lgnutah

I have heard people comment on arriving at this airport. Just wondering how smoothly and quickly things proceed when departing on an international flight from this airport. I have a flight that departs at 7:50 am. on the 20th of March (a Saturday).

julia1

I've flown from Ataturk to London and to Tehran in the last couple years and was favorably impressed each time with how smoothly everything went. May have had as much to do with the particular airlines (BA, Turkish) as with the airport itself.

otherchelebi

That may be a congested time so you should get there two and a half hours before your flight, (After May, passengers will be required to arrive three hours before due to additional carry on and hand carried item search before boarding) You are not allowed any liquids and creams in containers larger than 33 ounces or 100 ml. And the smaller bottles and containers should be in zip-lock bags.

If you are flying business, take the furthest entrance to the departures building because it has a separate security queue for business ticket holders.

Prepare for the entrance security, by removing coins, belt with metal buckle, watch, etc. and put them in coat pocket or hand bag.

If you are flying THY, check in on-line because that gives you a queueing advantage.

No matter which airline you are flying, make sure you get your seat asigned beforehand. Otherwise you may be stuck in the middle of the row.

After check-in, the shops before passport control (to the right) has magazines, books, Turkish delight, and small souvenirs. The 'Divan' Turkish delight brand is good if you suddenly decide to take some with you and only slightly overpriced.

ellen75005

We flew in and out of IST on Delta last fall and it was smooth both ways. Our flight left IST at noon on a Friday, and there was a fairly long line at the check-in counter, but they had two agents screening people in line (the usual questions), so by the time we got to the counter it was quick and easy. I think we got there at least two hours prior to the flight, but after we checked in, we had time for a coffee, then waited quite a while at the gate, so for us, two hours was plenty of time.

Ellen

ms_go

otherchelebi and Ignutah, I hope you don't mind me piggybacking on this. We have a similar departure in a few weeks--8:25am THY to Frankfurt on a Monday. So, 2.5 hours ahead? Also, how early would you suggest arriving for a 10am domestic flight (IST-NAV)? Do you know if economy passengers who have Star Alliance Gold status can use the business class check-in/security facilities? This is typically the case on other Star Alliance carriers, but I didn't see any (or missed) reference to this on the THY site. Thanks.

lgnutah

2 1/2 hours....that means leaving for the airport before 5 am. uggh.

otherchelebi

Ignutah, if you pick your transfer/cab at 5:15 AM, you hould be OK. No traffic at that time so 15 minutes to airport from Sultanahmet.

ms_go, domestic flights will require 90 or more minutes after May this year, but currently 75 minutes should be OK.
Again, do your on-line check-in the last 24 hours before flight to get seat and to use special fast counter even if you check baggage.

I do not know if the Star Alliance Gold is the same as the THY Elite. There is no reason you should not try, because there is also a regular security next to the business. You could always change lines. Just show your gold card.

zinfanatic

Another airline question! I have been told by Delta- KLM that they do not assign seats on intra- Europe flights prior to check-in. We are flying on May 23 home from Ataturk to SFO via Amsterdam. We have been told that we will get our seat assignments on the Istanbul-Amsterdam leg upon check-in. Is this true for all intra-Europe flights?

otherchelebi

I know that you can get seats on all THY flights anywhere, but do not know about KLM.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a Delta specialty.
Is it because they do not trust anyone who flies Delta to keep to teir schedule?

tcreath

ms_go, we were on a flight from IST to FRA last February. Everything went smoothly overall, except that our airline (Turkish) was unable to check us all the way through. When we got to Frankfurt we had to physically walk outside of the airport and get in line to get our tickets. Because of this we lost our confirmed seats and were stuck in the middle of a 5-seat row from Frankfurt to Dallas. Our entire itinerary was ticketed through American Airlines, so you may not have this problem, but just a little warning. But the actual Istanbul part of the journey was just fine.

Tracy

ms_go

Thanks otherchelebi. We do plan to check in for our flights the day before, if possible.

zinfanatic, I don't have recent experience with KLM, but I do with some other airlines that don't preassign seats for intra-European flights--mostly Lufthansa, which will only do so if you are in business class or have elite status in its own program.

Tracy, we are on United-issued tickets and will connect from Turkish to United at FRA. Since they are Star Alliance partners, I'm hopeful for a little better coordination (although I've learned never to assume...we've had to do the same as you transferring from United to Air Canada in Toronto). In the worst case, hopefully we can handle it airside at one of the transfer desks or lounges.

callalilli2

hi.. piggy-backing here... i have a flight out of IST at 5am at the end of May. i'm wondering if i should be there by 2? are they even open at that time? its on TurkishAir. Thank you to those in the know. just got our tickets and starting trip planning today. yippppeeeee!!!

otherchelebi

Hi Callalilli, check on THY web site in May. Currently the site says 2 hours before flight time. Since 5AM is not going to have any congestion, you probably will not need to get there before 3AM even if they say different.

callalilli2

thank you otherchelebi ! i was thinking that also.

lgnutah

We arrived on Sat Mar 13 at Ataturk. Customs took forever because the "polis" man at our little booth was very dedicated to his duty. Truly, 5 or more people would be passed through adjacent booths before he would let one pass through our booth. Why didn't we change lanes? Well, the usual thought is, "if I change lines, there will be a delay in the lane I switch to". We were kept so long, the entire room cleared of all passengers before our line was passed through. The thing was, he wasn't asking any questions, merely checking each passport, entering numbers on his computer, even calling on the phone (I guess to verify things). We were kept so long, our pickup ride from the hotel had come and paged us over the intercom twice, asking us to come to the information booth (which we couldn't do as we hadn't been passed through yet
Hope it goes more quickly on departure.

lgnutah

An update on yesterday's departure from Ataturk.
We could not check in online(for our Turkish Airlines leg of our return trip) using our computer, so the front desk of the hotel called the airlines and got us checked in and seats reserved.
However, when we checked baggage at the airport, the TA agent said she could only check our bags to Wash DC (not to our final destination). She said we could have them checked to our first stop in Zurich (why would we want this?) or to Wash DC, but not to our final destination.
When we got to DC, we realized this was so the bags could be checked through customs--and that airport had the system beautifully streamlined (the bags arrived right by where you had to go through customs and then after customs they were ready to check the bags through to the final destination.

That is, for the people whose bags arrived......ours did not make it.

otherchelebi

Dear Ignutah, i am hoping that you will write a trip report, even if it is short, on other and hopefully more pleasant aspects of your visit also.

I also hope that your luggage will eventually reach you.

lgnutah

Otherchelebi,
Phone rang last night-a man calling saying he was in our driveway with the luggage. Hooray.
For the trip report: I don't see a forum on this Fodors site labeled "Trip Reports". Do we just post within the usual Travel Talk forums for the region and label the thread "Trip Report"?
I found a thread labeled "posting pictures on trip report" was referred to Kodakgallery.com. I haven't figured out how I move the photos to this forum yet, but have posted that question on that thread.
I was hoping somewhere within this forum there is a way to browse my photos on Kodakgallery to upload them to the trip report.
Anyone who can help? Thanks

otherchelebi

Ignutah,

i am not an expert on forum protocol. The only one i did was, as you said, wrote it and labeleled it "trip report".

I put the photos with the report on a blog and gave the address on the thread. You can also put your photos on webshots, flickr or picassa and give the web address on your trip report.

i am glad that you received your luggage so quickly.

tcreath

Ignutah, to write a trip report just start a new topic and label it trip report. When you get to the new topic screen and scroll down, there is a place where you can click for trip reports. I look forward to reading it!

Trac