Best Business Class Awards - 2026

01Value

With value being highly scored, the clear winner for 2026 has been Oman Air. Pricing has been exceptional with consistent availability to their key destinations and a range of hubs in Asia to utilise. Joining the oneworld alliance has significantly helped Oman Air access partner inventory with an innovative and customer first approach to their pricing.

Second to Oman Air was Turkish Airlines who have had consistently incredible fares across a wide range of destinations. Their new services to Melbourne and Sydney have been well received, serviced by their flagship A350 product, with some of the sharpest pricing to Europe of any airline. No doubt Turkish Airlines has taken an aggressive approach to market share, with over 200% growth YoY for Flat Beds. Turkish Airlines may slide in these rankings for 2027 with several routes via Asia starting to increase in price.

Generally a significant chunk of Turkish Airlines’ market share gain was taken from Finnair who slid down in the value rankings, with reduced availability and higher pricing from their historical norms. Finnair had previously gained significantly from the increased prices from European rivals Lufthansa and SWISS - once popular for value oriented Australian travellers, neither airline made the top 20 in 2026. Other notable airlines for overall value included Air New Zealand, Etihad, Malaysia Airlines and United Airlines who all place downward price pressure on the overall market. Qantas also performed relatively well in Value given their regular sales and market offers to stimulate booking activity which was rewarded in their scores.

Asian airlines suffered somewhat in the Value rankings due to sustained higher pricing from April onwards and a lack of sale activity, with fares jumping significantly due to increased demand to route via Asia over the Middle East. This helped those Middle Eastern carriers who have been offered better value deals to entice bookings via this region.

02Seats

While Oman Air took the top nod for value, where they were scored down was for the seat product. While their Apex Suite on the 787 Dreamliner is exceptional, their reliance on the 737 Max8 product, a modern but simple recliner business class, did bring their scores down.

The top ranking for seat product was, unsurprisingly, awarded to Qatar Airways due to the continued dominance of their Qsuite product - which has now been in the market for 9 years and has gone largely unanswered for a serious competitor other than ANA’s ‘The Room’ and Japan Airlines’ A350-1000 suites [which unfortunately don’t service Australia]. Notable marks in the seat category were awarded to both Japanese airlines, along with Finnair for their innovative AirLounge product and Etihad for their improved offering to Australia onboard the A350-1000 [Sydney] and 787-9 [Melbourne] aircraft.

Readers may be surprised to learn that airlines including Singapore Airlines and Emirates took lower marks in the seat category, coupled with lower scores for value considering their high price points. While Emirates features solid seating across most of their fleet, the reliance on the 777-300ER, which has re-entered the Australian network on several flights, caused heavy deductions. These aircraft feature a 2-3-2 layout with severely angled business class and are not looked upon favourably by customers and our reviewers. Singapore Airlines, while offering flat beds across their fleet, had several deductions for an inconsistent product from their long range A350, 777 and A380 aircraft while the regional A350 and 787 provide an inferior product where featured, often sold at the same price point as their flagship services. The seating design on the 777 and long range A350 aircraft requires standing up to convert to fully flat beds which caused further deductions.

Cathay Pacific scored some additional points for the introduction of their incredible Aria suites, but these flights are few and far between for most travellers which - which hurt their ranking along with their typically higher fare pricing in the value scores.

03Consistency

One area we pay particular attention to is how consistent the business class experience is for customers, especially in terms of a standardised fleet and seat product. In this sense, Qantas scored particularly well given how similar their long haul business class flight experience is across the A330, 787 and A380 aircraft. We expect this mark to take a step backwards in 2027 once their A321XLRs start servicing Asia, with only a recliner style seat. United, Air Canada and Finnair also scored highly for consistency, with United’s Polaris Product aiding their scores across a wide range of trans-Pacific and trans-Continental services. Emirates and Oman Air lost points for consistency, along with British Airways and Air NZ who are in the midst of a fleet rejuvenation. Turkish Airlines were marked down for their 777 product in this respect, although not as harshly as some given it is still a flat bed product.

04Frequent Flyer Benefits

Frequent flyer benefits were ranked based on relevance to Australian travellers. This particularly benefited the oneworld airlines where solid earning opportunities on Qantas Frequent Flyer exist, with Qantas, Finnair and Oman Air all achieving top marks. Qatar Airways was ranked slightly below this given their restrictions on Virgin Australia codeshare flights, in line with Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines and Japan Airlines as these airlines accrue at lower rates for Qantas members. Those airlines who are aligned to Skyteam were ranked lowest, followed by Star Alliance members who do not have any affiliation with Virgin Australia. This included the popular Turkish Airlines, while Singapore Airlines and United benefitted from slightly higher scores due to their Velocity partnership.

Sadly for those who prefer to fly Virgin domestically, the changes made in October 2025 to partner airline earning caps has dramatically impacted the quality of their program for savvy business class travellers. Previously you could earn nearly all of your Velocity status on a partner carrier and just achieve the minimum number of qualifying sectors, but the 50% cap placed on partner earning and limited local exposure for Star Alliance credit card earning did reduce scores for those airlines.

05Service & Meals

While each were scored as individual categories, we saw strong marks across both for Qatar Airways, Air New Zealand, Oman Air and Turkish Airlines. Turkish Airlines’ ‘Flying Chef’ experience was of particular note, while Etihad also performed well here, followed by Emirates, where we feel there is some room for improvement with their meal offering. However, service extends beyond the onboard experience, and Emirates stands out with its complimentary Business Class chauffeur service, meaning the premium experience begins before you even arrive at the airport. The North American carriers struggled in these areas, even though they have made huge improvements to their overall business class experience and things like the signature ice cream sundaes by United Airlines did help them slightly. Qantas performed reasonably, but their basic dessert offering, portion sizing and lack of flexibility for on-demand dining being areas for improvement. While Asian carriers including Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Cathay Pacific scored highly in service and reasonably for meals, their catering service fails to wow to the level of the Middle Eastern airlines, nor be as regionally appealing as the tasty comfort food and personal service offered by Air New Zealand.

06Airport Experience & Flagship Lounges

The airport experience remains a key consideration for business class travellers and it’s no surprise to see both Qatar Airways [Doha] and Singapore Airlines [Singapore] achieve top marks for their incredible hub airports. Qatar Airways also achieved a perfect score for their lounges, with flagship offerings in Doha critically offering sufficient seating and sit down dining, areas where Singapore Airlines could improve. Qantas did not fare so well in these categories, while lounge rejuvenation works are ongoing, but Turkish Airlines shone brightly for their Istanbul lounge. Finnair’s convenient airport in Helsinki was ranked highly, along with their fantastic lounges [including the unique Sauna experience in the Platinum Plus lounge], while the Japanese airports and lounges were marked down somewhat.