Turkish Airlines

[Anyislandwilldo]

Looking to book from Chicago to Rome.  There is a layover of 2 hrs and 5 min in Istanbul.  Will we have enough time to get through customs?  Will I need to get my luggage and go through customs?  Thanks.

[hallasm]

Baggage will be checked through to the final destination - just go straight to the departure gate.
It is the recommendation with a minimum of 90 minutes layover in Istanbul for international connections, so two hours is perfectly fine.

[Anyislandwilldo]

Now I'm not so sure if I want to book with this airline.  I just read the reviews and TripAdvisor.  Yikes!!

[6rugrats]

I personally will not fly TK, but many people like them.  They are o.k.until you run into a problem and then you might as well beat your head against a wall.  Some of the complaints on TA are nonsense, but their customer service is pretty much nonexistent.

Edited March 28 by 6rugrats

[FlyerTalker]

I'm on the other side of the coin.  I have had nothing but excellent experiences with TK in business class.  As a disclaimer, I have also not had any kind of ticketing or operational issue, so I have zero experience with how they handle problems.  6Rugrats would have more knowledge on that than I do.

 

Then again, I tend to book long connections and never fly into a cruise the same day as sailing.  So I try to insulate myself against issues.

 

YMMV.

[Zach1213]

2 hours ago, Anyislandwilldo said:

Looking to book from Chicago to Rome.  There is a layover of 2 hrs and 5 min in Istanbul.  Will we have enough time to get through customs?  Will I need to get my luggage and go through customs?  Thanks.

 

You'll have ages to go through customs...mostly because you won't go through customs, or even immigration. Turkey is not part of Schengen, so no immigration check until you get to Rome, where customs will also take place. Note customs and immigration are different things. 

 

1 hour ago, Anyislandwilldo said:

Now I'm not so sure if I want to book with this airline.  I just read the reviews and TripAdvisor.  Yikes!!

 

People complain about literally every airline. TripAdvisor seems to be a particularly popular place for people to extensively complain about airlines. TK is fine. 

[waterbug123]

On 3/28/2024 at 4:10 PM, Zach1213 said:

 

You'll have ages to go through customs...mostly because you won't go through customs, or even immigration. Turkey is not part of Schengen, so no immigration check until you get to Rome, where customs will also take place. Note customs and immigration are different things. 

 

 

 

And generally speaking, in most of Europe (including Italy specifically) customs is a non-issue.  If you have nothing to declare you simply exit through the green door, no waiting. It's up to you to notify them/go through the red door if you have something to declare.  Immigration however, is where your passport is checked and will almost always involve waiting in a line of some length.

[klfrodo]

My only question is are all legs of travel on Turkish Airlines? If so, then your baggage with be checked thru to Rome and all is well.

If your onward travels from IST is on another airline, then check to ensure they have an interline agreement. If not, which happened to me, then your adventure may begin sooner that you planned.

[Anyislandwilldo]

23 hours ago, klfrodo said:

My only question is are all legs of travel on Turkish Airlines? If so, then your baggage with be checked thru to Rome and all is well.

If your onward travels from IST is on another airline, then check to ensure they have an interline agreement. If not, which happened to me, then your adventure may begin sooner that you planned.

Yes, all legs are on Turkish Airlines.