SK AAR

I would recommend to go straight to immigration and pick-up your luggage (if short checked to IST) rather than spending time in the lounge. You may face difficulties in locating your luggage afterwards (keep in mind that English is not first language there and you may find customer service appalling if your bags are nowhere to be seen)

shuly

Yes and yes. There's no way to tell in advance.

shuly

TK has an arrival lounge post-immigration. Check whether you're eligible, this will solve the problem. It's small and not as impressive as the main lounge airside, but it does have showers.

Shuly

East_and_West

In order to be eligible to visit TK's arrival lounge in IST you need 1) to be arriving to IST on a long-haul TK flight AND 2) have flown TK business on that flight, or be a TK Elite Plus. The lounge is quite small but pretty nice and decent. There are beverages, snacks, light food, beds/couches, showers, and you can order warm sandwiches and Turkish coffee

TK Lounge Arrivals is located after immigration and baggage claim, just next to the terminal's exit. So you have to leave the secure area to visit it, meaning than reclaiming your bags could be problematic once you are out.

Do you need all of your bags in town? If not you could try checking the rest of your luggage all the way to your final destination, even if the connection if very long. I have done before for a 12-hours layover in IST, for flights booked separately and with different booking refs (although both of them were with TK).

br2k

TTC192Rocket

Agreed. I was just wondering if certain flights get priority for gates, or if it's all just roulette.

East_and_West

Sorry if I have misunderstood you, causing you confusion. I thought you were referring to TK Arrivals Lounge (located outside the secure area), but now I see that you meant the main/flagship TK lounge (within the secure area, which can be indeed quite unique and impressive, especially the first time one visits it). In that case why not collect your bag, go to the city, and visit the lounge when you re-enter the terminal before your TK flight (or perhaps you don't have the time to do that then)?

If you can only visit the TK lounge just after your arrival in IST, I am afraid I am not experienced/familiar enough with the procedures at baggage collection in IST to answer that. I would definitely though feel uncomfortable leaving my bag going around on the baggage belt for two hours. Most likely the conveyor will be have to be used for luggage from other flights as well during that time period, aside of any red flags that an abandoned bag may raise (the situation in Turkey has been quite strained the past couple of years). Or your bag may be collected and transferred to the unclaimed luggage desk, so you may simply end picking it up from there. I am not claiming you cannot do what you propose, and as I am not really familiar with how such procedures in IST work I wouldn't like to give a misleading answer. It's just that I can see a lot of ways that this could go mildly or severely wrong.

br2k

Yep, wanted to know what the procedure is. I did this in several airports (MUC comes to mind) but only after confirming with others that the airport actually has a well defined procedure for late bag pickup (i.e. bag goes into baggage office, does not just walk away). As an example, asked same question about MUC and got an unequivocal "your bag will be picked up and held at the office" from several people, so I felt pretty confident about it.

Can't go to the lounge later as I am actually not taking the same connection that is on this ticket, but rather transfering to the other airport on a different flight - long story. I.e. I will have a boarding pass for TK flight out of IST but I am not actually going to fly it.

CoweyB

AirCanada881

Did KUL-IST-CDG May 7-8th, both Airbus A330's, both arrival & departure in IST via remote stands. I don't think there's any rules for who gets a gate & who doesn't, the weird part being that when we landed from KUL I counted many free gates, yet we still parked remote.

BF263533

I am using a United award with a 16 hour layover. Business class. I arrive at 3:15 pm and Turkish offers a free tour at 4pm. I will do the electronic Visa. Is the 4pm tour possible? Would check a carry on bag,

SK AAR

This does not apply to TK/IST. Once I had to search for my checked (off-size) luggage in the baggage claim area of IST. Very confusing and time consuming; nobody seemed to know where my bag could be. The bag was located eventually but I certainly hope never to experience this again.

br2k

Got it - changing plans accordingly, thank you!

br2k

Incidentally, I plan to take the same tour, but am arriving at noon - so been researching. Based on everything posted elsewhere, these tours require you to be at the desk no later than 30 minutes before, i.e. 3:30pm.

TommyB1965

Hi folks,

I have a TA flight into Istanbul on 25th May, arriving at 11.05am. My onward flight to Odesa leaves at 2.15pm (TA code share with Ukraine). The flight to Odesa is on a separate ticket, and based on my travel schedule I may not be able to check in online in advance. Can I check in at the terminal without having to exit immigration & security? I will only have hand luggage.

If I have to exit, I assume there is plenty of time with the 3 hour gap?

EDIT - apologies, as soon as I posted this I found a generic thread about transfers in IST, I should have posted there. Unfortunately I don't think I can move it now, but if a mod wants to move my post & close this thread that would be fine