In my post about my 2024 elite status plans, I noted that I intend (hope?) to get Star Alliance Gold status by matching my American Airlines Platinum Pro status to Turkish Miles & Smiles Elite status. A couple of readers have since reported success with this Turkish Airlines status match and it seems to be a great deal, particularly if you can take a couple of Turkish Airlines flights in the first year since you could end up with Star Alliance Gold status for two years with very low flying requirements.
I picked up on this match just by browsing through general data points on statusmatcher.com (and then when I wrote my 2024 elite status plans post, I found that Executive Traveller wrote about it at the end of December).
How to request a Turkish Airlines status match
It seems like Turkish has a pretty widely available status match, but as is the case with many other things with Turkish, you need to fill out their online feedback form to accomplish the match.
Link to fill out online feedback form to request a status match
You can alternatively find the link for “Feedback” at the bottom of the home page and chose “Membership processes” for the purpose of your feedback.
You will need to provide:
- A copy of your current membership card showing your current elite status
- Your recent account activity from that account for the last two months
- The photo page of your passport
I attached screen shots of my American Airlines Platinum Pro card, my recent AAdvantage activity, and the photo page of my passport along with the following message:
Hello,
I am writing to inquire about a status match with the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program. I currently have oneworld Emerald status (American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum Pro). I am attaching a copy of my AAdvantage card, my passport photo page, and my recent activity. I very much appreciate your consideration and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
I got a response after only one day:
Dear Nicholas REYES,
Thank you for choosing Miles&Smiles, the frequent flyer program which offers a whole world of benefits.
So that we can fulfill your request to match your membership status to Elite and offer you a truly special flight experience, we need you to send us the documents listed below. You can do this by checking the “Previous feedback” option on our feedback page.
- A photograph or scanned copy of your membership card (front and back) for your other airline’s frequent flyer program that has at least 4 months of validity or a document that shows your Oneworld Emerald membership has a validity of 4 more months with QR code
We look forward to bringing you all the benefits that Miles&Smiles has to offer.
Sincerely Yours,
I responded with some additional information and they replied again with the same message shown above.
I currently have Platinum Pro status from the Hyatt elite member fast track from last fall. My status is currently scheduled to expire on 2/1/24. Once I complete earning my 42,000 Loyalty Points, my status will be extended for four more months, so I’ll probably just try again once my status shows a new expiration date. That said, it might just depend on the agent you get: a reader wrote to us the other day who submitted their Platinum Pro status from the same promotion that is set to expire early next month and their status match was approved.
Based on data points at Status Matcher, it looks like both American Airlines Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum have matched to Turkish Elite status rather than top-tier Elite Plus status. However, Elite is enough for Star Alliance Gold. There are also a handful of perks when flying Turkish that maybe I’ll dig into if my match goes through.
How to extend Turkish Airlines status for 1-2 years
The match initially includes 4 months of trial elite status. To extend status for an additional 8 months (for a total of one year), you just need 1 Turkish Airlines flight in that four month period. In other words, if you signed up today (January 19, 2024), you would need to take 1 Turkish Airlines flight by May 19, 2024 in order to keep status until January 19, 2025.
Then, to keep Turkish elite status for another year (for a total of 2 years), you just need to earn 15,000 miles in your first year on Turkish-operated flights. Given that a round trip from New York to Istanbul would be 10,000 miles flown without any additional segments or bonuses, so it wouldn’t require an unreasonable amount of mileage running to keep status for two years.
Here is the chart from the Turkish website for mileage earning on paid Turkish Airlines-operated flights:
Personally, if I get the Turkish Airlines status match, I intend to buy a business class fare using credit card points. I could either use Chase Ultimate Rewards points at a value of 1.5c per point or the Amex Business Platinum pay-with-points rebate to get slightly better than 1.5c per point when paying for a business class fare. I have a trip booked later this year where I’m currently booked on an award ticket with another airline, but I could alternatively fly a reasonably-priced Turkish K-fare and at 160% of mileage flown (since I would presumably have Turkish Elite status), I would earn enough status miles from that one trip for two years of Star Alliance Gold status. That seems like a great deal, especially when you consider that having Star Alliance Gold status with a foreign airline will get you access to United Club lounges even when flying United domestically as well as things like priority check-in, priority security where available, and additional baggage allowance.
