Turkish Airlines A330-200 Business Class Review – AVOID IT!

As highlighted through several reviews on this site, Turkish Airlines has been one of my favourites to fly. Because of that, this Turkish Airlines A330–200 business class review is a tough one to write.

From the ground service to the sky and subsequently dealing with customer services after the flight, every aspect of this Turkish Airlines A330-200 business class flight was a huge disappointment. Here’s why.

Turkish Airlines A330-200 Bussiness Class Flight Details

IST Ground Experience

I should specify, this Turkish Airlines A330–200 business class review came under some unique circumstances.

On my Turkish Airlines 787–9 business class flight from Seattle to Istanbul, I had a medical emergency – more to come on that. The aircrew was super attentive and arranged for a doctor to be at the gate upon arrival. When I deboarded the plane, there was no doctor to be found and, after the whole plane emptied, I was left throwing up next to an empty gate.

After a confusing hour or so, I ended up in the business class lounge where a doctor was brought in. By this time I was in jeopardy of missing my connecting Turkish Airlines A330–200 business class flight to Nairobi. Regardless, it was recommended by the doctor that I go to a hospital for further testing to ensure I could continue on my trip – this was the very start of my 2+ year delayed trip to Africa. Off to a great start!

The staff at the Turkish Airlines business class lounge assured me that they would put me on the same flight the next day and not to worry. With that, I went in an ambulance and had an experience in Istanbul like no other. Again, more to come on that.

Turkish Airlines Business Class Check-in

After a late night at the hospital, I got the OK to continue on. When I arrived at the airport to check in, my fun continued as I wasn’t put on the flight as told.

Now granted I should’ve known better than to take that promise as actual fact however in my state, I wasn’t in the position to question anything. So long story short, I was not moved onto the flight and had to pay out-of-pocket for the change.

Since I was previously flying business class, I paid a full fair ticket at ~$2200 USD. I knew the Airbus A330-200 Turkish Airlines business class wasn’t one of their bests and I briefly debated saving and flying economy but figured I could use the extra comfort as I was exhausted from the previous day’s ordeal.

Turns out, this wasn’t worth it. Not even close.

IST Lounge Experience

The added benefit of flying business class was that I got access to the incredible Turkish Airlines business class lounge at IST airport. It’s one of my favourites as previously shared in my IST Lounge review. On this visit, however, I had a little very little time to enjoy it due to the confusion at the ticket counter.

Dealing with a less-than-helpful (or remotely sympathetic) Turkish Airlines staff at the ticket counter took up a couple of hours. On top of that, I wasn’t in any shape to really enjoy any of the incredible food or drink at the IST lounge.

I really should’ve known better but again, I wasn’t really in any state of mind to make educated decisions. I was short on sleep and had a pretty scary ordeal.

This latest experience aside, be sure to check out my full Turkish Airlines Lounge Review from my previous visit through. The lounge really is great and remains a favourite, despite this horrible Turkish Airlines A330-200 business class review.

Turkish Airlines A330-200 Boarding

Although there was a dedicated business class queue and business class passengers got priority to the gate, on this Turkish Airlines A330-200 review flight, we just ended up waiting for a transfer bus to fill up before heading to the plane. No added points here for the boarding experience.

Turkish Airlines A330-200 Business Class Seats

Where this Turkish Airlines A330–200 business class review really lost me was with the seats. On top of being dirty with crumbs and dust caked in the cracks, the seats themselves were broken.

Now I should state that I certainly knew that this was an older plane with outdated seats so I wasn’t expecting a pod-style seat or comfort that compares to their 787-9 product. That said, dated seats are one thing. Being broken and dirty is different and 100% manageable.

I booked a business class ticket to try and rest up and recover. My seat was so bad this was impossible. The headrest actually pitched forward, something I have never experienced before on a business class seat let alone any seat on a plane.

Pressing the buttons to recline, made clunky and crunching noises and didn’t do much. They barely reclined and the motions and range of recline and footrest extension were completely different between my partner’s seat and mine. Thankfully or not, this wasn’t an isolated issue.

After takeoff, we noticed several other passengers, struggling with their seats and complaining to staff. Some switched seats but did not find anything better. Interestingly, the staff looked confused and loosely tried to help. It’s hard to believe this isn’t a common occurrence for them as they fly that plane every day.

Turkish Airlines A330-200 Seat Map

If you are flying this horrible aircraft, I don’t recommend the bulkhead seats. One, they are broken on this plane – but again, that could be every seat by the looks of other passengers. Second, it was near the cabin crew so there was noise to deal with.

Looking at the Turkish Airlines A330-200 seat map, you are better off a couple of rows back on either side. Configuration is 2-2-2 so if you are flying solo, the centre row may be of interest as both seats have direct aisle access.

Turkish Airlines A330-200 Busines Class In-Flight Entertainment

With the hopes of getting some rest shot, I tried to occupy myself with the in-flight entertainment. This was also comically bad. I was sitting in 1K with a terrible foldout TV with clunky out-of-date controls. After struggling to get it to work, I gave up and watched a show on my phone. At least with that, I could use my noise-cancelling headphones.

Again, I questioned why was I in business class if this is the service I was getting.

Turkish Airlines A330-200 Business Class Food and Drink

The one shining point on this shitty flight was the meal service.

Although I was in no shape to enjoy any of it, my partner’s dish of smoked salmon starter and Manti main (Turkish ravioli) looked very good and on par with other Turkish Airlines flights I have enjoyed. The staff was attentive during meal service and topped up her wine frequently.

Turkish Airlines A330-200 Business Class Service and Amenities

Another small highlight of this otherwise terrible trip was the amenities kits. The contents were standard (although no slippers) but the bags themselves came in a selection of styles you could choose. The kits came in a variety of colours with different imagery from Istanbul on the front which was a unique touch.

Turkish Airlines Customer Service Follow Up

To say the least, I was not only disappointed with the Turkish Airlines A330–200 business class product but frustrated by the experience. This was fuelled further after I noticed that seating in the economy cabin was largely empty. I could have had a row to myself and recovered a bit better from my hospital visit at a fraction of the cost.

This frustration led me to follow up with Turkish Airlines once I was home from my Africa trip, something I haven’t had to do after hundreds of flights have flown.

To my further frustration, customer service did nothing as there was no report of the complaint on file.

When I let them know that I was, now and then, reporting my dissatisfaction, they kept saying that it needed to be reported during the flight. When I said that I and other passengers complained about the seats to staff this still wasn’t enough as nothing was documented on file by their staff. This completely blows my mind as it was almost as if this terrible experience, in Turkish Airlines’ opinion, never happened.

Turkish Airlines A330-200 Business Class – Final Thoughts

All of this is incredibly frustrating and disappointing because, again, I have praised Turkish Airlines’ business-class products for years now.

This, paired with the poor ground experience, will have me flying with their Middle East competitors like if you had Oman Air, Etihad, Gulf, and Emirates in the future. Until then, I still plan to follow up for compensation.

Thanks to my AMEX Platinum card, I was able to recoup about half of the unexpected expenses through medical trip interruption insurance. With recent reports of successful lawsuits for similar experiences, I may have to go that route to recoup more.

When the economy seat experience is better than business class, something needs to change. If anyone has experience with this, let me know.

Airbus A330-200 Turkish Airlines Business Class FAQs

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