50% transfer bonus from Citi to Turkish Miles & Smiles

Citi has launched an impressive 50% transfer bonus to Turkish Miles & Smiles. While Turkish is a quirky program, this transfer bonus means that you can book some United domestic flights, including to/from Hawaii and Alaska, for 7,000 Citi points each way. In some cases, that is a phenomenal deal.

The Deal

• Citi ThankYou Rewards is offering a 50% transfer bonus when you transfer ThankYou points to Turkish Miles & Smiles through 10/18/25
• Direct link to this deal
• Find the Turkish Miles & Smiles award charts here

Key Terms

• Offer is valid for points transfers to Miles&Smiles completed between 12:01 AM ET September 21, 2025 and 11:59 PM ET October 18, 2025.

Quick Thoughts

We rarely ever see transfer bonuses to Turkish Miles & Smiles. In fact, according to our Current Point Transfer Bonuses page, we saw a 25% bonus in 2019 and then a 50% bonus in 2024 that may have been targeted and functioned differently. That 2024 bonus was awarded on the Turkish side weeks after transferring, and it was limited to 50,000 bonus miles (which is to say that you could only get the bonus on a maximum of 100,000 points transferred).

By contrast, this bonus should be reflected on the Citi side, and it should be valid for any size transfer.

Turkish is most well-known for charging just 10,000 miles each way for domestic StarAlliance awards, such as flights on United Airlines. That includes flights to and from Alaska and Hawaii. For instance, here’s an upcoming flight from Chicago to Anchorage for 10,000 miles (and $5.60) one-way.

By comparison, United is charging 20,000 miles for the same flight, while Avianca Lifemiles and Air Canada Aeroplan are charging 25K miles per passenger for that same flight.

The key issue is that Turkish doesn’t seem to have access to all of the same space as other partner airlines (or at least it doesn’t display all flights on its website / make all flights easily bookable). Theoretically, awards that don’t show up online could potentially be booked over the phone or via email, but both processes are fraught with frustrations (many phone agents have no idea that partner awards are even possible, no less how to book them; many ticket offices will not respond to emails).

However, those who are willing to be persistent can do really well with this bonus. For instance, this transfer bonus would make it possible for a family of four to fly from the East Coast of the United States to Hawaii — round trip — for just 54,000 ThankYou points. That’s pretty incredible, though it can be a challenge to book (and that is to say nothing of the dwindling amount of award space that United releases to partners).

It is also worth noting that the 50% transfer bonus can make some awards on Turkish metal pretty attractive as well.

For instance, Turkish charges 65K miles for business class to/from Turkiye, whether flying partners or “promotional” (saver) awards on Turkish. That’s about 44,000 Citi points one-way. Note that taxes & fees on Turkish metal have climbed a bit, but can be reasonable on at least some partners.

The Middle East is another potential sweet spot, with Turkish charging 93,000 miles one-way. That means that 62,000 Citi ThankYou points could get you a business class award ticket to the Middle East (whether on Star Alliance or on Turkish, though, with Turkish, those could be booked as separate awards to give you time in Istanbul if you’d like.

Again, the key challenge will be working with Turkish. The website is notoriously glitchy — for a long time, it was missing the button to submit payment for an award. While that functionality has been back for a long time, I just this morning I was looking up awards without issue, but now I can not seem to log in to my Turkish account or see Star Alliance awards. This transfer bonus will be of appeal to those more advanced hobbyists who are willing to put up with Turkish’s shortcomings in exchange for some great deals.

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