How to get a hotel for free with Turkish Airlines

If you are flying with Turkish Airlines you can sometimes get the benefit of a free night at Istanbul International airport (IST) during a long transit.

But be carefeful the conditions are quite strict especially if you are flying in Economy class. And the policy is not always very easy to understand. Let’s see how you can benefit from this perk.

1 st condition : the transit time

The first condition is quite easy to understand. You need a long transit time to qualify for free accomodation at Istanbul Aiport.

  • 20 hours of stopover if you are flying in Economy Class or Busines Class

Obviously both segments of your flight (the first one before you arrive in Istanbul airport and the second one you use to leave the airport) must be operated on a Turkish Airlines plane. It also means codeshare segments don’t count for this special offer. For instance, let’s say you fly Paris-Istanbul-Bangkok. You will need to fly on a flight operated under Turkish Airlines name on both segments Paris-Istanbul and Istanbul-Bangkok. If you buy the ticket on Turkish Airlines but one of the flights is not operated by Turkish Airlines, you won’t be able to benefit from this perk.

2nd condition : the connection must be the shortest possible option *** It seems this condition doesn’t apply anymore***

Since the offer is valid for longer stopovers, that second condition doesn’t apply anymore. Business passengers will receive better hotel options + potential extra night if the stopover is really long.

This is where it starts to be really tricky.

You thought a big transit time would be enough to enjoy that free hotel? You might get a big disappointment if you haven’t checked the second condition.

Basically, if there was an earlier flight to leave the airport diminishing the potential layover to 5 hours you wouldn’t be able to qualify despite the huge time to wait at the airport with your current flight ticket.

Even if that earlier flight is fully booked, it doesn’t matter.

If you meet those conditions, you can go to the hotel desk of Turkish Airlines located after the custom controls on the right.