My business class flight to Europe was great. The return trip was terrible

June 29, 2026 — 5:00am

In mid-May I flew business class aboard an Airbus A350 with Turkish Airlines from Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul. The food was great, entertainment so-so, service friendly – but the seat was sensational. In a cabin configured 1-2-1, the white, grey and beige seat was wide and supportive, with a 56cm OLED in-flight entertainment screen and twin USB-C charge ports. The side table – real marble if you please – had a wireless charging hotspot. Best of all was a sliding door to the aisle, creating a private suite. This was the Turkish Airlines’ Crystal cabin, introduced in 2024, and the Crystal seat is rated among the world’s best.

On the return journey, instead of flying via KL, the flight took me from Istanbul to Bangkok before the flight to Sydney, and it was nothing like the experience aboard the A350. The aircraft was an Airbus A330-300, a type that first saw service more than three decades ago, and two decades before the A350 first carried passengers.

As with the aircraft, this was a business class cabin from another age. Configuration was 2-2-2, with a small sliding screen between me and the passenger in the next seat. It was a lie-flat seat but it felt well-used. Hoisting the tray table out of the armrest required two hands and a grunt. The in-flight entertainment screen was fixed to the back of the seat in front, too far away for comfort. Turkish Airlines operates three to four flights daily on the Istanbul-Bangkok route, using three aircraft types. On the A330-300, I’d scored the dud.

Does the age of your aircraft really matter?

Business class seats are constantly evolving. Seats get more comfortable, more private, better looking. In-flight entertainment screens get bigger and more spectacular with 4K QLED displays. Does the age of your aircraft determine what kind of business class seat you’ll get? In general, the newer the aircraft, the better the chance of a state-of-the-art seat, but airlines occasionally refresh their older aircraft with the latest seats – there are plenty of exceptions to the new-is-best argument. Before they appeared on its A350s, Turkish Airlines rolled out the Crystal seats on its Boeing 777s, an aircraft that entered service more than two decades ago. Even more telling, you can find the Qsuite 2.0, Qatar Airways’ reigning champion for business class in the World Airline Awards, in their 777-300ER aircraft.

What makes a great business class seat?

Priorities differ, but when I’m taking a long-haul flight what I want is a good lie down. The meal, the smiling services, the lounge access are all great, but I want to get some sleep and the seat is about 80 per cent of the reason I’m paying for a business class ticket. It’s got to be a lie-flat, and that’s something you can take for granted on just about any long-distance flight these days. If feet tuck into a footwell it needs to be wide. The configuration should be 1-2-1, and extra points for decent mattress padding or a mattress topper and a pillow and blanket that feel like proper bedding. A door for privacy is a nice touch, but it’s not a deal-breaker. That said, high sidewalls or a reverse herringbone layout– seats angled toward the centre of the aircraft – are almost as good. If I’m in a middle seat I want a privacy screen separating me from my neighbour.

Are the business class seats on your flight up to scratch?

An airline’s website will probably tell you the aircraft type, but it won’t show you what you’re going to get when you fly business class on that particular aircraft. To find out, I like SeatMaps because it gives you the layout plus images of the airline’s specific model operating that route.

Rather than just one airline, you might want to compare carriers to check which business seat is best on the route you’re flying. Suppose you’re travelling from Singapore to Paris and you want to see the airlines and aircraft types operating non-stop flights on that route. Go to FlightsFrom.com, key in your origin and destination on the expanded map and there are up to five flights daily on this route from three different carriers, Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Air France. Click on the “aircrafts” tab and voila – three aircraft types.

Next, go to SeatMaps, key in the flight numbers and check the images of the respective business classes. If you were flying Singapore Airlines, you’d probably prefer their A350-900, flight number SQ338, rather than the 777-300ER, flight SQ336. For Air France, the picture is not so clear, although AF181, a Boeing 787-9, looks marginally preferable to the seating on AF257, a 777-300ER. Qantas’ QF255 is a Boeing 787-9 and for me, a hands-down winner over both Air France aircraft.

If I’d done my checks before I booked my Istanbul-Bangkok flight with Turkish Airlines, it would have been clear that the seating aboard TK58 was nothing like what I had on the KL-Istanbul flight. Since Turkish Air has three flights to Bangkok on most days, I would have changed my schedule to fly aboard an A350 or a Boeing 787.

The writer flies at his own expense