What Airport Lounges, New Istanbul Airport?

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Navek
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What Airport Lounges, New Istanbul Airport?

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Post by Navek »

Hi,
Can anyone tell me what Airport Lounges are available to passengers,
at the New Istanbul (ISL) Airport?
I have Googled it, but there is not a lot of info.
Prices & quality etc would help.
TIA

Mollie the cat
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Re: What Airport Lounges, New Istanbul Airport?

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Post by Mollie the cat »

Has anyone paid for a lounge at the new Airport at Istanbul please?

We dont qualify for the Turkish Airlines business lounges. The only one we saw on the way out was something like AEG lounge? Looked at the review sounds not good value for money? We have over 4 hours wait on our return visit to Istanbul before our flight to Ercan.
Mollie the cat


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Re: Lounges. Istanbul Airport?
Postby mrsgee » Fri May 31, 2019 2:34 pm

Don’t even go there. We went on the first day the airport opened. Expected to find hsbc which we have always used at ataturk. Never used to have to pay anything with premier account, but for a couple of years now only Turkish based hsbc cards are free, other hsbc accounts around 15 quid, still a bargain if you have a long wait. There is no hsbc at the new airport, and no, if you just have the classic red basic TA miles and smiles card you can’t go in there, only gold card. Asked if we could pay but nope. So we got pointed in the direction of the one you are referring to I think. Well, the cost to go in was extortionate worked out about £120 for two of us, but, well we had three hours to kill, so went for it. Big mistake, never again.... got in there, the place is huge. Tiny salad and snack bar, nothing like ataturk.... no alcohol, just soft drinks or coffee. Very expensive can of juice and small bottle of water, WiFi didn’t work..... terrible experience. Coming back we just went up a level to the pub and had an Efes. You can have quite a few Efes in the pub for the cost of that lounge...... just don’t. I thought I must have bought shares in it!
mrsgee
p

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Re: Lounges. Istanbul Airport?
Postby mrsgee » Fri May 31, 2019 2:35 pm

Or maybe I am a season ticket holder.... lol

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Re: Lounges. Istanbul Airport?
Postby Mollie the cat » Fri May 31, 2019 5:17 pm

Thank you for the detailed experience, I thought that would be the case after reading the reviews on that establishment. Oh well, a bottle of wine then from duty free and our own sandwiches it is then, and as you say an Efes in the pub.
Mollie the cat




The new airport is huge but i thought it was cheaper than the old one.
There are a lot more seating areas than the old airport and even if the ones near the food courts etc are full then there is plenty of seating at the many departure gates. I noticed a few people sleeping in the departure gate areas that were not being used for flights.
Between departure Gates C and D there is a "Quiet" area - screened with artificial plants - no children and no phones. It has about 10 lounger beds for short naps.
Just be prepared for the long taxi after landing to stop AND the long walk from stop to next transit gate. Well signposted though - just a long long walk !


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Re: Lounges. Istanbul Airport?
Postby Mollie the cat » Sun Jun 02, 2019 4:28 pm

This was our first time at the airport. Unfortunately the design of the waiting areas is such that people are sleeping on one long settee taking up a lot of room! The taxi from the stand to the runway was 28 minutes, just unreal!
Mollie the cat

come_on_aylin
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Re: What Airport Lounges, New Istanbul Airport?

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Post by come_on_aylin »

We had a 5 hour stopover today. As our flights were booked on different occasions we weren't transit passengers so had to go 'land' side. I did a bit of a reccie. On both air and land side there are Burger King, Gloria Jeans and Simit Dünyası. As far as I could see the prices were the same both sides, e. g. 12TL for cappuccino in BK, 17TL in GJ and somewhere in between for SD, 20-30TL for cakes/sandwiches. Near the checkin desk, at either end of departures, there are some small coffee/drinks outlets, again reasonable prices for an airport both with charging points. There is a hotel (Yotel) on both sides €140 for an en suite room for up to 3 people tonight, probably cheaper if booked in advance. As mentioned before, there is a lot of comfy seating available opposite duty free once through security and there's a cafe upstairs near all the lounges, I didn't check it out. To be honest the time went quite quickly by the time we'd wandered about, had a coffee, some cake did the crossword. There's also a bar air side, 32TL for a 33cl Efes but they do food too and it seemed OK price wise. After the ridiculous prices they used to charge at Atatürk it was a nice surprise. If you sit at the gates there are USB ports to charge devices, there's also free 15 minutes internet available throughout the airport but you need to be able to receive a code on your mobile to activate it. There doesn't seem to be a limit to how many times you may activate it, it says you can download an app to get an hours Internet then doesn't give you information on how to do it. I also took a picture of the left luggage rates if anyone is interested.

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