The Deal

You can participate in Turkish Airlines’ “TourIstanbul” for free by meeting the following requirements (can be a paid or award ticket):

1. You’re flying Turkish Airlines into and out of Istanbul
2. You’re just passing through Turkey, your origin and destination is international
3. Your layover is between 6 hours and 24 hours
4. Must be able to fit into one of the 3 following tour schedules:
   • Whole day, 9am to 6pm tour: arrive IST before 8am and connecting flight must be after 7:30pm
   • Half day, 9am to 3pm tour: arrive IST before 8am and connecting flight must be after 4:30pm
   • Half day, 12pm to 6pm tour: arrive IST before 11am and connecting flight must be after 7:30pm

How to Get It

Compared to the free hotel, the free Istanbul city tour has a lot fewer strings attached. Since the only requirement is to have a minimum of 6 hours connection time on your international Turkish Airlines transfer, there aren’t too many technicalities that might exclude you.

If you have time for the full day tour, here’s a sample of what you’ll be able to see:

You must be an international transit passenger of Turkish Airlines.

Your connection should not be longer than 24 hours.

Our scheduled tours are everyday from 09:00 to 18:00, from 09:00 to 15:00 and from 12:00 to 18:00. Thus, your departure and arrival time of your flight should be compatible with our scheduled tours.

a – For 09:00 /18:00 Tour
Arrival time must be 08:00 or earlier than 08:00
Departure time must be 19:30 or later than 19:30

b – For 09:00/15:00 Tour
Your Arrival time must be 08:00 or earlier than 08:00
Departure time must be 16:30 or later than 16:30

c – For 12:00/18:00 Tour
Your Arrival time must be 11:00 or earlier
Departure time must be 19:30 or later than 19:30

Your arrival time should be enough to be ready at the Hotel Desk half hour before the tour starts. For instance for our 09:00 tour, we kindly ask you to be ready in front of Hotel Desk at 08:30 am. For the 12:00 tour, this is 11:30am.

Secondly, we expect our passengers to be ready for boarding and pass the passport and custom control minimum 1 hour before their scheduled departure time. For instance if we assume that your departure is at 18:30pm, we may only suggest tours ending at 15:00.

Where to Go

When you get to Istanbul, you’ll have to clear customs and immigration (and, if you’re a US citizen, pay $20 US in cash for a visa). Once out of customs, you’ll be on the Arrivals floor; turn right and walk to the end and you’ll find the Turkish Airlines Hotel Desk/TourIstanbul Meeting Point right next to Starbucks.

Source: Mr. Roboto

Source: Mr. Roboto

Details:

• Free food! “Will we pay for the meals in the touri̇stanbul programme? — No, you are our guest. The food service is for free. We will introduce you with Ottoman cuisine and Turkish hospitality.”
• Check out the full details here: http://www.istanbulinhours.com/
• The tour itineraries vary slightly based upon day of the week due to the operating hours of some attractions
• You must be able to obtain a Turkish visa to leave the airport when transiting internationally.
• You cannot have both the free night and the tour during the same layover; however, you could schedule your flights so that on the inbound you participate in the free tour and on the return you make use of the free hotel
• This is available for both paid and award bookings or don’t forget that Turkish Airlines is a Star Alliance member so you can use United miles for this trick, as well.
• Contact info for the Hotel Desk is +90 212 463 63 63 / ext. 12426-15532 or touristanbul@thy.com and hoteldesk@thy.com.

BOTTOM LINE: Have a long layover in Istanbul? Turkish Airlines, the country’s national airline, wants to show you a good time and promote tourism to the region all while (hopefully) keeping you as a more satisfied customer by taking you on a free tour of the city.

Featured image source: by lonjemoko on pichost.me

The post Secret Travel Trick: Free Istanbul City Tour During Turkish Airlines Layover first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

The Deal

Turkish Airlines will provide free lodging if you meet the following requirements (can be a paid or award ticket):

1. You’re flying Turkish Airlines into and out of Istanbul
2. You’re just passing through Turkey, your origin and destination is international
3. Your layover is 10+ hours for economy or 7+ hours for business
4. The 10+ hour or 7+ hour layover is forced based upon Turkish Air’s flight schedule, i.e. you don’t have the option of taking an earlier flight if you want to

How to Get It

The list above might have seemed strict but there are plenty of instances that would qualify for this deal. For example, if you booked the following flight from Washington, D.C.-IAD to Bordeaux, France-BOD, you would qualify:

You’ll be “stuck” with a 18 hour layover in Istanbul which might typically dissuade you from booking, but, knowing that you’ll get a free night in Istanbul might actually encourage you to book this routing. This works because there is only 1 flight per day to Bordeaux.

