Podgorica remains one of the more delightfully obscure endpoints for a business class itinerary out of the Sierra Nevada, and after routing through this corridor more times than I can count, I can say plainly: there is no nonstop option, so business class from Reno to Podgorica is built entirely around your choice of connecting hub, with total journey time landing around 13.5 hours of actual flying once layovers are excluded. Delta passengers will typically funnel through Salt Lake City or Los Angeles before joining a transatlantic partner into Europe, while Lufthansa routes naturally channel through Frankfurt or Munich, and Turkish Airlines builds its case through Istanbul, which I'd argue is the most logical single-connection gateway to Podgorica given Turkish's relatively frequent onward service into Montenegro's compact capital-region airport.
My preference, having flown all three, leans toward Lufthansa's long-haul legs in their Allegris business seats where equipped on 787 and A350 aircraft, offering direct aisle access and sliding privacy doors that make the transatlantic slog genuinely restful; if Allegris isn't assigned to your specific flight, older 747-8 or A340 business configurations still deliver flat-bed comfort, so it's worth checking your aircraft type at booking. Turkish Airlines' business class, with its signature Do&Co dining service, is a strong contender for the Istanbul routing, and their business lounge in IST is worth arriving early for, as it's one of the most expansive in the alliance world. Delta's Delta One suites, found on their A350 and A330-900 fleet, are excellent if your itinerary routes through a European gateway like Amsterdam or Paris before a partner carrier completes the Podgorica leg — just confirm which segment is Delta-metal versus codeshare, since seat products vary considerably.
Insider tip: TGD is a small airport with minimal business-class ground amenities, so build in a longer layover at your connecting hub rather than in Podgorica itself, and consider positioning through Rome or Vienna in shoulder months for better lounge access. January through March and October into November consistently offer the softest fares and lightest loads on this corridor, so this is a route where setting up automated fare alerts pays off — pricing swings enough between these connection points that tracking movement over several weeks will serve you far better than booking on impulse.
