Worth flying through IST to go to western europe?
 

Thinking of going to Barcelona for a few days, TK has the cheapest fare by fare but extra 7 hours transit time from IAH each way. Worth it?

If you have access to the TK lounge 7 hours is OK

It's the sort of question only you can answer. Just be sure to throw into the equation the extra miles earned as well as how you value 7 hours of your time.

The lounge in Istanbul is a delight, but it's a delight that wears off after an hour. Without the lounge, 7 hours in IST would be a challenge. It's an airport teetering on the edge of chaos.

You can get into the city by metro/tram - but you'd probably need to spend money on a visa.

If you're *G yes, otherwise no

IMHO 7 hours is not really enough to get to the Old Town. Traffic is bad (if you take taxi), metro takes up to 1 hour and to get to Hagia Sophia/Blue Mosque you need to change for tramway.

Even worse, the seven hours would shrink to 5 after the arrival faff and giving up tine to reenter the system and get to the gate. But if that allowed me only a couple of hours to waltz around Sultanahmet I'd be happy to get out of the airport and into the fresh air.

Now serious business: we went from no Istanbulkart machine at the airport to (I think) one, and occasional long queues with tourists on steep learning curves: are there any more machines, or are any of the retail outlets selling the card?

Sorry for the confusion, by 7 hours extra transit time I meant to say that the total time of the journey from IAH-BCN via IST is 19 hours as opposed to 12 hours if I went through LHR, CDG, etc.

Higher fare - TK fare /7= what's it worth. That should give you an accurate reading. :D

Personally I wouldn't dream of it.

I wouldn't go to IST for BCN, not for 7 hours/backtracking

Unless
- you're flying in J
- you really want to see the lounge
- there's no other award availability (but you are buying cash?)

FYI I've tried TK J (on 777 & A333) and IST lounge (twice), myself (Transit in Y) and with family (in J) for a week in Turkey

If you are going from IAH to IST, the arrival time is like 5pm. Then going out is not a good option as it's getting dark unless it's summer that you get more daylight.

The IAH flight leaves at 13ish which means that your BCN flight is either a midnight departure or early morning departure which doesn't give you much time to go out anyway.

Like the others said, go for it if you need the miles and if you have lounge access

BTW... TK offers really competitive J class fares to/from IAH. We still are not sure which class of service we are talking about here. For J class the fare difference may be huge. For my travels to IAH I end up on TK because the fare difference between TK and BA or UA is the range of 1-1.2k EUR.

Economy

I've done this before and would do it again.

PRO
- Much cheaper fare in Business and Economy
- Almost always 125% status miles in Business
- IMO good food, service, seats, AVOD, hard/soft product on board
- if TK J, ease of facilities/customs/etc. at IST

CON
- transit times of 2 - 18hrs (but I think gives free transit hotels?)
- IST can be chaotic is not *G or flying Business

This has often been the cheapest option I've seen, even factoring in the costs for an overnight hotel. There are worse places to transit that IST or places to overnight than Istanbul!

I'd put the equation like this

((Higher fare - cash values of miles earned with higher fares) - (TK fare - cash values of miles earned with TK fares))/7= what's it worth.

Cash values depend on a lot of things. If you do need status miles the cash values will be much higher as opposed to only bonus miles. In most cases with TK, it's definitely worth it even if you lose 1/2 day each direction. I often ignore outbound going to Europe since you'd be jet-lagged first day regardless.

The worst part about flying to the US with TK is the extra security at IST. Back in Dec. they asked us for the printed version for the ESTA and e-tickets - why on earth do they need that? I said I don't have a print out but they should be able to check in their system.

Then ALL our bags were deeply searched and padded from top to toe - this happens to EVERYONE with kids. We were stuck at the gate to wait for Mr. to get checked before we can go on board.