If unsold seats remain, Turkish Airlines will sell you an upgrade at the airport.
While checking in for my Los Angeles to Istanbul flight last week, I noticed a small sign in the Star Alliance Gold check-in line:
The price is identical whether you are booked in the cheapest economy class fare bucket or a full-fare economy class seat (which may sometimes be more expensive than a discounted business class seat). It is only available from out-stations, not from flights departing Istanbul.
Is a Turkish Airlines Upgrade Worthwhile?
$1299 is not chump change. It is actually not even a super value considering Turkish Airlines routinely offers reasonably priced business class tickets between the USA and Europe. Even so, for a special occasion this may be worth it.
Business Class includes a beautiful multi-course dining experience, lie-flat bed, room to spread out, and much more personalized service than economy class.
Perhaps, though, the best way to gauge the difference between the economy and business is to read my two reviews:
Review: Turkish Airlines 777-300 Economy Class from Istanbul to Los Angeles
vs.
Review: Turkish Airlines 777-300 Business Class from Los Angeles to Istanbul
(note the business class review is just my summary of the flight, not the forthcoming full flight review)
Economy Class on Turkish Airlines is tight. Business Class sure makes the flight more enjoyable. It’s something to at least consider next time you fly on Turkish. If you do not see the sign, just ask.
It’s a shame that premium economy didn’t work out for TK. That was a very nice middle ground (better then any other airline offering on account of the seat pitch + catering), and often sold at the counter for a reasonable premium.
Agree, I never published a review of it but had four great flights in Premium Economy. Would love to see “Comfort Class” back.
Was it HKG-LAX RT by any chance?
LOL, you remember that great deal! Indeed it was. 2x.
I remembered cause I did two :-).
TK’s Recent cutbacks to the soft business class product deserves mentioning. Regardless to your “upcoming review” the soft J product is no longer worthwhile.
Stan, what cutbacks are you citing? I thought the product was excellent and far better than most business class soft products. I’d say the J product is definitely worthwhile, especially considering the lack of fuel surcharges when booking with Aeroplan.
Their product looks great but $1300USD still seems steep for a one-way upgrade to business class. Generally when booking flights to Europe on Aeroplan from YYZ and multiple other North American cities, Turkish seems to readily be an option even though it involves a lot of backtracking to Western Europe. I much rather use points to try out their business class and as you mentioned above they have none of those silly fuel surcharges!
How would you rate TK business class compared to LH, OS or LX? Is it worth it to fly all the way to IST and backtrack to Western Europe, instead of flying to FRA, MUC, VIE or ZRH with overall less travel time?
Agree that using points is the smarter option. I think the product is better than LH and LX, but not OS. But since OS has YQ fuel surcharges, I would go with TK, then OS, then LH, and last LX.
Hi,
Do you have any info on using Turkish Miles to upgrade a paid economy ticket to Biz Class (ie. from JFK to IST / vice-versa)?
I have enough miles for 4 legs of a trip (45k x 4 =180k)…have 4 passengers..ideally would buy 1 way economy (get bulk row) and then use miles for other way biz class. Problem is that buying 1 way economy is more expensive than R/T economy.
So wondering if I can buy economy R/T, and use miles to upgrade at least 1 way & potentially R/T.
Thoughts, or other suggestions?
You can, but you have to upgrade via the Miles & Smiles service center and there are minimum fare class requirements.
It looks from ita matrix as if upgradeable fares are very little more than cheap economy fares. Or if you don’t have miles to get business class upgrades both ways, you could get an upgradable economy inbound and business class back, but that would set you back $1500=$1600 more than upgradeable economy.
I just called them, and the rep was saying to upgrade from an economy cash ticket costs 45k miles. Didn’t make sense bc to get the biz class award ticket costs 45k miles. So why would I pay cash for the economy ticket, and then on top of that, shell out 45k miles?
Any thoughts? Was she mistaken?
What the rep said appears to be correct.
I found the Upgrade Table on their website:
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-in/miles-and-smiles/awards/index.html
Under MILES&SMILES AWARD TABLES, there’s an upgrade table’
I guess the reason that would make sense is if you’re comparing to the regular award ticket cost versus the cheaper “limited” (saver) awards costs
Turkish has a sale for business may work for some. Manila to US destinations for about 1500 rt. I got it since I’m going to Manila this month then to Tbilisi Georgia next month. It’s cheaper than upgrading on another carrier. The main deal is that connects through Istanbul
That’s an incredible deal.
They upgraded me last year from Houston to Istanbul for 300. Loved it.
Praveen, thats nice….where did you do the upgrade? was it in their sales office? online? in the airport?