Overall review: I loved this flight and can’t wait to take it again. Turkish Airlines really impressed me with their service, attention to detail, and food and drink. If you want a really enjoyable, luxurious way to get to Europe, this flight is a phenomenal option.

How much I paid for this flight: 45,000 Turkish miles and $215.30 in taxes and fees.

How I earned the miles: Capital One Venture X, my favorite overall card. The welcome bonus is normally 75,000 points for $4,000 in spending in three months, plus you earn two points for every dollar you spend, but right now the offer is elevated and you’ll get a whopping 90,000 points instead of 75,000. Venture miles transfer to Turkish Airlines at a 1:1 ratio.

All about the flight

Turkish Airlines flies the 787-9, also known as the Dreamliner, between Seattle and Istanbul. Knowing that, I looked at the seat map on Aerolopa.com when I selected my seat and picked 4A: maximum privacy, maximum window views, and about as far as possible from the restrooms and galley. The even-numbered rows have more privacy and are closer to the windows, so I’d say those are the best seats to pick. I’m a window-seat girl on daytime flights whenever possible. Even for this overnight flight, it still makes sense for privacy.

Aerolopa is my go-to for picking seats because they have the most accurate seat maps, including actual real-life window placement. If you’ve ever booked a window seat and then had the unpleasant surprise of there not actually being a window once you saw the seat in real life, you’ll know exactly why that’s something I always check.

I found the seats to be very comfortable, with plenty of room, easy-to-use seat controls, and enough lighting options to make anyone happy. Each seat also had its own air vent, which is something I appreciate (and not every airline has in business).

The entertainment system has not only a handheld controller, but also a touchscreen. I never even used the handheld controller because the touchscreen was so simple and responsive.

Each seat has a set of noise-canceling headphones for passengers to use, and a universal power outlet and USB port right next to it.

During the boarding process, flight attendants came around offering everyone amenity kits. The amenity kits seemed to be gendered, with men being handed blue and women pink. Consequently, I have no idea what was in the blue amenity kits.

The pink amenity kits included an eye mask, a pair of socks to wear on the plane, a tube of lip balm, a tube of hand lotion, face mist, earplugs, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a ponytail holder, which I thought was a really smart inclusion. I’d never seen an amenity kit include a ponytail holder before. (Did men with long hair get one too? No idea.)

Flight attendants also came around offering pre-takeoff beverages: three types of juices. I chose the mint lemonade, and it was great.

And then. AND THEN! A literal on-board chef came around handing out the food and drink menus and asked each of us for our dinner and breakfast selections.

At this point, the tone had been set: Turkish business class offers excellent service that makes you feel really well taken care of.

He had on a toque and everything. I loved this.

What did they offer?

My drink menus:

I forgot to take still photos of the wine/champagne/port menus, but these are screenshots from a video. The wines were all from France, Türkiye, or Spain, the champagne was Taittinger Brut Reserve, and the port was from Portugal.

And the food menu for dinner and breakfast:

Once we were in the air, the flight attendants took drink requests, including alcohol options, which weren’t permitted before takeoff. I felt like I had to do it up right, so I opted for champagne. We were offered warm nuts with our drinks, and they were nice.

Then the table was set for meal service. White tablecloth, flickering LED candle, individual servings of butter, olive oil, and the world’s most adorable salt and pepper shakers, which I did NOT steal but absolutely wanted to. They were so cute. And magnetic! They stuck to the metal tray the meal accessories were served on, which is really clever. (Do most people take the shakers home and I was just being too conscientious? If you’ve flown them before and took the shakers and weren’t thrown into prison or blackballed by the airline, let me know so I know what to do next time I fly them. I’m honestly just looking for an enabler here.)

The first course was served from a beautiful rolling cart, and the way the appetizers were presented was lovely. The soup was even served from an actual soup tureen.

I chose the trio of Turkish mezze, and that was also served with pumpkin soup, salad, and a warm roll. This honestly could have been the entire meal and I would have been happy; everything was delicious and it was already a ton of food. But no, there was more to come.

I had heard that the food on Turkish is outstanding among airlines, so I wanted to test it by ordering fish. I would normally avoid any kind of seafood on a plane, but I was feeling confident this would be good. And it wasn’t good; it was great. This would have been an exceptionally good fish dish on the ground, in a fancy restaurant—buttery, tender, and really flavorful. “This fish I had on a plane made me happy” was not a sentence I ever imagined writing, but here we are. Life is a rich tapestry.

And if you know me at all, you know I went for the chocolate cake. I also had a cup of Turkish tea with it. Both were lovely. No regrets.

After the meal service was over, a flight attendant helped me make up my seat with their bedding, and then I lowered the seat into lie-flat bed mode.

If I had one negative thing to say about Turkish business class, it’d be that the bedding could be a little more robust. The padding you put down on the seat itself is pretty short and thin, and then there’s only the blanket and pillow you found at your seat at the beginning of the flight, which aren’t anything special. The pillow was fairly small and the blanket was just fine. It wasn’t United Polaris bedding, is what I’m saying. But did it do the job? Yes, it did. I slept six hours on this flight and I’ve never slept near that long on any flight before, even in lie-flat Polaris or on Singapore. (I wonder if half the reason I slept better than normal was because I didn’t have kids with me to worry about? But we’ll never know.)

I woke up to the sounds of the breakfast prep work, about two hours before our scheduled landing time. Breakfast started with yogurt, cheese and tomato, fruit, and sumac chicken.

I chose the french toast option for breakfast, and it was delicious and felt almost more like a bread pudding than normal french toast.

The restrooms were the same size as a typical airplane restroom, but there were some nice touches—Molton Brown soaps and lotion, and a reed diffuser.

And then we were almost ready to land in Istanbul!

If I had been connecting in Istanbul, I would have been able to go to the amazing Turkish business lounge (it has a flight simulator, a golf simulator, a miniature racetrack, and a kids’ play area). And if I had arrived in Istanbul early in the morning, I would have been able to go to the arrivals lounge, which is set up for business-class passengers to have somewhere to go shower and rest before they can check into their hotels in the afternoon. But I was staying in Istanbul and was able to go straight to my hotel, so I didn’t stop at either of the lounges. Why spend time there when I was about to experience my first-ever Park Hyatt? 😎

Questions about Turkish business class, or advice on how to pocket the salt and pepper shakers in an ethical manner? Leave a comment!