Family Emergency Need to Go to Turkey - Advise required on Airfares Ect

LFlatulentFrank on 13/04/2015 - 12:23
Last edited 11/04/2018 - 16:05 by 1 other user

Unfortunately the better half has had some terrible news that requires us to go to Turkey (Antalya) within the next 2 months.
I've never been overseas let alone Turkey!
Whats my cheapest option to get there? Who should I book with? Any general tips?

Thanks in advance OZB community :)

EDIT again thanks for your comments thus far.
Going through abit ATM - its really nice to have kind strangers that are willing to assist!
Also am Silver Velocity member (partner is not) almost Gold velocity (if that helps?)

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  inherentchoice on 13/04/2015 - 13:30

  +2

  $1274 return according to skyscanner. On China Southern.

  http://www.skyscanner.com.au/transport/flights/per/ista/chea…

  (I selected PER as I stalked your facey which says WA)

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    FlatulentFrank on 13/04/2015 - 16:48

    Thanks kindly for your advise! o0o I've moved to melbourne actually but have looked at skyscanner and its a really helpful tool! thanks

    • 

      inherentchoice on 13/04/2015 - 17:25

      Okay cool. Yes you can search across a whole month, year and even country, for almost all the airlines. Often you should still book directly with the airline to avoid third party fees, but it's useful to use the engines for comparison.

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  goosegog on 13/04/2015 - 14:05

  +1

  If you want business class or above as it will be a long flight - try contacting Alpha flight guru ( AFG ) - we've used them twice in under a year to fly on long haul flights . They can offer prices a lot lower than through your normal travel agent. & no we are not affiliated with them - just happy, rested customers.
  Also, please remember that you will need travel insurance. For many years we have used Southern Cross Travel Insurance ( SCTI ) - only available on line.
  They have always proved to be consistently cheaper & as we have had the unfortunate need to try out, are extremely easy to deal with should you need to make a claim.

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  Daniel Plainview on 13/04/2015 - 14:48

  +5

  Well FWIW as someone who has a Turkish wife and worked in the airline/TA industry for the best part of the past decade I'd suggest:

  • even though online sales now dominate airfares take the time to suss out the handful specialist Oz-Turkish travel agents e.g http://www.transturk.com.au/ (there are others in Oz too just can't recall off the top of my head) - often airlines will put in place 'route deals' for these agents as they do a lot of business just to the one country e.g Turkey and so have an advantage on other bigger agents. I know that agent is SYD based but for all intents and purposes it's as good as being around the corner if you call/email. Worst case scenario you can get their best quote, which will generally need to be done over the phone so you don't seem like a tyre kicker and then get that emailed to you and Flight Centre etc might beat.

  • it's a long flight to Turkey and cheapest ain't always 'best' - so keep an open mind to paying a tad more IF you can get a well priced ticket on a tier 1 carrier e.g Emirates, Singapore etc.

  • honestly there's a million other tips etc but you're best finding those in generic threads on OS travel. Just try to find the silver lining for the trip and what I mean by this is that for example Istanbul is one of the best cities in the world to visit so budget a bunch of days to enjoy it. :-)

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    FlatulentFrank on 13/04/2015 - 16:53

    fantastic information - much appreciated! Thanks! am on a budget (going to Antalya)

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  tomleonhart on 13/04/2015 - 15:57

  You can always seek a guidance price from Flight Centre. Then use it to compare it with the online prices.

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  shaybisc on 13/04/2015 - 16:55

  A friend of mine went to Turkey a week ago and she said that Flight Centre beat all the online scanners. Malaysian Airlines was the cheapest.

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  Randxyz123 on 15/04/2015 - 19:23

  I've never been overseas let alone Turkey!

  Step 1 (even though this might be obvious) passport application.

  Step 2 e-visa https://www.evisa.gov.tr/en/ For visits less than 90 days

  According to smart traveller http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Turkey

  If you or your OH will be there for over 180 days you need to talk to the embassy.

  This could be an opportunity to try out flybusinessforless.com - more information is available here http://www.traveller.com.au/cheap-business-class-seats-fly-b…

  You will want to try and fly on a star alliance airline to get your gold membership. I can imagine your OH will be stressed and upset given this is a sudden trip. Try and find the cheapest business class tickets you can.