Travel News

Turkish Airlines To Fly to Newark – Why This is Great News

6 years ago
4 Comments
by Charlie
award booking
Written by Charlie

Starting next year, Turkish Airlines will start flying to Newark. This is great news for a few different reasons and it should be a helpful new destination for passengers seeking more out of their awards.

Turkish Airlines is one of my favorite airlines to fly between Europe and the USA – in business or economy. I have flown Turkish Airlines business class far more than on any single airline (at least 20 times) and really, really like the experience for a number of reasons. Turkish Airlines flies from a number of cities in the US to Istanbul and starting next year, Newark will be another city for Turkish Airlines.

Turkish Airlines to Fly to Newark

Starting in August of 2019, Turkish Airlines will start flying between Newark and Istanbul with the following schedule (using an Airbus A330-300 for their aircraft – this uses the 2-2-2 business class configuration):

  • Istanbul – Newark | Departing 13:15 and Arriving 17:20 | Flight TK29
  • Newark – Istanbul | Departing 22:30 and Arriving 15:15 the next day | TK30

The departure time from the US is very similar to most of the Turkish flights from the East Coast – late in the evening. The exceptions are two of the three flights out of JFK, one leaving around 12:30PM and the other around 7:30PM with their last one being between 11:30 – 00:30.

One of the reasons I prefer Turkish Airlines is because of these late evening flights. It gives a great opportunity to maximize time on the ground in the US and then leave at a more normal bedtime. With the flight being among the longest from the US to Europe, it also gives ample time to get enough of a rest that you can help get on track when you arrive.

Why This is Great News

I have flown on each of the 3 Turkish flights out of JFK and, for each one, I always have to fly JetBlue or Delta from Rochester or Buffalo to connect. That’s right – neither one of those is an alliance partner of Turkish which means I cannot book it as a single award ticket (and checking the bags through does not work!).

This is always a pain for award tickets because I either have to choose to have a long layover in NYC to give time to change airports between JFK and Newark (to catch a United flight to my next destination) or I need to book a separate ticket with another airline.

Now, passengers booking award tickets can make it be a single ticket all the way through by utilizing United’s massive presence at Newark. Since they are Star Alliance partners, this will make that process much easier.

Another reason I think this is great news is it will open up better lounge opportunities. With United’s presence in Newark, the lounges for Star Alliance business class or *Gold passengers are plentiful and have some nice features (like the insanely fast internet at the United Clubs!). If you fly Turkish out of JFK, you only have the choice of Lufthansa’s lounge. It is nice but I prefer to have some other choices and Newark should provide that.

Finally, this is one that I hope will pan out, it should allow TSA Precheck passengers to actually get Precheck treatment. JFK’s Precheck operation at Terminal 1 is not really that great. It normally means you just get the special card and still need to go through the same line as everyone else. This will depend on which terminal Turkish lands at (hope its not the same as Emirates!), but I am hopeful the treatment will be the full Precheck experience.

So, I am excited about this latest move and look forward to having Newark as an option instead of just Chicago O’Hare and Dulles for my award tickets with Turkish!

HT: Live and Let’s Fly

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About the author

Charlie

Charlie has been an avid traveler and runner for many years. He has run in marathons around the world for less than it would cost to travel to the next town - all as a result of collecting and using miles and points. Over the years, he has flown hundreds of thousands of miles and collected millions of miles and points.
Now he uses this experience and knowledge to help others through Running with Miles.

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4 Comments

  • I love this! It would make my upcoming return from The Maldives a lot more convenient..but I wish they would use the 777. Being in a 330 for that long just isn’t as comfortable.

  • i think you’ll be happiest on the IST-EWR inbound instead of IST-JFK one. International arrivals at JFK T1 around 2pm is a major shitstorm where far more passengers are simultaneously dumped at CBP than its realistic capacity, and lots of non-english speakers who really slow down the process cuz they need to find the relevant translators.

    And of course, those idiotic workers there didn’t split out US passports with the foreign ones, so US citizens are forced into the same damn insane queues.

  • Does anyone know the latest on this planned route? Still not in their booking system, wondering if it got delayed for some reason. Was hoping to book this in late AUG.

    • I am in the same boat with you, Peter! I have been watching the schedule because I could really take advantage of this new route in September but haven’t seen it up yet. I will update when I find out for sure!