Trip Report: Turkish Airlines Lounge, IAD
I had read that the Turkish Airlines lounge at Washington-Dulles was a very good, well-catered lounge. The only tricky part is that it’s located at the B gates, a different building entirely from the C/D gates that United uses. But people said it was worth the trek to try out the lounge, if you had enough time during your layover.
Now, it did take me longer to get to the lounge, simply because I was unfamiliar with Dulles’s AeroTrain. Since I knew that A and B gates were just on two different halves of the same building, I thought that I had to get off at the A gates station and walk over. I didn’t realize that the AeroTrain actually makes a U-shape, where it stops at the A gates, then stops at the main terminal, and then comes back around to the B gates!
Judging by the line entering the lounge, I guess a bunch of other people also got the message that the Turkish lounge was worth checking out!
In fact, the lounge attendant was politely asking Priority Pass cardholders to come back a little later, allowing in only those airlines that contracted with the lounge or Star Alliance Gold cardholders.
Now, upon entering and looking at the flight monitor, I did see that quite a few airlines use the lounge. So adding up all of those passengers, plus those United Airlines Star Alliance Gold passengers, it was quite a challenge to find a seat!
There is another sitting area separate from the main lounge, with a bit more seating, and an attended bar. But don’t let this picture fool you: it was also hard to find a space here! I just took the picture in a rare moment when some people left.
A plus for this lounge is that there are big windows to look at airplanes…
…and also Eero Saarinen’s iconic main terminal in the background.
The big attraction (for me at least), is the food. I still remember Turkish Airlines as having the very best catering in business class on my Round-the-world trip many years ago, even surpassing Singapore Airlines. This outstation lounge did not fall short.
There was a salad bar with items like a quinoa tabbouleh, hummus, and baba ganoush, and a hot buffet with curried chicken, saffron rice, lamb and eggplant stew, and orzo pasta.
I loved their soups, including a spicy lentil soup, and a “summer pea” soup. I had two bowls of that lentil soup!
For dessert, they had baklava, and Turkish tea. They said they also had Turkish coffee “on request,” but given how hard the staff had to work to bring out fresh food and clean up after the hordes of people in the lounge, I didn’t think it would be worth it to try.
So I will confirm what others have said, this is indeed a great lounge. Despite the crowds, I would go back for the food, if I had lots of extra time in my layover.
