Budget Travel - Cheap Flights to Turkey in Early August?

I am trying to fly to Istanbul from Chicago in early August. Barring all the advice of traveling in the "on" season, what else can I do to lower the cost of my flight? Most of which are ranging around $1700 right now (eeek!).

I've tried:

thy.com
sidestep.com
kayak.com

Any and all suggestions are welcomed!

I am trying to fly to Istanbul from Chicago... ranging around $1700 right now (eeek!).


At that price range I'd take a look at packages, which may turn out to be cheaper for you. Gate1travel.com has a couple of Turkey packages - the 6 day Istanbul trip from Chicago runs $1767 for one person (including hotel), the price per person drops dramatically if you have two people.

I've also found good packages on gotoday.com in the past, you might check them out as well.

Finally, turkish air is in the process of joining *Aliiance and often run specials, not sure if they turned up in your other search engines.

Best of luck!

If you can get a "relatively" inexpensive flight to London....Wizz Air is a discount carrier that flies the London Luton - Sophia, Bulgaria route. From there it is a short and inexpensive train or bus trip.

EasyJet also flies London Luton to Istanbul route. I don't know what their fares look like.

Eaterlover: Welcome to FT! Please check your PM ("private messages" link).

We are flying from ATL to IST in September. When I started watching fares they were about $800. I watched and oil continued to climb. I finally bought tickets early this week for $1000. I just looked at the DL website. They have tickets for August from Chicago to Istanbul for about $1300. It is an expensive time of the year to travel, and, unfortunately with escalating fuel costs not likely to become any less expensive any time soon. Better to go now than in six months when the price might double.

We are flying from ATL to IST in September. When I started watching fares they were about $800. I watched and oil continued to climb. I finally bought tickets early this week for $1000. I just looked at the DL website. They have tickets for August from Chicago to Istanbul for about $1300...Better to go now than in six months when the price might double.

August is expensive but in Sep the ORD-IST fare drops to $936. So being a little flexible helps. Agreed however that in this environment the sooner you buy your ticket (even for later travel) the better.

...If you can get a "relatively" inexpensive flight to London....Wizz Air is a discount carrier that flies the London Luton - Sophia, Bulgaria route. From there it is a short and inexpensive train or bus trip....
Er, only if you regard a 13-hour overnight train journey as '"short"!