The new Istanbul Airport opened earlier this year, and it represents quite a change over the old Istanbul Ataturk Airport. The airport is beautiful, but also absolutely massive and poorly designed, in my opinion.
New Istanbul Airport
Anyway, for many travelers one major point of frustration has been that the new airport didn’t have a Priority Pass lounge. Turkish Airlines has a few lounges, and those don’t belong to Priority Pass. Then there’s also the IGA Lounge, which is the airport’s contract lounge. For whatever reason, this lounge hasn’t belonged to Priority Pass.
Turkish Airlines Lounge Istanbul
Well, the good news is that this has finally changed — the IGA Lounge at Istanbul Airport now belongs to Priority Pass.
The lounge is open 24/7, and is located airside after passport control and to the left. Priority Pass members can stay for a maximum of three hours, and the lounge allows guesting privileges.
I’ve heard pretty good things about this lounge, so this is a very nice addition for Priority Pass. Istanbul Airport is a global hub, so it has been frustrating that up until recently there hasn’t been any option for Priority Pass members.
Does anyone plan on using the IGA Lounge with Priority Pass?
(Tip of the hat to Mohammed)
Hi,
So you are able to visit this lounge with Diners Card as well?
On the website of Diners - it shows map of the older airport.
https://www.dinersclub.com/clubmembers/airport-lounges/iga-lounge
Thanks.
Rav,
Appreciate the confirmation. I plan on stopping here for sure now and great to hear it was one of the best experience.
Visited this lounge yesterday. Visited about 30 other Priority Pass lounges in the last 12 month and based on my experience this is the most impressive and by far the best one. Yes, it does take ages to walk there, but that's not the lounge's fault. Impressive design, plenty of space, even managed to get a "private sleeping cubicle" and nap for two hours. Breakfast food was what I'd expect in a 4 * hotel....
Visited this lounge yesterday. Visited about 30 other Priority Pass lounges in the last 12 month and based on my experience this is the most impressive and by far the best one. Yes, it does take ages to walk there, but that's not the lounge's fault. Impressive design, plenty of space, even managed to get a "private sleeping cubicle" and nap for two hours. Breakfast food was what I'd expect in a 4 * hotel. Even managed to use the board room / office room, before I had to leave. For some reason the info about this lounge is still not available on the PP website.
I dont believe this lounge is open after calling Priority pass today. The Priority pass rep told me this lounge access is no longer available. I will be there on Dec 5, can someone confirm this?
I have visited the lounge couple weeks ago. You need to walk ridiculously long in order to get anywhere in this gigantic mall like airport. A lot is missing, public transport is one. How can you plan an airport 40km away from city center and missed to connect it with a train or subway. We organized a ride using istanbulrides.com. The previous airport was way much more better than this one, my guess Turkey has a lot of funds to spend it like this!!
My wife and I had the opportunity to visit the IGA lounge on 3 Oct 2019. After the hellish and unreasonably long walk from the arrival gate to the lounge, which lies at the opposite end of the Galleria-Mall-Like promenade, we arrived at the lounge check-in. Check-in was easy and it was good to hear that Diners Club was now on board. At check-in we were given WiFi passwords which later proved to be useless....
My wife and I had the opportunity to visit the IGA lounge on 3 Oct 2019. After the hellish and unreasonably long walk from the arrival gate to the lounge, which lies at the opposite end of the Galleria-Mall-Like promenade, we arrived at the lounge check-in. Check-in was easy and it was good to hear that Diners Club was now on board. At check-in we were given WiFi passwords which later proved to be useless. The food and soft drink selection was adequate but the beer stock was nearly out and remained that way during our 1-hr stay. We never had enough time to find the bar having to swim through the mass of humanity that congregated in the lounge. We were lucky enough to have found a spot to sit and recharge for another marathon walk to our connecting gate. While the new airport is an architectural masterpiece, it’s designers were sadists when they placed the long-haul arrival gate terminals at opposite ends of the airport from the connecting short-haul and domestic departure gates.
Hope you will accept a comment by a cattle class traveler.
Last month I flew Turkish Airlines from Tel Aviv to Hamburg connecting at Istambul.
The airport is huge and, in my opinion architecturally beautifully designed.
Problem is that the walking distances to connect are absurd. I heard such complaints from other people that connected at that airport.
So as far as I am concerned, I will connect at Istambul only...
Hope you will accept a comment by a cattle class traveler.
Last month I flew Turkish Airlines from Tel Aviv to Hamburg connecting at Istambul.
The airport is huge and, in my opinion architecturally beautifully designed.
Problem is that the walking distances to connect are absurd. I heard such complaints from other people that connected at that airport.
So as far as I am concerned, I will connect at Istambul only if there is no other choice.
And that's a pity because Turkish Airline is an excellent carrier and a alternative of choice to El Al, and generally cheaper. Too Bad.
Maybe the designers could rethink the connection paths?
Visited that lounge in 10/2.
Very spacious and nicely appointed and was less crowded than TK lounge.
On the other hand food/drinks offerings were not even close what TK lounge offers.
Ask for the internet password to be able to open the app.
I am disappointed with new TK airport & Lounge. Recently I had a layover about 3 hours around 12-3am (CMN->IST->RUH). Had to have a really long walk (about 20 mins) to just get to Lounge, at arrival, I found the Lounge uncomfortably crowded, not relaxing at all with so much noise around. As soon as I arrived the Lounge, I registered for a shower but had to wait about 1 hour to get a shower...
I am disappointed with new TK airport & Lounge. Recently I had a layover about 3 hours around 12-3am (CMN->IST->RUH). Had to have a really long walk (about 20 mins) to just get to Lounge, at arrival, I found the Lounge uncomfortably crowded, not relaxing at all with so much noise around. As soon as I arrived the Lounge, I registered for a shower but had to wait about 1 hour to get a shower room. I was required to leave a boarding pass at concierge desk for shower queue, then later I realized that I need a boarding pass to get a Wifi password so had to walk back all across the Lounge gain to get the boarding pass, Yuk ! Feel very exhausted in the Lounge. Then it took me another 20-min walk to get to my departure gate to Riyadh. Ooooops..... Seriously missed old airport and previous lounge with easy and simple navigation.
Was there for several hours october 7.Gorgeous ,spacious lounge,but the breakfast food was unimpressive.Food was better at the old airport’s priority pass lounge.Also you have to walk forever with very few walking escalators as the airport seemed to be designed as an upscale suburban shopping mall with departing gate distance an afterthought.
Just used the IGA lounge on 15 Oct. It's spacious with all facilities you could expect for a normal Priority Pass offering equipped. I would imagine it could go quite crowded (at least for the time being) since not many other lounges are open yet except TK's.
Perfect timing, wife and I are returning next month and will have a shot to use this twice. Definitely concerned about overcrowding in the short term though.
If you look in the AMEX App for lounges it says how many guest you get. All Priority Pass lounges say 2. However, this lounge only says 1.
Terrible news. I actually really like that lounge. Flew BA Club from IST to LHR and it was virtually empty. Now it will be stormed with people
I was there a week ago. It is spacious, but the food and beverage offerings are nothing special. Power ports are sparse and the WiFi is unusable.
Thank you for reporting on this! Travel to IST every couple weeks, so have been waiting for this for a while!
Headed there next month! Hope to check it out (and hopefully it won't be too crowded)