Awesome 10: My Top 10 Best Business Class Airlines
I’ve thought about ranking what I consider to be My Top 10 Best Business Class Airlines back in 2020, but paused knowing I had many trips booked that year which might sway my impressions. Then we had Covid and 15 months where I did not fly long haul at all.
In my still relatively young lifetime I have flown over 90 airlines now and around 30 airlines in Business Class. What is the best business class in the world?
The timing seems very apt. This year marked 10 years since my very first proper Business Class experience with Etihad that I paid for on what I thought was a one off treat at the time! Things sure have come a long way since then.
The type of people you see in Business Class sure has changed drastically now too from what appeared as a club of mostly grey middle aged white men. Probably actually flying for Business!
Business Class is very much about aspirational travel now. From doing away with stressful queues by whizzing through the airport, relaxing in a lounge with a glass of champagne, more privacy onboard with fine multi-course dining and fine wines, a flat bed with nice bedding when you want to sleep. It has become an experience and journey in itself. For some this maybe be that dream trip, honeymoons/special milestones and for select few, it’s the only way to travel!
The Ranking Process
There are many factors that make an airline product from human to the hardware, the soft touches the airline provides and off course the catering and entertainment.
Rather than creating an arbitrary ranking from the top of my head, my approach was to take into consideration each of those important elements and rate them on each. Hopefully a little empirical data helps to detach from any glass tinted vision so to speak or any personal attachments to an airline. The intention is to be objectively as fair as possible. All airlines listed, I have flown in multiple occasions. 8 categories came apparent to me which I detail below, with a score of 10 being absolute perfection (there is only one score for that one!)
Ground Service –This would include things as check-in experience, lounge, fast track security, ease of connections and transfer assistance where applicable
Staff – Here I would consider such things as communication, general manners and friendliness. Staff psyche is perhaps a complex area that binds all the other elements together, in a make or break fashion.
Service standards – This is one very much down to each airline to instil and would factor in crew availability, ratio of crew to passenger/responsiveness, wider airline communication, dine-on-demand, turn-down, cabin and seat cleanliness etc
Physical Product – This includes the seats, layout of the cabin, privacy, noise levels, cabin ambience and lighting, storage etc
Food & Beverage – Including quality, range of choice, ability to order in advance
Entertainment – Range and quality of offering from movies, documentaries/Sports, Music, Interactive Games, Connectivity etc
Bed & Amenities – The length and width of the bed, any restrictions in feet area, bedding and pillows provided
Customer Service – Everything before & after flying (this is a tricky marker since I cannot apply that uniformly across all airlines if I have not had anything go wrong with that specific airline to see how they would deal with that. It is entirely possible to fly an airline many many times without you needing to deal with their customer service element) I have given every airline a baseline score of 6, and if I had any experience either way, I am adding or deducting against that)
Top 10 Best Business Class Airlines
10. British Airways (Score 58)
|
Ground Service: 7 Staff: 6.5 Service Standards: 6 Physical Product: 7.5 Food & Beverage: 8 Entertainment: 8 Bed & Amenities: 8 Customer Service: 7 |
The airline that was the very first to introduce flat beds in Business Class. British Airways just about makes it into this list. Over the last few years it has made great strides to improve both its product with the rollout of the Club Suites but also attempts to improve catering. Service can still unfortunately be hit & miss all depending on how you luck out on the day. Same goes the aircraft as you still have a high chance of ending up in the super dated ying yang configuration. Ground services are not the best either, especially the very crowded lounge situation in Heathrow. |
9. Swiss (Score 58.5)
|
Ground Service: 8 Staff: 8 Service Standards: 7 Physical Product: 8 Food & Beverage: 7.5 Entertainment: 8 Bed & Amenities: 7 Customer Service: 6 |
