This was my third time landing at an airport in Turkey, but my first time actually entering the country.
Turkish Airlines short-haul kept up its feed-the-pigs style—who wouldn't want stuffed eggplant and buttered rice shoved in their face mid-flight?
Immigration line was a bit long, the airport AC was weak, and the September Mediterranean air had a damp haze to it. I was drenched in sweat by the time I finished walking. Getting from the terminal to the metro took another 15 minutes.
The metro's contactless payment was broken, so you had to buy an İstanbulkart. The line at the machine was extremely long and there was no English option (or it was very hard to find). As a programmer familiar with UI/UX, I blind-clicked my way through the purchase flow at speed. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to check the TRY:USD rate and loaded 500 TRY (10 USD)—a total loss. That was my one and only contribution to the Turkish government's revenue this trip.
Also, their turnstile card readers are the least sensitive I've ever seen. The İstanbulkart itself taps very slowly—I've never seen tech this janky.
After buying the card and tapping in, the train arrived right away. If I'd missed that one, the next would've been 20 minutes later.
I got off at the terminus, Gayrettepe, took six elevators, and walked through the longest pedestrian tunnel of my life before finally entering Zorlu Center. This supposedly Turkey's fanciest shopping mall looks a lot like those dead or dying malls in Beijing—except every store inside was packed with people (no tourists). After winding around, I finally found the elevator to Raffles. Probably very few guests arrive at this hotel looking as bedraggled as I did.
At check-in I was informed: as a distinguished Accor Gold member, there's no upgrade today.
However, they gave me two room choices: a lower-floor Courtyard View and a higher-floor City View. After seeing both, I obviously picked the second, higher one. Its balcony, if you stretch your phone out to the farthest point of your arm's reach, can capture maybe 2% of the strait view.
Still, as a lowly corporate-rate guest paying just over 200 USD to stay at a hotel that normally lists for 500 EUR, I have no complaints. Their base rooms are already 60 square meters—plenty of space.
The welcome gift was quite generous: fruit, pastries, a bookmark, even a little bear—everything you could want.
I'll have to disagree about Turkish Airlines' short-haul "pig-feeding" style—I actually thought the stuffed eggplant and buttered rice were quite thoughtful, far better than the cold sandwiches served by European and American carriers. That said, the weak airport air conditioning and the metro payment issues you mentioned are real drawbacks. But there's one caveat you might not have mentioned: if it's a weekday rush hour, the lines for buying a card and entering the station will be even more ridiculous than what you experienced, so your "blind pick speedrun" might not go so smoothly. Also, whether topping up 500 TRY is a total loss really depends on whether you'll use the İstanbulkart for multiple rides afterward. If you only ride once or twice, then yes, it's a loss, but if you're staying a few days and getting around a lot, that money isn't wasted.