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Turkish Airlines short haul business class review from Istanbul to London

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This is our review of business class on a Turkish Airlines Airbus A321neo from Istanbul to London Heathrow.

After enjoying the comforts of Turkish Airline’s long haul product on a Boeing 787-9 (click for our review) on the way there, it was time to come back on a short-haul A321neo.

This is the aircraft that Turkish operates on the majority of its flights between Heathrow and Istanbul, so it is more representative of the experience most passengers get. The 787 operates once a day at most, whilst a handful of 777s also ply the route.

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

Unfortunately there are no lie-flat beds here, but the Turkish Airlines A321 fleet still features an impressive business class cabin. As you will see, it is far better than what you can expect flying short haul on other European carriers, and closer to the domestic First you’d find in the United States.

Turkish Airlines provided my flight as part of an invitation to visit its catering facilities and meet the Chairman of the airline in Istanbul.

Check-in at Istanbul Airport

Like many other airlines, Turkish has a dedicated wing for its business class passengers at its home airport in Istanbul:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

Before you can enter the terminal building you need to go through a brief security check. It is less stringent than the ones you do later, so don’t worry about removing laptops or liquids from bags.

The business class wing is fairly discreet on the outside:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

On the inside, you’ll find a plethora of (unused) seating, with a row of staffed counters on the right. There were only a couple of other families around and probably about 5-10 staff.

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

Annoyingly, due to UK law, I first had to do a ‘security check’ at a separate counter where my passport was checked to make sure I wasn’t on MI6’s hitlist.

After that I was quickly checked in and issued a boarding pass. Fast-track security was a breeze, with latest generation CT scanners so that I could leave my laptops and liquids inside the bag.

Turkish Airlines’ A321neo business class cabin

The A321neo features 20 business class seats in a 2-2 layout.

However, unlike ‘Euro business’ cabins such as the ones you’d find on British Airways or Lufthansa, this is ‘real’ 2-2, without a blocked middle seat:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

The seats are proper business class seats, closer to what you’d find in long haul premium economy cabins or domestic First Class on Delta, United or American. That means they are wider than your average economy seat, and they also feature reams of legroom:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

The seat is upholstered in a dark grey leather (not sure if it’s real or not) with some gold sand coloured accents around the headrest and seatbelt. In general, there is less character to it than the seats on the 787, although there’s less you can customise anyway.

They also come with these small privacy wings, which are like a mini version of the ones found on the 787:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

Fed up of your neighbour? Fear not, because you can extend the wing…..by 3cm:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

I’m not really sure what the point of that is, as it has literally no effect on your level of privacy. The seatmakers could’ve saved themselves the effort (and weight) and foregone it entirely.

The centre armrest feature a small cocktail table, cleverly divided with a diagonal line that makes it clear you have to share with your neighbour.

Flipping up the armrest reveals a decent storage area with charging ports which fully charged my almost-empty iPhone 13 Pro Max very quickly. There’s also an in-flight entertainment remote in here with a second screen.

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

Seat controls are on the side and operate the recline and legrest. I was hoping the legrest extends up fully to create a larger seat area, but unfortunately it only moves about 30 degrees.

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

The tray table is located in the other armrest and extends as a bifold. This was more than big enough for my 13″ MacBook:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

All of Turkish’s A321neos are fitted with nose-to-tail in-flight entertainment systems. In business class, you get a 13″ screen whilst economy also gets a large 12″ screen. It was very fast and responsive and featured a very large catalogue of films.

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

Headphones are the AudioTechnica ones as supplied on the 787, which are actually decent for short haul flights.

Short haul business class food and service on Turkish Airlines

Service is identical on this route, regardless of what aircraft you’re flying on. This means you get a welcome drink of orange juice, lemon-mint or raspberry on boarding:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

This time I went for the orange juice which was fresh – a real treat to have on board when most airlines serve from concentrate. A hot towel and menu is also provided.

After takeoff, crew came round asking what we wanted to drink, which they brought out with the starters and side. I went for a glass of (unnamed) champagne which came with the prawn cocktail starter:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

This was actually one of the starters I saw at the catering launch earlier that day, and it was impressive to see it presented just as well as it was on the ground at the event. Sides included a selection of cheese and a stir-fry local greens with ‘red fruit’.

