Turkish Airlines’ frequent flyer program is called Miles & Smiles. It has long received very little attention, and honestly there is not much that stands out—except for one thing! In this post, we’ll uncover the mystery behind this sweet spot. PS: Since the overall appeal is limited, I’ll only cover the highest-value parts.

Introduction

Turkish Airlines belongs to Star Alliance. The most common time you’ll see its award space is when using United’s mileage search engine to look for tickets to Europe.

Its frequent flyer program has rarely been discussed or paid attention to. In my view, the main reasons are that miles are hard to earn, there are not many standout features, the online award search engine is weak, and in the past you could only book award tickets by email or at an airport ticket office...

But it is now 2020, and the program has improved in many ways. For example, the website can now search and issue one-way/round-trip award tickets, Citi Thank You Point points can be transferred to the program, and most importantly for this post: you can fly within the U.S. for 7,500 miles!

Within North America

Miles required one-way:

  • Within the U.S.: economy 7,500, business 12,500
  • U.S.–Canada: economy 10,000, business 15,000
  • U.S.–Mexico: economy 10,000, business 15,000
  • Within Canada: economy 7,500, business 12,500
  • Canada–Mexico: economy 10,000, business 15,000

Round-trip is simply one-way x2. Isn’t this a great redemption? With UA’s own miles, 12,500 would not even be enough for a one-way economy ticket.

Although Turkish Airlines’ award chart shows all intra-North America awards as 7,500–12,500, in practice cross-border North America bookings price at 10,000–15,000, whether online or by phone.

Within North America, Star Alliance has only two airlines: UA United Airlines and AC Air Canada. TK can book both, but booking UA is better than booking AC because of YQ:

When the mileage requirement is the same, UA awards within the U.S. and between the U.S. and Canada are only $5.6. AC awards are $60+ within Canada and $20+ between the U.S. and Canada, which is still quite a big difference.

And now... here comes the key point of all key points...

  • Alaska and Hawaii are both considered within North America, and both are treated as domestic U.S. redemptions!

For Turkish Airlines award tickets, the change fee before check-in is $25 per ticket. After check-in / no-show, the fee is $50, but the miles can be redeposited back into your account.

Redemptions Within the U.S.

Let’s look at how to play this within the U.S.

First, let’s look at the U.S. East Coast and West Coast. SFO-EWR is easy to book, with plenty of flights.

Once you’re on the East Coast and want to experience some hot Pacific island vibes, let’s go to Hawaii! EWR-HNL, here we go!

Don’t want to see islands? Fine, let’s go see the northern lights in Alaska in winter! EWR-ANC.

Now let’s look at UA’s home base ORD. ORD-HNL also has plenty of award space.

If even EWR to Hawaii for 7,500 miles is no problem, then LAX is naturally even easier.

Flying from Florida to Hawaii can be a bit more of a hassle, but it is still possible! However, the mileage shown online may not be 7,500. You can call customer service, and it should still price at 7,500.

Redemptions Within North America

Don’t want to stay in the U.S.? Want to leave the country? No problem!

Go sit in a U.S. low-cost carrier’s big recliner-style business class seat and eat a taco in Mexico City for only 15,000 miles: EWR-MEX.

Business class award space between the U.S. and Mexico is also plentiful.

Visiting a friend in Vancouver? This screenshot also shows the taxes and fees for U.S.–Canada economy.

Business class award space between the U.S. and Canada is still plentiful too, so I won’t include more screenshots. Two airlines offer it.

Friends in Canada, now it’s your turn. Come take a look:

I also want to eat tacos, I also want to go to Pacific islands, and I also want to visit classmates and have fun!

However, departures from Canada basically tend to have high YQ.

YVR-MEX

There are also high-YQ options, but they may still be cheaper than paying cash.

YYZ-HNL

Here is another ticket within Canada.

YVR-YYZ

Redemptions Within Mainland China

This is also a sweet spot!

Here are two examples: PEK-URC and PEK-CAN.

How to Redeem

Online Redemption

TK’s website is now pretty decent. You can search for and issue tickets directly, but it has the following characteristics:

  • New accounts cannot immediately issue tickets for other people — phone booking can get around this, and even putting a ticket on hold by phone seems to lift the restriction
  • Online bookings cannot be held for later payment
  • For tickets within the U.S., if the connection time is too long, prices higher than 7,500 may appear, such as 11,500 or 15,000. This generally happens on itineraries with very long connections, and I haven’t figured out the exact pattern yet. Calling to book can get around it, and it will still be 7,500

Now let’s look at what the steps are like.

  • Find Star Alliance award ticket, then click Book now to search for awards
  • That’s it!
  • If you want to add travel companions, add them under My companions in My personal details

Ticketing by Phone

Ticketing by phone is not too cumbersome either. The agents’ English is generally okay, though their competence can be somewhat inconsistent. Providing names is definitely more complicated and more prone to errors than booking directly online.

The ticketing phone number is 800-874-8875.

  • Phone booking can get around the restriction on new accounts issuing tickets for other people
  • Phone booking can ensure that awards within a single country price at the 7,500 and 12,500 levels
  • You can hold a ticket for 48 hours or even longer without having miles in your account, then call back to pay after the miles arrive
  • For phone-issued bookings on hold, the remaining payment time shown in your account is inaccurate and jumps around...
  • Turkish Airlines agents call held tickets “option” tickets

Sources of Miles

  • TK miles can be transferred from Citi’s TYP program at a 1,000:1,000 ratio. Transfers generally are not instant, and posting time may vary between one and two days.
  • You can also transfer from Marriott, but it is not a great deal. The ratio is 3:1, and for every 60,000 Marriott points transferred, you get an extra 5,000 airline miles.

Summary

This sweet spot is so good that even economy is hard to complain about, especially with nonstop options available! And if business class space is available, that is very cheap too!

Go ahead and open the page to sign up!

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