I love credit cards so much! v7.0 - 2025 (see first page for add'l details)

[calypso726]

Has anyone done a Greece / Turkey trip?

What airline do people recommend to fly to IST from the east coast?

If I were flying to IST, I would probably use Citi TYP transfers to Turkish Miles & Smiles to book an award ticket. We did a cruise from Greece and flew to Athens out of EWR on Emirates fifth freedom flight last year. Not sure how feasible those are anymore. I understand the taxes have gone way up on their flights.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

If you have a JB card check your offers, DH and I had get 10 tiles after spending $1,000 between 9/1 and 11/15…My daughter had earn 20 tiles after spending $1,200 in the same timeframe

 

[VGCgroupie]

Not as good as the current offer with spend requirement. But if you are looking for the no spend offer I got this on my flight last week.

 

[DCLMP]

Has anyone done a Greece / Turkey trip?

What airline do people recommend to fly to IST from the east coast?

If I was doing this and I might be next year I would fly to LHR spend the night and then fly to Istanbul. You can fly LHR to Istanbul for 12.5k AA points on BA. Hotels around LHR are cheap. My thought is if you can get to LHR than anywhere from LHR is relatively cheap or low miles.

I'm flying to Rome next year on Condor using Alaska miles. That's if I don't change my mind and go to Istanbul. Everything with Condor goes through Frankfurt. Frankfurt seems to be another European hub that you can get about anywhere from.

I've never flown on any of the middle eastern airlines so I'm no help there.

 

[Minnie368]

How many seats do you need? No experience stalking ANA since they tend to only release 1 J and 1 F at calendar open. It sounds very competitive from what I've read.

Lots of experience stalking and booking JAL from SFO. Usually fairly easy with Cathay at calendar open (2 J and 1 F is typical). Probably with Finnair (Avios) too since they also open at 360 days. Haven't tried though since they only recently came on my radar. The number of miles, taxes, and redeposit/change fees are different, so would need to weigh the pros and cons. Booking with AA or Alaska is cheaper, but takes a lot of luck because their calendar open is 331/330. I used to like booking with BA since it's a little less miles from SFO and better redeposit fee compared to Cathay. But they open at 355 and it's too competitive now to wait.

We would need two. I'll have to read about Cathay because I'm not familiar with them.