I first wrote about this promotion a few weeks ago, but wanted to post a reminder of this, as the offer will be ending shortly (and sometimes points transfers can take a while). There’s a lot to love about the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles program, and this promotion makes redemptions even more lucrative.
In this post:
Save 30% on Turkish award redemptions
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles is running a redemption sale, offering a 30% discount on award tickets with few restrictions:
- This is valid for bookings made through December 31, 2021
- This is valid for travel through May 15, 2022
- This applies to all promotional award tickets in economy or business class
- This is valid for travel on Turkish Airlines to all destinations, whether flying one-way or roundtrip
- There are blackout dates of April 7 through April 25, 2022, for international flights
- The discounted price will be reflected at the time you make your reservation
Why this is such a good deal
If you’re not familiar with Turkish Miles&Smiles, you’ll want to check out my recent post. With a 30% discount, you can expect to pay the following number of miles for one-way Turkish Airlines business class awards:
- Fly from the United States to Europe for 31,500 miles
- Fly from the United States to the Middle East for 32,900 miles
- Fly from the United States to Central Asia for 36,750 miles
- Fly from the United States to North Africa for 42,000 miles
- Fly from the United States to the Far East for 47,250 miles
- Fly from the United States to Central Africa for 50,750 miles
- Fly from the United States to South Africa for 59,500 miles
While there are fuel surcharges, they’re relatively mild — expect to pay $180-270 per direction for these charges in long haul business class.
If you’re looking for award availability, I recommend checking out the Newark to Istanbul flight. It has the most award availability of any Turkish Airlines route to the United States, and the route is also operated by the new Airbus A350, featuring Turkish’s best business class.
How to earn Turkish Airlines miles
Turkish Airlines partners with two transferable points currencies, giving those with credit cards easy access to these miles:
- You can transfer Citi ThankYou points to Turkish Airlines at a 1:1 ratio, so you can earn Turkish miles with cards like the Citi Premier® Card (review)
- You can transfer Capital One miles to Turkish Airlines at a 1:1 ratio, so you can earn Turkish miles with cards like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review)
- Note that with both currencies transfers to Turkish Miles&Smiles aren’t instant, so expect for it to take one to two days
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines is offering 30% off awards booked by December 31, 2021, with travel allowed through May 15, 2022. Turkish’s award pricing is excellent to begin with, so with a 30% discount, you’re looking at some jaw-droppingly good award pricing.
Add in the fact that Turkish flies to more countries than any other airline in the world and that Turkish miles are easy to earn (via Capital One and Citi), and this is a pretty awesome opportunity to lock in some travel.
Do you plan on taking advantage of this Turkish Airlines award sale?
(Tip of the hat to @fotograaf)
45,000 from SFO to LHR at the end of Summer; finally found some award space off the west coast 2022.
@DCS
You are a star Flyer is this a good deal
Got it to Naples Italy for 63k round trip. What a steal!
Booked the promotion for seven people yesterday morning. Today, I tried to change the flight today, which is available for same milage amount. Their website won't allow me to process the change, so unfortunately for me, I had to endure a TK phone call. So get this, they are trying to charge me $25 per person for the change. I pointed out the terms and conditions listed on their website that stipulates free changes (of...
Booked the promotion for seven people yesterday morning. Today, I tried to change the flight today, which is available for same milage amount. Their website won't allow me to process the change, so unfortunately for me, I had to endure a TK phone call. So get this, they are trying to charge me $25 per person for the change. I pointed out the terms and conditions listed on their website that stipulates free changes (of course you will pay for any milage difference, which there was none). The agent was able to see the same policy, but insisted his system won't allow to process the change without a $25 pp change fee. Further, he explained they do not have the capability of waiving the fee, or transferring to a supervisior who might have the ability to waive the fee. Now, I know you're all thinking just HUCA but here's the thing, I was on the phone nearly two hours with him, and it wasn't until the hour and a half mark until he brought up the change fee. Bottom line, I don't think I have it me to go through that again. Anyone have any ideas on how to proceed without so much friction?
That story rings true, and this is a perfect example of what it's often like when dealing with Turkish Airlines. When everything is simple, straightforward, and 100% "as expected" things may go smoothly, and the flight experience can be very good. But if ANYTHING goes sideways, if you need help, and (god help you) if you need to contact a human at Turkish to address something, then you may be in for an endless, hellish,...
