Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles frequent flyer program is planning a massive award chart devaluation, which kicks in for bookings as of February 16, 2024 (thanks to Prince of Travel for flagging this).
Turkish Airlines introducing new, worse award chart
I’ve written in the past about the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles frequent flyer program, which has a bunch of sweet spot award opportunities. The program partners with Capital One and Citi ThankYou, and has amazing redemption rates.
Just to give a few examples, the program has historically charged the following number of miles for one-way business class tickets on Turkish Airlines:
- 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
Those are some amazing deals… but they won’t last for long. Turkish Airlines has just published a new award chart, which will be implemented for bookings as of February 16, 2024. You can find the chart below, which shows one-way pricing for travel on Turkish Airlines flights.
Not only that, but Turkish Airlines is introducing additive, per-segment award pricing. An example is given of an award from Dubai to London, and how the ticket would be charged based on the cost from Dubai to Istanbul and the cost from Istanbul to London.
When you combine those factors, these changes are massive. Just to give an example:
- A Chicago to Istanbul to Frankfurt business class award currently costs 45,000 miles, while under the new program it will cost 85,000 miles
- A Los Angeles to Istanbul to Delhi business class award currently costs 52,500 miles, while under the new program it will cost 100,000 miles
The good news is that we at least have a little bit of notice of the change, so you can always lock in an award now, under the old pricing.
What should we make of this Turkish Airlines devaluation?
This award chart devaluation is rough, and completely changes the value proposition of the Miles&Smiles program.
The new award costs as such aren’t unreasonable — for example, 65,000 miles for business class from the United States to Istanbul is still a good deal, even if this represents a 44% increase over the old pricing. What really makes this devaluation sting is the additive pricing by segment, since a vast majority of people on Turkish Airlines are connecting.
Admittedly Turkish Airlines currently has unusually low redemption rates, but with these changes, the program will have higher than average redemption rates.
Once these changes are implemented, there will be no reason to transfer points to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles anymore, plain and simple. When you combine the increased award costs with the mild carrier imposed surcharges, the program will no longer be the best, even for Turkish Airlines redemptions. In most situations you’ll be better off booking through a partner program, like Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles.
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles frequent flyer program will be devalued as of February 16, 2024. Not only will award costs increase considerably, but award pricing will also be additive, meaning you’ll pay for each segment. This is a very rough change, though I guess we should’ve seen this coming sooner or later.
What do you make of Miles&Smiles award chart devaluation?
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