A few years ago, we were the first blog to uncover the killer story with Turkish Miles & Smiles that you can fly one-way within the United States — including to/from Alaska and Hawaii — for just 7,500 miles one-way in economy class or 12,500 miles in business/first class when United has saver availability. That amazing sweet spot is one of several great award deals offered by Turkish. Miles & Smiles is simultaneously one of the most valuable and one of the most frustrating Star Alliance programs given the challenges you may face in booking the itinerary you want. However, when you can find the availability you need, there is no doubt that the sweet spots can be well worth the challenges you may encounter in booking.

Things to know about Turkish Miles & Smiles award booking
- Book via email or over the phone if you can’t online: While some itineraries can be booked online, many itineraries don’t show up on the Turkish website. In those cases, you’ll need to either email or call to book over the phone with Turkish Miles & Smiles at 1-800-874-8875. Note that phone agents often have trouble finding availability. Email bookings still work, so try the email process detailed in this guide if you strike out on the phone (or maybe just start with email if time is on your side). Note that you may want to send the same email to multiple ticket offices because some offices may not respond.
- Connecting itineraries are OK: Award pricing is per direction regardless of segments (i.e. EWR-HNL is 7.5K one way in economy class. EWR-ORD-LAX-HNL is also 7.5K one way in economy even though there are 2 stops provided the layovers don’t exceed maximum connection times).
- Irregular Operations can be a major headache. If your flight is cancelled by United or there is a significant schedule change, you may be in for a large headache because United likely won’t be able to help and you’ll be stuck calling Miles & Smiles and hoping they can reissue your ticket. This is the main risk in booking via Turkish.
- The award chart no longer shows the sweetest spot. Turkish used to include a snippet in its award chart indicating that domestic Star Alliance awards cost 7.5K each way in economy class or 12.5K each way in business class. However, they eliminated that snipped in 2019. Awards from “North America” to “North America” are listed in the award chart at 10K each way in economy class or 15K in business class. In practice, international awards within North America follow that pricing, but entirely domestic awards, such as those entirely on United Airlines within the United States, continue to price according to the old domestic award chart snippet both online and via email. The same is true for domestic Star Alliance flights in other countries (like within India on Air India or within Germany of Lufthansa, etc).
- Award holds: Turkish will give you a hold for 48 hours if booking more than 7 days in advance, so there is no need to transfer before putting an award on hold in most cases.
- Transfer times: Bilt Rewards and Capital One miles transfer instantly. Citi ThankYou points used to take 18-30 hours, but recent data points indicates that they are now instant. You can alternatively transfer from Marriott Rewards, but the transfer time is likely to be a week or more.
- When you create an account, your password must be numbers only and 6 digits long.
- No mixed cabin bookings in most cases: You can not combine an itinerary with some legs in business class and others in economy class. An exception from the program rules is that (per the terms) it is possible to book a mixed-cabin award in cases where one of your flights does not have a matching class of service (e.g. one leg has business class but the other leg is operated by a small regional plane with no business class cabin). However, YMMV — the online tool does not yet show these itineraries.
- Fuel surcharges are passed on. You’ll want to choose airlines with low/no fuel surcharges and/or departure cities that limit them. United has no fuel surcharges on most routes.
- United Airlines “Saver” availability only: If you’re looking to book United flights with Turkish Miles & Smiles, you must find United saver availability. Only United saver availability is bookable with partner miles. You can not book segments operated by Hawaiian with Turkish miles. You can not use Turkish miles to book award seats that are only available to United credit card holders or United elite members — only saver availability that you see when not logged in to a United account will be available to Turkish. An easy solution to determine which seats should be available to Turkish is to cross-reference availability with another Star Alliance carrier, like Air Canada, to see which flights should be available to partners.
- International first class is not bookable on the Turkish website and may not be available via phone or email. While Turkish added first class redemptions to its award chart, we only see economy and business class booking options on the website. According to Flyertalk, Turkish is unable to book first class awards.
- The cancellation fee is now $70: The fee to cancel and redeposit used to be only $25 per passenger, but Turkish quietly increased it to $70 according to this page. The mileage redeposit is sometimes instant (it has been instant in my experiences, but some readers have reported the opposite). Note that changes theoretically also cost $70, but in my experience it was easier to cancel & re-book. Note also that numerous readers have reported free cancellation when due to a significant schedule change. In the past, bookings made on the website were easily cancellable online, but you may need to call.
- Many available routes don’t show up online. It’s not clear why, but many itineraries that are available at United.com do not show up on the Turkish Airlines website. In these cases, you should be able to book via email.
- Not all routes price correctly online. Most domestic US itineraries now price at 7,500 miles each way in economy class online. Some price at over 11K online for no known reason (the same itineraries can be booked over the phone or via email for 7,500 miles each way).
- The online tool often doesn’t show the most direct routing. Even when direct flights are available, the system sometimes forces a connection (for example, rather than allowing a nonstop round trip award between San Francisco and Honolulu, the options presented required connecting through Los Angeles or vice versa). It is often possible to book the nonstop routings via email.
- You can not book tickets for others until you have booked a ticket for yourself. This might mean that you’ll need to book yourself and traveling companions under separate reservations. It may also be possible to make yourself a “dummy” booking that you will later cancel in order to unlock the ability to book for others. Note that some readers have had difficulty booking for others even after completing a booking for themselves, so YMMV. See Booking a Turkish Miles & Smiles award for a friend for more on my experience.
- You might be able to book tickets for others on the Turkish Airlines website, but YMMV and you must first add others as your companions. In the past, the online system would not allow me to make a booking for my wife and son (without me) using my miles. However, I have since been able to book for friends on a trip where I wasn’t a traveler, so YMMV. It is also possible to book travel for others over the phone and via email even when the member booking is not traveling. Note that to book a ticket online that includes you the member and other passengers on the same itinerary, you must go to “My personal details” and “My Companions” and add traveling companions there before booking (this is not necessary for phone or email bookings).
- There are fantastic sweet spots connecting other regions. If you’re piecing together a multi-region trip, it’s worth a look at the full Turkish Miles & Smiles award chart. Note that you want to see the “Promotional Award Ticket Table” for Star Alliance awards. There are some fantastic values, particularly between Europe and regions East (27.5K in business class to Central Asia, 45K to the Far East, and 52.5K to Oceania all come to mind). See also the region definitions as some regions are quite large.
Turkish Miles & Smiles Economy Class Sweet Spots
Asia / Far East for 45K each way
- The short story: Turkish offers a competitive economy class award rate to what they dub the "Far East" (defined as Brunei, Cambodia, China (except Hong Kong and Macao), China Taipei, Hong Kong - SAR of China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam). That said, keep in mind that business class is only 50% more.
- Miles required: 45K each way
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key warnings: Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. However, Turkish allows a hold for long enough for points to transfer. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get your desired itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points. No fuel surcharges on Air Canada, United, Avianca, or SAS. Low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish and Turkish.
- Transfer from: Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Citi Thank You, Marriott Bonvoy
Caribbean from 7.5K each way
- The short story: Turkish Miles & Smiles offers excellent award pricing for Star Alliance flights within North America (i.e. on United, Copa or Air Canada).
- Miles required: From 7,500 miles each way in economy or 12,500 miles each way in business class. Note that domestic flights are 7,500 each way in economy class or 12,500 miles each way in business class which includes the continental US to/from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. International destinations in North America theoretically cost 10K each in economy or 15K in business. However, note that most Caribbean islands are classified as South America and as such are a poor deal.
- How to find awards: Search United.com and look for "Saver Awards". You can also try searching via the Turkish Airlines website, but it does not always show full availability.
- How to book awards: You can try booking on the Miles & Smiles website, though not all flights are available online. Previously phone bookings have worked and may again be possible. If all else fails, try booking via email. See our guide for booking United flights with Turkish for more detail.
- Key warnings: Turkish agents occasionally can't see availability even though it is marked as "Saver". You may just have to try again with a different agent.
- Transfer from: Capital One, Citi,
Central Asia for 34K each way
- The short story: Turkish offers incredible rates for economy class to the Central Asia (defined as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) - but watch out for fuel surcharges on some partners.
- Miles required: 34K each way
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key
warnings:Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. However, Turkish allows a hold for long enough for points to transfer. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get your desired itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points. No fuel surcharges on Air Canada, United, Avianca, or SAS. Low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish and Turkish. - Transfer from: Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Citi Thank You, Marriott Bonvoy
Middle East for 32K each way
- The short story: Turkish offers incredible rates for economy class to the Middle East - but watch out for fuel surcharges on some partners.
- Miles required: 32K each way
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key warnings: Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. However, Turkish allows a hold for long enough for points to transfer. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get your desired itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points. No fuel surcharges on Air Canada, United, Avianca, or SAS. Low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish and Turkish.
- Transfer from: Citi Thank You, Marriott Bonvoy
North America from 7.5K each way
- The short story: Turkish offers incredible value on domestic Star Alliance flights. This makes Turkish the absolute cheapest way to book flights within the US on United -- including to Alaska and Hawaii.
- Miles required: 7,500 miles each way in economy class or 12,500 miles each way in business class domestically on United within the US or domestically on Air Canada within Canada (can include connections for the same price). For North American international flights (e.g. US to Canada or Mexico), 10K each way in economy class or 15K each way in business class.
- How to find awards: Search United.com and look for "Saver Awards". You can also try searching via the Turkish Airlines website, but it does not always show full availability.
- How to book awards: Not all available flights are displayed online at the Turkish Airlines website (and for many months the checkout page has been broken and missing a button to pay for your reservation. Then they added a checkout button but flights fail to ticket). Previously phone bookings have worked and may again be possible. If all else fails, try booking via email. See our guide for booking United flights with Turkish for more detail.
- Change ang cancellation fees: The fee to change or cancel is $25 per passenger, though I've been unsuccessful in finding agents who know how to change a partner award. Thus cancelling for $25 is your best bet.
- Key warnings: Turkish agents occasionally can't see availability even though it is marked as "Saver". You may just have to try again with a different agent. Irregular operations can cause a huge headache in getting in touch with Turkish to get your flight fixed. Booking via Turkish is not for the faint of heart (or those who can not drop back 10 yards and punt when things go sideways).
- Transfer from: Bilt, Citi, Capital One
Hawaii for 7.5K each way
- The short story: Turkish offers the same pricing on flights to Hawaii as for other domestic US awards, making them an unbelievable value for flights to Hawaii.
