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FAQ 8: Free hotel/tour/cruise when connecting at IST

Old Jul 21, 2015, 8:54 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: ISTFlyer
It's strange this thread has no Wiki, so here it is, created 7/21/2015

PLEASE READ THE OP Post first

For case related questions ( ex: Am I eligible, etc... ) contact[email protected] first before posting your question here.

TK free hotel room rules:

A complimentary hotel accommodation (maximum 2 nights) will be provided to our valuable passengers when there are more than 10 hours (for economy cabin passengers) and 7 or more hours (for business cabin passengers) waiting during their international connecting flights due to Turkish Airlines schedule structure. However, if your destination can be reached by an alternative flight to your first flight and the waiting time is less, you cannot take advantage of the hotel service. This service is not applicable when there is a shorter connection available within the time frame mentioned above. The first and the connecting flights must be with Turkish Airlines. All passengers must hold a confirmed reservation for the first and the connecting flights. Complimentary accommodation will be arranged with Turkish Airlines corporate partners and will be provided through the Hotel Desk located after the customs check point at the arrival. Passengers must check for any visa requirements when entering Turkey. In the event where a visa is not granted, Turkish Airlines assumes no responsibility for providing complimentary hotel accommodation.

Note:
- You still need e-VISA to enter Turkish for a Tour or Hotel. The prices vary by countries ($60 USD for Canadian, $20 for USA, etc...)
You can apply here at https://www.evisa.gov.tr/en/

Tour website is at http://www.istanbulinhours.com/
There are 3 tours offered (Schedule)
  1. Tour 1 8:30am - 11am - Sightseeing Tour
  2. Tour 2 9am - 3pm - Tour
  3. Tour 3 9am - 6pm - Tour
  4. Tour 4 12pm - 6pm - Tour
  5. Tour 5 4pm - 9pm - Cultural Walk Tour
How to Apply - You need minimum 6 hours layover, max 24 hours. Both inbound and outbound flights must be on TK.

A Bosphorus cruise, with food and drinks, is available for business class passengers of more than 7 hour layover (183 as of Nov. 2017)


Here's a list of the common hotels that are reported in this thread:

Marriott Renaissance Polat Istanbul Hotel (72% TripAdvisor most common)
Akgn Istanbul Hotel (44% TripAdvisorcommon far from the airport)
Wow Airport Hotel (56% TripAdvisorcommon - very close to airport)
DoubleTree
Wyndham İstanbul Petek (92% TripAdvisor)
Radisson Blu Conference & Airport Hotel (53% TripAdvisor)
Hilton Garden Inn
Courtyard by Marriott Istanbul International Airport
Gonen Hotel Istanbul
Pullman Istanbul Airport Hotel
Print Wikipost

FAQ 8: Free hotel/tour/cruise when connecting at IST

Old Aug 16, 2016, 8:32 am
  #541  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: JNB
Programs: Flying Blue, Miles and Smiles, Hhonors, ICHotels
Posts: 1,307
Originally Posted by docbert
Some days have one, some have two.
Aah thanks! Now that my wings have been clipped I am a tad out of touch. Great to hear that they are making forays into the South African market.
roadwarrier is offline  
Old Aug 16, 2016, 9:36 am
  #542  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 346
Originally Posted by roadwarrier
Aah thanks! Now that my wings have been clipped I am a tad out of touch. Great to hear that they are making forays into the South African market.
By next April there will be 10 non-stop flights between IST and JNB, and even daily non-stops to CPT too!

Last edited by sushimaru; Aug 16, 2016 at 9:37 am Reason: type
sushimaru is offline  
Old Aug 16, 2016, 11:59 am
  #543  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: JNB
Programs: Flying Blue, Miles and Smiles, Hhonors, ICHotels
Posts: 1,307
Originally Posted by sushimaru
By next April there will be 10 non-stop flights between IST and JNB, and even daily non-stops to CPT too!


Great! A decent reason reason to keep my M&S *G Elite status up to date. Let those consulting assignments roll in.
roadwarrier is offline  
Old Aug 19, 2016, 2:25 pm
  #544  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Belgrade
Programs: TK*G, FBG
Posts: 31
Hi all,

I'm flying BEG-IST-LIS later this month in J. My flight from BEG arrives just after 11PM, and my flight to LIS departs the following day at 11-something AM. There is an earlier flight to LIS the same day, at 7.30AM, which would also exceed the 7 hour minimum for a hotel room. Do you think I will run into any problems with this itinerary?
triplesevenloverr is offline  
Old Aug 19, 2016, 3:10 pm
  #545  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: SEA/ORD/ADB
Programs: TK ELPL (*G), AS 100K (OWE), BA Gold (OWE), Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat
Posts: 7,763
Originally Posted by triplesevenloverr
Hi all,

I'm flying BEG-IST-LIS later this month in J. My flight from BEG arrives just after 11PM, and my flight to LIS departs the following day at 11-something AM. There is an earlier flight to LIS the same day, at 7.30AM, which would also exceed the 7 hour minimum for a hotel room. Do you think I will run into any problems with this itinerary?
Yes. You do not qualify
PVDtoDEL is offline  
Old Sep 25, 2016, 6:09 pm
  #546  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: United 1k aa exec plat
Posts: 1,837
am using miles to fly via istanbul as i would very much like to see the city..(max 24hr stopover)
i am trying to find any two locations in europe (arrive depart) that would give me time to have at least the day city tour in istanbul..
any ideas?(only thing I could find was tbs or ath)

also,is the city tour worth fitting my itinerary around or can it be done easily on ones own??
as a further option-is arriving at night getting a hotel then going on the tour the next day poss?
thanks
bryanwallace is offline  
Old Sep 26, 2016, 3:37 am
  #547  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: SIN (with a bit of ZRH sprinkled in)
Posts: 9,442
You can easily do a city tour yourself. In fact, unless the layover was forced onto me (ie, I had no choice but to book that way) I'd definitely not try to wrap my planes around using the free tour/hotel.

