(Update: Promo pulled) Turkish Airlines launching its own 1,000,000-mile contest…is it a delight?

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Update 7/8/25: Since the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire challenge ended, execs at that company have shared that demand was far, far higher than they’d anticipated. Apparently they were only expecting 6 or 7 people to complete the challenge, but it ended up being at least 100 times more than that.

It looks like Turkish Airlines have encountered the same phenomena. Rather than leaning into it, they’ve gone the opposite direction and pulled the promotion early. On the competition landing page, there’s now this message:

Thank you for the great interest you have shown in our Route: 6 Continents campaign.

In line with recent updates, the campaign has officially concluded as of July 8, 2025.

Members who purchased at least one ticket or completed a flight across six continents by July 8, 2025 will retain their eligibility. If these members complete their all flights across six continents by October 27, 2025, they will be earned (sic) 1 Million Miles.

Tickets purchased after July 8, 2025 will not be considered within the scope of the campaign.

Thank you for being part of this inspiring journey with us!

That’ll be disappointing news for anyone who had planned to participate but hadn’t gotten around to booking one of their flights.

Hopefully this change has been brought about because they didn’t want to pay out a million miles for as many people as they foresee completing the challenge, rather than it being because they don’t have the systems in place to administer the awarding of the bonus miles properly. We saw delays with flight claims with the SAS challenge, but those did (to the best of my knowledge) eventually all get processed. If you do have flights booked already, fingers crossed that your participation goes by without a hitch.

~

What hath SAS wrought?

Last year, the Scandinavian airline made worldwide news (and a Frequent Miler Challenge) with its gamified contest, which allowed participants to earn 1,000,000 Eurobonus points by flying fifteen SkyTeam partners and crediting the flights to SAS. Almost 900 folks became Eurobonus millionaires as a result, including Greg, Nick, and Stephen.

Etihad then tried to upstage SAS with its own contest, but limited it to only three winners. The first person to travel to 15 different destinations using the airline earned 5 million miles, while the second and third place people earned 3 million and 1 million miles, respectively. And the fourth? A hearty thanks for all that business. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t nearly as popular.

Earlier this week, the much-beleaguered JetBlue announced its own game, called “25 for 25.” This one gives folks 350,000 TrueBlue points and 25 years of Mosaic 1 elite status for flying the airline to 25 unique destinations before the end of 2025. A nice promo for sure, especially if JetBlue manages to stay in business for even close to the next 25 years.

Now, Turkish Airlines has thrown its hat fez into the ring, announcing its own, “fly us a bunch of places and we’ll give you stuff” promo: “The Six Continents Challenge.”

The Deal

  • Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles members who use the airline to fly to six continents in the next four months will earn 1,000,000 Turkish miles.
    • Flights must be booked and flown by 10/27/25.
    • Miles earned are valid through 2027 if the contest is completed in economy, or 2030 if in business class. This has been removed from the landing page; miles most likely have the standard 3-year expiry.
    • In order to be eligible, a flight must either originate in or transit through Turkey.
    • Only destinations count as continents; origin and transit points do not. The airline provides the following examples:
      • New York–Istanbul–Tokyo counts only as Asia.
      • New York–Istanbul–Tokyo–Istanbul–New York counts as both Asia and North America.
      • New York–Istanbul–Tokyo–Istanbul–Cape Town completes Asia and Africa.
    • Award tickets are not eligible.
    • Codeshare flights are not eligible.