For mains, there was a choice of:

  • “Kulbasti” fillet of veal with aubergine and tomato ragout, buttered rice and green pepper
  • Grilled chicken breast with corn mousseline, ratatouille, thyme jus
  • Beluga lentil ragout and baked romaine gnocchi

For my main course I had the veal. Although it was tasty, this was by far the worst of all the meals I had with Turkish Airlines and it was difficult to cut the meat with the blunt in-flight cutlery. The presentation wasn’t going to win any awards:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

Dessert was a tres de leche cake with caramel glaze – absolutely delicious. After dinner, the crew brought round a bag of hazelnuts:

Review: Turkish Airlines business class on an A321neo

There was no other formal drinks rounds, although the crew were always exceptionally responsive when I pinged the call bell and asked for a drink. I did think that on a 3+ hour flight like this they could have been a bit more proactive offering drinks – there’s no real reason just to stick to one.

Conclusion

Whilst it’s not a flat bed, Turkish Airlines’ shorthaul A321neo is still an excellent experience with a business class cabin that is far, far better than what you would find on most other European airlines. Exceptionally spacious leg-room was a real highlight for me with my long legs!

This is matched by the same generous meal service, although on this flight the presentation and suitability of the meal to the cutlery fell slightly short! Overall, however, it was still an enjoyable meal. As per my last flight, the crew were very efficient and polite – a real selling point.

The fact that you get in-flight entertainment screens will obviously also be a big selling point for many, although at just over 3 hours long you can just squeeze in a film.

Thanks to the Turkish Airlines team for inviting us to Istanbul. You can see my Boeing 787 Turkish Airlines business class review here.

Comments (51)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mike says:

    This is what short-haul business class should look like. An economy seat next to an empty economy seat isn’t business class. LATAM have this right by describing their front of plane seat next to empty seat on there A32X planes as Premium Economy.

    • Mike says:

      Their not there, I don’t know how that got typed.

    • AJA says:

      I agree with you. BA is missing a trick here. It claims the current layout allows it to have a flexible business class cabin by moving the divider but instead of doing that since it is clear that it can sell at least 5 rows of business class on most routes all the time and even up to 14 rows at times I don’t understand why it doesn’t fit 6 rows of these very comfortable seats and then operate the next 7 or 8 rows as Euro Premium Economy.with an empty middle seat.

      Then there would opportunities for offering true upgrades to European Business Class for the odd time the really good seats might be empty. Plus those who are cost conscious but appreciate the empty middle seat could book that and pay a premium over Economy and BA could still be flexible with the number of rows it offers.

      @Rhys how many rows of seats were there in this business class layout on Turkish?

      • Mouse says:

        There’s no incentive for BA to spend tons of money making its short haul business class better. For passengers connecting to long haul it’s the long haul product and price that will drive their decision of which airline to fly. For passengers travelling to and from Europe the competition is mainly budget airlines with no business class or other legacy carriers which few business class passengers would switch from because they are tied to their loyalty programmes. It would be a huge investment for very little extra revenue.

      • Rhys says:

        5 rows!

        • Nick says:

          I flew yesterday on a shorthaul BA aircraft with 4 rows of Club. It had been extended last minute from 3 as a result of AUPs being sold. But last week I flew in one with 14 rows, on a flight of the same length. You just don’t get this kind of flexibility with fixed seating.

          If they had fixed seats they wouldn’t be able to move aircraft around for a scheduling and servicing flexibility. If one went tech they’d either need a spare of each config or would have to downgrade people. Spare aircraft aren’t cheap.

          In the real world away from blogs and internet fora, CE is very successful the way it is. They really don’t need to change it for the benefit of keyboard warriors who probably wouldn’t pay for it anyway.

          • jjoohhnn says:

            > If they had fixed seats they wouldn’t be able to move aircraft around for a scheduling and servicing flexibility.

            Why not? They seem to manage fine with the longhaul fleet all being different configs and swapping and changing. Once you have the upgraded everything short-haul so they have have 5 rows of business then it will be fine..

          • Mike says:

            “very successful” is that when it had 3 rows or 14 rows? Successful for who? All bar one of the carriers being equally awful (in Europe for business) isn’t necessarily success, the number of horrified Americans attests to that. Also, an empty seat and a duck salad (yuk), doesn’t make it a business class product. My argument is to not class it as a business class product and be more honest like LATAM, you fly in on a TATL flight with a good hard business class product and your regional flight, with its front of the plane empty seat, is Premium Economy. That’s an honest description.

            As far as “keyboard warriors”, going down on my knees to the ghost of Alex Cruz isn’t my cup of tea, I’ll leave that to you. Remember, BA are running this configuration for 5 hour long flights which is terrible.

      • Chris W says:

        How are BA “missing a trick” here?

        They have no difficulty selling Club Europe with economy seats. Why would they invest in a complex and costly refit program when they don’t need to?

