Turkish Airlines devalued the Miles & Smiles frequent flyer program in February of last year, eliminating the best sweet spots of the program.
It used to be possible to book United domestic flights (including to Hawaii) for 7,500 miles each way in coach, or 12,500 miles each way in business class. That went up to 10,000 and 15,000 miles.
Now those and other awards are being gutted again.
- Domestic coach awards on Star Alliance airlines go from 10,000 to 15,000 each way – but Mainland U.S. – Hawaii goes to 25,000.
- Domestic business awards go from 15,000 to 22,500 each way – but Mainland U.S. – Hawaii goes to 40,000.
That’s the end of Turkish sweet spots on United. In under two years, roundtrip first class Hawaii awards on United go from 25,000 miles to 80,000 miles.
Turkish is a transfer partner of Citi, Capital One and Bilt. I suppose the primary reason to transfer to Turkish now is just for booking Turkish itself for availability not offered to partners with the caveat that fuel surcharges do apply.
I like their ‘new’ IST airport and the food on-board, but, I’m no fan of Erdogan’s regime, so I honestly would not trust them with future business, especially not using their program for redemptions. And, thank you, Gary, for not appeasing that dictator with his silly re-naming of their country. It’s still, and will always be, “Turkey” in English. Also, their government really should recognize the horrors of what they did to Greeks and Armenians in the 1910s and 1920s.
The 1 million mile promo plus 50% citi bonus is probably what did this in.