Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles frequent flyer program has become increasingly useful in the past couple of years. If it’s a program you’re not familiar with, it’s probably worth taking a look.
In this post:
Why you should care about Turkish Airlines’ loyalty program
Why should you care about the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles program? There are a few reasons:
- It’s becoming increasingly easy to earn Turkish Airlines miles with transferable points currencies
- Miles&Smiles award pricing for travel on Turkish Airlines is excellent, and on top of that Turkish Airlines has a phenomenal business class product, and the airline flies to more countries than any other airline in the world
- Miles&Smiles has some unique award opportunities on Star Alliance partners, including some great award pricing for domestic United Airlines flights (though I’m not quite as enthusiastic about this redemption option as others)
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); transfers are generally instant
- 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); transfers generally take one to two days
The best uses of Turkish Airlines miles
I wanted to highlight the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles redemptions that I consider to be particularly lucrative. You can find the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles award chart here, under the “promotional award ticket table” section. While there’s also a separate “standard” level of award pricing, if there’s saver level award availability then the promotional pricing should apply.
Redeeming miles on Turkish Airlines
The value of redeeming Miles&Smiles miles on Turkish Airlines is spectacular, and among the best values of any program. Here are Turkish Airlines’ one-way business class award redemption costs for travel originating in the United States:
- Fly from the United States to Europe for 45,000 miles
- Fly from the United States to the Middle East for 47,000 miles
- Fly from the United States to Central Asia for 52,500 miles
- Fly from the United States to North Africa for 60,000 miles
- Fly from the United States to the Far East for 67,500 miles
- Fly from the United States to Central Africa for 72,500 miles
- Fly from the United States to South Africa for 85,000 miles
Seriously, the values here are exceptional:
- Los Angeles to Istanbul to Frankfurt in business class? That’ll cost you 45,000 miles
- Chicago to Istanbul to Dubai? That’ll cost you 47,000 miles
- Newark to Istanbul to Bishkek? That’ll cost you 52,500 miles
- Miami to Istanbul to Cairo? That’ll cost you 60,000 miles
- San Francisco to Istanbul to Ulaanbaatar? That’ll cost you 67,500 miles
As you’d expect, there are some things to be aware of:
- One free stopover is allowed in Istanbul on a roundtrip award, but that requires booking by phone
- Turkish Airlines does pass on fuel surcharges on award tickets, though they’re not too bad compared to other airlines; for all of the above awards you could expect to pay $180-270 one-way in fuel surcharges for business class
- While flying from the United States to Europe via Istanbul does involve backtracking in many cases, at least Turkish Airlines has a “proper” business class on many intra-Europe flights, so that may be a preferable option to connecting on another airline
- Turkish Airlines can be quirky with award availability; in some cases there’s virtually no business class award availability on a flight for weeks at a time, and in other cases there are four award seats per flight almost every day, so do some searches before transferring points
- If you search on Turkish Airlines’ website and see award pricing much higher than the amounts shown above, that simply means there’s no saver award space, and that awards are pricing at the higher costs
- You could hold award tickets for three days by phone if you want to lock in awards before transferring points
- Canceling or changing an award reservation costs $70, which might be a mild downside compared to some other programs
Redeeming miles on Star Alliance partners
I’m not quite as excited about this as others. In general I wouldn’t redeem Turkish Airlines miles on Star Alliance partners because:
- There are fuel surcharges in many regions, and there are other Star Alliance programs through which you can redeem miles without fuel surcharges (some Star Alliance airlines charge $500+ in fuel surcharges one-way across the Atlantic in business class)
- While Turkish Airlines’ website does have a Star Alliance award search tool, in my experience it’s broken more often than it works, so you may have to book by phone
If you ask me, there is one particular partner award sweet spot. Award flights within a single region cost:
- 7,500 miles one-way in economy class
- 12,500 miles one-way in business class
Since Turkish Airlines is in the Star Alliance, you could redeem those number of miles for a United one-way award ticket within the United States, including to & from Alaska and Hawaii. Best of all, there are no fuel surcharges on domestic redemptions on United.