Bottom line
Turkish Miles & Smiles is currently offering some members the chance to status match airline elite status from competing airlines to Turkish Airlines elite status for four months with the ability to extend status for a full year with a single Turkish-operated flight or two years with 15,000 miles earned on Turkish-operated flights. If you currently have elite status with another airline, it may be worth inquiring and/or checking data points at StatusMatcher.com to make sure that you’d be matched to the “Elite” level or higher since that will result in Star Alliance Gold status. Keep in mind that this match could get pulled at any time and there is no guarantee as to what they will match.
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I have been rejected multiple times because I do not have an Executive Platinum card – AA no longer issues the cards and they have requested a statement of my AAdvantage account – and AA does not provide such statement.
I have repeatedly informed them of these challenges but every time they come back with the same request – copy of card or statement…
Very frustrating
Have you tried your card from the American Airlines app? Within the app, there is a digital card. You can even save it to the photos on your phone.
Does AA send a physical member card? I have AA Platinum however, I never received a physical card. I tried doing the match today with a screenshot of my account and received a response asking for a copy of the physical card.
Nick–have you or someone you know had the opportunity to do this challenge yet? You stated, “I would earn enough status miles from that one trip for two years of Star Alliance Gold status.” Apparently, per FT, the 15,000 status miles accrual doesn’t begin until after the initial flight. Just want some data points from those who’ve done it.
Does the flight on Turkish Airlines need to be paid? or can I fly via a points redemption?
I’m not aware of any airline status challenge that allows for points redemptions to meet the requirements. I assume this has to be paid because that’s always the case with airline status challenges. I would be shocked if any airline offers a status challenge where award fights count, and Turkish would be like the last on the list of likely airlines to offer that in my opinion.
Other than Delta of course. https://frequentmiler.com/deltas-excellent-2024-status-match-status-for-up-to-2-years/
Touché!
I’m only AA gold. I wonder if they would do a match? Also is it a problem because I have no membership physical card
I think an important point of clarification is that the 15,000 miles required to extend the status for a second year, these are status miles earned, not distance flown. These two are not the same thing. Your article mentioned a round trip flight from New York to Istanbul would be 10,000 miles, but this is distance flown, not status miles earned. So it will require a bit more flying to get to 15,000 status miles, but still in the realm of a reasonable amount of flying.
Does the initial flight counts toward the 15,000 miles?
Also, does that initial flight have to be a cash fare, or can it be a Turkish miles redemption? It only says you need to take a flight on Turkish, so that would imply that redeeming miles on Turkish for a flight would suffice, but I would rather be safe than sorry in terms of planning…
Can anyone clarify this, please?
I’ve never heard of a status challenge where award flights count. Only a couple of airline programs worldwide count award flights toward elite status and Turkish isn’t one of them. I am 99.876575884% sure that it needs to be a revenue fare.
Thank you, Nick. I was actually asking about Matt’s first question (does initial flight count towards 15k miles requirement) but somehow the blog posted my question as a reply to his second question. Do you know if one single cash fare flight on Turkish metal can satisfy both requirements?
Yes. It can. I checked with support
Ah, I see. Yes, I was certainly running under the assumption that it could.
Sorry if slightly off topic? P2, without asking booked economy Turkish for work JFK/ABV – ungodly 16 hours in economy. Too late to cancel/rebook but there are miles upgrade available using Turkish miles. Issue – I have plenty of Cap1, but no way to transfer to P2 Turkish account. Cap1-requires name to match loyalty #. Wouldn’t matter anyway since Turkish only allows family pooling IF you have elite status. We don’t, I am AS MVP Gold/AA Plat, but still ticket’s in his name. Anyone have any outside the box thoughts?
I found flights to Maui for 7500 miles. I do NOT have any Smiles Miles points. I have tons of amex and or chase. How do I get those transferred to Smiles and miles to secure that flight .
Unfortunately, you can’t — neither Amex nor Chase partner with Turkish Miles & Smiles. You would need Capital One miles, Citi Thank You points, or Bilt Rewards points — those currencies transfer to Turkish. There is no way to turn your Chase or Amex points into Turkish miles.
