jjgollum

Looking to purchase a couple of tickets for mid-July - mid-August travel to from North America to IST.

Anyone see any downward movement on fares related to the Turkey unrest?

Cheers!
jjgollum

jaymar01

You'll have a better chance of finding a discounted summer fare to Damascus. The best routing is via Kabul for maximizing FF miles.

thebigfish

My daughter is completing her dissertation and has spent 3 1/2 years of the past 5 in Turkey. She has many contacts in Turkey and is in the loop politically there since the Phd will be in Political Science.

Traveling to Turkey is a high risk venture right now. Her contacts indicate that there is a massive amount of anger against the government just below the surface and that it is not just isolated in Istanbul.

Plus, the State Department just issued a warning about travel to Turkey. I love Istanbul and want to go back; however right now is not the time to go to build up FF miles.

You could go and have a great time. You could also go and end up in a very bad place. My experiences have taught me that whenever someone thinks it can't happen to them - they are usually the one it does happen to.

Consider yourself warned.

TBF

acader

Thanks for this post. I just re-worked my trip. Until yesterday, there was no warning/advisory posted on the US Dept. of State website. The moment I saw that, I decided not to take the chance. I've personally seen how "group thinking" can make a huge (negative) impact.

go_around

Had to laugh at this. If airline X's fares plummeted because their planes kept falling out of the sky, would you be banking on the downward trend for a summer break?

cesco.g

I'd be surprised to see any moves re fares by the airlines within such a short time period.
Travel agencies in Europe see little cancellations sofar on what are primarily trips to vacation spots oceanside; so, most folks stay away from the hot spots like Istanbul and Ankara.
Maybe the U.S. travel advisory is a bit premature

x1achilles

I just checked at 6 June, 18:29 PDT on the State Dept. website and there is no mention of Turkey in their travel advisories over the last 3 months.
What is your source?

xiKiNGix

It's not on the current travel warnings (http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p...w/tw_1764.html) but there is a travel alert for the country of Turkey (http://turkey.usembassy.gov/em_060513.html).

AA_EXP09

Keep in mind that they can fill flts to Turkey with connecting PAX due to IST being a *A hub.

AA_EXP09

Not to mention free visas for Chinese passport holders (HK and Macau are treated as such.)
You forgot to add a connection in MGQ.

oziman

Just saw a lot of award availability open up in the last 2 weeks of august - JFK-IST and points beyond that wasn't there before. Could be standard TK procedure or could be cancellations, not enough data to tell..

orr333

I really enjoyed my MR in March to IST and wanted to return as soon as I left. I am very upset that this is happening there and hope for a speedy resolution so we can return.