Turkish Airlines flies nonstop from San Francisco to Istanbul, Turkey. Unfortunately, the $737 airfare available for flights into mid June is not Turkish Airlines nonstop flights. But, you can fly from San Francisco to Istanbul in two segments with Lufthansa or Swiss airlines. Even Delta, KLM and Skyteam offer these low fares.
Flights from LAX to Istanbul are $150 to $300 more.
What I like about the fare is the possibility to overnight in Zurich, Switzerland on the outbound, inbound or both ways. You can also work in an overnight in Munich on the low fares. Of course, you can schedule this fare to avoid an overnight layover if time or expense is an impediment.
SFO-IST San Francisco – Istanbul, Turkey
Monday, April 27 – Monday, May 4
$720.60
United Airlines K booking code:
- SFO-MUC Lufthansa
- MUC-IST Turkish Airlines
- IST-YYZ Toronto Air Canada
- YYZ-SFO Air Canada
The itinerary I like is overnighting in Zurich, Switzerland each way since I love the opportunity to visit other cities, even if only for an overnight transit. Downtown Zurich is easily accessible from the airport in 30 minutes by train. I walked the city on a daytime six hours layover at ZRH in March 2013.
Swiss Airlines flies nonstop from San Francisco to Zurich. A potential itinerary is flying Swiss all four segments to and from Istanbul for $737 all-in.
$736.60 United Booking code K flying Swiss Airlines SFO-ZRH-IST.
Tuesday, June 9 SFO-ZRH Swiss 7:25pm arrive Zurich 3:40pm Wed. June 10.
Thursday, June 11 ZRH-IST Swiss 9:05am arrive Istanbul 12:40pm.
Wednesday, June 17 IST-ZRH Swiss 5:45pm arrive Zurich 7:45pm.
Thursday June 18 ZRH-SFO Swiss 1:00pm arrive SFO 4:15pm.
This itinerary allows two overnights in Zurich. That might be a deal breaker for most travelers, but a deal maker for this loyalty traveler. The price of hotels in Zurich does not bother me. I have hotel points to spend.
This is a low fare flight deal for San Francisco to Istanbul.