Let’s take a look at this flight from Washington-IAD to Athens-ATH:

On the surface, it appears that it would qualify:  you’ve got a 15 hour layover in Istanbul-IST which is well within the limits of the 10 hour minimum but, upon closer examination, I found that there was actually a connecting flight to Athens-ATH that would have worked:

Because the flight gets into Istanbul at 4:40pm and there’s a doable connection to Athens at 7:20pm, I wouldn’t be able to get the free hotel layover in Istanbul on this itinerary, even if I booked the longer layover that leaves at 7:40am the next day.

Terms and conditions: 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. 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. For further information, please call +90 212 4440849.

Beware, though:  you could get stuck without a room if Turkish Air adds flights to their schedule between the time of booking and date of travel. To comply with the “this service is not applicable when there is a shorter connection available within the time frame mentioned above” rule, this is checked by an attendant at the Turkish Airlines Hotels desk by simply checking the current flight schedule. If there’s a flight to your destination within the 10 hour/7 hour window, then you’re out of luck.

If you want to confirm if you qualify, you’ll want to check the Turkish Airlines flight schedule. For future flights, the easiest way to do this is to search Google Flights. To confirm closer to your departure date that Turkish Airlines hasn’t added any new routes, I suggest searching the route on FlightAware.com:

The direct flights are shown at the top

Types of hotels to expect:

Here are some of the reported hotels that Turkish Air might put you in– as you can see, it’s a pretty mixed bag (although most are international, Western-style chains).

• Marriott Renaissance Polat Istanbul Hotel (72% TripAdvisor–most common)
• Akgün Istanbul Hotel (44% TripAdvisor–common–far from the airport)
• Wow Airport Hotel (56% TripAdvisor–common)
• 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

Where to Go

When you get to Istanbul, you’ll have to clear customs and immigration (and, if you’re a US citizen, pay $20 US in cash for a visa). Once out of customs, you’ll be on the Arrivals floor, turn right and walk to the end and you’ll find the Turkish Airlines Hotel Desk right next to Starbucks.

Source: Mr. Roboto

Source: Mr. Roboto

The staff will present you with a hotel voucher; this voucher should include breakfast if your stay includes that time window. Additionally, transport to/from the hotel is included.

Details:

• This is available for both paid and award bookings.
• You could get stuck without a room if Turkish Airlines adds a flight between the time of booking and travel, they check the rule on the day you show up asking for a room.
• Unfortunately, you cannot pre-book the hotel. You have to be physically present at the Hotel Desk.
• Contact info for the Hotel Desk is +90 212 463 63 63 / ext. 12426-15532 or touristanbul@thy.com and hoteldesk@thy.com.
• If you get really creative, you could possibly stay for 2 nights on both the outbound and return flights for a total of 4 nights in 1 roundtrip flight.

BOTTOM LINE: Want a free night in Istanbul, maybe even 2? Carefully book your transit to connect through Istanbul and stay within the connection windows and you’ll extend your trip by up to 2 nights for free! Don’t forget that Turkish Airlines is a Star Alliance member so you can use United miles for this trick, as well.

Featured image source: http://lslconsultancy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Istanbul.jpg

The post Secret Travel Trick: Free Hotel Layover in Istanbul with Turkish Airlines first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

The new route is scheduled to be flown 4x per week: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Why do you care? Because this route opens up more possibilities for booking Star Alliance awards, namely United Mileage Plus awards. And, as with most new routes, the award availability is excellent with 2+ economy seats still open on nearly every single flight going 9 months out:

Visiting Bordeaux? Here are some related posts:

• SNCF Train: Paris CDG to Bordeaux
• Walking Tour of Bordeaux, France

Visiting Istanbul? Here are some related posts:

• Top 5 Things to Do in Istanbul
• Hagia Sophia / Ayasofya Review – Istanbul, Turkey
• Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnici) – Istanbul, Turkey Review and Photo Gallery
• Exploring Istanbul: A Tour of Turkish Food
• Galata Tower Review – Istanbul, Turkey
• Souvenirs: Turkey
  

Sample award booking:

Sept 1: New York-NYC –> London-LHR
Sept 8: Bordeaux-BOD –> Istanbul-IST
Sept 11: Istanbul-IST –> New York-NYC

This would price out at 60,000 United MileagePlus miles per passenger.

BOTTOM LINE: The more choices/city pairs for award bookings, the better! And, we always love new routes because it generally means plentiful award inventory since the masses don’t know about it yet.

The post New Route for United Awards: Bordeaux, France to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

…it must be a sign

We made it to Dulles from our connecting flight with about 3 hrs to kill before takeoff. I had a few United Club passes that I wanted to use before they expired, but we wanted to stay in Terminal B. Unfortunately, you’re out of luck when it comes to United Clubs in Terminal B.

Image source: airchive.com

The next best bet is using Priority Pass to gain entry to the “BRITISH AIRWAYS GALLERIES LOUNGE,” located in Terminal B. This would have been perfect if it weren’t for this caveat, listed on the PriorityPass website:

Opening Hours: 07:00 – 14:00 daily. Cardholders will not be admitted to the Lounge outside these hours.

