I need to be in Istanbul in late July and wasn't too worried about cost since r/t fares in March were less than $500. I assumed that July fares would go down but I just found out that summer is high season for Turkey, as in the rest of Europe. I'm currently looking at airfare from ORD at $1000+. Is this typical? Are there alternate routes where I can fly cheapply into an interesting city, stay 2 days and then take a train to IST?

Good news - easyJet will be serving IST beginning soon. So you can fly to London then hop to IST cheaply.

Bad news - easyJet for 4 hours...

As for the stop and train option, IST is a long way from any other airport with convenient train connections. Plus, in late July (at least for now) transatlantic trip to anywhere are running $800+, so $1000+ to IST is not out of line.

thanks, I just looked at Easyjet and can fly Luton-Istanbul r/t for 163 E on my dates. But you're right, finding cheap airfare into London won't be easy in July, either. Anyone know offhand how I can take a train from LHR to Luton?

There are a number of ways to get to Luton from LHR. The easiest way is probably National Express.
http://www.nationalexpress.com

Another method:
Get on the Piccadilly Line. Get off at Kings Cross. Walk to the Thameslink station at Kings Cross and buy your ticket for Luton. Get on the train and get off at Luton. Take the free shuttle bus from the Luton train station to the airport.

Don't say I never did you any favo(u)rs...

Maxjet.com, outgoing or incoming flight on a Tues. or Weds. Type JFK06 in the discount code box.

JFK-Stansted, $750 round trip.

<i>Business class.</i>

How's them apples?

Granny Smith would be so proud!

This maxjet looks pretty good, is this a new airline? I'll have to ditch easyjet since I need to coordinate with the LHR 7 am arrival and 10 am departure times. I don't have time to overnight in London.

Here's my question, do you think it's worth it to just have a 10 hr 45 minute flight straight through even if it's a little more and on coach?

1. ORD-IST (n/s)coach Turkish Air $1350

2. ORD-JFK, JFK-LHR (maxjet business class), LHR-IST $1100

If you can take sitting in coach for 11 hours or so, then maybe the nonstop works better for you. For me, no way; the break in London is worth it - helps with jet lag (remember IST is two hours east of London, so 8 hours from ORD) and I certainly can attest to business class being worth the extra money over the water.

But if time is crucial, or if you want to put the Turkish Airlines miles on an AA account, then fine, go for the coach trip.

MaxJet is one of two new airlines offering business-only service over the Atlantic.

With conventional airfares to the UK running around $900 round trip in peak periods (like yours) the idea of a business class ticket costing less than crunch coach is... well...

Here's a review on FT:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=489588

The review is very impresssive -- Maxjet does sound like &quot;real&quot; business class which is amazing for this price. So now catching a connection to JFK and another one from LHR to IST is sounding more tempting. Especially if I just hang out in Maxjet's lounge for the 5 hr layover at LHR...

I do lose the miles on my AA account although I *hate* AA's fee structure for FF so it's not as bad as losing United miles. thanks for heads up on this deal.

Maxjet flies from JFK into London STN. I can't find any flights at all for any price from STN-IST. There are flights from STN to other Turkey airports like Dalaman and Bodrum -- are these inaccesible to Istanbul? Finally, if I have to leave STN and travel to some other London airport in order to fly directly to Istanbul -- which airport (LHR or Luton) is easier to get to from STN?

I'd really love to fly Maxjet but this seems really difficult to coordinate. I don't mind paying up to $500 to get from London to Istanbul if I don't have to switch airports but this doesn't look possible. Any suggestions about how to do this?