Flights can be one of the most stressful parts of a vacation or business trip, especially when you have tight connections or ridiculously long layovers where you can’t leave the airport.
Among the various other services that can be offered to quell the frustration of passengers, a hotel is sometimes provided by an airline when flights have been delayed or canceled.
Read on to learn more about the services of Turkish Airlines and how they might be able to help you the next time you fly with them.
Does Turkish Airlines provide a hotel for long layovers?
The short answer is yes. Turkish Airlines does offer hotel accommodations for long layovers. In addition, Turkish Airlines offers its hotel services for anyone willing to book a room ahead of time and then pay upon arrival.
The booking service is free of charge, and most bookings through Turkish Airlines are also free to cancel or reissue.
Turkish Airlines offers free hotel accommodation when their passengers have particularly long layover times that may simply be unavoidable.
However, there is an extensive list of terms and conditions that limit which Turkish Airlines passengers qualify for this service, so you have to carefully consider whether or not you fit the bill for a short hotel stay during your layover.
How Can You Get a Hotel Accommodation During Long Layovers from Turkish Airlines?
The common saying is “nothing ventured- nothing gained,” which is certainly true when securing hotel accommodation during a long layover from Turkish Airlines.
If you don’t inquire at the hotel desk at the Istanbul Airport, there is no way for you to benefit from the free service offered by Turkish Airlines.
If you’re simply looking to book and pay for a hotel like normal, it is possible to do so by clicking the “Book a hotel” option on their website.
This will reroute you to the official partnership page between Turkish Airlines and Booking.com so that you can search for approved hotel services that suit your needs.
When Can You Get a Hotel Accommodation for Long Layovers from Turkish Airlines?
There are nine qualifying terms and conditions at the time of writing. As you might expect, most of these conditions deal with the definition of a “long layover,” but there are some things that are important to note aside from the length of your layover.
If you happen to be an unaccompanied minor under the age of 18 years, you will not be accepted according to the terms of this Turkish Airlines service. However, children that are younger than 18 can benefit from this service but only when accompanied by adults.
You will be disqualified if your journey starts or ends at Istanbul Airport since there is no layover period for you to experience. This term also details the fact that this service is not available from any other airport in Turkey, even if Turkish Airlines services those airports.
Another potentially unexpected term is that if multiple transit routes are being serviced by Turkish Airlines to and from the same locations and one of the routes has a layover period of fewer than 12 hours (9 hours for Business Class guests).
You won’t be able to use this service – even when the shorter transit route is fully booked!
Is There a Way to Get Free Accommodation From Turkish Airlines for a Long Layover?
Unless a particularly large incident occurs such that Turkish Airlines cannot get its passengers onto their flights in a reasonable time, it is unlikely that you will be able to get free accommodation from Turkish Airlines in any other way except through this service.
Suppose you’re looking to try and get ahold of hotel accommodation free of charge through Turkish Airlines. In that case, the most important (and really the only thing you can control) thing that you can do is to not request or allow changes to your original ticket booking.
What this means is that you cannot originally book an Economy Class ticket and then upgrade to a Business Class seat at the flight gate and expect to receive hotel accommodation when you arrive.
Turkish Airlines may still provide you with accommodation if this, or any other alteration (including those that don’t incur additional fees or deductions), occurs, but they reserve the right to deny you in these situations.
How Long Your Layover Needs to Be to Get Accommodation from Turkish Airlines?
This is the simplest qualifier for whether or not you are eligible to receive hotel accommodation from Turkish Airlines.
Turkish Airlines outlines in their terms and conditions that Economy Class passengers must have a layover equalling no less than 12 hours in length.
Business Class passengers have to have a layover of 9 hours or more to be considered for hotel accommodation free of charge.
This layover period is based on the time you land at Istanbul Airport and the scheduled departure time for your connecting flight.
This means you could have a 12-hour layover according to landing time estimates.
But if a strong tailwind gets you to Istanbul Airport even a couple of minutes earlier than expected and your connecting flight’s departure time remains the same, you would no longer be able to take advantage of this program.
There is also a limit on how long Turkish Airlines will allow you to stay at a hotel under the terms of this service.
Even if you somehow have a layover that extends over three or more days, Turkish Airlines will only put you up in one of their partnered hotels for a maximum of two nights.
Once that time is up, you will have to pay like usual or find other ways to spend your remaining layover time.
Final Thoughts on Turkish Airlines Hotel for Long Layovers
Long layovers during international travel are sometimes unavoidable, but the wait can be smoothed over when you have hotel accommodation to relax at.
Turkish Airlines has both paid and free-of-charge ways to enjoy a short stay at a hotel during your layover but make sure to ask if you qualify for the free service when you arrive at Istanbul Airport even if you’re not sure.