Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles frequent flyer program recently underwent a major devaluation. Historically this has been a program that offered unbelievable value, though unfortunately that’s no longer consistently the case. However, there are still some good uses to these miles, so in this post I wanted to go over everything you need to know.
Continue reading: How To Redeem Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Miles
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Might want to also mention the annoyance of not being able to book an award ticket for someone else other than yourself if it's the first time.
Just be award that, if you cancelled your award reservations, you might never see your miles/points again. It was a nightmare for me for two years and gave up.
You'll need to do the regarded way of going to a ticket office for the companion. You can't just book an award for yourself and then expect the next time you can book a companion. I've tried and it doesn't allow you until you do the offline crap.
You might want to mention that upon check in they will ask you to show the credit card the Fees (If you paid by points) was paid By. wt...? they were not going to let you Board unless you had the credit card with you. someone like me that has multiple credit cards, But like to carry only a Few on Overseas Trips was facing a major issue. Luckily wife thought of Bringing the Ritz Carlton credit card that was used to purchase the Ticket.
Has anyone else had that issue? this happened in Seattle, never any issues with Turkish anywhere else.
One thing to note about the standard awards on Turkish Airlines.
Taxes and fee are very high compared to the saver award. It’s almost double the amount charged on a saver level ticket.
I highly recommend flying Turkish business class. I don’t recommend using their frequent flyer program, after the devaluation, if you can avoid it.
About the Star Alliance situation. First, note that TK doesn’t necessarily release saver seats to their partners. So you may be forced to book using TK miles, rather than Air Canada’s, for example. Second, note that even if you see saver level award availability for a Star Alliance partner, you may not be able to buy it! This applies both to what you see on Turkish’s website and to the phone reservations. So don’t transfer points to Turkish in the hope you’ll grab that seat, because you may not be able to complete the transaction, at the very last step (paying the fees with a credit card).
Have had multiple award flights with TK the past couple of years. Just flew last month from JFK to Saudi Arabia via IST and then back. No questions asked about credit card used.
Wife and son flew with them in January and even though I paid the taxes with my credit card and I wasn’t flying, they were not asked any questions. Our experience from 2022 was the same. Multiple award flights and no questions about credit card used.
So maybe it’s Seattle specific?
Not necessarily true. In January, I burned 2800 miles I believe to book a ticket online for myself from Istanbul to Ankara. I had no intention to fly as I am in the US.
Once I did that, I was able to book tickets for my wife and son without any trouble. However, you do need to add them to your account as travel companions before you try to book a ticket for them.
From what I've seen if you've booked and flown an award by yourself, the next time you go to book this feature is allowed automatically. From comments I have read Turkish feels this is a "security" enhancement.
You also have to have all of your companions added to your profile on the Turkish website for you to select them.
I did find that you can at least see availability for more than 1 seat via the app but you will not have success in booking there until you've cleared their "security".
From what I have read online, people have had mixed results if they actually don't fly the ticket they booked, but it is an interesting data point.
Just booked my Daughter and her mother from IAD direct to HNL for 10K +$11 ea on UA. Found X class availability on UA site and confirmed on TK. Called and transferred points instantly. The gentleman on the line was able to help, but it took 20ish min to fully book. Best to have a phonetic alphabet reference handy.
Here's the most important thing to remember about TK:
Don't expect its IT infrastructure makes sense and don't expect consistency among its agents. So don't generalize based on your own experience.
I got asked last year at IAD on way to IST/AMM. I had the card I booked with using TK miles, only because I recall the phone agent telling me to bring it.
Four other TK flights on that trip and was not asked once (none of those airports were in the US).
Step 1: Pray
Step 2: Redeem
Step 3: Pray for no IRROPS
Failed step 3 the other day and had to spend almost an hour at a ticket office. The agent had troubles with the system as it's trying to ask for miles difference (given the new award chart) and they had to pull out several notebooks that they have handwritten codes they used to do tricks. Incredible stuff.
Monopad is spot on. If you ever have irrops, you are practically screwed.
I have had my star alliance award redemption ticket reservation changed by united to an unacceptable routing. While escalating to united fixed the routing and put me back on reasonable flights, Turkish cannot seem to ticket the reservation. As things stand, I will not be able to be in place for the eclipse because Turkish cannot figure out how to ticket the reservation with changes - their agents only know to cancel the reservation and find new award seats, which do not exist an more. What's more, their ticket office phones at the airport are either unresponsive or no one ever returns voicemails. Most unprofessional airlines I have dealt with, by far
Totally not worth it - I would transfer my miles elsewhere
I lived in Turkey and flew THY frequently. Relating my own experience would be worthless. Or, any single person's experience. BUT, enough people have commented enough times about customer service that everyone is on notice. Now, add to that its recent program changes and it doesn't make sense. Let's move on.
Happened to me and P2 at ZRH for a TK award flight. Booked the flights several months in advance and used a credit card to pay the taxes/fees which I ended up cancelling. Lucky I had a spreadsheet on my laptop which included the last 4 digits of the credit card. Otherwise, I was told by the check-in agent that we would be denied boarding and there was no way to override the system.
Worst FF programme I've ever interacted with, full stop. The technology/lack of *A award availability, total inability to book even those showing available, having to deal with the call centre(s)... honest advice to everyone on this forum is to completely avoid them. Turkish biz class is nice to fly (although Ben, I suspect you've never had something go wrong on them...one cancelled JFK-IST flight I was on and the whole house of cards collapsed), but the mileage programme should be avoided at all costs.
I was delighted finally to use my TK miles on of course a TK flight to Istanbul (only real thing it lets you book). But I can't even unsubscribe from their emails because that 'link' is super complicated. Like everything else with the programme!
You don’t the need the card physically- I didn’t have it on me and going through the statements and finding it and giving them the full number was absolutely good enough …
I flew SFO-IST and back last month... I was told when booking the card may need to be shown at check in. My card was replaced last summer but I saved the old card in case. Sure enough in SFO the agent asked to see the card so she could verify the last four digits. Again in IST I was asked to produce the credit card used. I made the award booking over the phone.