Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles - Routes to get from IST to BKK

I have an award booking that I need to modify. My current itinerary has me arriving in IST on UA904 from EWR at 12:20 pm on Dec 24 in business. I'm trying to find a route from IST to BKK same day. I found one with long layovers in both IST and Dhaka, but that's not ideal. Since it's during the Christmas holidays award business seats aren't easy to find and I don't really want to count on last minute availability.

I'm searching for available segments that might work (using the ANA tool) and I've tried everything I could think of without much luck. TK's route map isn't working for me at all so I'm looking for some suggestions. I've tried ZRH & DXB and a few other European cities but I'm sure I'm missing something. Any suggestions on where to search ex IST? India is another zone in aeroplan so I don't think I can connect there without a lot more points.

I'm posting this here since IST is TK's hub I'm most likely looking for a TK flight ex IST.

Given you want to leave IST the same day, is there a reason you're connecting there at all? If you could connect in ZRH/FRA/MUC, you might have better options.

My trip is YOW-EWR-IST..... I've looked at tons of options from YOW incl ORD, EWR, YYZ, YUL, & IAD but since I haven't found anything I thought it might be better to keep my itinerary to IST. I do have the Dhaka option (assuming it's legal through aeroplan, which I haven't confirmed yet) and I can get the after midnight flight to HKG but neither of those is great. I'm just looking for other options.

I'm also trying to avoid the exorbitant YQ that aeroplan charges for flights on some airlines so I'm primarily looking at TK, UA & LX among a few others. I know I might end up with a TG flight so that's fine too.

If you get to IST in the first place and not move your flight to MUC/FRA/ZRH, there are few options you can look into:
- IST-DXB-BKK with TK and TG - same direction, should work fine
- IST-DEL/BOM-BKK with TK and TG - same direction, should work fine
- IST-VIE-BKK with TK and OS
- IST-MXP/FCO-BKK with TK and TG

Did you try the TK64 IST-BKK nonstop?

You could also go the other way -- e.g. YOW-YYZ-HKG-BKK

IST-CAI-BKK on MS :D

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'd tried most of them already but there were a couple I'd missed. I found the CAI/MS yesterday and that's the only one that works. I think I can also go directly EWR-CAI on MS but the connection time is a bit tight in EWR. I've never flown on MS but the hard product looks nice. I don't drink so I don't care if it's dry.

I'd already searched every westbound route I could think of through HKG, PVG, NRT, etc.

IST-HKG and take TG639 to BKK.

Yes, IST-HKG was an option too but made for a longer trip. I was able to change my booking to IST-CAI-BKK.

I was using the ANA tool to search for segments and when I put in EWR-CAI it gave me MS986 - but I didn't realize that originated in JFK and not EWR. Since I only had 2 hours at EWR to make the connection changing airports wasn't going to work.

It's sorted now so that's good - even though it's a long trip! YOW-EWR-IST-CAI-BKK.

Thanks for the help!

Yes, IST-HKG was an option too but made for a longer trip. I was able to change my booking to IST-CAI-BKK.

I was using the ANA tool to search for segments and when I put in EWR-CAI it gave me MS986 - but I didn't realize that originated in JFK and not EWR. Since I only had 2 hours at EWR to make the connection changing airports wasn't going to work.

It's sorted now so that's good - even though it's a long trip! YOW-EWR-IST-CAI-BKK.

Thanks for the help!

It may not be important to you, but in addition to being a lousy airline IMO, MS is also a Dry airline.

It may not be important to you, but in addition to being a lousy airline IMO, MS is also a Dry airline.

The OP has already stated that he doesn't drink, so he doesn't care about that.

Having said that, I agree with you that MS is not ideal and that the OP should continue to search for other options. I'm sure availability will come up on one of the many Far East flights on TK closer to departure (ICN, PVG, HKG, SIN, CAN, NRT etc etc).

I know seats can come up later, but it is over the holidays and I didn't want to risk it. Also, I needed my dates set in stone for other reasons and changing them later would have most likely meant changing the dates.

The 773 CAI-BKK looks like a decent hard product - at least I hope it is! I dont drink and catering isn't that big a deal to me either.