With the Sultan having scared away half the tourist crowd, hotel prices at prime locations are as low as never before. IST is easy to navigate by public transport. The hotel that IST would place you is near the airport and almost all of them are unconvenient to get into the city. The city tour, while OK, is definitely not something for the individual travellers that likes to explore stuff themselves.
YuropFlyer is offline  
Old Sep 26, 2016, 2:19 pm
  #548  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: United 1k aa exec plat
Posts: 1,837
thanks-how long to get into central ist and cost?
bryanwallace is offline  
Old Sep 26, 2016, 2:33 pm
  #549  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: SIN (with a bit of ZRH sprinkled in)
Posts: 9,442
Originally Posted by bryanwallace
thanks-how long to get into central ist and cost?
I always take the Metro from the Airport, changing at Zeytinburnu to the Tram (when staying in the Golden Horn area) - depending where you go, you might want to change elsewhere, or not having to change at all. Going by Metro+Tram, it takes roughly 1 hour. A cab might not be faster during rush hour.

http://istanbulkart.iett.gov.tr/en/i...pages/menu/427

You can buy a Standard Istanbul Kart at the airport (the shop just left to the Metro entrance is selling them) for 6 TYL (card itself) and maybe want to load 20 TYL for a few rides on top of that. Rides itself are quite cheap, a few TYL from the airport to the city.
YuropFlyer is offline  
Old Sep 26, 2016, 7:06 pm
  #550  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: United 1k aa exec plat
Posts: 1,837
thanks -if you have to buy a card -would a taxi be cheaper for 4?
thanks again
bryanwallace is offline  
Old Sep 27, 2016, 12:46 am
  #551  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: SIN (with a bit of ZRH sprinkled in)
Posts: 9,442
Originally Posted by bryanwallace
thanks -if you have to buy a card -would a taxi be cheaper for 4?
thanks again
For a party of 4, I think yes, a cab might be the better solution. Not necessarely cheaper, but not that much more expensive and obviously more easy to get there.

In that case I'd get a central hotel, so you only have to rid one cab from, and one cab to the airport, as transportation within the city will be on foot then (easily doable to see all historic sights on the European side on foot)
YuropFlyer is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2016, 7:51 am
  #552  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Berlin
Posts: 1,765
Quick question, as I believe this would qualify. The flight lands after the last flight to London GATWICK leaves, so I should qualify for the hotel, correct? There are other flights to Heathrow, but not to Gatwick....

Flight 2 28h 15m

This is a multi-airport itinerary. Please review all the airports below.
This flight leaves on Friday (28. Oct) and arrives on Saturday (29. Oct).

Turkish Airlines – Flight 63 (economy) 11h 00m
11:50 Fri 28. Oct KUL Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
17:50 Fri 28. Oct IST Istanbul, Turkey
Airbus A330-300 (Wide-body jet) | 11h 00m
On demand entertainment Power & USB outlets Chance of better Wi-Fi (fee) Standard legroom (79 cm) Fresh meal provided
Change planes IST Istanbul, Turkey
13h 10m
Turkish Airlines – Flight 1981 (economy) 4h 05m
7:00 Sat 29. Oct IST Istanbul, Turkey
9:05 Sat 29. Oct LGW London, ENG, United Kingdom
largeeyes is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2016, 8:58 am
  #553  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 346
Originally Posted by largeeyes
Quick question, as I believe this would qualify. The flight lands after the last flight to London GATWICK leaves, so I should qualify for the hotel, correct? There are other flights to Heathrow, but not to Gatwick....

Flight 2 28h 15m

This is a multi-airport itinerary. Please review all the airports below.
This flight leaves on Friday (28. Oct) and arrives on Saturday (29. Oct).

Turkish Airlines Flight 63 (economy) 11h 00m
11:50 Fri 28. Oct KUL Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
17:50 Fri 28. Oct IST Istanbul, Turkey
Airbus A330-300 (Wide-body jet) | 11h 00m
On demand entertainment Power & USB outlets Chance of better Wi-Fi (fee) Standard legroom (79 cm) Fresh meal provided
Change planes IST Istanbul, Turkey
13h 10m
Turkish Airlines Flight 1981 (economy) 4h 05m
7:00 Sat 29. Oct IST Istanbul, Turkey
9:05 Sat 29. Oct LGW London, ENG, United Kingdom
No, there is a later flight from KL that could easily connect to TK 1981.

KUL dep. 22:10
IST arr. 04:10+1
sushimaru is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2016, 9:47 am
  #554  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Berlin
Posts: 1,765
Originally Posted by sushimaru
No, there is a later flight from KL that could easily connect to TK 1981.

KUL dep. 22:10
IST arr. 04:10+1
Even though that leaves an a different day? I guess that's how they keep this so limited.
largeeyes is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2016, 10:20 am
  #555  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: YUL
Programs: Skymiles Silver Medallion
Posts: 955
Originally Posted by largeeyes
Even though that leaves an a different day? I guess that's how they keep this so limited.
It's on the same day. Oct 28th, right?

Anyway, hotel prices are so cheap in IST now that you could book yourself something quite nice for a few dollars, and have complete control over where you stay.
segacs is offline  

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