- Miles required: 7,500 miles each way in economy class or 12,500 miles each way in business class (can include connections for the same price)
- How to find awards: Search for available award space at United.com. Important: make sure that the results indicate that the award is a "saver award", otherwise it won't be bookable.
- How to book awards: While it's theoretically possible to book online (details here), you'll likely have much better luck via phone. Even then, it may take several calls to get an agent who can see that the award space is available. Details for booking via phone can be found here. See also: Turkish still a mixed bag, but patience helps.
- Key warnings: Turkish appears to have a max connect time of 4 hours on a domestic itinerary, so itineraries with a longer connection would require 2 awards. Also, for an unknown reason, Turkish agents often can't see award space that other partner airlines can see. You may have to call several times to get an award booked. Keep in mind that transfers to Turkish are not instant; it will take 1-2 days for the miles to show up in your Turkish Miles & Smiles account. As a result, we highly recommend calling to put an award on hold before you transfer points to Turkish miles.
Turkish Miles & Smiles Premium Cabin Sweet Spots
Africa from 60K each way
- The short story: Turkish offers excellent pricing to North Africa on Star Alliance carriers and decent award pricing to Central and Southern Africa.
- Miles required: 60K miles each way in business class to North Africa, 72.5K miles each way in business class to Central Africa, and 85K each way in business class to Southern Africa
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key warnings: Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. Turkish allows awards to be put on hold, so if you can not see the award you want online, you should get an itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points.
- Transfer from: Capital One, Citi ThankYou points, Marriott Bonvoy
Asia / Far East for 67.5K business / 100K first
- The short story: Turkish offers excellent rates for both business and first class to the what they dub the "Far East" (defined as Brunei, Cambodia, China (except Hong Kong and Macao), China Taipei, Hong Kong - SAR of China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam) - but watch out for fuel surcharges on some partners.
- Miles required: 67.5K each way in business class, 100K each way in first class
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key warnings: Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. However, Turkish allows a hold for long enough for points to transfer. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get your desired itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points. No fuel surcharges on Air Canada, United, Avianca, or SAS. Low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish and Turkish.
- Transfer from: Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Citi Thank You, Marriott Bonvoy
Caribbean from 12.5K each way
- The short story: Turkish Miles & Smiles offers excellent award pricing for Star Alliance flights within North America (i.e. on United, Copa or Air Canada).
- Miles required: From 7,500 miles each way in economy or 12,500 miles each way in business class. Note that domestic flights are 7,500 each way in economy class or 12,500 miles each way in business class which includes the continental US to/from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. International destinations in North America theoretically cost 10K each in economy or 15K in business. However, note that most Caribbean islands are classified as South America and as such are a poor deal.
- How to find awards: Search United.com and look for "Saver Awards". You can also try searching via the Turkish Airlines website, but it does not always show full availability.
- How to book awards: You can try booking on the Miles & Smiles website, though not all flights are available online. Previously phone bookings have worked and may again be possible. If all else fails, try booking via email. See our guide for booking United flights with Turkish for more detail.
- Key warnings: Turkish agents occasionally can't see availability even though it is marked as "Saver". You may just have to try again with a different agent.
- Transfer from: Capital One, Citi,
Central Asia for 52.5K business / 72K first
- The short story: Turkish offers incredible rates for both business and first class to the Central Asia (defined as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) - but watch out for fuel surcharges on some partners. Still, it may be worth those fuel surcharges for first class redemptions in some cases given the low mileage rate.
- Miles required: 52.5K each way in business class, 72K each way in first class
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key warnings: Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. However, Turkish allows a hold for long enough for points to transfer. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get your desired itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points. No fuel surcharges on Air Canada, United, Avianca, or SAS. Low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish and Turkish.
- Transfer from: Bilt, Citi Thank You, Marriott Bonvoy
Europe for 45K business / 67.5K first
- The short story: At 45K each way in business class or 67.5K each way in business class, Turkish offers one of the best mileage rates to Europe - but watch out for fuel surcharges on some partners. Still, fuel surcharges may be worth it in some instances given the low rates (particularly in first class).
- Miles required: 45K miles each way in business class or 67.5K each way in first class
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key warnings: Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. However, Turkish allows a hold for long enough for points to transfer from Citi. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get your desired itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points. No fuel surcharges on Air Canada, United, Avianca, or SAS. Low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish and Turkish.
- Transfer from: Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Citi Thank You, Marriott Bonvoy
Hawaii for 12.5K each way
- The short story: Turkish offers the same pricing on flights to Hawaii as for other domestic US awards, making them an unbelievable value for flights to Hawaii.
- Miles required: 7,500 miles each way in economy class or 12,500 miles each way in business class (can include connections for the same price)
- How to find awards: Search for available award space at United.com. Important: make sure that the results indicate that the award is a "saver award", otherwise it won't be bookable.
- How to book awards: While it's theoretically possible to book online (details here), you'll likely have much better luck via phone. Even then, it may take several calls to get an agent who can see that the award space is available. Details for booking via phone can be found here. See also: Turkish still a mixed bag, but patience helps.
- Key warnings: Turkish appears to have a max connect time of 4 hours on a domestic itinerary, so itineraries with a longer connection would require 2 awards. Also, for an unknown reason, Turkish agents often can't see award space that other partner airlines can see. You may have to call several times to get an award booked. Keep in mind that transfers to Turkish are not instant; it will take 1-2 days for the miles to show up in your Turkish Miles & Smiles account. As a result, we highly recommend calling to put an award on hold before you transfer points to Turkish miles.
Middle East for 47K business / 69.5K first
- The short story: Turkish offers incredible rates for both business and first class to the Middle East - but watch out for fuel surcharges on some partners. Still, it may be worth those fuel surcharges for first class redemptions in some cases given the low mileage rate.
- Miles required: 47K each way in business class, 69.5K each way in first class
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key warnings: Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. However, Turkish allows a hold for long enough for points to transfer. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get your desired itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points. No fuel surcharges on Air Canada, United, Avianca, or SAS. Low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish and Turkish.
- Transfer from: Citi Thank You, Marriott Bonvoy
North America from 12.5K business domestic, 15K international
- The short story: Turkish offers incredible value on domestic Star Alliance flights. This makes Turkish the absolute cheapest way to book flights within the US on United -- including to Alaska and Hawaii.
- Miles required: 7,500 miles each way in economy class or 12,500 miles each way in business class domestically on United within the US or domestically on Air Canada within Canada (can include connections for the same price). For North American international flights (e.g. US to Canada or Mexico), 10K each way in economy class or 15K each way in business class.
- How to find awards: Search United.com and look for "Saver Awards". You can also try searching via the Turkish Airlines website, but it does not always show full availability.
- How to book awards: Not all available flights are displayed online at the Turkish Airlines website (and for many months the checkout page has been broken and missing a button to pay for your reservation. Then they added a checkout button but flights fail to ticket). Previously phone bookings have worked and may again be possible. If all else fails, try booking via email. See our guide for booking United flights with Turkish for more detail.
- Change ang cancellation fees: The fee to change or cancel is $25 per passenger, though I've been unsuccessful in finding agents who know how to change a partner award. Thus cancelling for $25 is your best bet.
- Key warnings: Turkish agents occasionally can't see availability even though it is marked as "Saver". You may just have to try again with a different agent. Irregular operations can cause a huge headache in getting in touch with Turkish to get your flight fixed. Booking via Turkish is not for the faint of heart (or those who can not drop back 10 yards and punt when things go sideways).
- Transfer from: Bilt, Citi, Capital One
Caribbean to South America from 35K in business
- The short story: South America is a poor value via Turkish if originating in North America, but much of the Caribbean is classified as South America and as such Caribbean islands to South America present a solid value.
- Miles required: Too many from North America (75K each way), but 35K each way in business class "within" South America (which includes many Caribbean Islands to/from South America, so it may be worth positioning to the Caribbean to pay just 35K miles one-way to anywhere in South America). Note that the Turkish region definition for South America isn't entirely reliable as it includes Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, but those islands actually price as part of the US. Noting that inaccuracy, here is how Turkish defines South America: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cayman Islands, CHILE, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Maarten (Dutch Part), Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uruguay, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (US).
- How to find awards: Search for available space at united.com and call Turkish to book or go to turkishairlines.com, log in to your account, go to "Miles transactions" to find the Star Alliance booking tool and click "book now" to go to that search tool (not the tool on the home page at turkishairlines.com). Note that there may be bookable options that do not appear on the site (hence checking United and calling when necessary).
- How to book awards: Book online at turkishairlines.com using the instructions above or over the phone at 1-800-874-8875 or via email
- Key warnings: Turkish is sometimes unable to see Star Alliance availability for no explicable reason. However, Turkish allows a hold for long enough for points to transfer from Citi. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get your desired itinerary on hold via phone or email before transferring points. No fuel surcharges on Air Canada, United, Avianca, or SAS. Low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish and Turkish.
- Transfer from: Citi Thank You, Marriott Bonvoy
Lap infant award tickets via Turkish Miles & Smiles
Turkish Miles & Smiles charges just 10% of the adult miles for a lap infant award ticket. Lap infant tickets can be booked online (when your itinerary is available online) or via email / over the phone. See this post for more detail: Lap infant sweet spot: Turkish charges 10% of the miles for a lap infant.
Getting Turkish Miles & Smiles miles
You can of course earn Turkish Miles & Smiles miles by crediting Star Alliance flights to Turkish. Wheretocredit.com is a terrific resource for determining your earnings for paid flights.
For those who prefer to earn / generate miles without flying, there are several options.
Bilt Rewards (instant transfer)
Turkish Miles & Smiles is a 1:1 Bilt Rewards transfer partner. Simply open your Bilt Rewards app, link your Turkish Miles & Smiles account, and transfer.
Note that Blue members (those with no Bilt Rewards status) must transfer in increments of 2,000 points.
Transfers from Bilt Rewards are instant.
Capital One Miles (instant transfer)
Turkish Miles & Smiles is a 1: 1 Capital One transfer partner. Simply log in to your Capital One miles-earning account and click “redeem rewards” and then “convert rewards” to transfer in increments of 100 miles (with a minimum transfer of 1,000 miles).
Transfers from Capital One are instant.