That story rings true, and this is a perfect example of what it's often like when dealing with Turkish Airlines. When everything is simple, straightforward, and 100% "as expected" things may go smoothly, and the flight experience can be very good. But if ANYTHING goes sideways, if you need help, and (god help you) if you need to contact a human at Turkish to address something, then you may be in for an endless, hellish, circular, unsolvable situation. That was my experience more than once, and I keep reading reports like this one from @Adam W that confirm this is common. It's a shame -- in many ways Turkish is great, I really want to like them, but I've come to expect that anything involving this airline is extremely "fragile" and subject to total collapse where you can be left twisting in the wind and everyone just shrugs and takes a "not my problem" attitude.
Their attitude pretty much reflects the entire Turkish culture. A very famous satire writer in Turkey, Aziz Nesin, wrote a two hour comedy about this attitude with the title “Yaşar Ne Yaşar Ne Yaşamaz.” The title is a play on words. The male name “Yaşar” can be translated as “living.” So the title of the play can be roughly translated as “Yaşar may be living or may not be living.” It reflects the bureaucratic attitude...
Their attitude pretty much reflects the entire Turkish culture. A very famous satire writer in Turkey, Aziz Nesin, wrote a two hour comedy about this attitude with the title “Yaşar Ne Yaşar Ne Yaşamaz.” The title is a play on words. The male name “Yaşar” can be translated as “living.” So the title of the play can be roughly translated as “Yaşar may be living or may not be living.” It reflects the bureaucratic attitude of the government. They consider the protagonist to be living under certain circumstances and dead under others. So unless the culture of Turkey changes all of a sudden, don’t expect Turkish Airlines culture to change. Like you said, when everything goes smoothly, they are a great airline.
@ Matt - Makes perfect sense, it does seem to be a cultural thing (great customer service, going the extra mile to make things right, etc. are not universal). I've concluded that trying to book trips with Turkish Airlines during a worldwide pandemic just exceeds my current risk tolerance (it's complicated enough even in normal times). For me, all travel arrangements right now have to be very flexible. Given the state of the world, these...
@ Matt - Makes perfect sense, it does seem to be a cultural thing (great customer service, going the extra mile to make things right, etc. are not universal). I've concluded that trying to book trips with Turkish Airlines during a worldwide pandemic just exceeds my current risk tolerance (it's complicated enough even in normal times). For me, all travel arrangements right now have to be very flexible. Given the state of the world, these days I consider any trip highly speculative, subject to changes and/or cancellation (I've had a dozen trips that I chose to cancel over the past 2 years, and when I have gone somewhere, it's usually after multiple changes -- last trip that actually went, I was on my "Plan G", after 6 or 7 significant changes). So I only book things that can be reliably changed/canceled at no or little cost to me. Flights that would require dealing with unresponsive call centers and high fees to change/cancel are just not worth it to me. I know this from first-hand experience: I was actually in Istanbul when the pandemic exploded in 2020. I did managed to get home just as borders were closing all across Europe and most airlines were canceling flight schedules, but it was a stressful, frustrating experience, and not one I intend to repeat, so I choose carefully. Some day when all of this is behind us, reliability, flexibility, and solid customer service won't be such a hard requirement for me. Right now, it is. YMMV.
Hey Ben:
Thanks for posting this information. I have identified flight that I want pricing at the promotional level (31500 points) to Europe that are in March. However, I am on the payment screen where you enter your credit card info and it is not showing the 30% discount below 31500. This seems like the last screen before the payment is processed. Do you just have to trust that the discount is going to be applied?
Thanks
Never mind. Reading comprehension is apparently not my strong suit. 31,500 one way ialready includes the discount
Ive made several searches and am only seeing business fares for around 100k miles each way from both nyc and chicago to istanbul
Have any of y'all bought miles from the website buymiles . com? I was wondering if it's trustworthy - the prices are kinda too good to be true.
"Buying miles" (from anyone/anything) is a sleazy scam (it's prohibited by the airlines, duh). Bottom-feeders. Expect slime.
I am an expat in the Gulf. I've been checking TK Biz class for award redemption for a while. At frist it went down from 35K to 17.5K (Biz class) from the Gulf cities to Turkish cities and recently went further down to 12.3K. So I got two award tickets : RUH to ASR / IST to HRG / CAI to RUH . Very happy with my end-year TX travel award flights.
Can we book now and change later. If so, do we have to pay the difference in miles?
Also, can we have a stopover in Istanbul.
@ Hsn -- You can make changes for as long as the promotion is active without paying the difference in miles. However, after December 31 you'd have to pay the difference in miles if you make a change.
As far as change fees go, the terms state the following: "Ticket changes made until 31/05/2022 (included) are free of charge."