Swiss is one of my favourite European airlines for long haul. They have a modern business class offering. With generally all around good service. Swiss have also revealed they will be launching a brand new Business product which may improve their position considerably from 2025 onwards. As with anything in airline business though, we shall see if it is indeed deployed anywhere in the 2025 timeframe! Zurich airport is also very efficient for connections with nice business lounge offerings. |
8. Emirates (Score 60)
|
Ground Service: 9 Staff: 7.5 Service Standards: 7.5 Physical Product: 5.5 Food & Beverage: 7.5 Entertainment: 10 Bed & Amenities: 7 Customer Service: 6 |
For an airline that has managed to create such a huge premium brand image over the last decade, Emirates offering in Business Class is not anywhere it should be. Sure, the A380 itself is fantastic with the bar and full aisle access is lovely but this is now over 14 years old! Worse still, you have an equal chance of ending up on a 777 in a 2-3-2 configuration. In this day and age that is somewhat unforgivable. Having said all that, it does still offer good amenities onboard and an impressive beverage selection. The lounges in the network are decent and they offer complimentary Chauffeur‑drive to and from the airport which is a great perk that even most First Class do not offer. |
7. Virgin Atlantic (Score 60.5)
|
Ground Service: 8.5 Staff: 8.5 Service Standards: 8 Physical Product: 8 Food & Beverage: 8.5 Entertainment: 8 Bed & Amenities: 8 Customer Service: 7 |
I had never been a fan of Virgin’s old Herringbone Upper Class that faces away from the window and generally feels exposed. Thankfully Virgin has not only introduced a decent hard product for its A350‘s but even a slightly improved version of this on the new A330Neos in service just a matter of weeks now. Best of all, the A330Neos also feature a Business Plus type of product called the Retreat, which are First Class like seats passengers can upgrade into. Virgin has always been a fun airline to fly with and the crew are very much make part of that. It certainly strives to offer the rockstar service it has long branded itself on for Upper Class. Meanwhile Virgin Clubhouse lounges are by far some of the best Business lounges in the world! |
6. Oman Air ( Score 62 )
|
Ground Service: 8.5 Staff: 7 Service Standards: 8.5 Physical Product: 9 Food & Beverage: 9 Entertainment: 7.5 Bed & Amenities: 7.5 Customer Service: 6 |
This boutique airline airline may not be familiar to many but it has what I consider to be one of the best hard product, the Apex Suites. It also has a great soft product and amenities to boot. Catering is as excellent as the product. The entire experience holistically is not far behind a First Class experience. Even menu between First and Business 70% the same. The lounge in Muscat airport is beautifully serene with private bedrooms! All housed in modern state of the art airport itself. |
5. Turkish Airlines ( Score 63 )
|
Ground Service: 8 Staff: 8.5 Service Standards: 8.5 Physical Product: 6 Food & Beverage: 9 Entertainment: 8 Bed & Amenities: 8.5 Customer Service: 6 |
Turkish Airlines is huge, flying to more destinations that any other in this list. Their Business offering is solid with excellent lounges in the brand new IST airport as well as outstation airports like Bangkok. Turkish offer free stopover tours or hotel if your connection is longer than 8 hours. Big downside is the vast majority of their aircrafts feature a very dated business class. Newer 787s and A350 offers a better seat for privacy but narrow. Also they are notorious for aircraft changes. Turkish seems undecided on the direction of their future business class, but has the potential to be much higher in this list. |
4. Etihad ( Score 63.5 )
|
Ground Service: 8 Staff: 7.5 Service Standards: 8 Physical Product: 8.5 Food & Beverage: 8.5 Entertainment: 8 Bed & Amenities: 8 Customer Service: 7 |
The airline where my obsession with luxury travel all began! Etihad Business Studio has been a great hard product which has now been brought up to date on A350’s too. Etihad lounges are decent, if starting to show age now. It also offers complimentary Chauffeur, however only for the higher fare codes and only within UAE. You can check if you booking is eligible with the link above. |
3. Japan Airlines ( Score 67 )
|
Ground Service: 8 Staff: 9 Service Standards: 8.5 Physical Product: 9 Food & Beverage: 9 Entertainment: 7.5 Bed & Amenities: 8 Customer Service: 9 |
