Hi, Here is the situation/question:

I'm gonna be in Istanbul for 3 months this summer. A round-trip flight from Chicago to Istanbul (departure:June, return:September) is $1950.
But if I add another round-trip from Istanbul to -say- London within this 3 month period, the price goes down to $1200. For example,

1. June 11 - CHI-IST
2. July 11 - IST-LON
3. July 25 - LON-IST
4. Sep 18 - IST-CHI

This whole multi-city ticket is much cheaper. Note that there are no connecting flights or layovers. So, if I don't go to London from Istanbul (That is, skip flights 2 and 3), do you think I can still take the flight back from Istanbul to Chicago in September? Or, would the airline consider this as "hidden city ticketing" and cancel my return ticket (ticket 4)?

Thanks!

That's not hidden city ticketing. If you don't do flight 2 or 3, you would almost certainly have your IST-CHI cancelled. Hidden city would be, for example, CHI-IST, IST-CHI-CLE where you don't take the CHI-CLE. Of course, if you actually want to do the "middle" trip to London, perfectly OK and a nice savings.

So just spend a weekend in London.

Problem solved.

100% ticket cancellation if you don't take the middle segment.

The OP said he did not plan on flying IST-LON its hidden city if its on one ticket

Under your scenario, if you fail to take the London side trip, your return to the states would be cancelled.

As someone mentioned, take a weekend trip to LON.

OP, can I please ask which site you would price something like that out on?

I find it shocking that it can be that easy to drop costs, and would like to try it on a future trip.

Thanks, if possible...

Sounds like the fare may be a ORD-LON with stop-overs in IST? I'm guessing this is a Turkish flight? Airfare is priced by market not distance.

Only if the fare allows two stopovers in IST...

If its TK i got it down to $1100 in ITA for those days w/ the LON flights.

Outbound is VHV3XPC and return is THV3XPC if both ways are THV3XPC that would be about $1200

This fare does allow stop-over in each direction. Currently only the lowest fare which is a W does not allow stop-over but all the others do.

Thanks.

I'm just starting to explore this hidden city type of booking.

My first experience with getting a bit more bang for my money was when I wanted to go to the west coast of Canada on a US Airways award and was able to get ICN-YVR-LAX-CUN-LAX-BKK-ICN for the same number of points (60,000 at the time) as I would have gotten ICN-YVR-ICN for.

It blew my mind in a good way.

Now I'd like to learn how to creatively do more with paid fares...

This does apply to the whole ticketing ploy principle, HCT in particular, because in this case IST is a fortress hub for TK and so ending (or staying, then returning from) there would fetch a higher fare; using it as the cxn would lower it.

If OP can do a o.w. on TK for 1/2 that $1,200...then find a good deal o.w. back to ORD on another carrier, then he can do it HCT. And that's a big IF...

I've done a few of these incredible award bangs:

1. MAIN-HAWAII-MAIN for 12.5K total, then a short USA-USA for 7.5K

2. USA-USA-USA-Peru-USA-USA-USA for 12.5K total

3. USA-USA-USA-USA-Uruguay-USA-USA for 12.5K total on Airline A, then a short USA-USA for 8K on Airline B

4. MAIN-MAIN-MAIN-Hawaii-MAIN for 12.5K total

My favorite is when irrOps happen and these awards are forced-converted into rev tix - makes for mind-blowing cpm's

OP is probably flying with TK,TK tickets are almost always sustantially cheaper to other places than IST.

F.EX : I am a Norwegian living in Turkey,traweling rather frequently to Argentina. A OSL-IST-EZE costs me on an average at least 500-600 USD less than IST-EZE,thats economy,in Biz the difference is substantially more,and they include stopovers,in my particular situation its an understatement to say that its kind of neat!!!

I play With TK stopovers all the time,my experience is that the fare always alows 1,the second is something like 50euro,BTW,1 SO at the begining/end should be enough for OP.