I Bought Rev Tkts

Well, it's been years...
I think EgyptAir to Luxor was the last time (7-8 yrs ago?). OW $300 for 2 from CAI.

AF website had codeshare for Air Malta (KM) @ lower price than KM site. KM charges E22 fee for 2. I paid $109 each; $86 for ezeds "iffy" seats. If I changed CDG to ORY, the schedule stunk but price was much cheaper and I'd spend way more taking a bus.
Very pleased to use AF for convenience and anti-anxiety. "Xanax" for nonrevs?
Takes a bit of research but since the airshow is that wkend, we might have had problems and LCC are not a good solution.
Messing around w/options to return via whichever gateway but it's still a long way off and ezeds should work then.
a bientot...

I've done it a few times. Closest to your story is a TK flight OSL-IST. Tickets were pretty reasonable (about $180/person) and that was the only flight that could get us to IST at a normal hour without going through (usually weird, like SVO connections). There were probably some open seats, but I have no regrets having that peace of mind once we got to Norway a few days earlier!