Plugin development - Querying related data
I think this works but is it an acceptable solution:

$criteria = craft()-&gt;elements-&gt;getCriteria(ElementType::Entry);
$criteria-&gt;section = 'checkin';

$criteria-&gt;relatedTo = array(
     'targetElement' =&gt; $entry,
     'field' =&gt; $field
);

$checkin = craft()-&gt;elements-&gt;findElements($criteria);