Turkish Airlines has just put its newest route to the United States on sale, and it’s a pretty exciting one, in my opinion.
In this post:
Turkish Airlines adds Istanbul to Seattle route
As of May 27, 2022, Turkish Airlines will be launching 4x weekly flights between Istanbul (IST) and Seattle (SEA). The flight will operate with the following schedule on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays:
TK203 Istanbul to Seattle departing 2:05PM arriving 4:15PM
TK204 Seattle to Istanbul departing 5:45PM arriving 3:25PM (+1 day)
The flight will cover a distance of 6,071 miles in each direction, and is blocked at 12hr10min westbound and 11hr40min eastbound. Turkish Airlines will use a Boeing 787-9 for the route, featuring 300 seats. This includes 30 business class seats and 270 economy class seats.
We first learned about plans for this route in November 2021, when the airline revealed it would add flights to both Detroit and Seattle. The Seattle flight is finally on sale, while there’s no sign of the Detroit flight launching yet.
Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other airline in the world. As far as destinations in the United States go, the airline otherwise flies to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington.
Award seats are readily available
If you’re interested in taking this flight, award seats are currently wide open. I see four business class award seats available on most flights, so this is a great option for flying to Istanbul, or for traveling with one stop to just about anywhere in the world.
The best program to redeem miles through depends on your final destination, but in general Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles are going to be your best bet. Both partner with major transferable points currencies, and have reasonable award pricing.
My take on Turkish Airlines adding Seattle flights
It’s always awesome to see airlines add new routes, especially when we’re talking about an airline as global as Turkish Airlines. Given how many places Turkish Airlines already flies to in the United States, I’d say Seattle is logically among the next cities you’d expect from the airline.
A few thoughts on Turkish Airlines adding Seattle flights:
- Seattle has been growing at a fast pace, and in the past decade we’ve seen a countless number of foreign airlines add service to the airport
- Seattle is a hub for Alaska Airlines (oneworld) and Delta Air Lines (SkyTeam), though there’s also some long haul Star Alliance service on airlines like All Nippon Airways, Lufthansa, and Singapore Airlines
- While Turkish Airlines has a slightly different market than the “big three” Gulf carriers, there is also some overlap, and both Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways fly to Seattle
- Seattle is an incredibly international city, and Turkish Airlines should open up one stop connectivity to several new destinations
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines will be launching flights to Seattle as of May 2022. The airline will fly from Istanbul 4x weekly with a Boeing 787-9. This is an exciting new flight option for those in the Seattle area, given all of the places that passengers can connect to beyond Istanbul.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ new Seattle route?
Can anyone tell me how seats are arranged on the business class? I have difficulty booking seats w my young daughter next to each other in the middle section, where two seats seem to be next to each other...
We are very excited to hear about it as well. Is that the most up to date flight path? It’s still showing it flies over Belarus and Ukraine.
The best news is now one trip, no transit, and I don’t have to go to Qatar and wait a long time and then to Turkey
With all the international additions, SEA needs a serious international-caliber lounge product. The offerings in the South Satellite are basic at best.
@Lucky, where are you seeing all the availability. It is not showing up on Aeroplan, Lifemiles, or MileagePlus. Thanks
Strange, I'm not seeing any availability for SEA -> IST direct via AirCanada
Returning from Italy this summer, I started with MXP-MUC-DEN-SEA. With a night at HIX MXP to make the noon flight and only the MUC-DEN leg in J.
Then Finnair started flying to SEA and I booked MXP-HEL-SEA (all J) with a night at HI Helsinki and half a day of site seeing in Helsinki.
Now there's the option to change to BLQ(Bologna)-IST-SEA (all J) with a free hotel night from Turkish Airlines and an evening...
Returning from Italy this summer, I started with MXP-MUC-DEN-SEA. With a night at HIX MXP to make the noon flight and only the MUC-DEN leg in J.
Then Finnair started flying to SEA and I booked MXP-HEL-SEA (all J) with a night at HI Helsinki and half a day of site seeing in Helsinki.
Now there's the option to change to BLQ(Bologna)-IST-SEA (all J) with a free hotel night from Turkish Airlines and an evening in Istanbul.
Hmmm, I'm tempted, but for the $50x2 Turkish visa fee to get a "free" hotel on layover. I do want to check out that new airport though.
I'm able to find the award flights back from IST to SEA but not the flight from SEA to IST. Anyone have any luck?
Finally - and more importantly - they're flying the 787 so we get the newer biz seats so no more locator flights. Hopefully Avianca will see the award space & make it easy to switch my flights.
Also, since you mentioned AC & AV being the easiest & good value to redeem. Yes, they are. However, they're also the most difficult & costly to make changes.
I am wondering when Denver will receive Turkish service?
United is growing its Denver hub by leaps and bounds. Munich just added -so perhaps soon...
TK announced flights to Denver last summer when they announced flights to Dallas. Does anyone have any updates on that?
Yeah, I've been waiting for this, too. I reached out to TK and DEN recently on social media to see if they'd tease anything and only got back generic replies. You'd think they'd do it for the summer travel season meaning they'd have to go on sale soon. I wonder what the hold up would be given the likely connecting traffic.
I don’t think there’s a “big three” gulf carriers anymore. Etihad has shrunk massively and has admitted they don’t want to cater to connecting traffic anymore. The competition now is between Qatar and Emirates, with Turkish slowly assuming the role of the third.
There are a number of international development organizations in Seattle that fly to a lot of different small African countries. I wouldn't be surprised if the TK flight is popular with those as it could significantly reduce travel time to what has previous been a multiple stop trip.