Citi ThankYou Points (not instant transfer)
Turkish Miles & Smiles is a 1:1 Citi Transfer Partner. Simply log in to ThankYou.com and transfer your points to Turkish Miles & Smiles like you would with any airline partner.
Transfers from Citi now appear to be instant. Transfer times used to vary from 18-30 hours, but recent data points indicate they are now instant. You should easily receive the miles in time to ticket your held award provided you initiate the transfer right away after placing the hold.
Citi did provide a transfer bonus to Turkish Miles & Smiles once in 2018, but we haven’t seen a transfer bonus to Turkish since.
Marriott Bonvoy
You can alternatively / additionally transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Turkish Miles & Smiles at a rate of 3 Marriott points to 1 Turkish Airlines mile. When you transfer 60,000 Marriott points, you’ll get a 5K bonus for a total of 25K Turkish miles. Unfortunately, Marriott transfers are slow and may take a week or more. You can’t count on a transfer from Marriott processing while you have an award on hold.
Buy miles from Turkish
Turkish Miles & Smiles will sell you up to 50,000 miles for 3 cents per mile. These miles post instantly to your account, so this can be a way to top off your account for a valuable award. Turkish processes these transactions directly, so mileage purchases appear like ordinary airline charges.
Buy Citi ThankYou points
As long as you have a card that earns Citi ThankYou points, and you have at least one point in your account, you can buy additional ThankYou points for 2.5 cents each, up to a maximum of 100K points per year. You can then transfer those points to airline miles. Greg wrote about this in detail a while ago: Buy miles via ThankYou Rewards. He then wrote a post about doing it specifically for award to Hawaii. See: $386 to Hawaii round trip from anywhere in the US.
Step-by-step guide to booking Turkish Miles & Smiles award tickets
Turkish Miles & Smiles sweet spots can be a terrific deals in many cases provided you know how to find and book awards and you are prepared to deal with irregular operations. Unfortunately, if United cancels your flight or it undergoes a significant schedule change, you are likely in for some headache in getting in touch with Turkish and getting their help reissuing your ticket. This potential difficulty means that booking via Turkish is not for the faint of heart.
That said, finding and booking awards is not as difficult as it once was. Follow the steps below to book.
For Star Alliance awards, check United.com
If you ultimately do not want to fly on United but rather on other Star Alliance carriers, you could start your search at United.com for an easy month-long availability calendar — any Star Alliance flights you see on United.com that are on carriers other than United should be available to all Star Alliance carriers.
For instance, consider this LOT Polish flight that is available to United:

That same flight should be available to any Star Alliance airline, including Turkish. With luck, you’ll find that flight available to be booked online via the Turkish Airlines website as it is in this case:
Any Star Alliance partner award you see on United.com (i.e. itineraries with flights operated by airlines other than United) should be available to book via any Star Alliance program.
Somewhat ironically, if you ultimately want to fly United, the easiest way to start your search is at AirCanada.com since United flights available to Air Canada should be available to all Star Alliance carriers (including Turkish Airlines).
For instance, if you find a United flight available via AirCanada.com as shown here:
That flight should be available to book via any Star Alliance airline (including Turkish Miles & Smiles).
If you search at United.com for United flights, only those flights labeled “Saver Award” or “I” fare class would be available to partners.

Note that Turkish can not book seats that are only available to United credit card holders or elite members. Your best bet is to make sure you are not logged in at United.com when searching because if you log in you may see expanded availability that Turkish can not book.
Check the Turkish Airlines website
Once you’ve found saver availability via United, you can try searching the same date via the Turkish Airlines website. As we’ve previously noted is the case with the Turkish Airlines website, availability shown online via Turkish Miles & Smiles is very much hit or miss. The good news is that you will find some good options easily bookable online (and awards are once again bookable online now that the checkout button has been restored). The bad news is that you will not see all of the bookable options on the website.
Unlike other airline websites, you will not start your search on the Turkish Airlines homepage, rather you’ll want to log in to your Turkish Miles & Smiles account and then click the drop-down from your name and choose “Miles transactions”.

You can then find the “Star Alliance award ticket” booking engine to the right of your name.
Clicking “book now” will bring you to the Star Alliance Award Ticket booking engine.
When you click the calendar to select dates, you can find a box to easily search for one-way awards, which is likely the easiest way to search.
After searching, if awards are available in both economy class and business class, you will see radio buttons to select which class of service you would like to see displayed.
If you receive a message that no flights are available, this does not always mean that no awards are available. Assuming you have found saver Star Alliance availability via United.com or the Aeroplan website, you should be able to book that space by phone or email. Note that sometimes agents don’t see availability that should be there, so it may take multiple tries to book successfully. While I’ve at times gotten an agent able to book on my first call, other times it has taken many calls or a copy/paste email to multiple ticket offices to get a ticket booked. I find it far less frustrating to book via email.
Calling Turkish Airlines to book via phone
The key to phone bookings with Turkish Miles & Smiles is that you must feed the agent each segment separately. (Alternatively, the email process still works. See this post for instructions on booking via email). If you choose to call, expect that the agent probably won’t be able to help you and be pleasantly surprised if they can.
To book a United Airlines award ticket over the phone with Turkish Miles & Smiles, follow these steps:
- Call 1-800-874-8875
- Press 1 to continue in English
- Press 1 because you’re a Miles & Smiles member
- Enter your Miles & Smiles number
- Press 1 to confirm your number is correct
- Press 4 for reservations
When you call Turkish Airlines to book an award ticket over the phone, you will need to be prepared to tell the agent exactly which flights you want and then feed the agent one segment at a time.
For example, if you’re looking to fly from Chicago to Honolulu with a layover in San Francisco, you’ll need to be very specific:
“I’d like to book a partner flight on United airlines. There are 2 segments. The first flight is from Chicago (ORD) to San Francisco (SFO) on October 22nd for 2 passengers in economy class. I’m looking for flight UA 1891 leaving Chicago at 10am and arriving at 12:50pm in San Francisco.”
Let the agent find that flight. Then, move on to the next flight.
“The second segment is from San Francisco (SFO) to Honolulu (HNL) on October 22nd for 2 passengers in economy class. I’m looking for flight UA 300 leaving San Francisco at 2:10pm.”
If you instead just ask for Chicago to Honolulu, the agent will likely tell you that there is no availability (unless there is a nonstop flight available). You have to go segment by segment and also keep in mind that agents often can’t see availability that should be there. Be prepared to hang up and call again multiple times (or try via email).
Keep in mind that the max layover on domestic itineraries appears to be 4 hours for tickets booked via phone or email. If your itinerary has a longer layover, you’ll be charged for two awards. The online booking tool sometimes returns results with longer layovers priced as a single award.
Book a Turkish Miles & Smiles award via email
Turkish Airlines operates ticket offices in 9 US cities and 2 Canadian cities and all around the world. They publish contact information all of their ticket offices on their website here. Be sure to choose “Ticket Sales Office” rather than “Airport Sales Office” or something like that.
Here is an example email template that I use.
Hello,
I’m emailing to inquire about a Star Alliance award booking. I would like to book the following itinerary:
Passenger: [Name]Miles & Smiles Number: XXXXXXDate: February 12, 2021Class: EconomyOrigin: IADDestination: LASSegments:1) UA 632 12NOV IAD-LAX 1230 14562) UA 2365 12NOV LAX-LAS 1631 1745
Can you confirm the number of miles required and the total taxes & fees and help me place this award on hold?I really appreciate your assistance!Sincerely,[Name]
Note that some offices will not respond to your email. You’ll need some trial and error: some offices almost never respond and others are more reliable. Since this varies all the time, your best bet is to just send the same email to multiple offices (note that in the past, when specific responsive offices have been widely publicized, they have inevitably become non-responsive shortly thereafter). Keep in mind that most of the ticket offices are open 9am-5pm Monday through Friday, so you may not get a response after hours / on weekends and/or you may need to try an office in a different area.
When booking via email, Turkish requires all of the following paperwork (but read on afterwards for the work-around):
- Miles & Smiles redemption form: This is a form that includes the basic route and price information and asks you to indicate the type of award (i.e. an award ticket on Star Alliance Flights). You’ll sign this form.
- Credit card authorization form. This form has your PNR and fare information. It also asks for date of birth, email address, phone number, driver’s license number, credit card information, and signature of the booking member.
- Photos of your credit card (both front and back). Be aware that you may need to crop / resize your photos (my email kept bouncing back saying that the ticket office box was full and the message was undeliverable, but it turned out that my files were too large).
- Photo of your ID. I provided both front and back.
Note that I have alternatively had success putting an award on hold via email and then calling to pay for taxes and ticket the award without a need for any of the above paperwork.
Putting an award on hold
Turkish Miles & Smiles allows award holds when booking via phone or email. Once an agent finds your flights, you will need to ask them to put the itinerary on hold for you to transfer over the miles (since Turkish allows free and easy holds there is no reason to transfer miles before this point). The agent will need to take the names and birth dates of the passengers in your party to put it on hold.
Provided you are booking travel at least 7 days in advance, you will be offered a hold of 48 hours, which is plenty of time to transfer the miles necessary. Note that transfers from Bilt Rewards and Capital One are instant, but transfers from Citi ThankYou points take 18-30 hours.
If you are booking a flight within 7 days of travel, you will only get a hold for 24 hours. Citi points may transfer in that window, but Bilt or Capital One would be safer bets within 7 days of travel.
Once your itinerary is on hold, you’ll want to transfer the miles to pay for your award. As noted above, if an office puts your award on hold via email, you can simply call Miles & Smiles and give them the PNR from the email and pay to ticket over the phone.
Calling to ticket
Once you have the miles necessary in your account, you’ll need to call back to ticket your held award.
The process is pretty straightforward: you’ll call Turkish again and tell them that you need to pay for an award you have on hold. You’ll give them the PNR you were given when you put your tickets on hold and they will verify all of the information. The agent will then transfer you to an automated system to enter your credit card information. After you enter credit card info, the agent came will verify the first 4 and last 4 digits of the card number and your Miles & Smiles number and then transfer you to an automated prompt to enter your Miles & Smiles PIN. That “PIN” is the password for your account (which you likely remember is a six-digit number). Once that is complete, the award will be ticketed. Note that unlike searching for award space, ticketing a reservation once you have it on hold is very easy and shouldn’t require more than one call.
