Review: Turkish Airlines A350-900 Business Class from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur

A Turkish Airlines A350-900 operates the service between Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur. I was on my way from Dublin to Sydney and this was the second flight of the trip, after a very good flight from Dublin.

My connection time was under two hours, so once I got to the airport, I high tailed it off to find the lounge. For those that have not been there, Istanbul’s airport gives the impression of being the world’s largest shopping centre.

To the lounge…

After some walking, I found the rear entrance (exit?) to the Turkish Airlines lounge and was sent around to the proper entry point. Once inside, I found a lounge with people everywhere (a sense of expectation in the air?). I dislike being in amongst a crowd, and a crowded airline lounge most of all.

Seeking refuge, I spotted a room which presented the history of the airline. Happy days, there was nobody inside so I could chill out checking out all of the vintage posters and so on. Lovely! After that I wandered the lounge looking unsuccessfully for a quiet place to sit, so I left and went to my gate.

Getting my steps in!

My gate was quite a distance from the lounge, so I racked up plenty of steps. I recall my iPhone distance counter recording over three kilometres – two miles – of walking since I got off my plane. It’s a BFA.

Once at the gate, we all stood around for a few minutes before we were invited into our queues. It was a case of hurry up and wait and while standing around I stuck up conversation with a British couple next to me. Eventually it was time to board.

TK60 – Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur (IST-KUL)
7 March 2026
Airbus A350-900 – TC-LGO
Seat: Business Class 6A
Departure: 02:00 Arrival: 17:20

Once my boarding pass was scanned, I walked down to the aircraft and was met by the crew. They directed me to my seat so I wandered down the aisle, stowed by cabin bag and sat down.

Turkish Airlines A350 Business Class seat

Light grey, dark grey and black are the colours of choice for the Turkish Airlines A360 business class seat. The colours wouldn’t be my choice but it looked fine. What was definitely not all that fine is that ridiculous wrap around shield thing.

You can see from the seat map that the seats alternate back and forth. The shield is fine if you have a window seat on the aisle, but those of us who choose the more private window seat by the window have to deal with that ridiculous wrap around shield that blocks the window view. A silly design choice. In addition to that, if you look closely, the shield comes up from the armrest. It means you can’t quite rest your arm as comfortably on that side, which I noticed on later flights when I was sitting up more. Also, it’s not a comfortable seat to sleep on, but we’ll get to that later.

Amenities and Safety

The safety card is quite busy and is presented in multiple languages, reflective of Turkish Airlines’ connecting a lot of passengers over their hub in IST. What impressed me is the fact that slippers are offered to passengers in business class, just like Ethiopian Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.

A black amenity kit, reflecting the seats, is provided as well as some decent headphones and bedding. Crew make up your bed when you want to sleep, which is very good.

Today’s Menu

Turkish Airlines has an on board chef, decked out complete in chef whites. On this flight she was really friendly and bubbly and handed out the gigantic menus to everyone. Later she came by taking orders and I asked her, when it came to dessert, if there was something I absolutely should try, and so I ended up with two desserts.

Hot towels and welcome drinks came next. I asked for and took two welcome drinks, a water and a red juice as I had not had a thing in the lounge and after my three kilometre walk I was really quite thirsty!

Dine on Demand

During taxi, the chef came by and took orders. Turkish Airlines offers a dine on demand service, but everyone seemed to eat at the same time, straight after take-off. I was not very hungry, so I started off with a Spicy Mexican mocktail, which came with nuts.

Meal wise I elected to have the traditional Turkish sour meatball soup, the wild Salmon poke bowl, and a “Potpourri of traditional Turkish Desserts”. The chef recommended the apricot ice cream from Kahramanmaraş so I also had that. Overall I found the meal to be quite tasty. The soup was interesting and inoffensive, the salmon lovely and fresh and healthy and light, the desserts utterly moreish. Honestly, the only bad part about the meal was the much vaunted Oldest Bread (which is a Turkish Airlines “thing”) – I didn’t like it at all, and I eat anything. It was dry and meh.

Sleeping on board

When the meal had been cleared away I laid down to try to get some sleep. The cabin was quite warm and the seat just isn’t very comfortable when sleeping in it. I’ve slept in a lot of airline seats in my time and this was perhaps the worst lie flat business class seat I’ve experienced for sleeping. Not that it’s bad (it is lie-flat, after all) it just a bit lumpy and strange.

Later on I ordered the other Mocktail (yum!) and some water and crisps. The crew certainly seem to prefer to serve non-alcoholic drinks. It’s a fun battle of wills to try to get a refill, as they see the empty glass and try to clear it away from you as fast as possible before you can ask them for more. If you do catch them, they seem almost miffed they’ve been caught. No issue with any other drinks, but with alcohol it’s like they’re rationing it.

A Glorious Breakfast

Did you know that Turkish Airlines has a coffee menu? And that the coffee is actually superb? Well, I didn’t know that and was surprised when yet another menu arrived, just for coffee! Naturally I had a latte and I have to say it was as good as those on the ground. The breakfast menu is extensive, but what happens is that you get most of it given to you in little bowls, which is very cool.

You get the selection of cheese and marinated olives, tomatoes and cucumber, plus the “Acuka” spicy tomato pepper spread, the Honeycomb from Erzincan, “Kaymak” clotted cream from Afyon and the chia, coconut and blueberry bowl as your starter. For my main I took the poached eggs with spinach and they were lovely too. Thoroughly enjoyed that and when offered more coffee I declined, replete. We soon landed into Kuala Lumpur, ending the flight.

Overall Thoughts

Turkish Airlines A350 business class is a mixed bag. The seats did not impress me at all and would have to be the weakest part of the product. The other thing I didn’t really like of course was the rationing of the alcoholic drinks but there’s not much to be done about that.

All the other bells and whistles are present, such as the amenity kit, slippers, water bottle at the seat and so on. The chef is a total gimmick, as is the “Oldest Bread”, but it is something different and adds to the experience. The mocktails were delicious, and I found the food very good, particularly the desserts. Choices like using poached eggs at breakfast instead of inferior omelettes that other airlines offer also impressed me.

I would fly the airline in business class again, but I honestly think the seat needs a re-think. Otherwise the crew were friendly, service good, food delicious, entertainment selection great – but most of all, the price was right!

What do you think of Turkish Airlines A350 business class? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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