Review: Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge Istanbul Airport

A review of the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge in Istanbul (IST), the designated airport lounge for Star Alliance gold passengers.

Istanbul New Airport

After a pleasant flight in Turkish Airlines’ economy class from Tokyo Narita to Istanbul, I found myself in the vast spaces of Istanbul’s relatively new airport.

The new airport took over the role of Istanbul’s main airport on 6th April 2019, replacing ageing Ataturk Airport, which had become way too small to handle the massive growth in air traffic over the last decades.

Simply called Istanbul New Airport or just Istanbul Airport (IATA code: IST), it’s a beautiful but massive building, and walking distances can be lengthy.

Walking  from one side of the airport to the far other side can easily take some 25 to 30 minutes.

The airport itself feels mostly like a gleaming new shopping centre – and it is a nice place to walk through and do some window shopping.

The airport feels airy, there are plenty of food outlets, moving walkways, and seating areas.

There are even designated sleeping chairs placed around the airport which you can grab as a passenger!

Sure, you won’t have any privacy at all – but these reclining chairs are much better than the usual airport benches.

Istanbul Airport does have free Wi-Fi internet, although you need to register by receiving a text message on your mobile phone or by swiping your passport at the Wi-Fi internet terminals placed around the airport in order to receive a login code.

The airport exists out of four international departure piers and one domestic pier, all linked to the same central building.

In that central building of Istanbul Airport, you can also find all the airport lounges, including the Turkish Airlines lounges.

Turkish Airlines lounge entry requirements

Turkish Airlines currently has two business lounges at its Istanbul hub: The Miles&Smiles Lounge and the Turkish Airlines Business Lounge.

Located at opposite sides in the central building, these lounges are actually mirror images of each other and have more or less the same facilities.

Both Turkish Airlines lounges at Istanbul Airport are open 24/7.

The sole difference between the two Turkish Airlines lounges at Istanbul Airport is that the Turkish Airlines Business Lounge can only be accessed by passengers travelling in business class on Turkish Airlines or another Star Alliance carrier, while the Miles&Smiles Lounge is the designated lounge for passengers holding Star Alliance gold status.

If you are travelling in business class and have Star Alliance gold status, you can access both of these lounges at Istanbul Airport, but as a Star Alliance gold status holder travelling in economy class you can only visit the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge.

The usual Star Alliance entry rules apply to the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge in Istanbul, which means that Star Alliance gold card holders are allowed to bring in a guest if that person also has a same-day ticket on Turkish Airlines or another Star Alliance airline.

Paid access to the Turkish Airlines lounges is not possible and lounge membership passes such as Priority Pass are not accepted.

Entering the Miles&Smiles Lounge

The entrance to the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles lounge is basically located behind a large duty free shop near gate C1.

Here, you take the escalators or a lift one floor up, where you will find the entrance barriers where you have to scan your boarding pass to access the lounge.

To reach the main entrance, you have to take an escalator or lift up one floor, with a Turkish Airlines employee briefly checking your boarding pass before you are allowed to step onto the escalator or inside the elevator.

If for some reason this is not working, or if you want to bring in a guest, you need to report yourself at the reception desk right next to the electronic barriers.

If needed, these receptionists are also able to help you with basic tasks regarding your upcoming flight, such as printing your boarding pass if you haven’t yet received one for your connecting flight, or changing your seat assignment.

Inside the Miles&Smiles Lounge

At the entrance of the Miles&Smiles Lounge is a huge screen covering the entire wall and a grand piano.

If you turn left, you will head into the main lounge area where you can find most of the seating, as well as all food and drink stations.

If you however turn right, you will find a big number of lockers, a small business centre with a few computers and printer, and the reception desk where you can inquire for availability of shower or sleeping rooms.

The lockers come in various sizes and are great if you want to store your carry-on during your stay in the lounge.

Miles&Smiles Lounge seating

With a floor size of 5,600 square metres and a seating capacity of 765 people, the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge definitely is one of the larger airline lounges across the Star Alliance network, and perhaps even the world.

The space is massive – and if you have never set foot before in the lounge you are well-advised to first explore a bit around the lounge, so you can see which area you like best.

There are food and drink stations placed throughout the entire lounge, so you are never too far off from a bite or drink.

This is a smart design move by Turkish Airlines, as it spreads out the passengers and prevents a single area from becoming overcrowded with people.

