Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
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Turkish Airlines is offering 30% off on award tickets from select destinations on its own flights. Many European cities are included on the list and as a result, award tickets from select European cities to the United States can be had for 21,000 miles in economy class or just 31,500 miles in business class, which is an excellent deal. You can also score a great deal on awards to/from destinations in the Middle East and Africa.
The Deal
- Turkish Miles & Smiles is offering 30% off saver-level award tickets in both economy and business class to and from 150 cities. Note that the discount only applies to “saver” type awards (what Turkish calls “Promotional” awards). Book by December 27, 2023 for travel from December 18, 2023 to May 31, 2024. (Departures from March 27th to April 15, 2024 are blacked out)
- Qualifying cities:
- Abidjan, Aktau, Alexandria, Algiers, Almaty, Amman, Amsterdam, Asmara, Astana, Athens, Baghdad, Bahrain, Banjul, Bari, Batumi, Beirut, Belgrade, Bilbao, Billund, Bishkek, Bordeaux, Bremen, Budapest, Bukhara, Cairo, Caracas, Casablanca, Catania, Chisinau, Cologne, Conakry, Constantine, Copenhagen, Cotonou, Dakar, Dammam, Dar Es Salaam, Detroit, Dhaka, Doha, Dubrovnik, Durban, Dushanbe, Dusseldorf, Entebbe, Erbil, Fergana, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Hong Kong Hurghada, Kigali, Kinshasa, Kuwait, Lefkosa, Leipzig, Ljubljana, Lyon, Madrid, Malaga, Malta, Maputo, Marrakech, Marseille, Nairobi, Naples, Nouakchott, Nuremberg, Oran, Osaka, Palermo, Panama, Podgorica, Pointe-Noire, Pristina, Riga, Riyadh, Rome, Salzburg, Samarkand, Sarajevo, Sharm El Sheikh, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Taif, Tallinn, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Thessaloniki, Tivat, Toulouse, Tunis, Turkistan, Ulaan Baatar, Urgench, Valencia, Varna, Vilnius, Zagreb
- Direct link to this deal
Key Terms
- The offer is valid for tickets issued between 18/12/2023 – 27/12/2023, with travel dates between 18/12/2023 – 31/05/2024.
- Departure and return dates between 27/03/2024 – 15/04/2024 are not valid and out of the scope of the promotion.
- The campaign is valid on all domestic destinations and selected international destinations*.
- Within the scope of the campaign, 30% Miles discount offer is valid on promotional award tickets for one-way or round trip flights in Business Class or Economy Class from selected international destinations* to all our flight network, from any departure point in Türkiye to selected international destinations* and on all domestic flights within Türkiye.
- Reservation changes are allowed for promotional award tickets, only for the same routes within the ticketing and the travelling dates.
- Miles can be refunded within 1 year of the date of issue. Refunding Miles, changes to reservations and routes are subject to additional fees.
- Miles&Smiles Award Ticket rules apply within the scope of the special offer.
- Ticketing and travelling periods start and end according to the local time in Turkey.
- All taxes will be charged.
- Promotional award tickets are subject to availability due to limited seat capacity.
- This offer is only valid to Miles&Smiles members. To benefit from the offer, non-members must first register to Miles&Smiles Program.
- Tickets subject to this special offer can be issued through our call center, online channels and sales offices.
- The related promotion is not valid on corporate tickets, group tickets and special passenger segments (seaman, cruise, student/youth, medical etc.) tickets.
- The related promotion is only valid on scheduled flights operated by Turkish Airlines. It is not valid on Turkish Airlines codeshare flights, Star Alliance partner airline flights and AnadoluJet flights.
- 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
Turkish Airlines offers a somewhat variable but generally very good onboard product. Business class seats on long-haul routes lie flat and catering is notably good. Tim has reviewed the experience here on the 787. I recently flew them on an A330 that featured business class more similar to our LATAM seats, but it was still excellent.
Turkish has what it calls a “Promotional” award chart and an “Award chart”. The “promotional” chart is effectively saver-level awards. I hate their use of the word “promotional” there because it isn’t a promotion but rather just their term for what other airlines would call a saver award.
Under ordinary circumstances, Turkish charges 30,000 miles each way between Europe and the United States for economy class when there is that “saver” (or what they call “promotional”) space available or 45,000 miles each way in business class when that saver / promotional space is available.
Those “saver” / “promotional” awards are on sale for 30% off on awards to and from any of the following cities:
Abidjan, Aktau, Alexandria, Algiers, Almaty, Amman, Amsterdam, Asmara, Astana, Athens, Baghdad, Bahrain, Banjul, Bari, Batumi, Beirut, Belgrade, Bilbao, Billund, Bishkek, Bordeaux, Bremen, Budapest, Bukhara, Cairo, Caracas, Casablanca, Catania, Chisinau, Cologne, Conakry, Constantine, Copenhagen, Cotonou, Dakar, Dammam, Dar Es Salaam, Detroit, Dhaka, Doha, Dubrovnik, Durban, Dushanbe, Dusseldorf, Entebbe, Erbil, Fergana, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Hong Kong Hurghada, Kigali, Kinshasa, Kuwait, Lefkosa, Leipzig, Ljubljana, Lyon, Madrid, Malaga, Malta, Maputo, Marrakech, Marseille, Nairobi, Naples, Nouakchott, Nuremberg, Oran, Osaka, Palermo, Panama, Podgorica, Pointe-Noire, Pristina, Riga, Riyadh, Rome, Salzburg, Samarkand, Sarajevo, Sharm El Sheikh, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Taif, Tallinn, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Thessaloniki, Tivat, Toulouse, Tunis, Turkistan, Ulaan Baatar, Urgench, Valencia, Varna, Vilnius, Zagreb
That’s a long list that includes numerous cities in Europe and can make for some great deals.
