SFO - IST

Find Cheap Flights from San Francisco to Istanbul

1 adult
1 adult, Economy, 0 bags

KAYAK searches hundreds of travel sites at once for deals on flights to Istanbul Airport

 
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results in flight searches from San Francisco to Istanbul, as well as popular online travel agencies
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results in flight searches from San Francisco to Istanbul, as well as popular online travel agencies
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41,299,237 searches in the past 7 days on KAYAK

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Everything you should know

Cheapest return fare
Multiple Airlines
Mon 15/12
SFO - IST • multi-stop
Cheapest one-way flight
Multiple Airlines
Mon 15/12
SFO - IST • multi-stop
Our travellers' advice
AI-powered summary based on content written by travel experts. AI can make mistakes.
SFO's kerbside check-in eases departure for families.
Use Havaist shuttles from IST to reach central Istanbul.
Expert advice
Expert advice
Expert advice
Expert advice
When to book
3 weeks
in advance
Our data shows that travellers who book at least 3 weeks in advance save around 17% compared to booking last minute.
Insights
Insights
Insights
Insights
When to travel
March
Cheapest • 19% price drop
July
Most popular
Good to know
Good to know
+1
+1
Good to know
Good to know
+1
Start a new search
KAYAK searches hundreds of sites at once to find you the best travel deals.
We hope you love your trip to Istanbul!
Flight Deals
Booking Insights
Expert advice
Flight Deals

Cheap Flights from San Francisco to Istanbul (SFO-IST)

 
Here are some of the best deals found on KAYAK recently from the most popular airlines for return flights from San Francisco to Istanbul that are departing in the next months. While these flights were available on KAYAK in the last 72 hours, prices and availability are subject to change and deals may expire.
Discover the best prices for you by selecting your travel dates on KAYAK.

Recent return flight deals from San Francisco to Istanbul

Multiple Airlines Logo
SFO
-
IST
6684 mimulti-stop
Multiple Airlines Logo
IST
-
SFO
6684 mimulti-stop
Multiple Airlines
Booking Insights

KAYAK's insights & trends for San Francisco to Istanbul flights

Get data-powered insights and trends into flights from San Francisco to Istanbul to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more.

What is the cheapest month to fly from San Francisco to Istanbul Airport?

To calculate monthly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each month over the last year for round-trip flights from San Francisco to Istanbul Airport, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the median of all values for each month.

The cheapest month for flights from San Francisco to Istanbul Airport is March, where tickets cost £686 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are June and December, where the average cost of round-trip tickets is £1,143 and £1,000 respectively.

Can I save money by flying with a stopover from San Francisco to Istanbul Airport?

The average return price for all direct flights, flights with one stopover, and flights with two stopovers for the route found by users searching on KAYAK in the last 2 weeks.

Yes, flying with a stopover may cost you more time, but you can also save money on the route, with a 2 stops stopover the cheapest option at £764 on average.

How far in advance should I book a flight from San Francisco to Istanbul Airport?

To calculate weekly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each week before departure over the last year for round-trip flights from San Francisco to Istanbul Airport, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the average of all the values for each week.

To get a below average price on the flight from San Francisco to Istanbul Airport, you should book around 3 weeks before departure, which saves you about 17% compared to booking last minute. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 18 weeks before departure.

Expert advice

Expert advice for your flight from San Francisco to Istanbul

 
AI-powered summary based on content written by travel experts. AI can make mistakes.
KAYAK teamed up with top travel experts to share the best tips for your journey.
Airports
SFO

SFO offers kerbside check-in for United, Delta, and Southwest, making departure smoother, especially for families. Remember to tip if you use this service.

IST

Upon arrival at IST, use the Havaist shuttles for a comfortable and affordable ride to central Istanbul locations like Taksim Square.

Our travel experts
Jenna Scatena

Jenna Scatena

Expert on IST

Jenna Scatena

Jenna Scatena

Journalist and Travel Writer, Jenna Scatena is an award-winning travel writer with a love for sharing stories and exploring new places, especially by Vespa. Though she's from San Francisco, she has spent a significant chunk of her vacation days over the last decade eating her way through Texas and sleeping in hotels around the world—especially in California, the Middle East, and Europe.

