Transitioning Through Istanbul Airport, Tight Connection
This has been discussed before but looking for recent and specific experience. We are flying Turkish Airlines San Francisco to Athens via Istanbul one ticket. We only have 90 minutes connection in Istanbul to connect to the flight to Athens. We are in our mid 70’s, in good shape will have our rollaboards and personal bags. A recent experience sprinting through another large airport was very uncomfortable leaving us in a sweat and unhappy. I see that IGA has some services for people over 65 but can’t find that they will meet you at the gate, drive you through security, get you to your next gate. It looks like we can take fast track through security then get a buggy in the departure area. But, watching You Tube videos I’m impressed even with that how long the walks are and with this tight connection we will be stressed. There are commercial services which will provide exactly what I want for about 360 Euros per person (!). Has anyone faced this and found a better solution? And I know Turkish Airlines will get us to Athens if we miss the flight but I’d rather make our connection and not have to endure a marathon sprint after a 12 hour + flight.
Comments
360 Euros sounds steep. We paid $100 each at Doha. It was only $400 total for nine of us last year. Have you tried looking at Turkish Airlines website? Service like this is often not easy to find on the websites. Or call them, I just think that’s a lot of money and may be a private company is what you are seeing.
We never have roll along carry on, we use backpacks so we can run. We walk very fast thru airports. It’s also a good way of getting circulation back after long flights
And approaching mid 70s rapidly 😟
I just transitioned in late May through Istanbul with about a 2 hour connection from a flight from Seattle to a flight to Budapest. We had tons of time to spare, but our connecting flight turned out to be just 3 gates away. If you get a connecting gate that is far away from your landing gate the walk could take you 30-40 minutes at a reasonable pace. We did not have to pass through any security between gates like you have to do at some airports. I don't know if that is always the case for all gates.
You might do a little recon on which gate your flight from San Francisco has been landing at. Oftentimes the same flight will land in the same set of gates each day. Then you can do a bit more recon and see which gate your flight to Athens has been departing from each day. Again they oftentimes depart from a set of gates each day. With this information you can look at the airport map and get a feel for how long your walk might be from your arrival gate to your departure gate. This isn't perfect or guarantee anything, but it might give you a more comfortable feeling.
It helps if you're in business class because, at least on our flight, they allowed the business class people to depart the plane first. Both my wife and I are in our mid-70s as well.
Ultimately only you can decide on what you're comfortable with.
I have changed planes at Istanbul airport several times. Just FYI -- when making a connecting flight, you have to show your boarding pass for the second flight to an agent stationed along the corridor. It will save some time if you have your boarding pass in hand when leaving your first flight.
I just found this but can’t open the link right now
https://www.istanbulmeetandgreetservice.com/
MCD described our experience exactly - just showed the boarding pass for the next flight and then proceeded. No more security than that.
We had a very similar tight connection on our way from Chicago to Viet Nam on Turkish Airlines. We were lucky enough to be approached by two personable young men who had airport vehicles which hilariously looked like wheelchairs attached to segues!
We are in our 60's and fit, not in need of a wheelchair, but without these two young men flying us to our gate, we never would have made our flight. We laugh about it to this day, because we are so glad we took them up on their offer of 25 euros each and it was a blast!! The airport is huge ... maybe check ahead and see if you can reserve this transport ahead of time! Good luck!
After de-planing from our Turkish Air flight from Cairo we had a 1+30 layover before our second leg to JFK. We were just getting our bearings when we saw a sign offering assistance to seniors, people with disabilities, etc, so we went there to get help getting to our next gate. We sat with a bunch of geezers and infirmed for a few minutes. Nothing seemed to be happening so we asked an attendant about it. He gave us a strange look- it seems this place was for people with real issues who needed wheelchairs, etc., not for people like us- in their early 70's and healthy!!!!
Somewhat embarrassed, we moved on! Actually we found our gate which fortuitously was not far, with plenty of time to spare. 
We didn't have enough time to visit the Turkish lounge this time, but we spent 5 hours there on the flight from the US.