First off! Apologies if this should be going into the Middle East Forum, but Turkey was involved so...

I'm planning a trip in September and ideally would like to visit Turkey and Jordan both on this trip. (Which may very well include a side detour to London.) I've been researching flights primarily from Istanbul to Amman, but these seem quite pricey considering the distance traveled (anywhere from $300 to $500), and the only land crossings seems to involve a trip through Damascus/Syria, which I am trying to avoid for obvious safety reasons. This is primarily a pleasure trip.

It seems like I could be missing something, but are there any other options or flight routings/airlines that I should be looking at will get me through Turkey and Amman somewhat more efficiently? Any budget airlines or is this pretty much the going rate for the route year round? By boat even, somewhere?

I am trying to avoid backtracking too much geographically in the region...