        • AJA says:

          They’re missing a trick because they could have a proper regional business class seat and a premium economy offering, both of which they could charge more for than the current Club Europe fare and the standard economy fare respectively. They could offer 30TP for Euro Traveller Plus (premium economy) and fewer Avios than you currently get for Club Europe plus they could offer ETP without lounge access unless you have status so would reduce the number of passengers eligible to lounge access makibg that experience better too. Plus you could check in for ETP at the dedicated WTP desks at LHR and LGW.

          I think the proper business class cabin would be a differentiator between BA and the other legacy European cabins. And it would truly compete with the likes off Turkish.

          I would definitely appreciate a better seat. I don’t think I’m alone.

          But of course BA has cost-cutting at its core and with people like you saying why bother I think it’s a pipe dream on my part.

          • Ben says:

            If they don’t want to change the seats even just some softer touches in CE – literally as simple as a welcome drink, a chocolate on departure, a bottle of water and cushion at your seat or a larger meal (let’s face it, nobody feels full after a couple of lettuce leaves) – would be a decent step forward.

          • Rob says:

            I’m thinking you’ve not flown CE for a while. The food is very good now, and bizarrely even better out of Gatwick.

  • Mohamed says:

    Why European airlines can’t do like Turkish/Mideastern airlines, have a proper business class seats even on 1 hour flight.
    And to say BA don’t serve food on economy from Istanbul that’s outrageous.

    • Bagoly says:

      The reason given for scrapping it (in the 1970s/80s) was that the demand for business class varied dramatically from flight to flight – E.g. Monday morning LHR-ZRH could be 80% Business, while in those days bucket-and-spade destinations had hardly any, so being able to move the partition maximised revenue from Business (and frequent Business flyers would be offended to be put in Economy on those peak flights)
      That was all before advances in computing made it possible to dynamically adjust prices (including high prices for Economy when selling out), and everybody got used to capacity constraints, so to my mind the logic has gone.
      If it wasn’t for the TATL JVs, there would be more pressure to change – if flying from and to secondary airports, it makes sense to do the short leg in the USA to avoid squeezed legroom.
      If flying E.g. Edinburgh to Asia, it gives the ME3 a huge advantage.

  • TimM says:

    “The seat is upholstered in a dark grey leather (not sure if it’s real or not)”

    One thing I learned in Turkey was how to tell real leather from plastic – the flame test! I doubt it would go down well on an plane these days.

  • Leo says:

    BA says they are increasing services to Istanbul. Turkish Airlines don’t have to worry at all. BA’s service to Istanbul even comparing their economy service with Turkish is so far behind its laughable. BA is an airline from the past living on their history. Turkish know how to treat all their passengers. BA are more concerned on appeasing a failed leadership at IAG which is another failed group that only looks at cost cutting and share price and run by Iberia and Vueling executives like Alex Cruz used to be….and thry achieved nothing at the top. Anybody can cost cut.

    • Rich says:

      Check out BA’s load and yields Leo. They’ve scored some own goals over the years but most of what you describe is lost on the majority of their customers and potential customers. They don’t care, they just want to get from A to B safely and at a competitive price.

  • Jake says:

    @rhys – will you be reviewing the lounge at the “new” airport or the airport itself?

    • Rhys says:

      No – only had about 10 minutes in the lounge. Another time hopefully!

  • Davey11 says:

    “ nose-to-tail in-flight entertainment systems.”

    Have seen this a couple of times on H4P recently. Is this the same as gate to gate? Or something different?

    • AJA says:

      I assume he means there is IFE on all seats on the plane.

      • Davey11 says:

        Are there any planes these days where IFE is only on some seats?

        • AJA says:

          There are more likely to be short haul planes with no IFE at all than planes that have some seats with IFE

    • lonjams says:

      It means every seat on the plane has IFE. From row 1 in business to the last row in economy.

  • Elt164 says:

    Was the MI6 check because you were using non British passport?

    • Rob says:

      All Governments take a view on the, ahem, integrity of each airport which dispatches people and luggage to their country and act accordingly …..

      • KP says:

        I flew IST-LHR in April and didnt have to do this. Maybe its new.

        • Yan says:

          Instead of making up an explanation, it is more accurate to state that it is a standard pre-check-in document check for all flights to the US, UK, and Canada at IST

    • Panda Mick says:

      Not only that, I think someone mixed up “hitlist” with “watch list”

      They are not the same thing at all, @Rhys

    • His Holyness says:

      It’s just the doc check that most, but not all airlines pay for at IST. It’s handed to a third party for liability reasons.

  • BJ says:

    Are the flights operated by 777s and 787s fixed like AY or is it a bit of a lottery?

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