I love how we’re increasingly seeing airlines launch gamified promotions, which are great in terms of member engagement. It felt like airlines didn’t bother offering these kinds of promotions for so long, but we’ve seen several of these in recent times, from programs like SAS EuroBonus, Etihad Guest, Ethiopian ShebaMiles, and JetBlue TrueBlue.
It’s amazing how we’re seeing one after the other, so huge kudos to SAS for leading the pack with that. We’ve now seen Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles launch an absolutely epic promotion, offering one million miles for anyone who flies the carrier to six continents.
In this post:
Turkish Airlines’ incredible million miles promotion
With Turkish Airlines’ new promotion, Miles&Smiles members can earn one million bonus miles for flying with the airline to all six continents that it serves. As you’d expect, there are some terms to be aware of:
- You must book travel and travel between June 27 and October 27, 2025
- For the purposes of qualifying for the promotion, only arriving destinations will be considered; departure points and transit stops won’t cont toward this offer
- Flights with the final arrival point in Türkiye or the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus don’t count toward this offer
- Award tickets, corporate agreement bookings, staff tickets, and tickets purchased with a promotion code, are excluded from this promotion
- The million bonus miles will be credited to eligible accounts between November 1 and November 15, 2025
- Only itineraries originating from or transiting through Istanbul are eligible; that means fifth freedom flights aren’t included for the purposes of this offer
- Flights must be credited to the Miles&Smiles program, and retroactive mileage claims don’t qualify
- Flights must be operated by Turkish, so codeshare flights and flights operated by Star Alliance partner airlines aren’t eligible
How lucrative is Turkish Airlines’ new promotion?
I adore the increasing number of promotions that we’re seeing from major airline loyalty programs, encouraging this kind of wild behavior. This is a cute promotion that plays into the fact that Turkish Airlines is the world’s most global airline, serving more countries than any airline in the world.
So is this promotion worth pursuing? Since you’d need to fly at least six one-way trips (to visit six continents), this means you’re essentially earning roughly 167,000 bonus miles for each continent you check off. If you were to value Turkish miles at one cent each (a conservative valuation), that’s like a $1,670 bonus for each continent you visit.
I think you absolutely could come out ahead here, and could end up paying well under $10,000 for these tickets (which would be the value of the prize, if you were to value the miles at one cent each).
The question ultimately comes down to how many long haul flights you’re willing to take in economy for a prize like this, or whether you can find a deal on premium cabin flights. Alternatively, I suppose you could pay cash for economy tickets, and then use miles to upgrade to business class, so that you can take these flights in comfort.
Another factor here is how many flights you’d naturally take on Turkish during the promotion period, because then you should view the challenge based on the incremental number of flights required.
Like, if you’d fly the airline to two continents during the promotion period anyway, then your return on those four incremental continents is 250,000 miles each. That’s enticing.
Admittedly some of these continents are much easier to knock out than others. Flying to Asia, Europe, and Africa, is straightforward enough, and can be done on a flight of just a few hours. But then you’d need to fly to North America, South America, and Australia. So we’re talking about three long haul destinations, and that says nothing of the potential need to position.
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles has just launched a lucrative new promotion, offering one million bonus miles for flying with the airline to six continents. This is such a fun offer, and I’m tempted to consider completing this.
Ultimately three continents can easily be knocked out with short flights, while three continents require taking long haul flights. It has been a year (or 15) since I’ve taken a long haul flight in economy, though this is as close to tempted as I’ve been…
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ promotion for one million miles?
Turkey trying to dictate exonyms will never not be funny to me, especially when they refer to us as Amerika and ABD. Dorks.
Does flying round trip between the Asia-Australia fifth freedom routes (SIN-MEL or KUL-SYD) give me two continents?
@ Jeffrey Lin -- Those flights wouldn't qualify at all. Per the terms:
"Only itineraries originating from or transiting through Türkiye are eligible. Intra-regional direct flights are not eligible."
If they don’t connect thru IST/Turkey, I don’t think it will count for any continents!
I priced out an itinerary for around $3,400 in August for all of the flights (including a couple positioning flights). This doesn't include hotels, food, etc.
MIA - IST - DXB $664 R/T - Asia
DXB - IST - ATH $177 - Europe
ATH - IST - GRU - EZE $970 R/T - South America
EZE - GRU - IST - ATH (see above)
ATH - CAI $87 on Aegean (positioning)
I priced out an itinerary for around $3,400 in August for all of the flights (including a couple positioning flights). This doesn't include hotels, food, etc.
MIA - IST - DXB $664 R/T - Asia
DXB - IST - ATH $177 - Europe
ATH - IST - GRU - EZE $970 R/T - South America
EZE - GRU - IST - ATH (see above)
ATH - CAI $87 on Aegean (positioning)
CAI - IST - SIN - SYD $1300 R/T - Australia
SYD - SIN - IST - CAI - Africa
CAI - DXB $189 on Flynas (positioning)
DXB - IST - MIA (price included in r/t from above) - North America
Total: $3,393
You can drop the GRU-EZE both ways for an extra $300-$400 if your looking for less flights.
If anyone can find a cheaper fares on Turkish to Australia, please share!
Its also worth keeping in mind that Turkish has their IST stopover program, where you can get a free hotel room if you have a round trip itinerary booked. The number of free nights and type of hotel varies based on your origin/destination and class. With this, you can further limit the amount of money spent on hotels.
