Review: The New Turkish Lounge at Dulles

Finally had the chance to try out the newest lounge at Dulles Airport (IAD), the Turkish Airlines Lounge.  I previously wrote about the lounge in Istanbul and think it is one of the best lounges I have ever been inside.  That lounge has two massive floors along with an amusement area, movie area, and many great mini-restaurants inside.  I wasn’t expecting that they would duplicate it in Washington, D.C., but still had high expectations.  I wasn’t disappointed.

I was flying out to see my troops deployed to Djibouti and DTS (actually I had to go through the CTO) routed me on Ethiopian Airlines, IAD-Addis Adaba (ADD)-Djibouti (JIB).  I wasn’t sure how Ethiopian Airlines would work out (next post), but at least it gave me a chance to use the new Turkish Lounge since I am Star Alliance Gold and therefore allowed to use any Star Alliance Lounge when flying internationally.

The lounge is found in Terminal B, next to Gate 43.  This doesn’t really work if you are flying United since they are in C and D, but for Lufthansa, Turkish, Ethiopian, etc. it is a great location.

The inside is appropriately opulent, but not that big.  Wasn’t a problem for my 1100 flight as there were only about four others in the lounge with me.

The food bar was nice, although less offerings than say the Air France or Lufthansa lounges.

What was really impressive is that the lounge staff, in this case a great young guy named Justin, came over to see what I wanted.  I opted out of the Turkish coffee because I figured that would keep me up for the next three days, but try it for yourselves.  I tried a simit, which is a Turkish bagel, and Justin told me that the staff had been experimenting at home to try to get the recipe right.  I informed him that they needed to keep trying!  It was like a stale salty soft pretzel and I don’t think that was quite what they were going for, although I invite the readers to tell me what it really should taste like.  I ate in anyway – real Soldiers are happy with anything as long as there isn’t dirt in their food.  I even like MREs!  The fruit and yogurt hit the spot for a late breakfast.

I then checked out the rest of the lounge.  Beyond the open lounge area there was a separate bar area that was very elegant.

They have a unisex shower room between the bar and the main area.  I am assuming unisex still means one at a time.  After looking at the stick figure, he seemed to be enjoying it so much, I wanted one too, but it was only 1000 hours so I passed.  Good thing to remember for another time though.

Overall a great lounge.  I would take this one over the Lufthansa lounge which is in the same terminal.  The Air France lounge is very nice in Terminal B if you have Priority Pass, but beware they will boot you between 1600-1800 everyday because it get too crowded there.  On the whole, the Turkish Airlines lounge is a great option for Dulles.