Japan Airlines is a superb way to fly across the world. The Apex Suites are so good on the 777s the upgrade to First would only be a minor improvement in most ways! Other long haul aircrafts like 789 also feature an excellent reverse herringbone product. The service level is always reliably good delivered by amongst the most gracious crew you will find in the air. Japanese style catering is excellent as is western options. |
2. Singapore Airlines ( Score 68 )
|
Ground Service: 8.5 Staff: 9 Service Standards: 9 Physical Product: 9 Food & Beverage: 8.5 Entertainment: 8 Bed & Amenities: 8 Customer Service: 8 |
As far as I remember Singapore Airlines has always had that brand allure, no doubt helped by the iconic Singapore Girl promos I remember growing up with. Between 2018-2020 I flew every single Business Class they seats they offered at the time, which I believe was 6 or 7 different products. The product range is now drastically reduced and they are all excellent. I believe a new iteration is on the works for the 777X introduction. Hint if you can pick a bulkhead seat, they are almost like First class seats! What is rather odd that Singapore doesn’t provide proper amenity kits in Business, even on super long hauls! I mean they provide all the essential items some proactively and others on request. This now doubt helps with waste, but a kit is a nice touch for those that like to collect them! Most impressive is just how consistent their staff and service levels are across the board. |
1. Qatar Airways ( Score 70 )
|
Ground Service: 8.5 Staff: 9 Service Standards: 9 Physical Product: 9.5 Food & Beverage: 9.5 Entertainment: 9 Bed & Amenities: 9 Customer Service: 6.5 |
Number one in my top 10 Business Class airlines is perhaps no surprise to many, though beating Singapore Airline just by 2 points. Qatar Airways QSuite, self branded as First in Business, generally lives up to it! Qatar really has been a disrupter in the industry by pushing the boundaries of luxury in Business Class. I first flew them on a family holiday back in 2001 when I was still in school, and there was something special about that flight even at such an early stage of their existence. I also found their on-boarding and deplaning music the most addictive! It manages to conjurors up the feeling of travel like nothing else for me. Qatar’s innovative product has yet to be bettered 5 years since launch. It has gone through great lengths to give passengers a consistent experience across it’s brand new 787s but due to narrower fuselage had to settle for a mini-QSuite, which looks fantastic. Now this product is not without any flaws mind, in bed mode I find the QSuite a tad bit tight! Which is why it does not get a perfect 10 here. Other downsides is customer experience can sometimes be a little inconsistent, something Singapore excels at. When it all goes right, which you have a high chance of, the product, food and service can really feel like First Class!
|
Overall Thoughts
Well there you have it, my top 10 Best Business Class Airlines! These are not just the best business class seats, but what I consider overall best Business products. This was probably my most fun post I’ve written yet.
I really wasn’t sure where each of the airlines might come up in the ranking, as I scored them all in isolation first and then compiled them together with the total scores. I rated 15 airlines in total, with Gulf Air & Finnair just missing out on 57 points each in 11th and 12th position respectively. What surprised me was how close each one was to the next on the list, which is mostly a testament to how far we’ve come in Business Class luxury! I look forward to doing new round up in the years ahead!
I am aware there are some popular airlines missing here, notably Air France, All Nippon Airways & Cathay Pacific, all which I have only flown in Business once or twice. I did have ANA’s brand new The Room booked not once but trice but had to cancel each time due to Japan having closed borders for such a long time.
I have 2 Air France trips booked in 2023 and might give ANA Room another chance if I can fit it in. The only American airline I ranked was Delta, which came in at number 14. I’ve flown several other European airlines that I simply did not bother ranking, such as Iberia and Alitalia. Lufthansa will also really have to up its game before it can be a contender here.
First Class round up coming soon!
What are your thoughts of the airlines listed?
Would pick JL over SQ any day. SQ First is great but Business has become rather robotic