2012
12
June
Ottawa to Istanbul, Turkey - from $693 roundtrip after taxes!
12
June
I've been waiting a long time for this! Turkey has always been near the top of my list of places on this planet that I want to check out (and it's a long list). Fares are *never* cheap though, and usually hover around a minimum of $1100-$1200 roundtrip after taxes.
But then KLM decided to have a contest, and thanks to a little assistance from YOW Deals followers, well, here we are. I can't emphasize enough how rare an opportunity this is. If you've ever wanted to visit Turkey at an insane price, this is your chance.
At the time of this writing they haven't officially announced the winner, but I can see that they've already loaded the cheap fares to Istanbul into the system on KLM.com. In fact, I just bought my tickets. The bottom price looks to be $693 roundtrip after taxes, but the majority are in the range of $750 roundtrip after taxes (as KLM promised they would be), depending on the dates.
To find them, you can just go to http://www.klm.com and search for flights from Ottawa to Istanbul.
The cheap fare period is from mid October 2012 to May 5th of 2013 ! So it's a pretty wide date range that you can choose from. KLM has stated that the cheap fares will be in the system for 48 hours.
Personally, I would aim for October 2012 or late April 2013. Both would be great times to visit Turkey, with good weather and less tourists. Here's a link to historical weather for Istanbul.
Update: People have also reported booking with a multiple-night stopover in Amsterdam for pretty much the same price. 2 trips in one! For those that don't know how to do this, it's really easy. I've created a short tutorial, which you can find in the forums.
screenshot from KLM.com
I've already created a Google Map to outline the places in Turkey I want to check out:
Istanbul, Turkey
Cappadocia, Turkey
Pamukkale, Turkey
If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about this deal! If anyone has any recommendations on places to check out in Turkey, please leave a comment.
See you in Turkey!
(NOTE: If you're interested in visiting Amsterdam, give it a try, you'll find it's a lot cheaper than usual as well, although not as good a deal as Istanbul.)
HEADS UP: Looks like Air Canada is matching the prices to Amsterdam and Istanbul...
https://www.AirCanada.com/en/offers/air/ams_ist/ams_ist.html#YOW-INT-YOWIST
HEADS UP 2: Now it looks like every airline is matching the insanity to Istanbul !
Air France (should be possible to get a free stopover in Paris)
Delta
Lufthansa
United
Example search on Kayak: https://www.kayak.com/flights/#/YOW-IST/2012-10-17-flexible/2012-10-31-flexible
If anyone needs help on planning their trip to Turkey, there is a great resource from the guy who literally wrote the book on Turkey (for Lonely Planet and others) - http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/
Hit Like if you like this deal! Click Share to show your friends on Facebook.
2012
11
June
KLM asking people to vote on which city they should put on sale
11
June
UPDATE:
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2012
26
April
Ottawa to Las Vegas - $344 roundtrip after taxes - between now and March 2013
26
April
United is showing some really good prices to Vegas at the moment. They've significantly dropped the price on a lot of their flights between now and March 2013.
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2012
14
March
Ottawa to St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands - $119 roundtrip after taxes!! And insane prices to Curacao, Costa Rica, and St. Lucia too!
14
March
Update: Looks like Air Canada Vacations has added another one of those crazy cheap flights to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands for $119 roundtrip after taxes. Follow the instructions below but use March 30 to April 7 as your travel dates.
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2012
13
March
Ottawa to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic - $199 roundtrip after taxes
13
March
Air Transat just released a crazy fare for $199 roundtrip after taxes from Ottawa to the Dominican. Here's how to find it...
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2012
4
February
Ottawa to Turks & Caicos - $308 roundtrip after taxes
4
February
It's about 47% cheaper than the usual bottom price for a flight to PLS.
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2012
18
January
Ottawa to Aruba - $310 roundtrip after taxes
18
January
Update @ 6:18PM - sold out already? I'm now getting the following message:
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2011
8
December
Ottawa to Orlando, Florida - $199 roundtrip after taxes
8
December
Sunwing's flights from Ottawa to Orlando (MCO) in January are ridiculously cheap at the moment.
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2011
29
November
Syracuse to Belize - $383 roundtrip after taxes
29
November
There are flights in February from Syracuse (SYR) to Belize (BZE) that are perhaps cheap enough to warrant the drive from Ottawa. It's nearly 45% cheaper than flying from YOW.
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2011
31
October
Huge fare war from Ottawa to Amsterdam - $615 roundtrip after taxes - affecting fares up to May 2012
31
October
There's a huge fare war to Amsterdam (AMS) going on at the moment. It's really rare to see the major airlines drop a price to Europe like this from Ottawa over such a large date range.
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