Trying to make our way from santorni to istanbul (not easy). It is extremely pricey (taxes are almost as much as the ticket!).
Anyway, for the athens-istanbul leg, there are 2 major airlines that go that route (that I know of): Olympic and Turkish. They are both about the same price. My question is if one airline is notably better than the other? i've heard awful things about olympic.

Both a bit "iffy" to my mind

ugh, that doesn't make me feel too good! i suppose no choice since how does one get to istanbul otherwise?

We just took a couple of flights with Turkish Airlines and thought they were fine. Athens-Istanbul is such a short flight it probably doesn't matter much which one you pick, although Turkish might be my preference since Olympic seems to be experiencing some problems right now.

I have flown both airlines. I think the the FA's on Turkish Air are much more hospitable and take care of the customers better than Olympic.

Olympic is having problems right now in Athens with "mini-strikes" by FA's. My flight was delayed 3 hours last week because the airline had a hard time finding a flight crew.

People seem to forget that Greece and Turkey have been bitter enemies (or sour, anyway) for most of a century now. Thus there's no great meshing of their transport systems or much of anything.

That said, I'd fly Turkish Airlines any day of the week before I'd fly Olympic.

thanks--i continue to be shocked at the terrible reviews i hear about Olympic!

I'm also wondering if anyone knows how to obtain the best fares for intercontinental flights (or between Greece/Turkey). Pricing our flight from Santorini to Istanbul (via Athens) is shocking. Almost as much as our flight from NY! The taxes are also crazy. Does it help to go through a Greek travel agent? Any other tips? thanks!!

hello jubileefd

I am not so sure a Greek travel agent will get you a price better than what you find so far.

The route from Athens to Istanbul is known to be very expensive and the price does not drop or increase much (I speak of Olympic only).

Perhaps Turkish Air is cheaper sometimes. We have many more Turkish visiors this year to the island than I can remember before and this is good. We should all be friends.

You know, only until last few years Olympic tickets and the airport departure electric signs use the name Constantinople, not Istanbul. Olympic take a long time to change. But, maybe they are a little political or memory is to long.

My grandathers memory is - he still calls it Constantinopolis!!!

thanos

jubileefd, I haven't flown Turkish, but I flew Olympic for 3 legs last year (JFK-Athens and Athens-Naxos) and they were fine - much better than I'd expected based on what I'd read. I flew Aegean as well, and they were very nice, if you have the option to fly them. Good luck!