Hi, hubbie and I are going on a guided birding/wildlife trip in Uganda in July 2026. Our home airport is Houston Intercontinental and we fly into Entebbe. My thought was to try for only one layover along the way to minimize the risk of missed connections, but that limits flight options it seems. We have three options: transfer in Istanbul on Turkish Airlines (4 hour layover), Emirates to Dubai with an 11 hour layover, or Quatar to Doha also with about 12 hour layover. There's also a Doha option with a 90 minute layover but that seems really risky if the flight is late. 12 hours in an airport seems excruciating. Both of us are over 6 feet - I've heard the Turkish Airlines legroom is small in economy. Business class is more than double the price, almost $5K which is too much. Would love thoughts on our options, I've never flown any of these airlines or traveled to Africa. Thanks so much!
Posted by
66 posts
Turkish Airlines has a program where you can do an overnight stay in Istanbul--if that isn't showing online, consider calling them. If not, I'd fly Emirates. A quick google suggests many people leave the Dubai airport for a layover of that length. I don't know what time you will arrive in that version, but it is worth reading what comes up when searching "dubai 11 hour layover."
Posted by
Virginia, USA
6362 posts
12 hours in an airport seems excruciating
Is the timeframe such that you could use that time to sleep at an airport hotel?
Posted by
Brooklyn, NY
4855 posts
We flew Turkish airlines for the first time this past November. We were in economy and we thought the legroom was fine. More like premium economy on Delta.
But the idea of an airport hotel for a nice sleep sounds like a great way to shake off some jet lag.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
7488 posts
Hmmm. Layover choices are 1.5, 4, 11 or 12 hours.
Goldilocks might say, unless you have some serious concern, the choice seems pretty obvious to me. 4 hours in transit at Istanbul is probably just about perfect (it's a big airport so expect to do more than a little walking, which is actually good because after the long flight from IAH you will want to stretch your legs). Note that some Turkish Airlines flights (like my favorite flight to get home from Europe, their nonstop between Istanbul and Seattle) is chronically late, so check the stats for your flight and give yourself an appropriate margin.
I fly Turkish Airlines pretty often (averaging once a year for the past 4 or 5 years) but almost always in business class (which is lovely). I have flown them in coach before on regional flights. The legroom seemed perfectly decent to me, in fact even generous compared to US airlines, but my experience in TK coach is limited and was on fairly short flights, plus we are not particularly tall.
I think your reasoning about layovers is sound. I wouldn't take that 90 minute connection, and would try hard to avoid 11 or 12 hour connections anywhere if there was a reasonable alternative.
You can check seat dimensions and compare the numbers on aeroLOPA.com - here's the link to their section on Turkish Airlines aircraft (if legroom is your concern, the number you would probably be most focused on is "pitch"...Turkish has, I think 31" pitch in coach, which is actually quite generous, I think - but your should confirm, I'm used to sitting up front). Switch to the other airlines' pages for comparison. Note: be sure you are comparing the specific aircraft type and cabin you would be getting on each of the airlines (not all seats are the same, so be sure you're doing apples-to-apples comparisons).