We are excited to add 21 new reviews to Premium Travel Insider’s business class reviews summary. Our October expanded business class reviews include an all new airline in TAP Air Portugal and expanded reviews with Delta, Swiss, and Turkish! This brings our total for business class reviews to 191. Here’s a summary of what’s new with each airline.
As a reminder, Premium Travel Insider aggregates reviews from around the web and scores them on a 1-3 scale. A 3 indicates that a given category exceeded reviewer expectations, a 2 indicates it met expectations, and a 1 failed to meet expectations. We evaluate a variety of categories, the most important of which we call the “Big 5” that are most important to a premium travel experience: seat, food, drink, service, and in flight entertainment. You can learn more about our methodology here.
TAP Air Portugal
TAP is one of our newest editions, with seven new reviews from four different sites, inspired by a recent PTI trip report. TAP is an interesting airline. The seats, particularly on new and refurbished aircraft, are good, scoring a 2.14/3.00. The IFE is considered excellent, with good screens and a diverse selection, coming in at 2.57/3.00. However the food and drink are quite poor, and bloggers often found other characteristics to be decidedly average or below average. However, TAP often has great award availability or low paid fares. This in mind, most bloggers and reviewers – including PTI – note that TAP is an acceptable way to cross the Atlantic if you can find the right fares, but prepare for a very average trip. Read more about TAP here.
Delta Business Class
We greatly expanded the number and diversity of our Delta reviews – from five to 11 reviews, and from two to seven sites. Adding these new reviews generally reinforced the positive aspects Delta was already known for. Delta is often considered the best of the US carriers, and the numbers back it up – by the numbers, it’s not just a great US carrier, it’s a great business class carrier, period. The overall average increased from 2.50/3.00 to 2.59/3.00. All “Big 5” aspects increased around .1 per category – the biggest jump being IFE, from 2.33/3.00 to 2.71/3.00. Amenity kit also had a big jump from 1.75/3.00 to 2.11/3.00. However, lavatories remain uninspiring on Delta aircraft, dropping from 1.50/3.00 to 1.40/3.00. Read more about Delta here.
Swiss Airlines Business Class
We also expanded our Swiss Airlines business class reviews, from six to 10, and from four sites to seven. These added perspectives led to increases in service from 1.80/3.00 to 2.00/3.00, and seat from 2.00/3.00 to 2.22/3.00. Other categories had minor adjustments less than .1 up or down, but the overall “Big 5” rating increased from 1.99/3.00 to 2.06/3.00, and the overall average experience from 2.17/3.00 to 2.20/3.00. This locks Swiss squarely in the “good” experience category. It is an extremely consistent experience, but won’t blow you away. Read more about Swiss Airlines Business here.
Turkish Airlines Business Class
Turkish Airlines is interesting, as it is known for a weak hard product with 2-3-2 seating, but great food, drink, and service. As we expanded our reviews from six to 10, and our sites from three to five, this generally remained true, but there were some blips worth noting. The overall experience rating dropped from 2.50/3.00 to 2.40/3.00, but this still keeps the airline in the “Great” range. Food dropped from the perfect 3.00/3.00 to 2.80/3.00, as one reviewer had a negative experience. Drink and service also had similar drops of about .2 points, but IFE increased from 2.25/3.00 to 2.50/3.00. Seat remained subpar, now at 1.70/3.00. However, Turkish has launched a new 787-10 with reverse herringbone seats, so that score likely will increase over time. Read more about Turkish business class here.
Look Before You Book
Points and dollars are hard to come by for most of us, so make sure you’re getting the best possible travel experience. Our October Expanded Business Class reviews are part of our mission to help you find the best premium flights. See what the experts have to say for both Business and First class before making any decisions. It might be the difference between the flight of a lifetime or a disappointment.