before the flight.

New Uniforms

On this flight, the crew were wearing the new uniforms which I thought were beautiful 👍

New uniforms

Seat, 2K

My seat 2K was a window seat.

In front of my seat is a seat pocket with all the reading materials. There was also a coat hook on the left side.

Magazines, safety card and air-sickness bag

Philips headphones

IFE controller under the left armrest

Under the right armrest is the tray table.

Under the middle armrest (left armrest) is the personal screen. From the movie selection, I ended up watching "Toy Story 4".

This aircraft also had Live TV and I was able to watch a bit of CNN 👍

Headphones socket, USB ports located under the center armrest, on the front side

Pre-departure Beverage & Snacks

Around 10:55am, one of the flight attendants came to welcome me on board and offered some pre-departure drinks.

I chose a glass of water and was served a packaged hazelnuts later on. The menu card was also offered moments later.

Safety Video & Take Off

Around 11:18am, the captain came on the PA to welcome us onboard and to give us some flight information including our flight time to Istanbul of 3 hours. Two minutes later, the safety video was played on the screen.

Pushback was at 11:24am and while taxiing, I caught site of an aircraft with no livery. I guess it was one of those aircraft Norwegian is temporarily using since the B737 MAX had been grounded.

Fly Bra 😉

We had our take off at 11:34am and moments later, we were airborne.

Airshow

Airshow enroute to Istanbul

Around 11:39am, the cabin chief came on the PA to inform us of the availability of wifi on this flight.

Dining

Menu card

Menu card and beverage list

Around 11:42am, one of the flight attendants working in the business class cabin came to offer some hot towels and 6 minutes later they started taking our drinks order. I chose a glass of apple juice.

The meal was served in a tray which included the appetizer, bread, cheese and dessert.

For my main course, I chose the fish which was very good 😋

To end the meal, we were offered tea or coffee and I had a cup of green tea as usual.

Around 1:37pm, we were offered hot towels.

Lavatory

There is one lavatory located in front of the cabin. It had Molton Brown hand soap and hand cream as well as a bottle of perfume from another company.

Lavatory

Landing in Istanbul Airport

At 2:20pm, the captain was back on the PA and gave us updated flight information including the temperature in Istanbul of 25 degrees and that we would be landing in 40 minutes which is 3:30pm in Istanbul.

View of the old Ataturk Airport

We landed at 3:23pm and reached our gate in the B zone 9 minutes later.

From the gate, it was a long walk to the arrivals.

Fortunately, I had access to fast track 👍

CONCLUSION

It´s always nice to have a real business class seat when flying in business class intra-Europe as most airlines just offer economy class seats with middle seats being blocked. This flight to Istanbul was operated by an Airbus A330 and the seats were just comfortable, with personal screen in every seat. The crew were also fantastic and the meal catering from DO&CO was perfect. Overall, a very nice flight with friendly crew and fantastic dining experience!