The first part of the lounge behind the grand piano consists of some live cooking stations and seating which perhaps reminds most of a rustic country tavern.

Most of the seats here are around dining tables, which makes them perfect for those who wish to have a bite.

Balcony

If you walk all the way towards the end of this part of the lounge, and then turn right, you end up at a large balcony terrace overlooking the main airport concourse.

This is the most open part of the lounge and is great for relaxing with a drink.

Seats in this area consist out of comfy sofas and couches, as well as some more dining tables.

You will also find a large miniature race track here, which children will surely love!

In this part of the lounge you will also find a children’s play area as well as a video room.

Library and tea room

If you turn left at the far end of the lounge, you will come across two large rooms with some more seating, each featuring their own unique design.

One room is designed as an old-fashioned library, with book cabinets and leather couches and seats.

Next to this you will find an area which is dubbed the tea room, with yet more sofas and seats.

Although it is possible to get some tea at other drink stations too, you will find a much wider choice in both Turkish teas as well as blends from other parts of the world here.

Cinema room

Halfway through the lounge on your right hand side, you will see a TV wall with a dozen or so TV screens showing news and sports channels.

You will also find the entrance here to a dark cinema room, where most of the times some silent films or footage of a classical music concert are played.

As this room is quite dark and features lounger chairs, it is a popular spot for people to take a quick nap in between flights.

There are however also proper loungers at the outer edges of the lounge, which can be used for the same purpose (or well, which are actually meant for this purpose!).

Miles&Smiles Lounge food buffet

The old Turkish Airlines lounge at Ataturk Airport always had the reputation of being one of the best business class lounges in the Star Alliance network for one single reason: The massive food buffet.

Turkish Airlines certainly managed to bring this aspect over to its lounges at Istanbul New Airport.

Indeed, they might have even managed to outdo themselves even more, as I think the buffet is even better at the new Miles&Smiles Lounge!

There is one main buffet area in the centre of the lounge, where you can find mostly healthy food, such as fresh salads, olives, cheeses and all kinds of spreads.

Throughout the lounge there are live cooking stations where you can grab a cooked meal that’s freshly prepared in front of your eyes.

As my Star Alliance frequent flyer programme is actually Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles and I do travel a lot with Turkish, I actually have visited the lounge quite a number of times.

I therefore managed to taste almost everything there is on offer in the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge (and that is a lot!) during my frequent lounge visits.

All food is really of great quality and the chefs cooking the food take pride in guests trying out some authentic Turkish staples.

The live cooking stations prepare breakfast dishes from early in the morning until around 10 or 11am, when they switch to lunch/dinner service until late in the evening.

Note that there is normally a reduced food service during the nighttime hours, as the live cooking stations won’t operate.

In the text and images below, I will take you along a culinary journey through all the food stations of the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge.

Pide

The most popular food station in the old Turkish Airlines Business Lounge at Ataturk Airport was always the pide station.

Therefore, the pide bakery is located in the centre of the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge, and is impossible to miss.

For those who do not know what pide is: This is basically an open-top flat bread topped with a variety of ingredients.

There is a cheese pide, pide with minced meat, a veggie pide – you name it!

Also called ‘Turkish pizza’, pide is baked around the clock in large ovens by one of the chefs working in the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge.

If all the pide is gone from the counter (it is popular!), just wait for 5 or 10 minutes or so until a new batch has been freshly baked.

Manti

Manti are dumplings filled with minced meat, and is a staple dish in Turkey, as well as in Turkic-speaking countries of Central Asia, where it takes a slightly different form.

You can grab a bowl of manti at this live cooking station, with the chef often throwing some chili flakes and a sort of crème fraiche over it.

Grilled meat and veggies

There is also a food station in the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge where a chef grills different kinds of meat (both beef and chicken), as well as some peppers, eggplant and other veggies.

This is also a highly popular live cooking station where you will often find a small queue.

Moussaka

Another live cooking station serves freshly prepared moussaka, which is called “Aegean” moussaka on the sign at the counter as it seems like the Turks are too proud and nationalistic to call it what it originally is: Greek.

Politics aside, the chefs at the Turkish Airlines lounge do make a tasty version of the dish!

Gözleme

A new feature in the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge is a station where a chef prepares some gözleme, which is a filled Turkish flat bread.

In the Miles&Smiles Lounge, you will find gözleme filled with spinach, creating a relatively light and healthy dish.

