Delta Airlines is reintroducing their summer seasonal nonstop flight to Istanbul, Turkey from New York’s JFK airport. The nonstop flight will be operated by a 767-300 and starts today, Sunday April 28, 2013. Surprisingly, the two opening days have great Coach Class availability at the low level. The rest of the summer has spotty Business Class and Coach Class award availability at the low level. But if you can snag either low award type, you’ll be riding all the way to Istanbul at the low award levels for a good redemption value using Delta SkyMiles.
Business Class Availability
Unfortunately, Business Class award availability at the low level doesn’t look that great this summer until July, when Delta gets considerably more generous with their award availability on this route.
Only 1 day has low level Business Class availability in May. 
There is no Business Class availability in June.
But July starts to look a little more promising. Now we are talking.
The one day in May that had availability is May 29, 2013. This flight is operated by a 767 with the old style cradle Business Class seats. Still for 100,000 SkyMiles all the way to Istanbul, this can be a good deal.
Coach Class Availability
There is plenty of Coach Class award availability at the low level today and tomorrow.
Again, nothing at the low level for a Coach Class award on this nonstop flight in May or June. And in July, there is all of 1 day with low Coach Class award availability.
The low award ticket in Coach Class will cost you only 60,000 round trip. If you book this award, don’t forget to add the free one-way to your award. And stop-overs and open jaws are allowed.
Bottom Line
It’s great to see Delta adding the nonstop flight to Istanbul from New York. The 100,000 SkyMiles Business Class award at the low level is quite a good opportunity to redeem SkyMiles. With the combination of open jaws and stopovers, this can add significant value to the gimmicks.
Related Posts
- Delta – How to get a free extra one-way on an award ticket
- Delta – Illustration on how to get a free extra one-way award ticket
- Delta – New York – Delta 767 Old Business Elite Seat
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I was just looking at booking this trip, but one annoying factor is that Delta is still flying its old style 767-300’s to IST. Old recliner seats, old IFE system, etc. Any idea when they will staff this route with the 764 or the retrofit 763’s?
I was hoping to NonRev on this route this Summer and the flights are already very full, some already almost sold out. Probably why there isn’t much award availability. Michael, I agree. Seems like we should use a more modern aircraft on this very popular and long route.
I got one of the cheap 10 day business fares JFK-IST back in January. Been checking and now the flight returning on May 16th is showing a 76G which has the lie flats. Outbound flight on May 6 is still recliner seat. So they do seem to be swapping in some lie flats.
Hi Nick – Very good to know. Thanks for the tip.
Good to see that the lie flats are making their way into the mix on this long route.
Delta booked us non stop RT JFK-IST and about 2 months later changed both segments to one stop flights w/a connection. And, this is the second time they have done this to us. A non stop reservation is no guarantee you’ll fly that way.
I heard that Delta is going to stop service to Istanbul this fall, can anyone confirm this?