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I did a little test of the theory
that domestic Turkish airfares are
much more expensive if purchased outside
of Turkey (or, rather, they're much
cheaper if purchased in Turkey.)
I chose a date and searched for the
airfare for a one-way flight from Istanbul to Kayseri (for Cappadocia). Here were
the results on a major travel-services
search engine based in the USA:
As you can see, only Turkish
Airlines flights were offered, and all the flights
were priced at US$291.
Then I went to the Turkish
Airlines website, chose my location as "Türkiye"
and my language as Turkish, and searched
for fares for the same flights on the
same date. I got this result:
These fares are in Turkish
liras.
Converted to US dollars at the exchange
rate on the day I did this experiment,
these exact same Turkish Airlines flights
from Istanbul to Kayseri, on the same
day at the same times, were priced
from US$91 to US$132!
Then I went to the website of Pegasus
Airlines, a major domestic carrier
in Turkey, searched for flights on
the same route on the same day, and
found:
These fares on the same route on the
same day are US$45 to US$52! And if
I were willing to fly a day earlier
or later, as low as US$31!
Which airfare would you rather pay:
US$31 or US$291, nearly ten
times as much?
So if you book your domestic Turkish
flights through a local
travel agency in Turkey, you may
fly for a mere fraction of the fare
offered outside of Turkey! (Or,
you can learn
Turkish and
do it online yourself! ;-)
In real life, a travel agency may
not be able to offer you the cheapest
fare because airlines sometimes offer
their cheapest fares only online, not
through agencies. But you will certainly
save a lot of money if
you contact one of my recommended
travel agencies to
make your reservations for you! (Of
course, these agencies can also make
any other sorts of travel arrangements
for you: hotels, tours, car
rentals,
sleeper
trains, private
guides, etc.)
Here's more on using a Turkish
travel agency.
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