Cheap airfare to Turkey
 

I've been considering a trip to Turkey this fall and watching the airfare from Boston. Since I will be traveling alone, I'm thinking I would do a Rick Steves tour. I'm flexible on dates and could go whenever fares are cheapest. I just checked CheapOAir and found a price for $550 roundtrip with taxes on SwissAir in midSeptember.

This price seems to good to be true. The lowest I'd found was around $800. I'm not familiar with SwissAir. Is there anything I need to know about flying with them?

I flew SwissAir several years ago from Chicago to Nice. Other than my luggage arriving several hours after I did, it was fine. $550 does indeed sound good. My husband and I flew from JFK directly to Istanbul last October for $624 round trip and I thought that was good.

I booked an Atlas Air domestic flight within Turkey on CheapOAir which was incredibly inexpensive. Based on a phone conversation with CheapO (all of this from the US), I began to wonder if we actually did have confirmed reservations, but alas, we did and all was fine. They must really buy in bulk. Is this your first trip to Turkey? You'll love it!

Ellen

Book it and do carry-on luggage! I also saw that episode and I would love to see the Blue Mosque.

Turkey is a amazing and that's a great fare!

That is a great fare! We went last February (from Charlotte) for about $650. I would jump on it. Turkey is fabulous!

Tracy

September is a wonderful time to visit Turkey & lots of Europe. Weather nice crowds less-Turkey is amazing

Oops! When I went back in today to check price, I read it more closely. Yesterday, I read "total including fees". When I read the whole sentence today, the ending said "excluding taxes"--another $370ish. The price was too good to be true!

Thanks for the feedback.

Cheapoair is a minefield. Look at TA air travel forum.

"I'm thinking I would do a Rick Steves tour."

Do you mean a group tour? Or on your own using the Steves book?

We're booked on a Rick Steves Turkey tour in September. I'm also watching fares. Best one I've found out of Philly is around $830.

Luisa-I was thinking the 13-day group tour with RS. I prefer planning my own trips and independent travel, but Turkey on my own is a bit intimidating.

Grimmy--do the RS people offer any help if finding low fares (like a consolidator)?

Jubilada--I did check out TA and will stay away from CheapOair.

I discovered a new travel website here today-ITASoftware.com. It is exactly what I was looking for. Gives me all the prices for all airlines for any given month. I discovered (based on today's rates) that it makes no difference whether I go in April or Sept. I think I have lots of time to book a flight, but the RS tours seem to be filling up quickly.

After using CheapOair, I'd stay away from it, too. Jackie, have you used Kayak.com? I use it all the time for both domestic and international travel, and in fact it's where I found the flight to Turkey. I just checked ITA and it's the same type of site; it searches all the other travel sites.

Ellen

Ellen-I have used Kayak and many other travel sites. What I think is different about the ITA site is that when I click on the matrix link, I can see a month at time with a price for every day. I can click on any airline and see just their price for every day of the month. Ideally, I'd like to travel American because I have a $500 voucher and it tells me that their price drops from $1200 to $900 on Sept 13.

Turkey was one place I did a tour. And having seen how they drive, I was glad I decided to leave the driving to someone else :)

That's good to know, Jackie - thanks. I've bookmarked it.

Ellen

"Luisa-I was thinking the 13-day group tour with RS. I prefer planning my own trips and independent travel, but Turkey on my own is a bit intimidating."

I agree, I did spend some time on my own in Istanbul, which is not at all difficult, but took a tour into the country. I think you've made a good decsion doing that.

I think you'll love Turkey and will have a wonderful adventure.