Miami has an interesting lounge setup when it comes to Turkish airlines. There are actually 2 Turkish Airlines lounges. One is in concourse E and is a small space as pictured below is the entrance.
I have no idea why this lounge exists as there’s no star alliance carriers leaving from concourses D or E so anyone using this would be doing so on a priority pass. I was a rare case where I had arrived on American that morning and I was leaving later that day on United so I used my Star alliance gold credentials to get in but I am most certainly the only one doing something like that.
In either case, below is the main Turkish lounge in concourse J. Concourse J is the international terminal where plenty of Star Alliance airlines leave from and its conjoined to concourse H where united leaves from so all Star Alliance airlines that depart from MIA have access to the main Turkish lounge.
As soon as you cross security and you take the hall that leads to concourse J, no more than a minute after walking you’ll see this entrance on the right:
From here, you’ll take an elevator up one level which will take you to this open space where you can spot planes, or walking a few more meters will take you to the actual lounge entrance. Here are the lounge entry requirements:
- Passengers on any Star Alliance airline traveling in international business class
- Passengers on any Star Alliance airline traveling in International First Class (+ 1 guest also traveling star alliance same day)
- United First Class passengers
- Star Alliance Gold members traveling on any star Alliance Airline in any class (+ 1 guest)
- United Club Members/ Air Canada Lounge Members traveling on a Star Alliance Airline in any class (+ 1 guest)
- Priority Pass/Lounge Key Members (+how many ever guests your particular plan allows)
Once you have your credentials/boarding pass checked you can enter. Immediately on the left after entering was a baggage storage area which I thought was pretty neat.
On the right side, there were decent seating options, including that surrounding a round pillar.
For the time being, there were signs of not to sit on the couch area of that pillar due to the pandemic and to promote spacing, although this lounge’s staff didn’t really enforce masking all that much, and we are in Miami so a lot of that kind of goes out the window.
There was also a TV room with 6 different screens presumably showing a variety of things.
There was also a couple of minifridges with non-alcoholic beverages.
Now to the main room, it was one giant room with all sorts of different seating area separated by partitions.
Due to the pandemic, all food service was behind the counter for the moment. You could order whatever you wanted, and how much ever you wanted, but there was a line for the service and that certainly wasn’t ideal.
I tried to sample as many different things as I could.
Now onto the seating, as I was saying there was a wide variety of seating options with privacy partitions and relatively good space.
The power ports were available throughout the lounge however they came out of the ground, kind of like what you’d find in a high school gym.
The views of the apron between concourses J and H were nice though.
All alcohol was behind the bar in this lounge, but they had plenty of things available.
I had a mimosa (or 2…..or 3…..) and it was fairly decent.
In the spirit of Miami, Turkish thought it would be a great idea to throw in some surfboards highlighting Miami and Istanbul on them.
Again, the seating options were ample and comfy, though I’m sure the seats with a “do not sit here label” will slowly start to get loosened as pandemic restrictions easen.
The lounge afforded great views, particularly of the international concourse J, so during busy times there are definitely great views of widebodies aircraft.
Now towards the back of the lounge was a separated section where the bathrooms and shower rooms are.
These were pretty clean and sufficiently stocked as well.
Ultimately, the shower rooms were closed due to the pandemic, but during normal operations, they are in full swing.
Overall, this was a very nice and relaxing place to be prior to flying. It had all the features a lounge should have: Good food, good seating options, good drinks, wifi, nice apron views help, some good showers and toilets. All in all I can’t wait to be back in Miami and to spend more time in this lounge in the near future.