This is absolutely an incredible redemption value. The major challenge is that actually finding saver level award availability on United can be extremely challenging, especially in domestic first class (which is priced as business class). So if you want to pursue this option, you’ll probably want to start your search on United’s website using the calendar feature, before moving over to Turkish Airlines’ website. And then there’s the whole issue of Turkish Airlines’ website not being great for booking partner awards.
There are similarly good opportunities in other regions. For example, you could redeem just 12,500 miles for one-way Air Canada business class in a flat bed between Toronto and Vancouver, just to give a further example. There would be some fuel surcharges there, though.
How to book Turkish Airlines awards
How do you actually go about redeeming Turkish miles? First of all, you’ll need to open a Miles&Smiles account to search availability on Turkish’s website, but this is instant and free, and you don’t need any miles in your account to conduct a search.
Once you have an account, the process of searching for award flights on Turkish Airlines metal is easy. Just log into your account, and then on the home page check the box next to the text that says “Award ticket – Buy a ticket with Miles” at the top right of the flight search tool.
That will take you to a different page, where you’ll easily be able to conduct an award search. There you’ll just want to enter your origin, destination, dates, number of passengers, and class of service.
The next page will display award flight options, and the process from there is pretty straightforward.
The process for searching Star Alliance award flights is a bit more complicated, as the airline seems to hide this option for whatever reason. Then there’s the whole issue of award space often not showing up, to the point that I find this to be pretty useless.
I’ve warned you, but if you still want to search award availability, you’ll first need to log into your Miles&Smiles account. Then at the top right you’ll want to hover over your name, and then click on the “Miles Transactions” button.
On the right side of the next page you should see a section that reads “Star Alliance award ticket,” and you’ll want to click that, which will bring you to the Star Alliance search page. Alternatively, you can just follow this link.
The Star Alliance search page is pretty easy to use, though award availability won’t always match what you see through other programs. Quite to the contrary, I often find that it doesn’t work at all.
Personally I often don’t have much luck getting award seats to show up even when there is saver level award availability. This space should generally be bookable by phone, but I do everything I can to avoid booking awards like this by phone, especially since Turkish Airlines’ call center can be… complicated. For me this is a major deterrent of booking Star Alliance partner awards through the Miles&Smiles program.
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles is a fantastic niche frequent flyer program that is transfer partners with both Citi ThankYou and Capital One. I wouldn’t want to book most of my awards through the program, given that Turkish imposes fuel surcharges on many awards, Turkish’s website isn’t great, and booking partner awards online can be complicated.
However, for flights in Turkish Airlines business class, it’s tough to beat the Miles&Smiles program. Redemption rates are extremely low, and while there are fuel surcharges, they’re relatively mild. Turkish flies to more countries than any other airline in the world, and has a great product to boot.
As far as Star Alliance partner redemptions go, what makes Miles&Smiles special is the ability to redeem miles for travel within a region. You’ll pay 7,500 miles for a one-way economy ticket, and 12,500 miles for a one-way business class ticket. That’s an awesome deal, assuming you can find award availability and are willing to go through the hassle of the booking process.
To be honest, I’ve never booked an award through Turkish Miles&Smiles for my own travels, though that’ll hopefully be changing soon, as several places on my bucket list are best served by Turkish Airlines.
This program is at least worth keeping on your radar if you’re picking up a card like the Citi Premier or Capital One Venture X.
If you’ve redeemed miles through Turkish Miles&Smiles, what was your experience like?
Feel like I have searched all year for availability and nothing...
MIA > IST 105K miles now! Is it worth it?
Turkish has massively devalued the awards...105,000 miles OW from IAH > IST now!
What gives ? business class is 115,000 each way ? What happened to the 45,000 miles each way? Am I missing something ?
In terms of upgrading from Economy to business on Turkish Airlines, is the usage of a Star Alliance Upgrade Award (SAUA) subject to the same award availability as saver award availability? Has anyone had luck upgrading their ticket using a SAUA?