Direct Link to Offer

Terms and Conditions

  • Miles&Smiles members who fly to 6 continents with Turkish Airlines will be awarded 1,000,000 Miles
  • Ticketing and travel must take place between June 27, 2025, and October 27, 2025
  • The list of countries and their corresponding continents is published in the campaign table.
  • Only arrival destinations will be considered for campaign completion. Departure points and transit stops will not count toward completion.
  • Award tickets, corporate agreement bookings, staff tickets, and special passenger segment bookings (e.g., medical, seafarer, student) are excluded from the campaign.
  • Tickets purchased using a promo code are excluded from the campaign.
  • Miles will be credited to members’ accounts between November 1–15, 2025.
  • Only itineraries originating from or transiting through Türkiye are eligible. Intra-regional direct flights are not eligible.
  • The promotion is valid only on scheduled flights operated by Turkish Airlines. Codeshare flights and flights operated by Star Alliance partner airlines are not eligible.
  • Flights must be credited to the member’s Miles&Smiles account before travel. Retroactive mileage claims will not be accepted.
  • Only tickets issued during the campaign’s ticketing period are eligible for changes.
  • Tickets may be issued through Turkish Airlines’ official channels: turkishairlines.com, the mobile app, sales offices, call center, or authorized agencies.
  • Turkish Airlines does not guarantee that all listed destinations will remain active during the campaign period. Routes may be subject to suspension due to operational reasons.
  • The Miles awarded under this campaign are not Status Miles and cannot be used toward membership tier upgrades.

Quick Thoughts

At first glance, this seems much easier to complete than JetBlue’s current promotion since it only requires six flights, but there’s few quirks that will make it a little more cumbersome.

First, each continent must be visited on a flight that either originates or transits through Turkey (which primarily means Istanbul). No fifth-freedom flights that go from one city to another without touching Turkey are allowed. That means that you have to fly from Istanbul to Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Australia.

Europe, Asia, Africa and North America are easy. South America and Australia are going to be the most difficult. There’s not many options that Turkish provides to either continent and the airline just started flying to Australia.

Award flights don’t count, so everything must be paid for in cash, which can be expensive for some one-way Turkish longhauls, even for the 99% of the people who try to complete and who will be doing it in economy. In contrast to the JetBlue promo which provides ~six months to complete travel, this one only gives you four.

Lastly, if flying in economy, the miles you earn seem to have a hard expiry of 12/31/27, about a year earlier than Turkish’s normal policy of 3 years from the date that they’re earned. So, you’ve effectively got ~2 years to burn through the whole stash, or face a $20 per 1,000 miles fee to extend them.  This has been removed from the landing page, so the miles most likely have the standard 3-year expiry.

Turkish has devalued its miles a ton over the last couple of years, and it no longer has the sweet spots that it used to. That said, there are still a few, including 10K domestic economy flights on United or 15K in business (when you can find availability).

Given all that, and the logistics of trying to manage flying into and out of Istanbul, this will probably be much less popular than either the current JetBlue promo or the SAS million-mile challenge from last year. But I’m sure there will still be plenty of takers.

I’d love to hear from any readers who are tempted by this one. Leave a comment and tell us about what you’re planning!

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[…] The rule that flights must go through Istanbul, banning ticket tricks, adds fuel to the fire. Frequent Miler says Turkish’s habit of changing rules has flyers eyeing Qatar […]

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Daryl

Feeling Burned by Turkish Airlines’ Million Miles Promo

I try not to be negative, but I have to be honest: Turkish Airlines ending their 1,000,000 miles promo early really stings. I was literally out of the country, returning home on July 8th, about to book my first flight for this challenge. As my plane landed around 11:30pm, I learned the promo had been pulled without warning. I would have only had minutes to book, and then I ran out of time.

I had plans mapped out for this—now, I’m genuinely reconsidering even doing the JetBlue promo. This feels like a major failure in brand management and customer respect. Lesson learned: when it comes to airline promos, don’t just book early—book immediately. Terms and conditions can change in a heartbeat, and loyalty doesn’t seem to count for much.

It’s especially frustrating because I was already planning to book two roundtrip business class tickets from the US to Istanbul. Now, I’m looking at other options.
Honestly, this left a bad taste in my mouth about Turkish Airlines. Poor form, TK. Hopefully, JetBlue doesn’t follow suit, but this has definitely killed some of my enthusiasm. From one advance award traveler to another: trust, but never wait.

David

Don’t worry about JetBlue ending their promotion. This is exactly on par with Turkish Airlines behavior down to the spelling issues.

Samuel

I have bought two tickets in April, one for a flight in September from Palermo to Sydney via Istanbul, another in early October from Seoul to Krakow via Istanbul. Clearly I did not buy these tickets for this challenge, but I am (was?) interested in fulfilling the challenge. Am I one of the “members who purchased at least one ticket or completed a flight across six continents”?

