Originally Posted by
cyclogenesis
Hey FT!
Just starting to organize some nice and complex travel for october.. Basically ORD->MUC->ANT ANT->IST->ZRH ZRH->ORD
My question pertains to ANT->IST->ZRH
How do you transit from Turkish domestic to what I assume (Switzerland not being EU) and international flight? If I can tell the safety folks here (Who are twitchy enough besides me quoting statistics that we are safer in turkey than in the cab to the airport in Chicago) that we transit behind security that would be great.. Or if we don't I tell them nothing
Also.. as *G is the good lounge in the international section. From what I have read the Turkish *G lounge is one of the best
The domestic and international terminals are separate. You walk through the basement, where the subway terminal is.
There was a security check point with x-ray on that path last year, but they allow you take one bottle of water and I did not have to take out my laptop.
If you walk slightly wrong you have to go through security three times, because you come out infront of the terminal instead of inside.
IST has the best security concept I have seen in any airport so far.
They have that extra security check at the entrance and they change the entrance door every 5 minutes, so there are no more than 20 people waiting in any given queue.
The main danger is when waiting in line to get past the first security to get into the airport.
Last time I had to get in there I went at 5 am, despite my flight not leaving before 10 am, just to avoid crowds at the entrance.
Ankara and Instanbul are still quite dangerous concerning terror attacks.
The bomb attack in downtown Istanbul missed me by a couple of weeks, as I was standing right there where the first bomb went off near the Blue Mosque.
The two attacks in Anaka missed me by a couple of weeks too, both in the embassy area and in the pedestrian area in downtown.
Finally, the last bomb attack on IST was 5 days after my transit and 4 days before my return.
So that makes 4 bomb attacks I got lucky with in a little more than a year.