Booking the Trip: Skyteam-ing it to Europe and Back
Review: Turkish Airlines Lounge Washington Dulles
Review: Etihad Airways First and Business Class Lounge Washington Dulles
Review: Air France 777-300ER Business Class Washington DC to Paris CDG
Review: Air France Business Class Lounge Terminal 2F Gate F30 (Schengen)
Review: Air France Business Class Lounge Terminal 2F Gate F50 (Schengen)
Review: Air France JOON A320-200 Business Class Paris CDG to Rome
Review: EasyJet A321Neo Economy Class Rome to London Gatwick
Trip Photos: A Brief Re-visit to Italy & London with a bit of  Oxford
Review: Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4
Review: SkyTeam Lounge London Heathrow
Review: KLM 737-800 Europe Business Class London Heathrow to Amsterdam
Review: KLM 747-400 World Business Class Amsterdam to Toronto
Review: United Airlines 737-800 Business Class Toronto to Chicago
Review: United Airlines 737-800 First Class Chicago to Santa Ana

YOUTUBE: Air France: Washington DC to Paris CDG
YOUTUBE: Air France JOON: Paris CDG to Rome
YOUTUBE: EasyJet: Rome to London Gatwick
YOUTUBE: KLM: London Heathrow to Amsterdam
YOUTUBE: KLM: Amsterdam to Toronto
YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Toronto to Chicago
YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Chicago to Santa Ana

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The Turkish Lounge in Washington is a great place to relax before a flight. I headed straight here after my arriving on my Alaska flight from Los Angeles around 6 AM.

There are a few ways you can access this lounge:

• Flying First or Business Class on a Star Alliance Airline
• Flying economy class on a star alliance airline if you have Star Alliance Gold Status
• United Club Membership or Air Canada Worldwide Lounge Membership
• Priority Pass

The lounge entrance deceivingly small which is not represented well in this photo.

As soon as you enter and have your boarding pass/ membership card or any of the such checked, you are let in. At the front desk there were some Turkish delights and some napkins which I nicely enjoyed.

After you enter, there are truly 3 main rooms of this lounge and it really isn’t that big. The first room is the room that’s pictured below.

At the time I had come which was around 6AM, the lounge was just starting to fill up, presumably with Priority Pass passengers as well as those heading on some of those early morning star alliance departures.

The seats towards the side had power ports and a central table which was nice.

Meanwhile the seats in the center of the room were more meant to be dining tables rather than lounging seats and there were no power ports.

This room also housed the fantastic food this lounge had. And I will repeat, it truly was Fantastic!

So I was actually present in the lounge for two meals: breakfast and lunch. I will show you what both looked like.

Breakfast

Let’s have a look at the side counter first.

First the table started with some snacks along with a bowl of bananas and 4 different varieties of bread. There was also a toaster for use.

Next to that there was some Turkish tea and some muffins and breakfast pastries.

Now in the central part, the breakfast wasn’t too extensive but for what it was, I enjoyed it. There were cucumbers and tomatoes, some cantaloupe and melon, and cheeses.

There was also some form of poached eggs with vegetables and spices which was really nice!

And lastly this. Originally I couldn’t tell what it was, but based off the smell I got, it was definitely miso soup.

On the other side, there were boiled eggs, and yogurts to which you could add fruits and oats.

Lunch     

For lunch, the side counter was the same. The only change was that they moved the cheese plate from the center table to make room for the main lunch items. Boy, this part was fantastic.

First, you had a fresh plate of fruits with cantaloupe, melon, and pineapples, then some olives, hummus with garlic, baba ganoush, and yogurt. I had a bit of all the dips and all were absolutely phenomenal.

On the other side, you had salad and some other chilled mixes. I also had some of the salad and it was decent enough for what it was.

Now the main courses were next and they were also delicious.

 

This was really, really good.

 

I must say, across both meals, the food was awesome. Breakfast decent and very good for what it was because it’s hard to get creative with flavors and stay within the scope of appropriate foods for breakfast, but lunch was truly something special and really flavorful.

Moving onto the rest of the lounge.

Here’s another look at the central seats. One problem that became very apparent is that tables and seats weren’t cleaned very frequently. I’m not sure whether this is an understaffing issue given the number of people coming, or whether it’s just not noticed but several times I saw people’s leftover plates untouched for 20-30 minutes at a time.

There were also some loungy seats lined up facing the TV.

And here’s facing back to the buffet area.

By the window, there were these nice circular-style lounging seats.

Now, this front room was quite a crowded area in the morning, however, that’s because most of the people actually didn’t notice there was a second room. It’s kind of hidden off. Walk all the way up to the window and look to the right and you see this.

Now before we go to the end, let’s have a look at the toilet and shower in the middle room.

The toilets were clean and functional. However, the shower was a completely different story.

I used the shower while I was here and it was quite bad. The telephone shower would not sit in place for those that wanted a still shower. The towel provided was probably a little bigger than the towels you use to wipe your mouth after brushing your teeth and so it was very small. And lastly, the temperature was lukewarm at best. This is even worse in a place like Washington where the second I turned the shower off, the cold hit harshly.

 

Now going into that last room which was a little hidden is this area.

In the little walkway connecting the main room and the second room, you look up and there’s this “secret” seating area. I asked one of the crew if that was accessible but they said no it was not at the moment. My best guess is that that section is closed off during priority pass hours and is only open once Saudia or Turkish passengers start entering.  The way to reach this area is that there’s a set of stairs by the door where the lounge attendants bring food out from the kitchen. It’s quite hard to miss.

Along the window, there were some seats facing inwards with a central table at the end. The door that you see at the end of the picture allows direct boarding from the lounge itself and it’s a pretty cool setup if you ask me. All the lounges in this concourse have this feature to directly board from the lounge. So for this reason, the Turkish airlines plane parks in front of the Turkish Lounge, Austrian was parked in front of the Lufthansa senator lounge while I was at IAD, the Etihad 787 was parked in front of the Etihad lounge, and Air France was also parked in the gate right next to the Etihad lounge (more on that in the Etihad lounge review). But you get the point.

The middle seating area was a nice design, though people only used it for lounging and drinking champagne, nothing more.

There were also some seats along the wall which were set up for couples. These seats had power ports along the wall too which was nice.

The bar was also nicely set up and it was staffed the whole time. I was surprised to see people there even around 6:30 AM.

Now in the back room there was also another small drink set up with the same coffee achine and chilled drinks as the first room.

And quite possibly the best part of the lounge was the private napping/lounging areas at the back of this second room. I had parked my stuff here for the whole time I was there. Eventually, I also moved my stuff to the seat in the back. You could also draw curtains to close off this section if you wanted.

Now back in the first room, there was also the wifi password and name. I suppose now the password will be different since it’s no longer 2018, but the info was sitting on top of the buffet.

The windows along the lounge made for some greate views especially since the sun was just starting to come up.

I even got good views of some other planes like the Alaska A321 Neo that brought me here from Los Angeles.

Or this ANA that parked at the gate in front of the Turkish lounge and was connected to the Turkish Lounge, therefore.

 

Overall, this lounge is really nice across the board. There’s a good amount of seating options, the food above and beyond, there’s power ports in a good amount of the seats, and there are Turkish treats which had me sold for good (I’m only joking)! I think if they fixed the shower situation, this would make a great lounge even better. The fact that this is a priority pass lounge makes it even better. So for my case, even though I have Star Alliance Gold, my next flight wasn’t on a Star Alliance carrier, so priority pass took care of the access. I would highly recommend this lounge and would love to be back soon.