Great Deal: Turkish Business Class Awards WIDE OPEN

There was a lot of chatter recently-ish about people getting the SSSS on their boarding passes after visiting Turkey. Just something to consider.

The best thing about flying Turkish is the lounge in IST. Probably one of the best business class lounges out there.

I just don't feel like 2-3-2 in C is up-to-date nowadays. I'd do everything to avoid a middle seat when flying business.

If I transit Istanbul but my final destination is in Western Europe, does Aeroplan still charge me 52.5k, or the lower Western Europe rate of 45k?

@josh - 45k. Very generous.

Newsflash - No one wants to travel to Turkey.

Just booked 2 J seats FCO-IST-IAH on Aeroplan miles. $85 in taxes each. Great deal.

By the time I got to a computer online 3 hours after your posted this, I cannot see availability LAX-IST in the summer July-August for two people on any date. Is it already all gone? I a couple of days SFO-IST in July and several days in August.

Just ticketed 3 for LAX-IST-ATH-IST-LAX for next May/June. Thanks Lucky!!! Will they let us tag on LAX-??? (N.A.) as an open jaw?? e.g. LAX-MSY or LAX-OGG

Great find. The problem is i'm finding UA availability domestically to be terrible. Trying to connect form SEA to LAX, ORD, or IAH is really difficult for my dates.

I just booked 2 business class fares for MLE-IST-IAH-DFW for 80 k united miles a piece. That made for a perfect return from the Etihad first class trip out (LAX-AUH-MLE) for 90 k AA miles each inspired by your post a couple of days ago. Thank you so much for your posts, I was looking for several months to find an aspirational award that would let me use Advantage miles in one direction and Mileage Plus miles in the other!

I read somewhere in one of the many FF blogs that if you go to Turkey you are forever branded with the SSSS flag on your boarding passes. If true, certainly not worth it IMHO.

I agree with Mo. No more 2x3x2 for me. Same on most AF 777's. That config confirms you will jump over or someone will jump over you.

This is excellent news! Istanbul is such a wonderful place rich in culture and beauty. The people are very warm and welcoming too...and of course this opens opportunity for award travel beyond. Do you know what the rules are regarding onward travel (i.e. IST stopover, additional miles needed for travel beyond IST, etc.)? Turkish is a pretty solid, comfortable product even though it's a large cabin and the seats don't offer a lot of privacy (777-300ER).

One note of caution for travel to Turkey, however. I just received an email newsletter the other day from a visa service I've used previously for other countries. There was an article advising that Turkish visas are no longer being issued at the airport upon landing! They are now requiring tourist visas to be issued in advance (or will very soon) so please plan accordingly!!

@Reston Reston I travel to turkey once every couple years and travel extensively within the US and I've never had a problem. Seeing as TK serves more destinations than any other airline, I highly doubt its reasonable to for TSA to designate someone transitting IST as high risk (or someone visiting)

@SFOflyguy. Turkey requires you obtain an electronic visa. You just fill out a form online, which takes like 5 minutes. I think I had my visa a day or two later. Painless.

@me Apparently 41.2 million people would disagree with your assessment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Turkey#Tourism_statistics

We came back from 12 days in Turkey at the end of September. No SSSS on any subsequent domestic flights and no problem with using TSA Pre-Check. Turkey is an amazing country. And I fully enjoyed my IST-IAH flight on TK, as well as the TK lounge experience. We did the online visa in advance. It was very easy to do and the visa came electronically minutes later.

I agree with Denise. Istanbul is an incredible and safe place to visit. And Lucky is right, the business class lounge in Istanbul is 75% as good as the Virgin lounge at Heathrow. Finally, I had an amazing meal of lamb chops on a flight from Vilnius to Istanbul this summer...and I was in economy on a 2.5 hour flight. Turkish Airlines impressed me for inter-Euro travel.

Not showing on AviancaTaca (LifeMiles) search engine though. Any suggestions there?

Thanks!

Ben,

According to the Singapore Star Alliance award chart, Turkey is classified as "Middle East, North Africa", so shouldn't the award price be 57,500 KrisFlyer miles instead of 65,000?

https://www.singaporeair.com/pdf/ppsclub_krisflyer/charts/StarAlliance_RoundTrip.pdf

Thanks!