Change / cancellation fee for Turkish award tickets
Changes before check-in will incur a $70 fee (the ticket must be used within 1 year of the day it is issued). Itineraries can be canceled over the phone and miles are immediately re-deposited. Note that many readers have reported paying no cancellation fee when cancellation is due to significant schedule changes.
Turkish Miles & Smiles expiration policy
Turkish Miles & Smiles miles expire 3 years after they are earned. Transferring more miles to Turkish does not extend validity of your existing miles.
You can pay a fee of $10 per 1,000 miles to extend miles for another 3 years, though at 1c per mile, that is quite expensive. It is best to avoid transferring unless confident you will use the miles within 3 years.
That said, it can be worth paying to extend the miles if they are about to expire and you are very confident you will use them. For instance, the fee to extend 15,000 miles for 3 more years is $150. Given that 15K Turkish miles can get you a round trip ticket to Hawaii, it certainly may be worth paying $150 to extend the miles rather than allowing them to expire.
To extend your miles online, simply log in to your account, click your name to expand the menu, go to “Miles Transactions” and find the button to “Protect miles”.
On the next page, you can choose how many miles to protect and see the fee.
Again, that can be worthwhile. It’s nice that Turkish allows you to choose to protect an amount less than your entire balance.
Turkish Miles & Smiles Elite Status
Turkish Miles & Smiles sometimes matches status for those with oneworld status. See Status Matcher for recent data pounts.
For those looking to earn status the old fashioned way, here are the tiers and requirements:
Note that you’ll want to check wheretocredit.com before choosing to credit your flights to Turkish to be sure that they are eligible to earn the miles you expect.
One key benefit of elite status may be the ability to pool family miles.
Bottom line
Turkish Miles & Smiles has some fantastic award chart sweet spots. However, they can also easily be the most frustrating program given the inexplicable difficulty in booking awards in some circumstances. The award sweet spots can be worth the challenge for those who don’t mind making a few phone calls or sending a few emails when necessary.

I have never had so much difficulty making an award reservation! Despite what they state on the website, and confirmed through on-line chat, it is not possible to book an award flight on line unless you are traveling yourself. I had to call customer service to reserve two seats for friends. That was simple enough, but then they told me that they could not accept payment over the phone, and I must pay through the website. Unfortunately, they have the most dysfunctional website on the planet, and I could not pay on line. I called customer service again. They went through the motions of collecting my credit card info, but then told me that the passengers would need to present the same credit card at the airport before flying. For several reasons, that is difficult: 1) I am not flying, 2) the passengers live thousands of miles from me, and 3) the passengers do not have MY credit card. One of the passengers made the long drive to BOS today to pay for the ticket herself. She was treated rudely, and the agent said they had no idea what she was talking about, and she could not accept payment at the airport. After calls to the supervisor, she was told that I need to email photos of my ID and credit card to TK. Seriously? In 2023? Had I not already transferred 90,000 Citi points to TK, I would have switched to another airline long ago. It is simply not worth the hassle.
This all stinks. A lot of it is ultimately misinformation and/or not universal:
1) A lot of people aren’t able to book online for others. However, my first reservation was for me flying by myself and ever since I’ve been able to book for others. I booked a flight earlier this year for two friends on a trip I wasn’t on and I booked it online.
2) They aren’t going to have to show the credit card at the airport unless maaaaaybe they’re flying Turkish (but even then, my friends didn’t need to show my card at the airport and I haven’t heard of anyone else being forced to do that).
3) Booking via email, they will usually ask you to email pictures of your credit card and ID. I only did that one time — every time since, I’ve called and paid over the phone.
Unfortunately, Turkish agents frequently get stuff wrong and/or don’t know what they’re doing. For instance, I had one recently tell me that I couldn’t pay over the phone and had to pay on the website. Rather than argue, I just said thanks and hung up and hit redial and talked to someone else within less than 60 seconds who didn’t flinch at taking payment over the phone. I knew that wasn’t right.
That person did tell me that I’d have to show my credit card at the airport, but I knew it wasn’t true. An hour later, they called me and said that since I was flying out of Anchorage (on United) and Turkish doesn’t have a ticket office there, I’d have to go to some other airport to show my credit card or maybe they’d have to cancel the reservation. I pushed back saying that I was in Alaska and couldn’t get to another ticket office but that “I’d be happy to show my credit card to the United check-in counter”. Ultimately, they backed off it and said that would be fine. No, nobody asked to see my credit card.
It’s frustrating that Turkish agents are so poorly trained and your story is *really* frustrating.
I have booked a couple of TK award flights (on TK metal) for which passengers (my family members) were asked to show the credit card at airport and then they were denied boarding because they could not do so. I am aware of many other instances like this. If you are booking TK award and flying TK, it is very likely that the passengers will be asked to show the credit card. If the passenger is flying another airline, it is unlikely.
Interesting! Guess I should be thankful it hasn’t happened with us.
Just ordered a ticket for US domestic flight. It’s rather strange to me they say they can NOT order United Airlines but American Airlines for me!
Haha, the agent finally said she failed to book the ticket for me for unclear reasons. I was expecting something different. The agent seems so confused in the end. I felt funny rather than angry.
I’ve put Turkish awards on hold before, but recently I called and the agent refused to do it..I tried HUCA (hang up and call again) and the second agent said the same thing, even more vehemently from the first. Has anyone else experienced this change in policy or are the two agents incompetent? They also refused to believe that I’ve had agents hold awards in the past. Really frustrating
Any chance you have any tips on what to do with tickets booked through Turkish on United to Hawaii? We have tickets booked for the end of this month. Although it appears that United is honoring flight changes without penalty due to the fires in Maui I’m not how Turkish will handle the situation.
No, I don’t know. Honestly, I would expect Turkish to charge its usual $70 cancellation fee regardless of what United is offering to people who have booked through United, but you can certainly call and plead your case as to why they should allow you a change without penalty. My guess is that a phone rep will tell you to fill out the feedback form on the website. That isn’t necessarily the dead-end it sounds like – sometimes that is actually the path you need to take to get stuff done with Turkish. That said, I wouldn’t be shocked if you don’t get a response either. Very hard to say.
I spent a solid 4-5 hours on the phone yesterday with Turkish and United. All 4 of the Turkish representatives that I spoke with were less than helpful (as anticipated), and did indeed tell me to fill out the feedback form and/or informed me of the $70 change fee per ticket for an itinerary change that they were not able to find availability for. Ultimately it was a United representative that changed our tickets for FREE. To be honest I think she got tired of dealing with the Turkish representatives (she said she spoke to two) on her end of things and just decided to change the tickets for me. I did fill out the feedback form on Turkish’s website and they responded to me within 8 hours. By that time the tickets had been changed and they said as much. A struggle to get things change for sure, but everything ended well.
Has anyone redeemed Turkish miles for a connecting flight (different airlines) in Europe? I just tried to go from US to London on United and London to Zurich on Swissair for the 45K – was able to confirm the 45K for the US to London portion, but the agent said
Able to book United economy / saver award (X) using Turkish miles if priced at 25k instead of the usual 22.5k?
Anyone know the answer?
Anyone else having problems with award availability on Turkish to Hawaii (on United)? Looks like it started a few weeks ago, haven’t found anything on the website or by calling.
First look for available flights on United or Air Canada.
Yeah did that
Do you see availability that Turkish can’t?
Yes, safer award on United, nothing on Turkish
If you’re seeing 22.5k award saver tickets on united.com flown by United airlines, then keep calling until you get a rep that knows something or try emailing.
Ok! This time I called only once (in prior bookings called a bunch of times). The flights with connections used to be available on the website, now there is nothing which made me think that something changed.
Booked 3 Hawaii trips before, now dont seem to find award availability at Turkish to Hawaii
Hi Nick –
Not sure if you’re able to help, but I just placed tickets on hold with TK and was planning on transferring TY points over. When it prompts for my Membership Number on the Citi website, I’m not sure if I should include the TK or leave it as just a numbers. Any expertise? Thank in advance.
Just had the most laughably EASY flight booking on Turkish – I was thinking it was going to take hours and was on and off the phone within 10 minutes. I was booking on Turkish metal, so maybe that helped. I tried to book myself online but since I have never made a Turkish booking and was trying to book for 2 other people, as well, I couldn’t do it online. I called the US service number, got connected immediately, said what I wanted to book, transferred the points from Capital One once he confirmed availability, he asked for passenger names (didn’t make me spell them), then he sent me an email of all passenger details for me to confirm it was correct. By then the miles had transferred, he took the credit card info, and boom, that was it. The only disappointing thing was it is economy for 45,000 miles. Business was pricing online and he confirmed on the phone at 180,000 per ticket???
180K is the “anytime” sort of price (similar to how many US airlines used to have saver awards and anytime awards)
So can you currently book a Turkish award ticket for a domestic United flight? I actually pulled off this trick in 2021 to get to Hawaii in coach for 7500 miles, but the Turkish website now doesn’t seem to bring up ANY UA award availability. I don’t want to waste any more time if it’s actually now impossible.
Have had issues pulling up United awards for the last 3 weeks now – so maybe you can call it in but otherwise seems impossible at the moment to do it yourself through their website. No clue why.
Oh, dear. I’ve got several months before my intended award trip so I guess I’ll await further reports on what can be done. Hard to believe this can now be even harder to book!
Had any luck booking?
I haven’t tried the past two weeks, as I’ve been on the road. I have to block out a couple hours to even attempt this feat — assuming it IS still possible to do. 🙂
All previously bookable Star Alliance saver routes that don’t include a leg on TK metal now showing radio button and miles required yet routes don’t actually appear, instead displaying new message “Sorry, no suitable flights can be found”. Hopefully a temporary bug? Been like this for 4-5 days…
same issue
So TK is now unable to book *A tickets connecting through EWR airport. Multiple reports of the issue on FlyerTalk. Anyone know a workaround?
Is 45K to Europe standard pricing in business for TK? Meaning if I find availability via UA and TK can see it too, will it consistently be 45k?
Is there a trick to logging in on Turkish? I set up a Turkish account and I can’t log in. It says the membership number is incorrect. I’ve tried the app and two different browsers. It lets me reset the password if I click forgot password…if I try to reuse the same password it rejects it saying it has to be different, but it won’t let me log in with it.
I’ve never felt so defeated by a website before. Any advice?
