Interline baggage question
 

My in-laws are visiting from Turkey and will be returning on the 17th of April. Their return itinerary is DL from CVG to ORD connecting to TK (Turkish Airlines) to IST and on to ADB(Izmir). They were ticketed seperately for the US domestic portion of the trip and have less than two hours to change in Chicago on the return trip. My question is will they be able to check their luggage through to IST from CVG, or will they have to pick them up and recheck them in Chicago? Either way would you recommend they standby for an earlier flight so that they don't risk missing the connection since they are on seperate tickets?

It will depend on if Delta has an interline connection agreement with Turkish airlines or not. DL will check bags to your final destination if it is one reservation but separate tickets.

I had always assumed airlines would check to your final destination but I learned the hard way 2 weeks ago. I was going from San Jose, CR to Atlanta via Guatemala City. I flew Taca airlines SJO to GUA and then took DL to ATL. Taca reps said they had no interline agreement with DL and I would have to claim bags and recheck with DL in Guatemala. Very interesting connection!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Make no assumptions that the bags will be checked all the way through to Turkey. It's a yes/no situation these days.

However, based on hard experience, make sure that your folks will be met at their arriving flight and taken either on one of the golf card sort of transports or escorted to their connecting gate. At ORD the walks can be long and the signs confusing. The easier you make it for them in advance, the better it will be.

I don't think they'll have trouble getting between terminals (they were routed the same way on the trip here), I'm more worried about them being late for the connecting flight since they are on separate tickets with barely 2 hours to connect.