Originally Posted by vg247

Hi everyone,

I am getting mixed feedback and hope experienced travelers going to Istanbul here can help guide me:

I purchased on United.com a flight on UA from SFO , connecting to AMS, then flying Turkish Airlines to Istanbul-

1.will my checked bags transfer to Turkish airlines and through to final destination in Istanbul? The Turkish airline phone agent said, I need to pickup my checked bags in AMS and recheck them in at the Turkish airlines counters in AMS…

2. Turkish airline phone agent also said my boarding passes will not be issued until I check in during my connection in AMS (Amsterdam) at the Turkish airline ticketing counter, which I find odd because I have their phone app and like United (which I fly a lot) has paperless boarding passes on the app once you check in…,this concerns me because of the connection time logistics in AMS, having to exit the terminal and go to a Turkish airline ticketing counter to do all this , then go back through security and to the terminal for my final flight.

if all the above are true, I will just rebook a new flight flying from SFO connecting somewhere else eg in Germany, and fly Lufthansa to final destination Istanbul as the Turkish airline policy is a nightmare for me to go through during my “limited connection time” in AMS.