I am still planning my trips for the challenge, but the new changes are confusing.

David

My advice would be to be ready to fight tooth and nail to get credit regardless of their language. Turkish are known to always rule in their favor, terms or laws be damned. Don’t expect anything or expect a long fight.

Jay
  1. To be eligible for the campaign, the first ticketing must be issued between June 27, 2025 – July 8, 2025. Tickets made on July 8, 2025 are included.

If you ticketed these flights in April they would now be allowed. Even before the changes that would be the case.

TravelGeek

SAS got immense positive marketing out of their promo.

Turkish will get the opposite.

Matthew

SKETCHY AF. To change the T+C twice in a day and then end it and say you must book a flight today or Maybe all 6? This is PEAK TURKISH.

David

They’ll change the rules retroactively on you if it benefits them. Their behavior has no limits.

Dave Hanson

STILL TIME UNTIL END OF DAY, it seems.

Loyalty Lobby is reporting that Turkish has updated their site to note that anyone who has booked at least one qualifying flight *by today* will still be eligible for the promo.

Billy

What a joker, Turkish Air!

Arjun

I’m based in India and has found an itinerary to do this under 4200 USD.

DEL-IST-ATL (TK, NORTH AMERICA)
ATL-IST-BEG (TK, EUROPE)
BEG-IST-BOG (TK, SOUTH AMERICA)
BOG-IAD (Repositioning)
IAD-IST-DXB (TK, ASIA)
DXB-IST-CAI (TK, AFRICA)
CAI-IST-MEL (TK, AUSTRALIA)
MEL-India (return home)

3 of these are promo fares, but has some regular miles being credited. I’m still not sure if promo fares count towards this though.

Last edited 16 days ago by Arjun
CJS

Fares that use promo codes don’t count. So-called promo fares which don’t use any codes should count.

Arjun

That is my understanding too. So far, nothing in TnC that indicates promo fares themselves are excluded.

Miguel

Just doing a sanity check here. These flights meet the requirements for the challenge right? All on Turkish metal.
LAX-IST-SOF (Europe)
SOF-IST-DXB (Asia)
DXB-IST-LAX (North America)
LAX-IST-CAI (Africa)
CAI-IST-SYD (Oceania)
SYD-IST-GRU (South America)

Jose

I thinking this could be fairy easy, especially if one ways count. I’d do business class on the long routes and would start in Cairo as the fares are cheap.

Joshua

There are some itineraries out there that put cost about 4000-4500. I looked at it and it’d be 8 days or so without really stopping except with nighttime arrivals. The question would be how much you’re willing to be on the phone with TK to use it domestically since their website is terrible with showing availability

ALAN

If I fly from US to IST. Does that cover you for the Europe continent or I have to fly to another Europe city??

Viv

Flying into IST doesn’t count, you need another one.

ALAN

Thanks…. I just saw… I have to fly into TBS instead to make Europe count then Cairo to make Africa count…

Someone made this 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

Billy

Your itinerary is still missing Asia. KUL in the itinerary doesn’t count, as it’s not a destination from IST.

seth

Malaysia is part of asia

Andie

but it’s not your destination, aside from the repositioning flight. Only destinations with origination or layover in Turkey count toward the 6 continents.

RobT

I got the notice and considered it. I’m retired so time is not an issue. Three of the 6 trips are easy and inexpensive, but Australia, Latin America, and even North America are problematic. These are all long flights that wouldn’t be comfortable to fly in coach (especially the overnight ones). Doing those 3 in business class with the rest in coach would cost roughly $20,000 USD. Remember you have to get back to IST from those distant locations so you can take the next leg.

I think looked at the million miles. It would allow my partner and I to fly about 2 or 3 round trip business class flights to far off places. Is that worth $20,000? Even worse is it worth 3 10plus hour round trip flights in coach? I didn’t think so.

Pedro

I haven’t found anywhere on the TK website that the miles are only valid until December 2027. Where did you guys get that information from, please?