I've flown a bit with Turkish miles, and while the redemption rates are quite impressive, actually being able to book them for more than one person is an exercise in either extreme patience or futility. So theoretically, you can book your ticket online and then call or email to book the rest of the travelers, but the agents don't actually see what you see on your end. Even though you see availability, and literally just...
I've flown a bit with Turkish miles, and while the redemption rates are quite impressive, actually being able to book them for more than one person is an exercise in either extreme patience or futility. So theoretically, you can book your ticket online and then call or email to book the rest of the travelers, but the agents don't actually see what you see on your end. Even though you see availability, and literally just booked the flight, and can book even another flight, the agents often don't have the ability to do so and there's nothing they can do about it. I recently was able to manage 4 tickets to Hawaii for 7500 points, but it wasn't the one that was shown available. The agent saw something else on their side that wasn't shown as being available and managed to book it. However, this was a rare success story; I've had far more negative experiences than positive, including needing to travel to a physical office to get my points redeposited after a Star Alliance partner changed the flight and it no longer departed from the same airport. Using them for 1 person is probably fine. Adding travelers is not for the faint of heart.
I have miles sitting in TK program but no saver award or J class availability to upgrade for months from IST to USA. Any one has any luck? I am still 5 months out but I guess no one has been reporting J class availability.
Hmmm.. seems to me, flights from the US to Europe are valued at 30-45k economy and 105k for business class... not sure how you're getting numbers as low as you boast?
You got to be flexible with the dates. Also, book months in advance.
I tried to piece a one-way award from IAD to HKG on Turkish yesterday, it's priced 77.5k for economy and 180k for business, what was wrong? Thanks.
I've flown Turkish business class a lot in the past 2 years to Europe from the US (they fly everywhere from Istanbul!). The new 787 product is nice, the food is good, and I sleep well - for 45k miles + $200, I think it's a great deal. There are some downsides. For starters, so far as I can tell it is impossible to book an award ticket for a 2nd passenger online. You have...
I've flown Turkish business class a lot in the past 2 years to Europe from the US (they fly everywhere from Istanbul!). The new 787 product is nice, the food is good, and I sleep well - for 45k miles + $200, I think it's a great deal. There are some downsides. For starters, so far as I can tell it is impossible to book an award ticket for a 2nd passenger online. You have to call. Second, they *love* to just cancel flights at the last minute. 3 (out of 12 flights) have been cancelled a week or two before the flight date. It can be a bit of a nightmare when that happens. Finally, their customer service is hit or (mostly) miss. I've had more than one reservation royally screwed up after talking to them on the phone.
I'm flying Turkish Airlines for my first time ever in March and this piece has convinced me I need to sign up for Miles & Smiles!
I have had a lot of difficulty previously (about 6 months back?) to book award tickets in both the app as well on the website for more than one person. I will always hit an error message after keying in the details of the passengers. This is despite award availability when I searched online.
“The first award ticket can only be issued under your name. If you want to have it issued for a loved...
I have had a lot of difficulty previously (about 6 months back?) to book award tickets in both the app as well on the website for more than one person. I will always hit an error message after keying in the details of the passengers. This is despite award availability when I searched online.
“The first award ticket can only be issued under your name. If you want to have it issued for a loved one, please contact the nearest sales office.”
And so I did. I called up the international call centre line, as well as made a trip to the Turkish Airlines office (in Singapore). Both channels cannot assist as apparently the online inventory is different from what they can see in their system. Award seats may be available online, but in their system, that is not the case.
Back to the online booking… While the error message disappeared when I tried to grab just one seat (for myself), in that I could go to the final payment stage, I did not wish to test the system in case I cannot book for the second pax, so I didn’t proceed. (The staff at the office advised me against doing so too)
It is close to impossible to find the saver award. The chances are more like 10% of the time. And 105k for a one way in J is absurd. It's so frustrating because it's the most convenient for me but now realize trying to send my points to Miles and Smiles is seeming useless.
There's usually a lot of saver inventory out of Atlanta if that helps?
Hi Ben,
While I appreciate the sweet-spots of Turkish's program, I think most would agree it's a difficult program to use. I've had a particularly difficult situation with them over the past few months and I'd appreciate your insight.