Indian and Italian food

All the way in the back of the lounge (around the corner of the pide bakery) you will also find a fairly hidden food station where either Indian or Italian food is cooked.

The Indian food in the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge is chicken tandoori, rice and lentils – one of my own favourites – while the Italian dish generally is a vegetarian pasta.

Breakfast

In the morning, most of the above food stations are closed, while some others are used to prepare more typical breakfast specialties.

There is for example a cooking station which prepares eggs cooked to order.

You will also be able to get traditional Turkish simit breads (a kind of bagel), kumru (a cheese, tomato and sausage sandwich which traditionally comes from the part of Turkey around the city of Izmir) and other breakfast specialities.

Desserts, cakes, pies and baklava

Of course, you can count on the Turks to also have plenty of sweets available in the lounge.

There is a wide choice of Turkish delight and different cakes and pies in the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge, as well as baklava, of course.

You can find this ‘sweet tooth’ station on the balcony terrace.

Here, you will also find here some large jars filled with Turkish Airlines’ trademark raspberry and lemonade drinks, which are served as pre-departure beverages in Turkish Airlines business class.

Coffee and tea

At two places in the lounge, you will find a coffee bar where you can get your fill of caffeine.

You can get some proper barista-made coffee at these drinks station in the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge, so you can look forward to a tasty espresso, cappuccino or latte.

It being Turkey, the barista can of course also make you a Turkish coffee.

If you are just making a quick pit stop in the lounge, it is also possible to ask for a takeaway coffee to bring along on your walk to the gate.

There are also large jars with Turkish tea, although for a wider selection you are advised to go to the special tea room.

Soft drinks, water and beer

At multiple places throughout the lounge, you can find an open fridge placed against the wall.

From these self-serve fridges, you can grab some bottles or cans of soda, water or Efes beer.

Wine and booze

Throughout the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge you can find self-serve drinks carts with wine or strong liqueurs.

The wine carts have a large selection of Turkish wines on top, and wine glasses hanging down from the bottom.

There are always at least five whites, five reds and two rose wines available in the lounge.

All of these wines are Turkish, which makes for some fun tasting if you are not familiar yet with Turkish wine (some of them are really good!).

The booze selection inside the lounge is certainly good too in both quantity and quality.

In the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge you can find some mid to top-shelf alcohol brands such as Jack Daniels bourbon and Johnny Walker whiskey, as well as Hennessy cognac.

Sleeping rooms

When you head right at the lounge entrance, you will encounter a small reception desk at the far end of the lounge, where you can reserve a shower room or even a private sleeping room to take a nap.

Although the showers are available for all lounge guests on a first come, first serve basis, the rules for the nap rooms are a bit more restrictive.

These nap rooms are only given to business class passengers or Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Elite Plus members who have a flight connection between four and nine hours, and one of these flights must be a long-haul flight longer than eight hours in length.

Flights must be on Turkish Airlines metal, as even codeshares operated by other airlines are excluded.

This means that as a Star Alliance gold member with another frequent flyer programme than Turkish, you won’t be able to get a private sleeping room in the lounge, unless you fly in business class.

However, you might be eligible for a free 4 or 5-star hotel outside the airport if your layover between connecting Turkish Airlines flights meets a certain set of requirements.

Lounge showers

The Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge has 12 showers which are readily available during most of the day.

If you are unlucky and they are all occupied, which can happen at peak rush hour in the morning, you will be given a beeper which will give a signal when your shower room is ready.

The shower rooms are well-appointed and clean, although they do already suffer from quite a bit of wear and tear, which I thought was rather surprising for such a relatively new lounge!

Internet

To get access to the Wi-Fi internet network in the lounge, you need to enter your frequent flyer account number on the log-in page.

Most of the times, the Wi-Fi network is reliable and has fairly good speeds.

The disadvantage is that at peak times it can be tricky to find a spot in the lounge with a power socket, as there aren’t that many for a lounge as large as this.

Service

Outside of peak times when the lounge turns into a zoo, the service is usually good in the the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge

A team of cleaners are constantly walking through the lounge to collect empty plates and glasses, and to prepare tables for the next lounge guests.

Apart from the shower rooms, there are two restroom areas inside the lounge.

In each restroom there is always a cleaner walking around (one for the men, one for the women) who constantly checks on the cleanliness of the toilets, making sure that they remain immaculately clean.

This is an aspect of the lounge which I also really appreciate and for which the cleaners do unfortunately not always get enough credit, so I want to emphasise the great job they are doing here.

