Originally Posted by
Doctor Greenlite
I'm not necessarily. This is one way we've looked at. And this is why I'm asking in the first place -- I don't know how it all works. 99% of my travel in my life has been domestic.
As for the reason we'd be going to Istanbul to go back to Paris, it's that it costs about $750 less total, plus we could hang out in Istanbul for a few days.
I honestly would only doing such a trip on different tickets if I had several hours at CDG for changing planes. If you are on a different airline you *will* have to pick up your luggage, go through customs, change terminals, and check in again. If, e.g., you change from terminal 1 to terminal 2 I would plan on this taking at least 1.5h in case nothing(!) goes wrong. Plan at least another couple of hours in case your flight arrives late and things like that.
Personally, I would not risk it and only use two separate tickets if I had a couple of days in Paris before and after the Istanbul flights.