Thank you for clearing that up for me. I found the saver award on United and confirmed it’s available on Smiles and Miles. Can I transfer to Aeroplan to book Smiles and Miles ? Does Aeroplan have the same flights as United? Any other angle to find it less than United Saver… Thanks Nick!
Miles & Smiles is totally irrelevant for you if you have Chase and Amex points. It doesn’t matter if it’s available or what it costs via Miles & Smiles — Miles & Smiles is just not an option in your situation. It’s like having a Sak’s Fifth Avenue gift card and asking how you can use your Saks gift card to buy a t-shirt at Amazon because it’s cheaper at Amazon. You just can’t do that. If you want to use your Saks gift card, you have to buy something from Saks and pay the Saks price. Or you have to look for what else you can do with that Saks gift card (like you could also use it at Saks Off Fifth, which might be cheaper than Saks….but the price at Amazon is still irrelevant).
You want to look at the Amex and Chase transfer partners and narrow it to airlines in the Star Alliance. If that United flight is available to Turkish, you should also find it available using miles in other Star Alliance programs like Air Canada Aeroplan (partners with both Chase and Amex), Avianca LifeMiles (partners with Amex), and Singapore Airlines (partners with both Chase and Amex).
Which of those options is best will depend on your route. For instance, Air Canada has a distance-based award chart. Newark to Maui would cost 22,500 miles, but Los Angeles to Maui would cost 12,500 miles. Singapore Airlines now charges higher prices than they used to, so I believe it’s 19,500 miles from the west coast of the US to Hawaii in economy class or 33,500 from the east coast, so that’s probably not going to be attractive (though their cancellation fee is much lower than Air Canada’s). Avianca LifeMiles probably won’t be your best bet as they charge 22.5K from the east coast or 15K from the west coast.
It’s worth a mention that Avianca charges a $25 partner booking fee on top of the $5.60 in taxes and Air Canada Aeroplan charges $39 Canadian Dollars (I think about $29 USD) on top of the taxes. Singapore does not add this fee (neither does Turkish). Of course your other option is to transfer your Chase points to United.
Last but not least, I recommend signing up for a free account at Pointsyeah.com. It’s a search tool that lets you compare award prices. It’s free, but you need to create an account to see real results (otherwise it shows fake airport names and stuff, so just create an account). You can then choose bank programs out of a drop-down menu (so you’d choose Chase and Amex) and it’ll filter results to programs you can access.
Unfortunately, Pointsyeah doesn’t have all programs, so for example you can’t search for pricing via Singapore Airlines that way. But it will show you pricing via Air Canada Aeroplan, Avianca LifeMiles, United, and several other relevant programs (including Turkish).
Lastly, one more option I didn’t mention is that you can buy Turkish miles. Turkish sells them for 3c per mile. I generally don’t recommend buying miles at 3c per mile rather than getting a credit card with points that transfer, but in this case paying $225 for 7,500 miles might make sense if that would save you substantially (whether or not it will depends on the situation).
Hope that all helps.
If they approve my match from AS via DL, this is tempting. I’m on the ground in CAI for 20 hours on my RTW award trip (I don’t blog, you do!) in Feb. & Can definitely MR CAI-IST-CAI. Be nice to fill the OW Emerald black hole, which is definitely ME/Eastern Europe. Don’t get me started on Amman…
According to Flight Connections, Turkish has a flight from Mexico City to Cancun. Nice short 2.5 hour flight…
Does anyone know if Turkish is still matching other Star Alliance programs? (I’m United Gold for another 10ish days and still hope to leverage it in a match.)
It seems not. I have SQ Gold and was denied. Other https://statusmatcher.com/ data points match my outcome.
I have multiple long and short haul Turkish flights coming up in May and June, but I was planning on assigning the earned miles to my United account. While two years of Star Alliance Gold status is tempting, it’s quite a bit offset by having to bank those miles into Miles & Smiles, which would be much less useful for me. The last thing I want at this point is orphaned miles. So it’s a tough call.
Out of curiosity, given no changes to TK’s policy, what would it take to earn year #3?
This is why you’re the best!