I just flew from cairo to adana on a united award booked on turkish airlines. the united confirmation clearly showed 1st bag fee: 0.00 EUR, up to 25 kg. However upon check in at cairo, the agents insisted turkish airlines was showing "0" baggage allowance and forced me to pay excess baggage fee (120 EGP = $7.65) per kg for my 1st bag, 15 kg so 1800 EGP = $115. The united ticket clearly showed 1st bag included and nowhere was I notified otherwise. Upon check in however TK insisted they have a "0 bags for award tickets policy" and I can't obtain my boarding pass til I pay up 1800 EGP. The agent said this seems to only happen with united, he recommended filing a complaint with united and/or TK to seek reimbursement. However, upon doing so, United is insisting that though they do show 1st bag free on their end, "we did not collect the fee so can't take any action" and TK is saying "we don't allow bags on partner award tickets so can't refund you"

Thus, there is a discrepancy between what the united confirmation showed and what TK's internal policy was
My questions are:
1) can I ask united to enforce what it says on their ticket confirmation? isn't there a contract of carriage policy about once you get a confirmation, it should be honored?
2) shouldn't I have been notified in advance if the partner airline baggage policy is different than stated on ticket?
3) do I have any reasonable options to resolve this? can I escalate to any specialized customer service desk?

any help would be appreciated!