Crowding

I mentioned it briefly before already – but the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge has one disadvantage: It can get insanely crowded at peak times, especially during the morning rush hour, and around 1pm to 3pm.

At these times, the lounge can resemble a bit of a zoo, as there is barely any seat left, there are queues everywhere, and servers struggle to clean plates from tables.

With Turkish Airlines continuing to expand its global network, it seems the airline is in need of a third lounge at its home base of Istanbul Airport to ease crowds!

Conclusion

The Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge in Istanbul is without doubt one of the finest lounges in the Star Alliance network, and one of the best in the world.

As a Star Alliance gold member travelling in economy class, you can access the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge, while business class passengers on Turkish Airlines or another Star Alliance carrier can use the comparable Turkish Airlines Business Lounge.

The Miles&Smiles Lounge is certainly large and beautifully designed, and makes for a nice, comfortable place to await your flight.

By far the best aspect of the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge is the food selection, which not only includes an extensive buffet full of fresh, healthy options such as salads, veggies and cheeses, but also several live cooking stations.

At these live cooking stations, real chefs prepare dishes such as grilled meat, moussaka and pide (Turkish pizza).

When it comes to the drinks on offer in the lounge, the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge scores great as well, as there is proper barista coffee, a huge choice in wine, and a good selection of strong alcohol.

The lounge has countless of other facilities which guests can use, such as a miniature race track and playground for children, well-appointed shower rooms, and even sleeping rooms for passengers with a long airport transit.

The lovely staff who keeps the lounge premises spotlessly clean is another positive factor.

There is only one major disadvantage to the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge, which is the overcrowding at peak times, especially during the morning and early afternoon.

Trip report index

This article is part of the ‘Lazing in Laos and Gallivanting a Wee Bit Around Asia‘ trip report, which consists of the following chapters:

1. Review: Aegean Airlines Business Class Bucharest to Athens (Airbus A320)
2. Review: Goldair Handling Lounge (Non-Schengen) Athens Airport
3. Review: Saudia Business Class Athens to Jeddah (Airbus A320)
4. Review: Saudia Alfursan Lounge Jeddah Airport South Terminal
5. Review: Review: Saudia Business Class Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur (Boeing 787)
6. Review: CitizenM Hotel Kuala Lumpur Bukit Bintang
7. Kuala Lumpur in One Day: What to See and Do in 24 Hours
8. A Batu Caves Half Day Trip From Kuala Lumpur By Public Transport
9. Review: Plaza Premium Lounge Private Resting Suite Gateway KLIA2
10. Review: Air Asia Kuala Lumpur to Vientiane (Airbus A320)
11. Review: Hotel Khamvongsa, Vientiane, Laos
12. Destination Trip Report: A Day in Vientiane, Laos
13. Guide: Domestic Bus Travel in Laos and How to Book a Ticket
14. Review: Simon Riverside Hotel, Vang Vieng, Laos
15. Trip Report: Vang Vieng – Worth a Stop on Your Laos Itinerary?
16. Review: Villa Ban Phanluang, Luang Prabang, Laos
17. Luang Prabang: The Stunning Pearl of Indochina
18. Guide: Luang Prabang Morning, Food and Night Markets
19. Kuang Si Falls: A Gorgeous Luang Prabang Day Trip
20. Review: Thai Smile Economy Class Luang Prabang to Bangkok (Airbus A320)
21. Review: Ibis Styles Bangkok Sukhumvit 4
22. Review: Air France/KLM Business Lounge Bangkok Airport
23. Review: Garuda Indonesia Business Class Bangkok to Jakarta (Boeing 737-800)
24. Review: Sapphire Plaza Premium Lounge Terminal 3 Jakarta Airport
25. Review: Garuda Business Lounge Terminal 3 Jakarta Airport
26. Review: Review: Japan Airlines Business Class Jakarta to Tokyo Narita (Boeing 787-8)
27. Review: Capsule Hotel Transit Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
28. Tokyo Stopover: What to See and Do in the Capital of Japan for a Day
29. Review: ANA Business Lounge Tokyo Narita Airport
30. Review: United Club Tokyo Narita Airport
31. Review: Turkish Airlines Economy Class Tokyo Narita to Istanbul (Boeing 777)
32. Review: Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Lounge Istanbul Airport (current chapter)
33. Review: Turkish Airlines Economy Class Istanbul to Bucharest (Airbus A330)