what airlines will have the best airfare to turkey from the united states? what should i expect to pay for one passenger "one way"--i want to continue on in the middle east after i am done with the "turkey tour".
Cant help you with the fare from the USA but can tell you that its only a one and a half hour flight to Cairo or Amman, Jordan from Istanbul as we just returned. We flew Egyptian Air from Istanbul to Cairo and Turkish Air back from Amman to Istanbul and both were excellent airlines.Although Jordan is interesting and much more modern, Egypt is fabulous and would strongly recommend a visit....I would return in a heartbeat....
I'm not sure this is helpful for your situation but we just bought round-trip tickets on Delta for May (from Atlanta) to Istanbul for $680.
You could do a Kayak.com (or other airfare search engine) search to search one-way or consider flying into Istanbul and home from the city in the Middle East where you'll end up (called open-jaw but when you search use the "Multi-city" option. Then you could use a discount airline, train or bus from Turkey to your destination in the Middle East.