vincewy

Just to confirm if my flight is next day with boarding pass I'll be able to get into transit area (rather than immigration) and use lounge, if my connection is within 24 hours

ISTFlyer

Yes, you would be able to have access the airside, if you have a valid boarding pass within the 24 hours. Depending, on the destination you would arrive you may or may not need to clear security to access the departures level.

docbert

US flights are definitely considered "clean" - sometimes.

As with many things with TK and IST airport, it's inconsistent. In my experience, US flights that arrive at a gate are normally (but not always) allowed avoid security. US flights that arrive via bus are sometimes allowed avoid security.

I'm not sure if/how they actually decide this, or if it's just down to whether someone bothers to get the message to stand there and allow people into the departures area (as they need someone there to check you have an onward boarding pass).

ISTFlyer

For gate arrivals, it would be useful to wait for the employee before leaving the jet bridge. Sometimes the employees could be late for no reason. For bus arrivals, some bus drivers doesn't look at the destination but only look if the flight is a domestic one or and international one so they drive passengers to the nearest passenger drop off point. If the nearest bus drop point would be the one near 220 ( which is the only bus drop point that doesn't have a clear path ), they would drive there which would make their lives easy and which would mean more rest for them. Otherwise, the bus drop off point near gate 205 and the one near gate 227 has a special door for passengers arriving from clear destinations.

ibmman69

This is interesting. Especially since this was the most frustrating part of our Turkish Airlines experience.

Both times we were gate arrivals from JFK, and queued up with all the other international arrivals folks. We didn't see any other option than to go through security to get to the departures level, and onward to the lounge. As always, it's possible we missed something.

Stewie Mac

If you got as far as the queue, then you had gone too far. As you exit the airplane, on the jetbridge where the bridge splits with a downward ramp to arrivals and an upwards ramp which is coming down from departures, there should be a TK staffer standing there. If you show him your onward boarding pass, then he will let you go up the ramp back into the departures section. If you didn't know to look for that, then you would just join the general arrivals stream, and have to reclear security to get to the departures level.

One to know for next time...

ibmman69

That's probably it then. Thank you!

trmbn65

Every time I have arrived from the US at IST, they bus us. Even if we don't arrive at a remote gate. Then you don't need to clear security if you have an onward international BP. Sometimes they don't even have different buses for business class. Always pleasant after a 9+ hour flight.

Bruin1K

gr8pirate

ISTFlyer

Not for Star Alliance Gold by the way. When the lounge opens, the arrivals lounge would be available for arriving TK International Business Class passengers and arriving TK Elite Plus card holders on a TK international flight.

Other Elite card holders, other *G members traveling on TK Y won't able to benefit from the arrivals lounge.

jmail1

We will be arriving in J on Turkish from the US and connecting on to a separate ticket to Cairo on Egypt Air. The MS flight is a little different because two of us are in J from IST-CAI-JNB, but I had to voluntary downgrade the IST-CAI segment on our other two tickets, CAI-JNB is still in J.

Will we have access to the Turkish lounge with our landing BP given we don’t have an onward flight with TK? If not, will the two who are in Y from IST-CAI, then J from CAI-JNB be able to access the Miles and Smiles lounge?

Not related, but regarding the comment above and showing the TK agent on landing your BP to avoid going through security again, if we can’t do OLCI with Egypt Air can we show our onward itinerary to skip security and go straight to the transfer desk?

ISTFlyer

Unless the passengers are in J on the IST-CAI leg or have *G status, there would be no lounge access in IST at all. Obviously every *G member could guest 1 passenger.
The arrival from the USA in J has no effect at all in terms of lounge access on this occasion as TK doesn't provide lounge access upon arrival.

Also, you need a boarding pass to go from the arrival gate, straight to the departures area. If you don't have a boarding pass, you would be directed to the transit level where you would be going to the transfer desks to get your boarding passes and then clear security. For reference, all non-TK transfer desks are located pre-transfer security at IST.

jmail1

Thank you. In the past we'd had success with Oneworld allowing lounge access if the longhaul portion of your ticket (CAI-JNB in our case) was in J. Assuming Star Alliance doesn't extend the same?

ISTFlyer

Yes, oneworld is totally different compared to *A in these cases.