Try entering just the 9-digit number and leave off the “TK” in front.
Quoting from the main page of their website after logging in: “Every moment in life is a new thrill with Miles&Smiles”
Thanks, I never noticed the last two digits were truncated when I would copy my number.
@Nick Reyes Reyes – May want to add info on hitting up TK’s twitter HelpDesk if phone agents cannot fix (or refund) something, and if your emails aren’t receiving any response either. After a month trying to get a refund that phone support couldn’t do, and sales/ops in Chicago never responded to, I got an email response from Chicago within about 48 hours of hitting up TK Helpdesk.
@Nick Reyes what was updated in this article?
Can anyone help me with the award cost for NY-PTY? Can’t seem to figure it out
Anyone know if Turkish offers more award availability on Turkish metal to its own program than it does through other partner programs?
It definitely does. Just snagged IST-SFO in biz that wasn’t available to partners.
Nick, please let us know if you have a trick for this. I know that on the Turkish website one has to click on “Miles Transactions” to look for Star Alliance award tickets. How can one search for Star Alliance award flights on the Turkish app?
I booked one award flight US to IST and the return flight months later, over the phone. Both times, the TK agent said to make sure I had that credit card with me at check-in at the airport. At check-in for both flights, I was asked to show that credit card (they only looked at it but did not take/swipe it). Any idea what may have happened if I did NOT have that credit card with me?
On the same trip I booked TK short-haul award flights but through Aeroplan. No such requirement to show my credit card at check-in. Aso, I could not book the famous Aeroplan 5k stopover TLV-BJV-IST online or over the phone with AC CS.
Our TLV-IST flight was delayed and the TK CS at IST was all over the rebooking IST-BJV for later that day. Well done.
Of the four TK flights I was only able to check-in via my phone app only once (odd).
At IST, there is a dedicated TK domestic check-in for business class which leads to a dedicated security room which itself leads right into a very nice TK domestic lounge. That lounge has bus gate stops. When lounge monitors show your flight is ready, you walk to that bus gate and are driven directly to the plane to board. It’s as if you’re never “in” the airport.
This sounds like the idea program to hire an award booker
I’d play around with this program more but the website simply won’t price anything in or out of Austin.
I went to book 6 seats on a United flight from Hawaii with plenty of saver award availability using Turkish miles.
First, the bad news:
And, the good news:
Was it worth it? I’m ashamed to say it was.
And the award for persistence in the face of adversity goes to…
If I didn’t know it were possible, I’m sure I would have given up. Which is to say it’s Nick’s fault. 🙂 Why, oh why, did he have to stumble upon this alluring redemption!
I am at my wits end trying to book United award seat using Turkish miles. I see availability on every partner website EXCEPT Turkish. And I called Turkish 5 times and nobody could help me they kept saying either they didn’t see the flight at all or there are no seats even for money. So you are saying I just need to call 4 more times? This is utter insanity!
In my case, I *could* see 7,500-point award availability via turkishairlines.com; that may be a meaningful distinction.
Well i could see it too until 2 days ago too. Right now i cant find ANY united flights that have saver awards on Turkish. I tried a bunch of itineraries. Can I ask you to search? For example take EWR to DFW Aug 2 in economy. Try that on Turkish and see how it says “no flights available” and not “no seats available”. But if there is some outage on Turkish side i would expect the reps to say “right now we are unable to book united flights due to technical issue”.
Oh, yeah, I’m seeing that error message as well. I’d think you’re right that it’s a technical issue. My guess is that it will be impossible to book flights until that technical issue is resolved.
I transferred Citi to Turkish airlines yesterday, been 24 hours and still not showing up in my TK account.. anyone has recent experience?
Not quite recent, but I’ve had it take a week and I’ve also had it take a couple of days. I don’t recall it ever being instantaneous.
Thanks, I read on other forum it has started to be instant, I guess case by case basis then.
Did you happen to put in TK before you number? I’m about to transfer and now sure if I should put TK and then the numbers, or just input my numbers.
Hi, no need to put TK, just the numbers will do
really appreciate it!
So oddly enough, Citi wouldn’t take just my number without the TK.. it kept giving me an “incorrect username error” message. Input the TK and the TY points actually transferred instantly. All worked out – thanks so much for the input and maybe this is just a future DP.
Anyone here know if Turkish will waive the cancellation fee if you cancel within 24 hours of booking?
Thank you. I found economy reward availability from EWR to OGG. What is the best way to find business class reward availability?
Finally found an agent with good English, she first of course quoted me some outrageous routing via Istanbul but once I gave her the flight numbers (this seems to be very important), she could find the UA/LH flights and give me a quote. But then she tells me I can only book the connecting flights as a “multi-city” where the flights are “not connected” (so I’d have to retrieve bags and would not be protected in case of IRROPS). And she tells me award holds are not available
It’s the biggest pain known to man. Agents constantly lying saying there is no availability even though expertflyer shows wide open. They seem to be so uncapable and incompetent. Told me I have to call United to book a partner award with Miles & smiles. Told me I have to connect in Istanbul. Asking me for my passport number before even checking availability.
FYI, you still have a reference to the old $25 change/cancellation fee in a couple of places discussing North America sweet spots.
Does anyone know if you are allowed to transit a different region in an intra-region award, if doing so is the only possible routing? I’m looking to fly from Delhi to Tashkent in May, which is within the “Central Asia” region, but there is no itinerary within “Central Asia” on Star Alliance for that city pair, just DEL-IST-TAS on Turkish Airlines.
The post suggests to email the ticketing office but I don’t see that listed on any of the US locations. Has it now been renamed to ‘City Office’?
Just landed last night in Istanbul after flying Turkish direct from Seattle in bness class. Service was outstanding. Booking tix on phone a pain. Screen shoot everything!!!! Only 81k TY points bc I have Citi Rewards Plus card. Plus fuel. Round trip. Dreamliner 787-9. Great trip. IST airport is Huuuuuuuuge.
Trying to book United with Turkish as described in the post. Just wondering if anybody with Premier status on United able to link their MileagePlus with their PNRs to get the Premier benefits?
Yes, but the key is that you have to link your United account number to the Turkish reservation. Once you do that, the reservation shows up on your United account, and you can assign seats and get your Premier benefits.
I can’t recall whether I had to call Turkish to link my United account number, or whether United could do it. Either way, I do recall it required an extra phone call to “take”.
Thank you. Will try this at some point once I manage to book a ticket. These comments make me scary to book United tickets with Turkish lol. Thankfully the itinerary that I want show up on the website. Just gotta figure out how to book a ticket for my friend who is traveling with me…
I have a coworker who booked a ticket for a friend flying with him… it was a long painful phone call but got the job done. Like Nick says… its a program you put up with because the redemptions are so good.
Changes / miles refund are now USD 70 per https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/miles-and-smiles/redeem-miles/redeem-miles-on-flights/award-travel-terms-conditions/
Data point: I transferred my Citi points to book United flights and they arrived almost instantly rather than the 18-30 hours mentioned in the article
It is so frustrating to call the Turkish Airlines phone line. They have played ‘transfer me to someone else’ over and over again until it hangs up. A customer service agent said that Turkish Airlines can’t book on United flights either. Ugh. I’m always polite and patient, but this is really annoying.
Has anyone found a way around the error “For Star Alliance award ticket transactions, the ticketing process is not possible for non-members” booking online? I am booking for a family member.
Nick, do you happen to know if you can book half business half economy over the phone on a one way?
Did you ever manage to figure this out? Have the same question!
Yes. You cannot. Turkish requires all segments in the same class for award bookings.
Have they devalued their program or added saver/non-saver awards? I was just looking at award flights and the costs are double what I’ve seen before and what you’ve posted here, if not more. Previously I’ve booked business class RTs to Central Asia for 105,000 miles (even less when I hit upon a promo award period), but OWs are now showing up as 125,000, which is what their award chart now shows. Am I doing something wrong, because I’m not seeing any mention of a devaluation searching FlyerTalk, various travel blogs or online in general? Thanks in advance for any insights.
Same issue, site shows horrible redemptions like OW to TLV for 120K in business.
They have saver and non-saver.
I just transferred Citi TYPs to Turkish. It took two minutes!
Data point which I discovered accidentally: If you search for a particular route and date and get no results, try the search again (simply by clicking the giant red “>” button).
Today, it has happened three times where I get no flights available for a particular date, only to try the exact same search again immediately and got flight options.
I don’t know if this is a temporary glitch or something that has been going on a long time, but it has help me discover a whole bunch of flight options that it initially told me weren’t there.
Update: This is still happening today, 2 days later. My first search turns up nothing; searching again comes up with availability.
When does this happen? Does it happen when you search for TK awards or when you search for partners (*A and others) awards?
I am asking because TK website has two different search engines. One for TK awards, and the other for partners (*A and others) awards.
Sorry not to be clearer, it’s when I search for “Star Alliance award tickets” (via the “Miles Transactions” link as described in the article).
Just did the same search ten times in a row. The one available flight appeared four times (searches #1, 7, 8, and 9); the other six searches yielded a message that there was no availability.
Anyone else having trouble signing up for a Turkish Airlines account? I fill in all the information but once I hit submit it shows me the loading thing and then keeps on the same page.
Try Microsoft Edge browser – worked for me after same trouble opening account in Chrome.
Fair warning if you transfer Capital One points! They will flag and restrict your account if you make a point transfer to Turkish Airlines. My Venture X card was restricted today after a virtual card number purchase (it was for an online gym class purchase). But, the reason they cited was because I transferred 7500 CO points to Turkish Airlines, along with other “suspicious activity” that they couldn’t affirmatively say to me. However, the transfer was 50 days ago, and I used my card normally until today. I called CO twice and the 2nd rep followed up with verifying my transfer and identity, and released my account the same day. Still, I thought I was gonna get my account closed and have to redeem my points at 0.5c like Greg here!
Not sure if “Ticket Sales Office” are listed on https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-us/any-questions/get-in-touch/ any more. I only see Airport Sales Office and City Office.
[…] sometimes showing availability for these flights. However, it is not consistent. You can read a complete breakdown in this post for how to book online. If it doesn’t work, revert to the traditional phone and email […]
Excellent info, thank you! Are there benefits using family membership for me and a spouse on Turkish Miles & Smiles? Both of us currently have separate M&S accounts.