I purchased a ticket that accrued 25% mileage, and then upgraded to a ticket that accrues 100%. I have screenshots. After completing the flights, I received only 25% of the miles. After submitting feedback directly with...
Hi Ben,
While I appreciate the sweet-spots of Turkish's program, I think most would agree it's a difficult program to use. I've had a particularly difficult situation with them over the past few months and I'd appreciate your insight.
I purchased a ticket that accrued 25% mileage, and then upgraded to a ticket that accrues 100%. I have screenshots. After completing the flights, I received only 25% of the miles. After submitting feedback directly with Turkish to no avail, I filed a dispute with my credit card (AmEx Platinum) and they refunded the cost of the ticket. Turkish suspended my account and advised it wouldn't be reinstated until I cancel the dispute. I maintained the dispute was valid, since Turkish did not deliver the promised services (mileage accrual).
Turkish is still "investigating" the situation, but it's been several months and I'm skeptical if anything will be done. I had just qualified for Star Alliance Gold and had a decent number of miles in my account. The ticket was approximately $750 ... far less than the value of Star Alliance Gold + the miles in my account. But - on principle alone - I don't want to pay to have my account reinstated.
Do I have any recourse in this situation?
I can't replicate those award tickets. Any o/w to Europe via IST is above 100k o/w for the rest of the year.
I’ve had mixed success finding 45k awards out of the United States, but 47k awards are plentiful out of MEX and CUN in Mexico.
I had read somewhere that miles expire after a set period (36 months?) without the ability to reset the clock. Can anyone confirm the mileage expiration policy?
That's mostly correct. You can "reactivate" expired miles, but it's something like $10 per 1000 miles.
Please note that award change and cancellation fees were recently changed to 70 USD.
Also, if you never booked through Turkish - it is not for the faint of heart and might necessitate a visit to the ticket office (which will take you several hours).
Does anybody know if it is possible to book mixed partner awards with TK Miles and Smiles? For example, I am looking to book DFW-IST on TK metal and then IST-ATH on A3 metal, all in J. Is this possible to book and would it price at 45k miles?
You can try checking through the Star Alliance partner section online - I don't think when you do a "normal" search it will mix airlines.
One thing to be aware of is it is very difficult to cancel and redeposit miles. You can’t do it on the phone, it has to be in person. I was already in Istanbul once and I tried in person and they couldn’t do it cause I purchased my ticket in the US. I tried going to the corporate office in Manhattan and they don’t do it there. The New York office doesn’t respond to emails. I had to go to jfk just to get my miles back.
Was there a dedicated TK office/desk at JFK for handling miles?
Just general ticketing
It’s actually 7.5K and 12.5K within a single country, and 10K/15K within a single region.
For example NYC-YVR/YUL/YYZ is 15K in business while, NYC-SFO is 12.5K.
Please do one on how to use krisflyer miles. I'm sitting on a pile of those and recently moved from SG to Canada and can't find award seats on AC
"To be honest, I’ve never booked an award through Turkish Miles&Smiles for my own travels, though that’ll hopefully be changing soon, as several places on my bucket list are best served by Turkish Airlines." - I will be very curious to read about your future experience(s) trying to book an award flight by calling in. I suggest blocking off a good 1.5 hrs and be prepared to HUCA multiple times. Good luck!
Cancel/change fees were raised to USD 70 a few months ago.
Another sweet spot is flying for 15K miles through Europe in J with a layover in Istanbul. AMS - IST - MAD for example is usually 2x lie-flat, pretty cool flights for a total flight time of 7h+ and you can even see Istanbul during your layover.
Does TK release more award space through its own program than other star alliance partners? I haven't seen much award space searching through United website.
ALSO VERY IMPORATANT: Using Turkish Airlines miles for domestic travel within Turkey.
In many cases in the summer, they use widebody aircrafts on popular domestic routes meaning you can also score a flat bed business class seat for an ABSOLUTE STEAL!
Last week I paid 870usd for JFK-Zrh on LX C booked via TK