Turkish Airlines Questions

[bewva]

I am looking at flights with TA as they are £130 each cheaper.
I have a couple of questions if I may,
Is the transfer between terminals at Attaturk airport ok or a pain
Can you buy duty free and take through Attaturk or do you have to buy in Attaturk.
Can you buy Duty Free in Attaturk as you are actually going on a domestic flight from there.
Is the luggage collection at Dalaman a pain as I have heard you arrive at 1 terminal & collect your bags at the other.
Is £130 each saving worth the hassle?
Thanks in advance.

[Liz 101]

Transfer between terminals at Ataturk is OK.

Luggage collection at Dalaman is fine - baggage is hived off to the international terminal & you're bussed there. Only thing to remember is that your onward transfer should be arranged from international terminal.

Wait & buy duty free at Dalaman. Removes all the uncertainty

[DianaJ]

We did it last summer and was fine flew Dublin Istanbul Dalaman , just made the stop over in Istanbul all part of holiday went into one of the executive lounges cost only 60lira for myself husband and 2 kids , stayed 4 hours lounge including drinks snacks free wifi and even had an outside area you could sit so time went by very quickly ,our flights worked out in total for the 4 of us a saving of £450 so well worth it Diana

[Scunner]

The TA route via Istanbul always sounds far more complicated than it actually is Paul. You are fairly well shepherded at Istanbul and again at Dalaman, where you are separated from internal IST-DLM passengers on arrival, but it's all fairly easy to do. Harder to explain  

[bewva]

Thanks I will part with my hard earned tomorrow.  

[WordBird]

I was quite nervous doing this alone last year, but it was a doddle every time and Turkish Airlines were a pleasure to fly with.
I bought my duty free in the UK and never had a problem.

[bewva]

Thanks WB the plunge is taken, I booked last night.

[Somerset Simon]

Good decision if it saves money, we have gone via both Istanbul airports with PGS and TA and no issues, only tip is that you have to go through passport control on arrival in Istanbul and not follow the Transit passengers route as you are transferring to an internal flight!

[KKOB]

If you've got time to kill, in the Domestic Terminal at Ataturk there's a restaurant called Botanik. It's used mostly by airport staff and consequently is very good value and there's a big range of traditional Turkey food available 24/7.

[lalapinkfluff]

so sorry, am really confused (it doesn't take much)
we are flying Gatwick - Istanbul - dalaman with TA.
1. do we collect our luggage at Istanbul to take somewhere for onward flight? or is it all transferred for you?
2. where do we ask our transfer to pick us up from at dalaman? international or domestic ( I didn't even know there was a difference)
3. how would we go about booking the executive lounge at Istanbul? we will be travelling with a 7 year old.
I'm bound to have more worries and questions closer to the time.
We booked our flights via travel republic and cannot work out how we pre book our seats, did send a query through to TR but the response wasn't much use.

many many thanks la