Thanks so much for this article Nick! I was able to book 5 economy tickets for my family because of it. I did have to email eight offices and call 4 times. Every office and agent said they couldn’t find award space, except two of the offices I had emailed. I did have to email back the forms though. When I called in with a reservation number, the agent said United had canceled the flight, but she just couldn’t see it! Thanks again, this was so helpful!
Weird experience when you called in to ticket, but glad it worked out!
The Miles & Smiles website doesn’t seem to match the pictures in this post. If there really is still a Miles Transactions page, do you have a direct link?
When I go to my M&S account I eventually get to search for awards at, https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/miles-and-smiles/book-award-tickets/ I used Aeroplan to find both domestic UA savers on the Aeroplan site and separate BOS-FRA LH savers on Aeroplan, but the TK site only shows TK metal or zero results.
It still looks exactly the same for me. I’ve gone to the Miles Transactions tab as shown in this post multiple times in the past two weeks.
The link you sent is just to the home page — that’s the tool for looking for awards on Turkish metal only. If you want to book on Star Alliance, you need to log in, click on your name, and then choose “Miles transactions” from the drop-down menu, look for where it says “Star Alliance Awards” and hit that book now button. It brings you to a tool that looks similar to the home page, but there is no “award search” checkbox because you can only search for awards in the Star Alliance tool.
Thanks for redirecting me! I followed this more carefully and was able to figure it out.
FYI I bookmarked this direct link which seems to work if logged in
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-us/miles-and-smiles/account/book-star-award-tickets/
[…] Turkish’s program is one that I know very little about. There are some sweet spots in the program, like flying from the US mainland to Hawaii for 7,500 points. […]
You had mentioned that it costs 45K for economy to Asia / Far East and 50% more if for business. So we still have to find United biz saver before calling Turkish air to book right? TIA.
Correct that you can only book saver-level flights. Anything you see on United.com or AirCanada.com that is operated by a foreign carrier should be available to Turkish. So if you’re looking to fly to Asia on EVA and United shows seats on an itinerary on EVA, those EVA seats should be available to Turkish and any other Star Alliance airline also.
I understand that Turkish will not allow a stopover on a one way award, but do you think I would be able to change the second leg of the one way flight after arriving in Istanbul on the first leg, or do they not allow changes once one leg of the route is flown? I know this may seem stupid, but I’m curious if there is a way to force a stopover by paying the change fee as I will be staying in Istanbul for a few days before continuing on a domestic route.
I don’t know the answer, but neither do I know anyone who is going to test that by flying to Istanbul without knowing whether they can really change to their desired destination lol. I doubt it would work, but I don’t necessarily know for sure.
Booked EWR-HNL in coach last year. An incredible deal, but a huge PITA. Most people reading your blog can probably get it done — I had to make multiple phone calls — but gird yourself for the difficult task ahead. I didn’t realize flight irregularities could be a big problem. The flight from EWR the day before I left was cancelled due to bad weather. If that had happened to me, UA wouldn’t have been able to simply rebook me? I can only imagine the headache of getting TK to help in such a situation.
Nick,
I once again booked Hawaii with Turkish yesterday despite my last near disaster doing this. Here are some notes:
Now, we will see if the ticket breaks again….last time, the phone agents were of ZERO help; only ticket offices could help.
What is the email address of email agents?
how do you show expertflyer availability?
Buy expert flyer. (I think they have a free trial?) Look of united saver seats; Nick and Greg have many articles on searching award inventory….. seat spy also a great option for this…..
THEsocalledfan,
Coincidentally, I’m also an FSD flyer and running into this same issue when calling in to book. Are you willing to share which US ticket office you had success emailing with?
I also had trouble when creating my Miles & Smiles account as Sioux Falls isn’t even listed as a possible city for my account details (home address). I ended up getting around this by using a neighboring city and my correct zip code. Did you run into this issue or know if it will create any additional problems for me if I’m ever able to get something booked?
Thanks in advance!
Jack,
I don’t recall having issues making an account, but that was long ago for me. (Got one many, many years ago for a killer status match deal….) LA and Chicago are the only 2 that seem to help for me….
Thank you for the response! I did hear back from the LA office and they told me to call the customer service number for reservations. I let them know that I was having trouble booking over the phone due to my originating airport not being listed in their system. Now it’s radio silence…
Don’t bother with the phone; utter waste of time. You HAVE to have the ticket office figure it out, or you won’t get anywhere. It is okay to pay on the phone system once queued up, but that is it.
At best, you can expect one email a day; don’t expect more. Say you called in and since FSD is not loaded, there is nothing they can do, and you need them to get it booked for you since they appear to be the only ones who can help. Patience is key with Turkish…..and high stress tolerance when travel approaches.
And be prepared to prove there is award availability for your FSD-DEN or FSD-ORD flight! They will often say there is not…..I like to use expert flyer then confirm with aeroplan.
Thank you for the advice. I’ve already been practicing my patience with several days of calling and “hang up, call again”. Good to know that it’s a deadend on the phone and email is the only way to go when initially getting the reservation qeued up. I wish I would have checked these comments sooner to see that it is infact possible to book from FSD.
I have confirmed saver space on all segments through United and crosschecked availability with Aeroplan so I’ll be prepared for that when they inevitably tell me it doesn’t exist. Unfortunately, space is drying up for my desired date range and I’m now looking at connecting through DEN and SFO on the outbound.
Thanks again for the advice/tips though. I’m a sucker for a good deal so even though I could save myself the headache and book through United at 45k roundtrip, I’m still going to exhaust all options through TK first.
If you see my last booking, you will note I didn’t even try to argue the 22.5K rt fee as I was just so tired at that point. Note, I had a absolute nightmare last minute with a TK UA Hawaii booking last Feb…..to keep this simple, watch your reservation on the united system to make sure it does not look broken…..I had a flight number change on my outbound where the ticket never got updated. I realized it too late, and just when I needed a phone option, it was utterly of no use for all the same reasons. When that happens, you need a least a week of time to get an ticket office to fix by email…..
There is a very strong argument to be made to simply book the long haul segments with Turkish and simply book the short segments with united, aeroplan, etc. The combined total is still way cheaper than UA, and you could avoid a lot of headaches. That exactly what I did for a trip to Instanbul in October so I could simply book via the Turkish website…..
FYI, I see you guys talking about US-based offices. There’s no reason to limit yourself to US-based ticket offices. I’ve generally had far more success with foreign offices (though I did book a trip a couple of months ago where I emailed a bunch of US offices and most of them eventually got back to me). I just copy and paste the same email to a bunch of ticket offices. It only takes a few seconds to copy and paste.
Hey Jack, I’m going through this right now, what ever came of it? Spring Break 2023 ORD-KOA…they broke up the flight and now there is a layover in Denver. We still have 50 days, but I want to get this cleaned up. Thanks! Nick
Use email to fix. Keep after it until it is fixed. Point out that united has the seats saved for you if they say no availability. My similar issue was not fixed until too late.
Ok thank you!
I was able to book a flight for my wife using my brand new turkish acct. No previous booking for myself required. I booked over the phone as the availability did not show online. Route was sea-ewr on UA. The phone booking payment system errored out and the agent had me use the turkish language system. ( Probably unrelated to booking a ticket for my wife.) I speak decent turkish so that worked for me.
This is an amazingly comprehensive writeup! So in that vein, you might consider adding this. For the more complex callcenter systems, i enter all of the numbers required to get me to a rep. This not only saves time but it also makes me much more willing to call and research stuff. Here are the numbers and pauses (commas) for iphone, I am sure android would be something similar. 1 (800) 874-8875,,1,,,,,,,,,1,,9301704xx,,,,,1,,,,,,4
Hope that helps!
Just got back from a round trip to Italy on Turkish business class that I booked last December during their 30% off promotion. Round trip to Europe in lie flat for 63k is a steal! No major issues booking, but the wait times can be killer.
Nick, I’m not sure how to tell if a flight is a saver award or not on United’s website. Sometimes above the fare amount, “saver” is written clearly….and sometimes it says nothing at all…even though it may still be a saver fare!!!
I just booked Seattle-Istanbul on Turkish (yes fuel/taxes were steep) in business class for 45k each way. (That’s the saver price.) But on UAL’s website, it’s not specifically stated as “saver”. I just noodled it out based on the price being in GREEN, and stated as “lowest”.
What’s up UAL??? How do we know if a flight is a saver award if “saver” is not written in the fare box???
BTW, since I have the citi Rewards plus card, the flight before taxes/fees was only 81K round trip. $387 in taxes/fees. Still a good deal I thought.
In fact, searching on multiple domestic routes over multiple dates, I only saw “saver” in economy….not in business. Turkish Airlines does indeed “see” the saver awards that are written in the UAL fare box.
Any partner space is saver space by definition. Partners only release “saver” level space to other partners. So anything you see at United.com on Turkish, Lufthansa, ANA, or whatever Star Alliance carrier should be available to Turkish and to all other Star Alliance carriers.
Where “saver” space comes into play is for flights on United metal. Only the ones labeled “saver” are available to partners. In other words, if you want to book a United flight with your Air Canada miles or Singapore miles or Turkish miles or whatever, the United flight has to be labeled “saver”.
The reason you only see saver in economy and not in business is because United is *that stingy* — they rarely release saver space in domestic business class these days. Like not a single day over the next year on most routes I’ve checked via SeatSpy. Not one seat on any day.
Thanks. Now I get it. You the man.
maybe i’m doing something wrong, but i checked for a 3 week span in 2023 from ORD-OGG and could not find 1 flight available, though on United.com it shows them.
You should check out seatspy. Not 100% on point, but probably the best tool for quickly finding UA saver space. It looks like ORD-OGG is available on most Mondays in early 2023. I did that to use some orphaned ANA miles to book 5 seats (economy) to OGG through DEN for the kids spring break next April.
Last week I did a Citi to Turkish point transfer. Instant. YMMV.
I am interested in booking a multi-city award itinerary on TK — using TK miles, all flights are on TK metal: North America > IST (stopover in IST for N days) then continuing on TK from IST to another regional destination, finally returning from there to IST to North America (origin and return destination are the same). It’s a fairly straightforward, rational routing A to B to C (where B=IST), with a multi-day stopover in IST on the outbound, returning C to B (no stopover) to A. Out and back, with a stopover in IST on the outbound.
