Introductory Fares On Turkish Airlines New SFO-IST Route: $699 Round-Trip

Turkish Airlines is launching a new route which will fly direct from San Francisco to Istanbul starting in April 2015. The frequency will begin as 5x per week until May 11th, 2015, after which it will fly start flying daily. As Gary outlined last week, award availability looks great, with up to 4 Business Class seats open on most flights. I’m particularly excited about this new route, since it will add another 1-connection option from San Francisco to the Maldives with a connection in Istanbul.

Via The Flight Deal, Turkish Airlines is selling introductory fares on this new route for only $699 round-trip, which even includes the inaugural flight for those of you that are interested. The fares aren’t loaded into ITA yet, so you’ll need to search/book through Turkish’s website or an OTA such as Expedia or Orbitz.

Unfortunately, this fare does NOT earn miles outside of Turkish’s frequent flyer program, and even within that program will only earn 25% of the miles flown. So while it’s not mileage-run worthy, it’s still a great fare for TPAC travel if you don’t need the EQMs, and $200-$300 less that what is currently available to other destinations in Europe during that time of year.