Turkish sometimes releases quite a bit of saver space but then other times offers none at all. If you see rates like 52,500 miles in economy class or 115,000 miles in business class from Europe to the US, that’s not saver-level space but rather their “anytime” type pricing. Those awards are not discounted.
Here’s an example of undiscounted, “anytime” type pricing from Billund, Denmark to New York, NY on Turkish.
No discount applies to the above pricing. However, if you hunt around, you will find days where both economy and business class are discounted from “saver” type pricing to just 21,000 miles each way in economy class or 31,500 miles each way in business class.
At just 31,500 miles one-way for a business class award from Europe to the US, that’s a fantastic deal. Turkish does impose moderate surcharges, so the 2,136 Danish Krone noted in the screen shot above mean that the above example flight will cost about $313 in USD. That can add up for a family traveling together, but with such a low mileage cost it still works out pretty well against most other programs.
Note that discounted pricing is available in both directions. Also keep in mind that there are plenty of other regions that could be a slamming deal with this sale. For instance, Nairobi, Kenya to North America would be just 50,800 miles when you find saver award space.
And Doha to North America could ring in as low as 22,400 miles in economy class or 32,900 miles in business class.
Theoretically, “Far East” destinations that appear on the list like Hong Kong and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia would cost just 43,750 miles in business class, though I’m only finding discounted economy class on those routes.
The travel window for this deal extends to the end of May, but keep in mind the ~3 weeks that are blacked out between late March and mid April.
Overall, these are some fantastic deals, particularly for travel in business class. Turkish already has excellent award prices from North America to many regions and it only gets better if you’re traveling to or from a city on the list. Do keep in mind that Turkish charges a $70 per passenger fee to cancel an award ticket and redeposit the miles.
Speaking of miles, you can transfer instantly from Capital One Miles or Citi Thank You points to Turkish Miles & Smiles. Transfers from Bilt Rewards take a few minutes longer, but in my past experience it has taken less than 10 minutes from Bilt to Turkish.
H/T: One Mile at a Time
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The past couple of days, been having issues ticketing something that should be bookable.
2 segment itinerary both on TK. Leaving north america with a ~3hr layover in IST connecting on to Europe. MCT is 75min on this itinerary. Individual segments show 2+ inventory in I class on expertflyer as well aa bookable on Turkish at a lower rate. When I search through and through, the I class inventory becomes 0 on expertflyer, and cost 115K pp on Turkish website. Spoke w 5 agents, most of whom seemed to be knowledgeable and helpful who couldn’t figure out why this is an issue.
I have had issues with married segments before but not the otherway around. For what it is worth, this particular city pair is available to purchase with cash, so it isn’t the issue of the airline not marketing the flights.
Anyone had anything similar, and how was it resolved? I’m happy to book at 45k level, too, after the promo expires.
Any one have any luck finding discounted rates to Asia?
YQ charges
Can’t find anything
Is there an easy way to search for these discounted dates? Is clicking day by day , city by city the only method? I’m assuming since this is beyond the normal saver availability, that other tools such as United’s calendar, pointsyeah or seats.aero can’t see them.
Just to follow up on myself: Pointsyeah IS seeing these discounted rates. I’m not having great luck with multiple passengers in discounted biz class, but just FYI, and good luck.
How do you search for multiple seats on the same route? I keep getting this message:
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.
Close
You just have to search for one seat. It will normally state how many seats are left if there are less than 5 seats typically from my experience. You the. Have to call to book. I just went through this booking for a family of 4. Had to search for 1 and then see what was available and then call to book when I found 4. Not easy to find it can be done. Found 4 in the middle of the summer from ATL-VCE in Biz in the peak summer for 45k. I just kept searching and searching till I found something and then adjusted my vacation plans around the flights.
Just the other day, we got a tip from a reader that they *were* able to book for multiple passengers in the app even though the website wouldn’t let them. Might be worth searching there!
Yes, the app will let you. This issue is I had to put the flight on hold so I had to call back. Took almost 72 hours for my VX miles to transfer so I was getting nervous that my hold would run out.
I’ve been meaning to find a way to communicate this for a month.
I was (FINALLY) able to book a United domestic flight using TK Miles & Smiles points for a family of 4 on a RT for ATL – DEN for 15K (so not just for the miles account holder which I’ve read was impossible online multiple times including the warning at the top of Points.Yeah when searching for more than 1 person on TK).
Literally the first TK rep said I’d have to call United as TK can’t book tickets on United (no amount of explaining *A helped of course…). The second was more knowledgeable but still couldn’t book the flights for some reason that were showing saver space on United.com AND on the TK site.
So I played around with the TK system and first added all 3 other travelers to my profile on TK. It still errored out until I also added a CC in my Payments profile. Then during the booking process after I named all 4 passengers using the profiles in my account AND had a valid form of payment in my profile then it all ticketed correctly without having to call into the less than competent TK call center… YMMV, good luck all!
Actually I just looked to be more precise for folks:
You need to go to “My personal details” and then “My companions” to add your fellow travelers and then also in “My personal details” go to “My payment information” to add your CC so you can pay the taxes. Once these were populated, I was able to book tickets online for myself and family members.
That’s really helpful. Thanks for sharing! Worth putting in some Turkish Miles & Smiles complete guide for FrequentMiler!
Thanks for the details. The problem for me is that I can book tickets as long as I’m one of the passengers, but can’t book for others if I’m not one of the travelers. So frustrating.