I have a TK M&M account, I am able to log in on TK.com. I can find availability there for all the individual legs I want: I see availability for the longhaul outbound and return flights. I see availability for the regional flights from IST out and back to IST.
If I look on United.com, I can see the multicity award option and can put this together (although I do not see all the inventory availability that I see on turkishairlines.com). But I don’t want to book it on united.com, I want to book it on turkishairlines.com, using TK miles.
I am looking all over the TK website for some “multi-city” option, and I do see that option for PAID tickets. As soon as I tick the checkbox for “Award ticket – Buy a ticket with Miles” it kicks me over to the award ticket page, where I can only book one-way flights. There is no option for Multi-City awards (there isn’t even an option to book round-trip), just one-way. I’ve tried multiple browsers, all behave the same.
What’s up with that (other than their website sucks)?
Is there no option to book multi-city award flights (or even round-trip award flights) on TK.com?
Thank you for this amazing guide it really helps. I just have one question, when I find a flight on United.com for an x amount of points. When I call Turkish to book it they will charge me that x amount of they will charge me the 32k point to Middle East ?
TIA
For the last week I’ve been trying to reserve IAD-Bodrum on Turkish metal and am getting a price of 115,000 miles for business. There are plenty of award seats available. Changing the itinerary to IAD-IST quoted the same 115K. Has there been a huge devaluation on Turkish miles lately?
Nope, no devaluation at all. That’s just the non-saver award price. Almost all programs have a saver price with limited inventory (especially at peak travel times) and then “anytime” type of awards for a lot more miles. 115K is the “anytime” / non-saver price from the US to Europe.
I was looking at flights just last night between the US and Europe that were available at the 45K saver level. It’s just a matter of availability. If you’re looking at prices for summer travel, summer availability, especially departing the US, has been tight across the board with various airlines based on my recent searches.
Data points…
Fri – 3/18
Fri – 3/25
Sat – 3/26
Sun – 3/27
OMG – I haven’t wanted to go on a trip that bad yet ;0
Probably a noob question, but I hope that someone can help. In my united.com account, there is a section for me to enter my frequent flyer account numbers. For my Miles and Smiles account, do I need to enter TK before the string of numbers? Thanks.
Nope – no “TK”.
Thanks for the great guide.
I was able to put a hold on CDG-IST-SFO through the phone. The agent correctly identified all three options for CDG-IST (16:15, 15:45, 19:35) and allowed me to hold the 16:15 flight (longest possible connection time) with the IST-SFO flight operated on the following calendar day.
The call took about 20 minutes, including spelling out 2 names, birthdates, email addresses, etc. The agent was very competent and helpful.
He said my award reservation is on hold for 72 hours, but I’m planning to ticket as soon as my TYP transfer (I definitely don’t want to test that time limit!).
I wanted to share my experience since it seems like phone agents have more flexibility now. Fingers crossed that’s the case!
P.S. I do see the reservation/award hold under “my flights” on the TK website. It also states I have “2 days and 23 hours until final payment date” in addition to showing the “Pay and fly until Sunday, January 16, 2022 08:55PM (Paris local time).
There’s a button for “Manage this booking” and one for “Pay and fly.” Neither works, unfortunately (nothing happens when l click on it).
I’m well aware I got lucky with a good agent who was able to help me, and I hope I don’t need to cancel or make any changes to this reservation (the other comments on here are painful to read).
Maybe my positive experience is because it’s all TK-operated flights? Either way, I’m looking forward to my first flights with them.
[…] Booking tips can be found in Frequent Miler’s Turkish guide. […]
[…] United awards can be found using Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles (warning: Turkish can be persnickety to deal with), ANA (round-trip awards only), or Air Canada […]
For an itinerary originating in Turkey I was only given a hold time of 6 hours. 🙁
Any pointers if they will be able to add a UA segment after the transatlantic TK flight?
[…] is a mammoth Frequent Miler’s guide to everything Turkish (airline, that […]
[…] hear your rebuttal, and yes, the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program has some sweet-spots and Citi Thank You Points are uniquely positioned to take advantage of that; but booking Turkish […]
Heads up: I’m on day 5 of my attempt to transfer from Citi ThankYou points to Turkish. Started Saturday 6/19 and nothing has happened other than they’ve deducted it from my Citi account. Called Citi ThankYou desk and they said “3-5 business days” and refused to look into it until the sixth business day after the transfer was initiated. HUCA yielded the same indifference. Of course, their T&C says that most Turkish transfers get done with 24 hours but it can take up to five days.
Now 10 days with no sign of my points at Turkish. Citi started a “case” and told me it takes 5 more days to investigate.
Did you get your points?
great guide! Applying for a Citi TY Premier card through the FM link. 2nd card going through you guys.
Hi,
so I remember reading a story about Turkish airlines that made me attempt to open a Turkish airline account. The story did say that I would likely have problems. I definitely had problems. I cannot remember the reason right now why the story made me want to open the account, but it may have been because of transfer availability. I looked diligently through past stories, but to no avail.
My focus now is on the Maldives because I have several certificates from Marriott. The problem is finding the best possible award ticket. I have points all over the place. I have MR, UR, AA, Delta, and some other randoms. Is there any suggestion you can make, or offer toward this goal?
Also, if Turkish happens to fall in there, do I need to call in order to get an account set up with them?
You can’t book a ticket via email. The only office that even has a reservation email address is LAX, and their response: “Please call 1800 874 8875 to book and purchase your award tickets.” I tried it twice. Not sure why they have a reservation email if you can reserve tickets???
[…] if you generally fly domestically, Turkish Airlines might be your best option. The carrier partners with United Airlines, which means you can redeem Turkish miles for a one-way […]
[…] if you generally fly domestically, Turkish Airlines might be your best option. The carrier partners with United Airlines, which means you can redeem Turkish miles for a one-way […]
[…] if you generally fly domestically, Turkish Airlines might be your best option. The carrier partners with United Airlines, which means you can redeem Turkish miles for a one-way […]
[…] if you generally fly domestically, Turkish Airlines might be your best option. The carrier partners with United Airlines, which means you can redeem Turkish miles for a one-way […]
[…] in case you typically fly domestically, Turkish Airways could be the best choice. The provider companions with United Airways, which suggests you may redeem Turkish miles for a […]
[…] in the event you usually fly domestically, Turkish Airways may be the best choice. The service companions with United Airways, which suggests you’ll be able to redeem Turkish […]
[…] when you usually fly domestically, Turkish Airways could be the best choice. The provider companions with United Airways, which suggests you may redeem Turkish miles for a […]
[…] if you generally fly domestically, Turkish Airlines might be your best option. The carrier partners with United Airlines, which means you can redeem Turkish miles for a one-way […]
[…] if you generally fly domestically, Turkish Airlines might be your best option. The carrier partners with United Airlines, which means you can redeem Turkish miles for a one-way […]
Thank you for the comprehensive guide. I am hoping you can help me navigate my experience. I booked United flights with Turkish Miles for 12/16/21. I now have flights showing for 12/16/2021 AND 11/16/2021. They only took out points for one date and I have no idea where the November flights came from. When I called they told me not to worrry about it? Also, how can I choose seats for these flights? I have a Turkish booking reference but cannot find how to convert this to a United unmber and select seats. We are a family of 5 and need the kids near us, I am always fine with paying to choose the seats. The Turkist website is so sketchy and I have spent nearly a dozen hours on the phone with various Turkish agents trying to book and correct this so I am quite nervous there will be a problem with seats/departure. Thank you for your insight!
What is “China Taipei”? You mean “Taipei, Taiwan”?
I just copied their region definition. I haven’t tried to book it, but I certainly assume it refers to Taiwan as a whole and that Turkish wrote their region definitions in a way meant to preserve their business interests. You may remember a big kerfuffle that Marriott had with the People’s Republic of China over a tweet referencing Taiwan and that Marriott was as a result not allowed to take bookings in China for a couple of weeks. Travel providers are often careful to toe a fine line there. I just copied and pasted their region definitions – certainly didn’t mean my copy and paste to be a political statement there.
I commented when you first put this post up about my EWR-TLV experience suggesting that there needs to be a huge asterisk that booking TK should be for experts only and even then I would think twice. I had another experience recently that underscores this. Honestly, as tempting as the sweet spots are, I really think everyone needs to proceed with extreme caution when attempting to redeem with TK.
My recent experience was booking EWR-HNL many months ago, a huge value at 12.5k miles in business. This booking has lead to literally hours of pain and suffering with TK.
tl;dr – their redemption rates are very tempting, but if you need to have ANY interaction with TK, it can be extremely painful and cause hours of work. Proceed with extreme caution.
That definitely absolutely completely stinks.
What particularly stinks (and I know this from experience also) is that if not for a pandemic that has thrown travel up in the air, you probably would have traveled to Hawaii and been thrilled with it. When things go wrong, it’s not always pretty with any program. Avianca and Iberia as a couple of examples don’t have much better customer service reputations, Air Canada only this week agreed to give refunds to people over COVID cancellations last year, and I’ve heard more horror stories than I can count about people who spent hours and hours on the phone with Chase Ultimate Rewards over refunds / vouchers / etc for cancelled travel. The past year and change has been especially awful for both unexpected changes from a scheduling perspective and customer service from just about everyone in the travel industry and I’m not sure that I can think of the airline, travel provider, or booking agency about whom I haven’t heard a horror story in the past 12 months.
None of that is to excuse the ridiculousness you experienced. Having to go to a ticketing office *in person* — and not once but twice — is ridiculous beyond compare. I don’t get that at all. That’s definitely not something I’ve heard of with any other airline (apart from years ago when Air France would lock accounts for doing too many award searches and make people show up to an airport ticket office in person to get it unlocked….thankfully, I think they ceased that a couple of years ago).
What really frustrates me is not understanding why the process is unpredictable from reservations through to cancellations. I was scheduled to fly the nonstop from EWR-HNL next week and then come back from LAX-EWR a week later. Like you, my EWR-HNL nonstop was cancelled by United and I was put on a EWR-LAX-HNL itinerary (and my LAX-EWR was scheduled changed by a few hours). I just now called to cancel before replying to your comment so I could see how it went for me. I initially had to hold a while to get an agent and then after he took my ticket number and put me on hold, he came back to say that he had to transfer me to a different department and he put me back on hold again while I waited for someone else to pick up. But that second agent was able to cancel all 3 passengers on both of my reservations (6 total tickets) and refund the miles and taxes without issue. Including hold time and doing the customer service survey at the end, my call was exactly 40 minutes and 0 seconds and the miles were back in my account immediately as he canceled each passenger (I kept logging out and back in while on the phone to see the miles from each cancellation returned). So before I hung up, I had all the miles back and I expect to get the taxes back (though at $5.60 per passenger, we’re only talking about $33 total).