Read more
Blane Bachelor

Blane Bachelor

Expert on SFO

Blane Bachelor

Blane Bachelor

Blane Bachelor is a journalist and editor specialising in travel and aviation who writes regularly for top global outlets. Born and raised in Florida, Blane has worked and lived in four countries, including the Netherlands, where she’s currently based with her family. Her favourite way to get to know a new destination is by running or riding a bike around town – or hearing a spooky ghost story about local history.

Read more

Good to know - Cheap tickets from San Francisco to Istanbul

Low seasonFebruary
Best time to beat the crowds (10% less expensive on average)
Most popular time to fly (9% more expensive on average)

When to book flights from San Francisco to Istanbul

Are your dates flexible? Find out the best times to travel from San Francisco to Istanbul based on our flight data from the last year. Discover the cheapest month and even day to fly.
Estimated return price
KAYAK looks at all historical flight data for each date to provide a predicted price for one-way trips or returns with a duration up to 40 days. While we try to provide actual minimum prices for each date, some prices are predictions and actual prices may differ.

FAQs for booking San Francisco to Istanbul flights

  • Which airlines offer Wi-Fi service onboard planes from San Francisco to Istanbul?

    SWISS, United Airlines, and Lufthansa offer inflight Wi-Fi service on the San Francisco to Istanbul flight route.

  • Which aircraft models fly most regularly from San Francisco to Istanbul?

    The Airbus A350-900 is the aircraft model that flies most regularly on the San Francisco to Istanbul flight route.

  • Which airline alliances offer flights from San Francisco to Istanbul?

    Star Alliance is the only airline alliance operating flights between San Francisco and Istanbul.

  • On which days can I fly direct from San Francisco to Istanbul?

    There are direct flights from San Francisco to Istanbul on a daily basis.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from San Francisco to Istanbul?

    KAYAK is a travel search engine. That means we look across the web to find the best prices we can find for our users. With over 2 billion flight queries processed yearly, we are able to display a variety of prices and options on flights from San Francisco to Istanbul.

  • How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket from San Francisco to Istanbul?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to Istanbul from San Francisco is likely to change within 7 days, so travellers know whether to wait or book now.

  • What is the Hacker Fare option on flights from San Francisco to Istanbul?

    Hacker Fares allow you to combine one-way tickets in order to save you money over a traditional return ticket. You could then fly to Istanbul with an airline and back to San Francisco with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from San Francisco to Istanbul?

    Sometimes travel dates aren't set in stone. If your preferred travel dates have some wiggle room, flexible dates will show you all the options when flying to Istanbul from San Francisco up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

Prefer to fly direct from San Francisco to Istanbul?

 
Direct data is based off flight results for the next 60 days. Find direct flights from all airlines flying direct from San Francisco to Istanbul.
Find which airlines fly direct from San Francisco Airport to Istanbul Airport, which days they fly and book direct flights.

Direct departures

San Francisco to Istanbul

Monday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Tuesday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Wednesday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Thursday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Friday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Saturday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Sunday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

See more direct flights

Direct returns

Istanbul to San Francisco

Monday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Tuesday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Wednesday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Thursday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Friday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Saturday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

Sunday

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines

See more direct flights

Reviews of the top airline flying from San Francisco to Istanbul

 
See real verified KAYAK customer reviews for airlines flying from San Francisco to Istanbul. Airline scores are aggregated from all reviews left by passengers on KAYAK after flying with an airline. KAYAK doesn’t show reviews that are older than 5 years. Learn how KAYAK collects reviews.
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from San Francisco to Istanbul? KAYAK airline reviews give an overall score for each airline based on loads of factors, including comfort, boarding, in-flight entertainment and more, to make your decision easier. See airline scores according to verified KAYAK customer reviews.
7.3
Turkish AirlinesOverall score based on 4100 reviews
7.4Entertainment
7.4Food
7.8Crew
7.3Boarding
7.3Comfort
Airline reviews

Chicago to Istanbul was a much better experience than I expected since I’m more accustomed to Qatar Airways business class. The business lounge in the Istanbul airport was amazing - loved the lockers and phone charging stations, and the bathroom was a spa experience in itself. The onward leg from Istanbul to Karachi was utterly disappointing. Terrible plane, and I felt like I was in economy - the seats don’t come near to lying flat and the food was mediocre. What a sad downgrade - it isn’t as though the ticket on that leg was cheaper. So, on that front, there’s no contest with Qatar airways.