So, again, no club. Guess we’ll have to slum it with common folk. We posted up at one of the restaurants to kill the time:

From: McCown
To: Family/Friends

Hello from our first leg of the trip! We are having dinner/we’re not really sure which meal to get on our new time schedule. We board the plane in about an hour. Here’s the bad news: we booked our seats with a seat in between us hoping to get the whole row to ourselves. We’ve just found out that the plane is completely booked. Looks like I’m facing another 10+ hour plane trip stuck in the middle.

Here’s a pic of us eating dinner.

I think my next few emails will be more entertaining and (hopefully) more visually stimulating.

Turkish Airlines Flight 8 – IAD to IST – Airbus A340-300 -11:25pm to 4:40pm (+1 day)

With takeoff scheduled at 11:25pm, we moseyed back down to the gate around 10:30pm and boarding was already well underway! We had planned to be the first on the plane in an effort to trade around seats, if possible, but this flight was 100% full!

Example of a Turkish Air A340-300. Source: Wikipedia

The economy cabin is configured as “2 – 4 – 2”. Typically, we would just bite the bullet and take a window and an aisle so as to not have to have any additional passengers right next to us, but, when I booked the seats (just a few weeks prior to departure), the plane appeared to be wide open! So, I used the strategy of booking an aisle and middle seat on one of the sections with 4 seats across in the hopes that we could spread out across the empty seats. Well, no dice on this trip. When I checked the seat map on the day of departure, the cabin was showing 100% capacity! Guess that plan backfired on us.

Turkish Airlines A340-300. Economy cabin: 2 – 4 – 2 configuration

Despite being full, boarding was pretty smooth and painless and we made it back to our seats:

The Seat

The seat was fine. Nothing special, but no complaints either. The interior was nice and relatively new looking. Those bright blue seats are pretty unmistakable for Turkish Airways.

I was just pleased to have personal in-flight entertainment with a decent-sized screen:

The TV/Movies selection, however, left a bit to be desired:

Turkish Airlines New Releases section: “The Man With One Red Shoe” starring Tom Hanks…released in 1985. Let’s hope this isn’t a theme, Turkey

The Food

Immediately after reaching 10,000 feet, the flight attendants came through the cabin distributing menus for the meal services: Dinner then Breakfast:

Dinner and breakfast menu

Dinner consisted of:

• Smoked salmon with horseradish sauce
• “Shepherd salad” with white cheese
• Choice of
  • Grilled kofta with sautéed vegetables and rice
  • Grilled chicken breast with fried eggplants in tomato sauce and polenta
• Apricot cake

The meal service started around 12:10am ~ 45 minutes after takeoff and lasted until appx 1am. I went with the kofta option and found it to be pretty good:

Grilled kofta with sautéed vegetables and rice

Kofta is essentially a grilled lamb meatball of sorts. Turkish Air’s variety had a good flavor, was spiced well and all around delicious. The rice was pretty bland but that’s standard practice for plane food:  serve it bland and you can salt and season yourself. We washed it all down with a mini bottle of Ancyra, a nice red wine from Turkey. Overall, this was a pretty quality meal.

By around 1am EST, the meal service was over and we were able to get about 6.5 hours of (restless) sleep in the economy seats. By 7:15am EST / 2:15pm Istanbul time, the breakfast service was starting. On the menu this time:

• Fresh fruit salad
• Cheese tray: white cheese, cheddar cheese, black olive, tomato and cucumber
• Cheese omelette with grilled tomato and panfried potatoes

Breakfast service: Cheese omelette with potatoes

While ok for economy, the breakfast wasn’t nearly as good as dinner–guess it doesn’t help that it had been sitting in the warmer for the past 8+ hours.

Service

The service was fine. Not too rushed but our flight in Thai Airways economy from Phuket-HKT to Hong Kong-HKG was much better. The Thai Airways staff delivered much more detailed, personal service than Turkish Air. That being said, the Turkish Air service was leaps and bounds better than any US airline’s transatlantic service in economy. But, then again, it could have just been the fact that TK still serves free alcohol on international flights.

The amenity kits were distributed the same time as the menus, right after takeoff:

Decent enough amenity kit

Ear plugs and eye mask–my only hope at any sleep….

We landed at the Istanbul Atatürk Airport on time and were soon on our way through customs. A 90-day visa for Americans cost us $20, payable with USD at the airport. Immigration was a huge cluster and the Eastern European/Turkish line forming has begun with lots of push, shoving and cutting in line. But hey, if you can’t beat em’….

BOTTOM LINE: Turkish Airlines has a pretty good long-haul product. The food, seats and service were all above average and definitely worth flying again. I’d pick TK over Delta or United for transatlantic flights any day.

The post Turkish Air Flight TK 8 – Washington-IAD to Istanbul-IST first appeared on Weekend Blitz.