We had a roughly two hour layover in Istanbul, as we were arriving from Atlanta at around 4:40PM, and departing to Cluj at around 6:45PM. Two hours is about the minimum connection time I’d want at this airport, given its size.
Continue reading: Review: IGA Lounge Istanbul Airport
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Ben: 'so it took us about 20 minutes to taxi' 'The drive to the terminal took about 15 minutes' 'It took us over 15 minutes to even be admitted to the lounge'
What a great experience!
Ben, recently I connected through Istanbul with a rather tight connection (<1 hour). Having transited there before and familiar with the size, I had already 'accepted' I was gonna miss my flight.
Not so.
I connected TK-TK and was swiftly let through by TK staff, walked over to the next gate and had still about 20 mts time to spare.
I have to say that I’ve been incredibly lucky at new IST. Unlike Ataturk, I’ve yet to arrive or depart at a single bus gate at the new airport, and I’ve never had more than a 10 minute walk between a gate and the TK biz lounge.
I was just there, it's gorgeous. Food options suck. The shower is fine except they give you this weird towel that is super thin. It reminds me of a sponge. Lucky, did you see the outside terrace? It's has views of the hills it's pretty. Just a heads up on gates. Some of the gates can be a long walk. It took me solid 20 min both ways, Turkish airlines was at the furthest gates. The lounge was still worth the walk but I would def suggest leave early to your gate. The whole airport is beautiful.
> It can be accessed by business class passengers
> on most non-Star Alliance airlines...
Details, please? Exactly who has access to this lounge (besides Priority Pass card holders)?
I will be arriving in IST on Air France in business class (after a looong string of flights) and will be in need of a shower upon arrival. I'll also be departing from IST on AF in J a couple weeks later. Will I have access? How can I find out?
Was just here yesterday, was impressed! But yes very annoying entry process , we had Atlasglobal J tix and we also had to line up. You'd think they could get the barriers to recognise their contracted airlines BPs at least.
You can get barista coffee at the bar by the way, they have a machine on the back counter
@Lucky
“ It’s beautiful architecturally, but way too big and impractically designed.”
This makes no sense: architecture is about both form *and* function. If it’s “impractically designed” then the architecture is rubbish.
Architecture does not just mean aesthetics!
I don’t understand the standard avgeek enthusiasm for mega-airports: to me they are inhuman in scale, wildly inefficient (I have to make up for their inefficiencies by walking vast distances), and usually disorientating. I much prefer tiny airports, where you walk through the front door and you can see your plane waiting for you just in the other side of the opposite windows.
That’s a magical flying experience — not endless queuing for some soulless warehouse lounge where, even after the computer deigns to grant you entry, they arrogantly make you walk down a long corridor past yet more “retail opportunities”, because actually all they care about is extracting the maximum possible amounts of your cash. Ugh.
How many hotels are at the new Istanbul airport and can you list them for me please
@the nice Paul
"Standard avgeek" interest in airports stems from one extremely simple reason: airplanes and airports go together. Get it? You must enter an airport to access your flight. Some airports are bigger than other airports. Get it? Big ones have lots of interesting stuff inside them, like lounges, shops, hotels, cinemas, gardens, cafes, restaurants, bars, art galleries, observation decks, and other neat stuff. Get it? We like to hear about all this neat stuff from fellow "avgeeks" because sometimes we get stuck in big airports for hours. Get it? And if we get stuck in an airport, we prefer it to be a mega airport like Singapore, instead of say…Santorini. Get it?
@Daneils
Nope, I just don’t get it.
“ lots of interesting stuff inside them, like lounges, shops, hotels, cinemas, gardens, cafes, restaurants, bars, art galleries, observation decks, and other neat stuff”
That’s where we differ. Firstly you think shops are interesting? Presumably you list “going to the mall” as one of your leisure interests.
And why would I expect a cinema inside an airport? If that, why not, I dunno, a crematorium? A civic waste dump? Somewhere to buy new car tyres?
I can see it’s helpful for an airport to have a cafe or bar, maybe also a shop for travel-related “necessities”. Perhaps a case could be made for a Premier Inn-style hotel, in case of long layovers.
The rest of it is crap that just comes between me and my flight. Why would an avgeek want any of that?
I was there this past month. Overall, it was far too large. On the other hand, all the tarrif-free shops kept me interested during my four-hour layover. There aren't a lot of restaurant-type choices but was okay. I personally thought it was the most beautiful airport I ever visited.
The architecture at New Istanbul is poor. It's not particularly beautiful, at least to me, contains too many design features, and misses the key factor behind an airport design - seamless passenger experience.
Airports which have beautiful architecture and a well planned layout for passenger flow include Dubai, Singapore and Mumbai. Unfortunately Istanbul isn't up to the mark.
I was there on Monday, and entry was a sh*tshow. It was disorderly and barbaric and reminded me of a bread line in Moscow.
It made the experience miserable, and I would avoid it just so as not to have that bad taste in my mouth.
@Daniels, if you think shops are "interesting", then why even bother going to an airport? I'm sure your local mall will be interesting enough with all the eateries, cinemas, bowling alleys, and shops to keep you amused.
The reality is, as @The nice Paul said correctly, a lot of mega airports are now no more than a warehouse of shops with endless queues to see barking security workers. You can't even see the planes half the time. Sometimes even the airbridge is clogged with advertisements and sterile walls that you can't see out of. I saw more aircraft activity in my home airport Perth than at Singapore recently for the same reason. Perth has a proper observation deck and they've even put in a wall-ceiling sized screen in there with FlightRadar on it. Oh and no other noise or distractions up there either! I spent a good hour watching planes - very therapeutic.
There is one airside and one street side. They both are windowless an overpriced