How we used points for this flightInter-Europe proper business class? Yes, please.
There’s nothing more disappointing than a “business class” ticket that turns out to be Euro Business. The three economy seats, with an unused middle seat, must come as a shock to anyone expecting a business-class experience. That’s why I was so excited about travelling with Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, as I knew they had dedicated 2 x 2 business class seating.
How we used points for this flight
We used 134,000 Singapore Airlines Krisflyer points plus £364 in taxes. This was – in my opinion – not an efficient use of points, but we wanted to travel to Istanbul on specific dates and we had to use Membership Reward points. There’s no way to transfer them directly to Turkish Airlines, so we used their partnership with Singapore to book the flights. We transferred points from Amex to Singapore at a 1:1 ratio.
You can also read about where we stayed in Istanbul with my review of the Hilton Bakirkoy Istanbul.
Checking in with Turkish Airlines at Manchester
Our check-in was a little different as we used the private terminal (Aether). I’ve written extensively about this new way to fly from MAN, and the short version is that it’s expensive but absolutely worth it. It does mean that you have to check-in online before you arrive at Aether.
As we’d booked with Singapore Airlines, we tried to use their app to select seats and check-in, but this wasn’t possible. We also couldn’t select seats with Turkish Airlines on their website. After some conversations with both airlines (who blamed each other), we waited until 24 hours before the flight to see if it started working. Fortunately, it did so we reserved our seats and checked in via Turkish.
If you’re not using Aether, then check-in is currently at Terminal 1. This will change to Terminal 2 in 2025 as T1 is closing. Whilst it’s still at T1 the lounge for TK passengers is the Aspire lounge. When the airline moves to T2 it’s likely to use the same lounge as fellow Star Alliance airlines Aegean and Singapore, which is the Escape Lounge.
Boarding Turkish at MAN
Our flight boarded from the strange satellite gates at T1. I’ve flown from Manchester many times, but only from these gates once before. They’re not remote – as in bussed – they’re along a corridor that takes you to a circular room which has four gates and feels very 1970s. Thankfully, with T1 closing, this experience will change very soon.
We were driven to the gates with the Aether service, and they timed it perfectly, getting us there just after they opened it up for business class passengers. We walked straight on the plane and were warmly welcomed on board and shown to our seats.
The cabin for this flight was half full, with no one behind us or in front of us. The cabin had twenty business class seats across five rows.
Seats & Experience
Seating in the Business Class cabin is 2 x 2, with “proper” business class seats. They do not lie flat, but they have a good level of recline. Despite there being buttons to adjust the seatp, the recline is not electric: you push a button, and then something either moves through gravity, or you adjust your body and push down, and it’ll move. Much better than “Euro Business” but not quite as easy to use as long-haul biz class seats.
The seats are not within a plastic shell, so if you recline, it will impact the seat behind. What mitigates this is the distance between the seat and the screen and that the screen behind you can tilt, which should keep it level.
There’s a divider between the seats, which is wide enough to hold a couple of drinks, some phones and some elbows. This area is where the controls for the seats are, and there’s a small storage area suitable for your headphones. A remote for the IFE sits in this storage area, and at the back – quite hidden and not easy to spot – are your power sockets.
Your tray table is stored in your armrest. For window seats this is the armrest that’t closest to the window, for aisle seats it’s the side that’s closest to the aisle. The mechanism for this was easy. If you’ve ever wrestled with a tray table mechanism, working up a sweat, pushing and pulling it to get it out, then you’ll find this one a doddle. Just lift the armrest, lightly pull up on the switch and then tada.
The cabin was clean and modern. On top of your own IFE screen, there’s also a smaller screen attached to the ceiling that automatically folds down, and after takeoff, this shows a map.
The IFE screen was a reasonable size and with a decent resolution, similar to an iPad. It was easy to use and very responsive to touch. It did allow video and audio to be sent to the screen from your device.
Manchester has been my "local" airport for most of my life, meaning that almost all my flights have been in economy. As we've progressed with our points collection, we've experienced first and business class, but the majority of those have been connecting in London via BA's Club Europe. That means getting a true business class experience from MAN is a novelty. Turkish Airlines did not disappoint.There’s also a small privacy screen between the seats at head height.
Food and Drink on Turkish Airlines
After boarding we were offered welcome drinks first, then menus and then headsets.
We ordered drinks first, and I went for the sour cherry. I can’t say I’ve ever had one before, and it was perfectly pleasant if a little…sour. What I liked about the drinks menu is there’s a health amount of non-alcoholic options, with juices, soft drinks, hot drinks and wellness teas. That’s not to say that you’ll miss out if you do want a wine, spirit or beer.
We’d just finished a seven-course breakfast at Aether, so I skipped the food. My wife had the Turkish Meze starter, followed by the Grilled Vegetable Coconut Curry with rice. Both were highly rated. We skipped dessert.
The service, food and drink on this flight were top-notch and exactly what I had hoped for. Turkish Airlines has a solid reputation. On both the outbound and inbound flights they delivered without a hitch. Given that we sometimes fly out to the Far East, I would absolutely consider them for a connecting flight.
Bathrooms on the flight
The business-class bathrooms were a standard size. It’s rare that you get anything bigger, this is not Emirates or Etihad long-haul with showers. They were tastefully decorated, and the amenities were – I think – better than economy. There was also some Eau De Cologne, to freshen yourself up with.
The bathroom also helpfully came with a shaver socket, should you feel the need to shave mid-flight.
Our return flight
Flying back mirrored the experience we had flying out, with one exception. We pushed back on time and then took a detour on the taxi to the runway. The pilot ended up parking in a remote part of the airport, and a member of the cabin crew asked if a passenger could make themselves known. We waited, and then a gentleman came to the front of the plane and had quite a long conversation with the cabin crew by the front doors.
The pilot spoke to the passengers and said that they were going to have to offload a passenger, and we may all need to leave the plane with our hand luggage. It was all very interesting. Eventually, the passenger disembarked and we took off (without any baggage check).
There was no explanation from the cabin crew as to what happened, so we spent the first hour of the flight trying to work it out. We ended up heading to the bathroom at the same time, and as I was stood waiting I spoke to a steward who said that the man who disembarked had forgotten his wife.
I repeated this back, and he confirmed it. My wife (who I hadn’t forgotten) came out of the bathroom at this point, and as I told her, she said it back to the cabin crew just in case we had somehow misunderstood. So we ended up delayed by around 45 minutes because someone had forgotten their wife.
I’m positive that there’s an interesting story behind what happened and that someone is in the dog house. Here’s a picture of our main course flying back.
Final thoughts on flying with Turkish Airlines
I loved flying with Turkish. On the one hand, we did have a different start to the trip by using Aether, but there’s no doubt that the soft and hard product is better than any other airline when it comes to short-haul (ish) travel. The only other way to fly from MAN and get “proper” Business Class is to to fly long-haul, i.e. Qatar, Cathay, Etihad, Emirates or Aer Lingus, (to the US East Coast).
The seats were spacious, the staff attentive without being over the top, and the food and drink options were as good as you could get on short-haul, in fact, compared to some long-haul airlines, it’s probably on par. Having never flown with Turkish before, they are now a serious contender for us, albeit with some real challenges around using UK Amex points.