@Ben - that is a bit misleading. Changes made before 31DEC21 for travel by 31MAY22 are free. If you change after 01JAN22, you will still be charged.
@ Sean M. -- Hmmm, are you sure? According to Turkish's website:
"Flexible Travel opportunities are offered until May 31, 2022 (inclusive) as the last flight date, for tickets purchased until December 31, 2021 (inclusive)."
Based on how I read it, you could buy a ticket by December 31 and you could still change it for free after that, as long as travel is scheduled by May 31.
Yep. Quite positive. If you check out this link you will see the details of the policy.
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/announcements/coronavirus-outbreak/flexible-change/
"For tickets purchased between 21 March 2020 - 31 December 2021 (inclusive), passengers can make unlimited changes until 31 May 2022 (inclusive) as the last flight date. Change your date of flight until December 31, 2021 (included) to any date as the latest date of flight will be May 31, 2022 (included), and be with your loved...
Yep. Quite positive. If you check out this link you will see the details of the policy.
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/announcements/coronavirus-outbreak/flexible-change/
"For tickets purchased between 21 March 2020 - 31 December 2021 (inclusive), passengers can make unlimited changes until 31 May 2022 (inclusive) as the last flight date. Change your date of flight until December 31, 2021 (included) to any date as the latest date of flight will be May 31, 2022 (included), and be with your loved ones anytime you want. "
31MAY22 is the last flight date, but any changes have to be initiated by 31DEC21 (for now).
Perhaps some of you can give me some advice here.
I live in Indonesia. I am a long time KF Solitaire member. I travel 3-4 times a year to North and South America. Since Covid I have been flying QR and TK because they go where I go and they have been flying. Also, transiting in Doha and IST has been easier than in Singapore.
For TK I have either been redeeming flights...
Perhaps some of you can give me some advice here.
I live in Indonesia. I am a long time KF Solitaire member. I travel 3-4 times a year to North and South America. Since Covid I have been flying QR and TK because they go where I go and they have been flying. Also, transiting in Doha and IST has been easier than in Singapore.
For TK I have either been redeeming flights with KF miles or paying and crediting the miles to my KF account.
Does it make sense to open a miles and smiles account and credit mileage there? I expect to use TK more than SQ going forward.
Suggestions appreciated.
A general suggestion/request for Ben.
It would be great if some of your great photos of seats and cabins had a caption mentioning the airline and even the aircraft, if possible. Over time those of us who fly less often could become familiar with the different setups, which would inform our miles redemptions.
Thanks.
One of the questions/concerns I have is booking for family members and myself. I can only search for 1 ticket at a time. How difficult is it to book for 3 seats?
I flew with my friend, and it was quite easy to add him. The problem you may have is if there are not 4 seats available. I think united's search engine might tell you remaining, but not sure if that only works for UA's flights and not partners.
@ Jason -- Turkish often makes four seats available per flight. Search Turkish award availability through Air Canada or United, and if it shows there, it should also be bookable through Turkish's program.
Do some airlines regularly discount their saver awards?
This is equivalent to a 43% miles transfer bonus from Citi or CapOne.
Two people RT in Business to Europe for 126k is nor far above the Venture X SUB plus its min spend.
Awesome. Thanks Ben!
@ Peter -- Discounts to this level and with such few restrictions are rare, which is why I'm so impressed by this offer. Indeed, the value here is pretty incredible.
Hate to be the party pooper, but please beware before using TK Miles and Smiles.
If you make a booking and then cancel it, there is a good chance they won't refund the miles. Of course the policy is to refund the miles with a $25 fee, but they owe me about 300K miles (transferred from citi) in cancelled bookings (I've paid all the fees). When I call back to enquire, they tell me to...
Hate to be the party pooper, but please beware before using TK Miles and Smiles.
If you make a booking and then cancel it, there is a good chance they won't refund the miles. Of course the policy is to refund the miles with a $25 fee, but they owe me about 300K miles (transferred from citi) in cancelled bookings (I've paid all the fees). When I call back to enquire, they tell me to use the feedback form. And when I use the feedback form I don't get a response.
If you are willing to take the risk then go for it, this is obviously an amazing deal. But please beware if something goes wrong they will insist you use the feedback form and that's not fun
Good point. COVID-19 is still a factor. Was flying to Europe (Christmas Markets) tomorrow until Austria went into lockdown and Switzerland and UK required quarantine.
You can cancel most bookings online. Surprisingly it refunds the miles immediately.
That depends on luck. It’s true for some bookings they will refund immediately. But for others you will get an error message at the final step and the miles won’t reappear, hence the process I outlined above.
