(EXPIRED) Buy Turkish miles from 1.71c each (Hawaii from $256.50 round trip econ / $427.50 business)

Turkish Miles & Smiles is offering up to a 75% bonus on the purchase of miles, which drops the price to just 1.71c per mile if buying 50,000-99,999 miles. That can be a fantastic deal given that domestic US flights, including to Hawaii or Alaska and US Caribbean islands, are just 7,500 miles each way in economy class or 12,500 miles each way in business class on United. Just watch out for the terms: bonus miles earned here expire on December 31, 2022.

The Deal

• Turkish Miles & Smiles is offering a bonus of up to a 75% when you buy miles by February 19, 2021. The bonus is structured as following:
  • Purchase 5,000 – 19,999: Get 25% extra Miles (2.4cpm)
  • purchase 20,000 – 49,999 Miles earn 50% extra Miles (2cpm)
  • purchase 50,000 – 99,999 Miles earn 75% extra Miles (1.71cpm)
• Direct link to this deal

Key Terms

• All Miles&Smiles members can benefit from the Purchasing Miles Campaign.
• The campaign is valid for purchasing Miles transactions between February 5, 2021 and February 19, 2021.
• Within the scope of the campaign for all members; purchase 5,000 – 19,999 Miles earn 25% extra Miles, purchase 20,000 – 49,999 Miles earn 50% extra Miles, purchase 50,000 – 99,999 Miles earn 75% extra Miles.
• In accordance with the Miles&Smiles terms and conditions, the members can purchase Miles for themselves or other members. During the campaign period, the members can purchase up to 100,000 Miles in a calendar year.
• The minimum amount of Miles that can be purchased is 1,000.
• The mileage value is applied TAX included as 30 USD for 1,000 Miles.
• Miles purchased as Miles and the fees paid for this cannot be refunded under the campaign.
• Extra Miles earned will be added collectively to member accounts until February 28, 2021.
• Extra Miles earned within the scope of the offer will be expired on December 31, 2022.
• Purchased Miles are not Status Miles.
• Purchased Miles is subject to the Miles&Smiles program terms and conditions.
• Turkish Airlines reserves the right to take legal action against the related parties found to have contravened any rules.
• Turkish Airlines reserves the right to change terms and conditions, definitions and other information pertaining to the special offer and to cancel the offer at any time.

Quick Thoughts

I’m not one to speculatively purchase miles especially in these uncertain times, but with a specific trip in mind this sure could be tempting. Turkish Miles & Smiles has a number of great sweet spots that could be a great deal with purchased miles. However, see those bolded terms above.

The first bolded condition above is a sentence that I think is written poorly — my guess is that it means to say that the bonus miles won’t post to your Turkish account until February 28, 2021.

However, the second bolded line is one to consider carefully: the terms say that extra miles awarded with your purchase expire on December 31, 2022. You must use them or lose them. I have no idea whether Turkish’s IT system is set up to use your soonest-expiring miles first or whether it uses a first-in, first-out system for spending your miles. If the latter, you would need to spend all of your current Turkish miles by December 31, 2022 to make sure that you’ve used the “bonus” miles. Given how nonsensical many things in the Miles & Smiles program can be, I just wouldn’t feel confident about which miles get used for which ticket never mind what happens if a trip on which you used your “bonus miles” gets cancelled (how would you know that it was the bonus miles used?). I know I would end up sweating it on New Year’s Eve next year. That said, with the number of good Turkish sweet spots, it may not be hard to burn through the miles you buy before then.

The sweet spot most likely to appeal to readers at the moment is US domestic flights on United for just 7,500 miles each way in economy class, including to/from Hawaii.

Business class is also an incredible deal when you can find United saver availability at just 12,500 miles each way – including on premium transon flights.

If you were buying 50K miles or more and paying just 1.71c per mile, it’s like paying $128.25 each way in economy class or $213.75 each way in business class. That can certainly be an incredible deal in many cases.

The difficulty is dealing with Turkish Miles & Smiles as many itineraries that are available as United saver awards inexplicably don’t show up on the Turkish website. Phone and email agents are sometimes able to book what you want and sometimes not. We have a Guide to booking United flights with Turkish Miles & Smiles, but you do need some patience. We also have a Complete Guide to Turkish Miles & Smiles that is worth referencing if you’re looking for other key info. A reader recently referred to the process of booking a Turkish award as “call center and email bingo”, which is fairly accurate.

Still, if you don’t mind playing a little bingo, you can certainly hit the jackpot. A few months ago, I was able to book three seats on the direct flight from Newark to Honolulu in business class for 37,500 miles and $16.80. However, as exciting as that was, I will likely have to cancel that trip, which is why I probably won’t be buying miles in this sale given that I just don’t yet have a clear picture as to when I’ll return to the skies and tying up money in miles that could change in value at any time seems risky (though certainly tempting).

Part of the reason I’m tempted is because I do have plenty of airline incidental credits to use and I already have United as a chosen airline on a couple of cards, so United travel might make sense for a while. On the other hand, I already have a United bump voucher and Travel Bank credit, so I don’t necessarily need the miles for award flights at the moment.

Again, buying miles speculatively seems like a bad idea in the current environment, but for those who intend to primarily travel domestically for a while, I could see the appeal here. For those interested in other Turkish sweet spots, see these examples (and note that there are some other good deals not included here such as to the Middle East / Central Asia):

Turkish Miles & Smiles sweet spots

North America

Caribbean

Hawaii

Europe

Africa

H/T: Frequent Flyer Bonuses

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