6.0 GoodAnonymous, Dec 2025
ORD - IST
Read more Turkish Airlines reviews

Chicago to Istanbul was a much better experience than I expected since I’m more accustomed to Qatar Airways business class. The business lounge in the Istanbul airport was amazing - loved the lockers and phone charging stations, and the bathroom was a spa experience in itself. The onward leg from Istanbul to Karachi was utterly disappointing. Terrible plane, and I felt like I was in economy - the seats don’t come near to lying flat and the food was mediocre. What a sad downgrade - it isn’t as though the ticket on that leg was cheaper. So, on that front, there’s no contest with Qatar airways.

Second leg of Turkish Airline with Indigo is disaster for following reason. 1) You have to carry your cabin bags through ladder to boeing 777 because it was parked somewhere in parking lot and was not given a gate to board passengers and this seems to be people traveling to and fro from those flights and is not issue with flight itself. 2) I choose non vegetarian food on Turkish portal way ahead of checkin to entire trip, However the Indigo flight gave me random veg food saying they code veg food code from Turkish. 3) Indigo did not served any alcoholic beverages stating some weird reason which is non nonsensical. 4)Indigo have TV screens in front of you but it displays nothing except "Welcome Onboard" with annoying white black ground in dark flight. This is the most stupidest and annoying part because you are held hostage for 7 hours and only thing you could do is stare back at white screen which does not have entertainment package or even flight tracker. Such a shame.

Overall it was good. Food was bad. I ordered gluten free vegetarian meal. But I got gluten free chicken for my long flight from Seattle to Istanbul. I don’t eat any kind of meat. Second meal I got eggplant with meat which I couldn’t eat. I don’t understand why we can’t get gluten free vegetarian meal for a 12 hour flight. I eat the bread and that was it.

As a big guy the seats are way too small for me. Would prefer more comfortable seats on these long haul flights.

My flight was canceled 1 minute before boarding. The customer service was owful, no one could tell us what was going happened. I spent 30hrs instead of 15 from Washington DC to Brussels. No apologie or help

Boeing 777 is a bad choice for a such a long flight.

This is my 2nd time with the Turkish airline. Would definitely recommend. In stability we connected to Indiago would not recommend, very cramped seating. No inflight entertainment..service was inferior.

I wouldn't know what the flight was like. AI canceled my flight reservation!! There's no way to speak to an actual human to fix the issue! NEVER AGAIN! ALWAYS BOOK YOUR FLIGHT DIRECTLY WITH THE AIRLINE NEVER GO THROUGH KAYAK OR JUSTFLY.COM!!

Paying extra for premium seats was wasted. Turkish Airlines takes 2 seats for bassinet. The lady next to me had a baby with bassinet Bassinet was in front of my seat

Rude staff. I would avoid using the word racist but definitely partially or discriminatory. My 72 yrs old mother who is also disabled was traveling on this flight. She was the second passenger boarded to the plane. The First elderly couple ahead of my mother were allowed to use the airplane bathroom but my mother was denied entry stating it was for safety reasons. My mother objected the the couple in front of her were allowed but hostess still stated that due to the flight safety reasons she can’t use it. Even my mother explained that he is using blood pressure medication that’s why she have to use the restroom frequently but the crew continued arguing her. At one point the Mae attendent even suggested that if that’s the case my mother can urinate in her seat. The level of disrespect against an elderly lady is beyond my comprehension. This matter will be taken to the social media to shame the employees involved.

Everything you need to know for your flight from San Francisco to Istanbul

Information on your arrival and departure airports