Flights

To make my whole trip a bit cheaper but a also more complicated, I'm going to split the flight up a bit. I have air miles on Southwest so I'll get a round trip flight for free within the US. The plan is to utilize this to get to Chicago or NYC and then fly from there on an airline that can get me to Istanbul. I'm not sure how this will work as far as transferring my luggage- I think I should be able to check it all the way through (I hope), but I am going to have to look into that.

On the search for cheap flights, there are a couple of airlines that have direct flights to Istanbul: Delta, United Airlines, KLM, and Turkish Airlines.  I did a quick search based on the approximate date I'm planning and it looks like United Airlines is the cheapest flying out of NYC.

So here is the plan:
Portland to NYC via Southwest air miles
NYC to Istanbul via United Airlines
then
Istanbul to NYC via United Airlines
NYC to Portland via Southwest air miles

Any other ideas out there?  I'd rather not have too many stops...obviously!

Now, the really big issue. I can't sleep sitting up. It makes flying difficult and it's been a while since I've been on a flight that is this long.  Any suggestions on how to sleep while flying?  I found this gem in my own searches:  "How to Sleep on a Plane."

Enjoy!