@JB:
Your pricing analysis is incorrect. If memory serves, MIA-IST-DXB cannot be classified as Asia.
Don't Turkish miles expire after 3 years?
They call this the Eric Adam's promo ;)
He should be the spokesman in any TV ads for this!
McMurdo Station?
Very cool promotion!
I found a quick itinerary using google flights departing NYC in October. Obviously this excludes hotels, food, etc.
NYC - IST - TBS $570 - Turkish, Europe
TBS - IST - Cairo $399 - Turkish, Africa
Cairo - IST - Sydney $700 - Turkish, Oceania
Sydney to KUL $172 Scoot Airlines, Repo
KUL - IST - San Palo $1,247 - Turkish, South America
San Palo...
Very cool promotion!
I found a quick itinerary using google flights departing NYC in October. Obviously this excludes hotels, food, etc.
NYC - IST - TBS $570 - Turkish, Europe
TBS - IST - Cairo $399 - Turkish, Africa
Cairo - IST - Sydney $700 - Turkish, Oceania
Sydney to KUL $172 Scoot Airlines, Repo
KUL - IST - San Palo $1,247 - Turkish, South America
San Palo to Madrid $312 Latam, Repo
Madrid - IST - NYC $598 - America
Total price: $3,998 + a lot of hours in the air haha
@ Ethan -- Did you have to include Cairo in the itinerary?! :p
whoops... you could replace Cairo with Tunis for almost the same price!
Interesting they consider Georgia part of Europe
@ Ethan - Unfortunately, I don't think you included a destination counting for the Asia requirement (KUL won't count because you are originating there, and the rules say that only arrival airports count).
Thank you for this sample itinerary with prices. South America is limited to GRU, EZE, SCL and Australia is limited to SYD and MEL.
Dreaming of where I'd like to go, it's SYD, SCL. North America is easy as that would be the return trip. Finally, where to go in Europe and Asia and Africa. Maybe Rome, Cairo or Tunis, and Amman or Dubai?
I wonder taking into account the cost of all flights, hotel stays, et al, if just buying a million miles would be cheaper ?
Why would you buy a million miles if it isn't to see the world? With this deal, you get to visit 6 continents by spending about $6k on airfares and a million miles is a pretty decent reward, essentially worth $10-14k.
@Trey anyone who has the cash on hand, flexibility and stamina to fly this much on a whim probably doesn't need the miles. But with the proliferation of remote work and the magic of youth, prob not a bad investment.
You can only purchase a max of 50,000 Turkish miles per year
Might consider this.......I'm an hour flight from Istanbul. Have to factor in the price of my wife divorcing me for leaving her alone with the toddler for a few weekends but still might be worth it.
I consistently see billboards in NYC advertising divorces for $750 all in. You’ll be just fine.
LOL I know the feeling @WinstonTeracina
My better half (and my boss) signed off on me taking advantage of the ex-Vietnam CX mistake fare F flights in 2019. That one took about 12 legs total over the course of 3.5 weeks and left me completely exhausted but it was all in business and first class (including domestically—AA 32B) so I can't complain. I vowed I wouldn't travel again until summer 2020. Welp. Also def heard how insane I was before, during...
My better half (and my boss) signed off on me taking advantage of the ex-Vietnam CX mistake fare F flights in 2019. That one took about 12 legs total over the course of 3.5 weeks and left me completely exhausted but it was all in business and first class (including domestically—AA 32B) so I can't complain. I vowed I wouldn't travel again until summer 2020. Welp. Also def heard how insane I was before, during and after the trip from both parties.
Would I do it all over again if I could (and she allowed it)? Emphatic yes.
Hello guys, any idea what’s the expiration date of these miles would be ? Sounds like the crux to me.
3 years after you earn them
Africa, Europe and Asia can easily be done as shorthauls out of IST (e.g. during an Istanbul stopover on another of the trips). So you absolutely need only three longhauls: North America, South America and Oceania. If you're based in one of these three continents, you get them "for free" when positioning back home at the end.
would a paid economy ticket that is upgraded with miles qualify? If so, it wouldn't be too hard to upgrade most flights.
@ Omar -- That's a good point! Yes, that would qualify.
Tempted to try and price this out. For purposes of the contest, is Istanbul considered Europe or Asia, or does it not count?
@ Dusty -- Great question, let me update the post to answer that. "No. Flights with final arrival points in Türkiye or the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus do not count toward campaign completion."
Thanks! Not surprising, but was worth checking.
Destinations in Turkey don't count at all. Therefore you also can't use Ankara for Asia for example (and even Georgia somehow ended up in the Europe zone, so you need at least UAE, Qatar or something like that). For Europe, I think the cheapest and closest option will be Balkan destinations like Bucharest or Chisinau.
One fun question is - how do you get to Australia on TK? It doesn't even seem to fly there.
Turkish flies to Sydney.
IST-SIN-MEL, my friend!
Ben- has been a few months since you've posted a planned new review trip- hope all is well with your family. Best wishes
@ Harold -- I hope to get out there again soon, I appreciate the interest. I have two big life events going on right now, which I'll share more about in a bit, but they have both kept me grounded for a bit. Stay tuned!