Look like travel period ends May 15, 2021 for this promotion.
2022*
@ Brandon -- My mistake, thanks. Fixed.
i have yet to find a SFO departure at promo pricing. (i'm sure there might be some dates, but not looking good)
@ mike -- Yeah, Turkish doesn't have any saver level award availability all year SFO-IST right now. Turkish is quirky with award availability, and sometimes there's no space, while at other times there's a good amount of space.
I'm always surprised how under the radar the M&S program is given the incredible value (and incredible promos on seemingly random routes, just have to play around with the search function). To the US I've found the most business availability is to ORD, JFK/EWR, and IAD, and some routes like MIA saver awards are seemingly never open, SFO and LAX is a mixed bag. The call center is also very competent and if you are...
I'm always surprised how under the radar the M&S program is given the incredible value (and incredible promos on seemingly random routes, just have to play around with the search function). To the US I've found the most business availability is to ORD, JFK/EWR, and IAD, and some routes like MIA saver awards are seemingly never open, SFO and LAX is a mixed bag. The call center is also very competent and if you are TK elite you never wait more than a couple of minutes to speak to someone.
I've been TK E+ for the last 10 years and if I had to pick any word to describe the call center, "competent" would not be it! They do answer the Elite line pretty quickly though, I'll give them that.
Are you sure you have the right airline? TK's call center competent? I wouldn't wish dealing with the TK call center on my worst enemy. Uninformed, unhelpful, unwilling or unable to do anything at all if there's even a minor issue with your booking (or getting you to a person who can). Maybe you've had the good luck of the most simple bookings with no kinks, but trying to fix any issue with a TK...
Are you sure you have the right airline? TK's call center competent? I wouldn't wish dealing with the TK call center on my worst enemy. Uninformed, unhelpful, unwilling or unable to do anything at all if there's even a minor issue with your booking (or getting you to a person who can). Maybe you've had the good luck of the most simple bookings with no kinks, but trying to fix any issue with a TK booking is a scene out of Kafka. Really, any blogger mentioning TK deals should have a huge disclaimer that they are a nightmare to deal with and you may end up with orphaned miles. Seriously, even AA is a dream to deal with compared to TK.
Is there a way to add a longer stopover in IST before heading to my destination in Asia? I can't figure this out. Thanks for your help.
@ LAX -- One stopover is allowed on a roundtrip award, but you'd need to book by phone.
I agree with Jacob & Murugu…not seeing discounted prices. Checking EWR - IST on May 15th and it only shows from 105K miles.
@ Zo -- That's because May 15 doesn't have saver level award availability (the same availability that would be bookable with partner programs). When you see the higher pricing, that's for flights that don't have saver availability.
I agree with Jacob, I can't get anything out of SFO even at the regular award prices. Everything is always inflated
Every time I try to book TK with miles to SFO/LAX its 115,000 business from Europe. What am I doing wrong?
@ jacob mochel -- Turkish can be quirky with award availability. At the moment there's not a single date for the next year with saver business class awards from SFO to IST. There are some dates from LAX to IST. For example, take a look at March 30 (and there are quite a few other dates), where you should see the low pricing.
When you see the 115K pricing, that's for situations where there's not saver level award availability.
I'm also based out of the SF bay area, and finding saver space (or any space <100k points 1 way) is maddeningly hard. One search I did recently through aeroplan priced a 1 way business class itinerary from europe to SFO on air canada at roughly *900k* points. That's not a typo. 900k. 1 way. 1 person. I don't know if its a lack of competition (since united pretty much owns SFO) or something else.
That's useful to know, I've always struggled to figure out when Turkish actually has "saver" availability in general.
@ Murugu -- The easiest way to tell is to go to search through a partner program, like Air Canada Aeroplan or United MileagePlus. If they show saver level award availability then it's also bookable through Turkish at the lower cost.
1 more question, how were you able to search the entire year for sfo ist space?
@ guuuusfraba -- I searched through united.com. Just search award availability for nonstop flights using the flexible calendar option. Then you can tell for weeks at a time what dates have availability, and you can search a year worth of availability in a couple of minutes.
Wow 31,500 is a steal LAX to Europe. Thanks for pointing out the availability component.
Wow this is major, thanks ben for sharing
I just booked a TK award this afternoon and was wondering why the price seemed lower than expected! This explains it.
Great article Ben!
Several readers have posted warnings about dealing with TK. True to some extent with all airlines, but your audience has some very seasoned travelers, so I tend to take the feedback more seriously.
Does your business deal with their customer service as well? Does your experience support their concerns? Or has it been no worse than other airlines?