Why was it simple for me and difficult for you? I have no more idea as to the answer there than to why some agents see the business class availability to Hawaii and others don’t. I booked one ticket via email and the other online myself, so I had booked via two different booking methods and both were canceled without issue. I wish I knew why some have difficulty.
I’m sorry you’ve had an awful experience with it and I hope to take a few more swings at it when I can get back to traveling to see if I can uncover any rhyme or reason to it all.
[…] spots in the Turkish award chart. You might want to read a series of excellent Frequent Miler’s posts if you want to learn […]
I am a member of Mile&smiles TK441653433
I want to up-grade my economy ticket however my transaction
cant get through ( hung ), I just want to buy more mile&miles point so
I cant un-grade my seat.
I try to call but also failed. I think there is some technical issue
of transaction for award miles.
3 of my creditcards has no problem if you think my card got an issue.
I can event buy ticket for friends at turkish airlines website.
My credit card is regular used.
I did all I can called turkish airlines, tried and tried again, and transaction on the phone, until I arrive at Turlish airline office in my Country. I was surprise they told me in Turkish airline office in Indonesia they cant help me to purchase point for miles.
Worse thing happen, as soon as I change my flight at the turkish airlines office, I am no longer able to change my flight online at turkish airlines website.
I also try to book my seat, I can get seat at my Departure flight, but on my return flight its said I need to paid. Ofcourse I refused. Just unfortunately I cant booked one way seat ( departure seat, because its become automaticly all my seat will be cancelled because I didnt booked the return seat ).
I am very up seat and dissapointed, never experiences such things.
[…] Award flights can be booked via email or over the phone per Frequent Miler […]
Diggin the sweet spots section, especially business class flights to Europe!
[…] least one reader was far overcharged on the cancellation fees despite protesting that program terms indicate a $25 cancellation […]
DEN-LIH went up from 7500 to 11500 one way today. I was able to book SFO-LIH for 7,500. The agent can’t see 7,500, so I had to book it online. I hope this is only a glitch, but I went ahead an book what I can, before it got worse, such as SFO-LIH 11,500 for all.
My recent experience was relatively painless, although not complete yet. I called on Aug 7 to put on hold two United flights (EWR-LAX, SFO-EWR) for two passengers in business class. The first agent couldn’t find award space and offered me Alaska Airlines seats instead. She also couldn’t quote miles required or taxes/fees and suggested I call Alaska Airlines (oy). I thanked her for her time, and called again. The second agent had no problem finding the space and putting the awards on hold. I got the email confirmation immediately. and then initiated a transfer of 50k miles from Citibank. Still waiting on the points to hit my M&S account (it’s been about 20 hours). I’ll update when ticketed. BTW, this is my first time booking with M&S.
Just ticketed the flights. The Citibank transfer was initiated Friday evening (around 10pm) and the miles were in my M&S account by Sunday morning 7am. During the call with the M&S agent, you are transferred to an automated system to submit your credit card info and M&S login info, so have both handy. Otherwise, pretty easy and not super time-consuming.
Hi 54Austin, the confirmation number you gave the agent when you were ready to book was the same as your United confirmation number?
No, but if I go to the UA website and enter the TK conf no, my flight will show (but with the UA conf no).
I know there are great sweet spots with TK, but I would recommend against using them for anyone but the most patient and knowledgeable mileage geeks, despite your very thorough guide. Dealing with TK is incredibly frustrating and requires many HUCA sessions and persistence. Pain points on my last booking (EWR-TLV rt booked in June):
After weeks of phone calls, I did find the needle in the haystack agent who was able to locate and book the flights. But I don’t know that I would do it again, the difference in miles is not worth it (often there are other sweet spots with ANA or AC that are slightly higher).
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting data point here. I’ll have to find something worth booking for next year so I can confirm whether or not I’m able to book for multiple passengers.
I wish I understood why some agents see things that others don’t — if we could only understand that, maybe it would be easier to lead an agent to finding availability.
Turkish is definitely a mixed bag. In your scenario, if you had gotten that last agent on the first call, I imagine your perspective would be very different. Wish I could figure out the pattern to be able to turn other agents into that agent.
Great guide, one recommendation is that you mention that it is best to avoid booking travel on star alliance carriers that impose high fuel surcharges. It would be good if you could link to a post that talks about approximate expected fuel surcharges on each star alliance carrier
It varies by route. Generally speaking with Star Alliance, the main concern is avoiding Lufthansa Group flights (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, Brussels).
1 – I wish cancelling an award ticket was only $25/ticket. I tried HUCA 4x and each time was told it was a $200 cancellation fee/ticket. I finally bargained them down to $150/ticket, stinks but better than $200.
2 – It’s been nearly 4 weeks since I cancelled, and I still don’t have the miles redeposited into my account. I cancelled a Hawaii trip 3 days before departure, playing chicken, hoping United would Cancel the flight, but low and behold the flights all departed on time. I was told the cancellation fee was due to the fact that I cancelled within 2 weeks but I could NOT find anywhere on Turkish site that specifically states this fee. Was told the reservations numbers don’t match and each time was told it would take 10-14 business days to redposit. Because the flights were changed 4x from Jan-July, they have tried each different reservation number to cancel and refund the miles.
But they had no problem posting the charge the day I paid for the cancellations fees….
1) It’s definitely $25 per ticket. I’ve done it, and the fee is right here on their website (see the section under “Using Awards”):
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-us/miles-and-smiles/awards/#:~:text=As%20a%20Miles%26Smiles%20member%20you,trip%20and%20one%2Dway%20flights.
Here’s the relevant quote from the Miles & Smiles terms and conditions:
Miles refund
It doesn’t make sense that there would be any negotiation — it’s right in the terms. I guess I’d recommend contacting Turkish again and filing a credit card dispute if they don’t refund you. Like I said, I’ve canceled — the fee was definitely $25 per passenger.
2) That really stinks and is totally opposite my experience. I literally canceled a flight, paid the $25 per passenger fee, and only after cancelling told the agent I had another itinerary on hold that I wanted to ticket using those miles. The miles had been immediately redeposited and I used them on the same call to book the new itinerary.
Any way you slice it, that doesn’t sound right.
You booked through Turkish and then called Turkish to cancel, right?
Hey Nick, thanks for getting back.
I referenced that sameTurkish URL numerous times, and each time they stated it was a $200/ticket fee. I thought about disputing the charge, but then possibly I’d be out 75K Turkish points. Not sure If I should try another agent or office, but the Boston office is the one I’ve been dealing with.
And yes, was booked via Turkish email and cancelled via numerous phone calls.
Either way, I’m stuck now trying to navigate getting the fee reduced/refunded and also receiving my points back. Going on 4 weeks….
That really stinks! I don’t know where they were getting $200 from. That just doesn’t make any sense with nowhere in the terms that states any fee like that. Even the no-show fee isn’t anywhere near that. Sorry to hear this.
Afternoon Nick – thought you might like another data point. I have spoken to ‘David’ the past month, and every time I call he tells me 5 more business days for the miles to be redeposited. Today I call and am told an add’l 20 days! I speak to a supervisor, ‘Sharon’, and she proceeds to tell me 30-50 business days. You can’t make this S$!T up.
I explained I paid the crazy $750 fee ($150/ticket) on July 15th and am entitled to a timely refund of my miles, she then explains ‘why would I need to use my miles now because of COVID-19…”
WOW – now they’re telling me I have no reason to use the miles now. This situation is nuts now.
Lies, lies and more lies. Contrary to everything I’ve heard about them with cancellations I’ve had the EXACT opposite experience. Now just waiting again…..stuck.
Just FYI for others who cancel Turkish awards…..
1. They have not responded to dozens of my emails since February. I wouldn’t even be recommending this.
2. Is book by phone possible now? In March it wasn’t. Did they upgrade their systems in the pandemic?
3. In my experience, their online shows a good amount of what United has but you can ONLY book for yourself, not others. Any insight on that?
1) Interesting data point. I’m not sure which of the ticket offices are or aren’t open right now.
2) I haven’t tried booking by phone during the pandemic. With March being the height of things closing down, I’d not be surprised if the situation were different now. The supposed system upgrade was pre-pandemic and we had successful reports of phone bookings after that.
3) I was unable to go through with an online booking for others when I was not traveling, but it let me go through to the booking page when I was listed as a traveler on the reservation. I’ve had no trouble booking for others without being a traveler on the reservation when booking for phone or email (I’ve booked for my wife and son and for a couple of family members). I don’t know why the online tool doesn’t seem to allow this.
Are the ticket offices open? I tried last week to ticket via email with Boston with no reply and yesterday with Atlanta? So should I try the phone option? Does it work right now? Last time they would not even try to book an award trip. Thanks
I’m not positive which ones are or aren’t open given the pandemic. I’d recommend calling if you’re not getting a response via email. I haven’t tried to book anything lately, I’ve just looked at availability now and then.
Just FYI I’ve called and emailed every single listed sales office in the last few days–no office picked up the phone, but I did receive emails back only from the Chicago and Boston offices.
This is a great guide. I have many Thank you points and many, many United miles due to being a Million Miler. I’m curious if my status would pass through so I could select Economy Plus seats. I guess I’d have to transfer some points and make a trial booking.
Not exactly “pass through”, but you can achieve what you want: Book the ticket through Turkish. Later, pull up the booking on United.com and change the frequent flyer number to your United number. Then you should be able to take advantage of your United status benefits like Economy Plus.
At least online, the TK frequent flyer number you use to book the tickets is locked in and cannot be changed (both on UA & TK). I haven’t tried calling UA or TK to change it, but you can only add UA numbers to additional travelers.
I found I was unable to do it that way. My current method is to book the ticket and later DM the Turkish FB team and have them add my United number to the ticket. It then shows up in the United app where I can re-select my seats in Economy Plus.
Also, United has Saver fares that only Chase card holders can see. Those aren’t likely to be seen by Turkish.