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.
Well, @Omar, the current Turkish regime is well-accustomed to inflation, so… up to 75% in May 2024, now around 30%, which is ‘not great, not terrible.’
Miles and Smiles was a nightmare to deal with. Adios!
Name one ME airline that has a decent rewards program left.
Turkish didn’t do anything – miles and points bloggers did it by tirelessly talking about it. And they will kill all other sweet spots too (and then conveniently complain that the airline or hotel did it). Wake up.
@DMoney — Corporate-shill, says what? No. These mostly-unregulated often-greedy companies are to blame, not bloggers or consumers. We’re plenty ‘awake’ already.
@1990, I don’t like Erdogan either, but a country should be able to identify its own name. The changed English spelling and pronunciation is official and is the way the name has been stated for about a century.
The Miles and Smiles program was nice while it lasted. For a program member there may still be wifi access benefits
@DaveS — No, in Turkish, it’s that, but, not in English, never was, still isn’t; this attempt at weaponizing language is new, and it’s very much by Erdogan. It’s a litmus test. Reject it.
Recall… Estados Unidos. Hellas. In those other languages it is that, but in English it’s United States, Greece, and it’s still very much… Turkey. So stop playing dumb; you knew better to begin with.
Lets do the false equivalences while we’re at it… like, this isn’t a shift due to independence, like Southern Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (1980), or Burma to Myanmar (1989), or Zaire to DRC, etc.
It was Erdogan’s attempt to further consolidate his own personal power through strong nationalistic rhetoric, during periods of economic instability and ahead of crucial elections; it was a calculated political and marketing operation, not for the benefit of the Turkish people, but for the benefit of the authoritarian himself.
Recall Turkey’s 2017 constitutional referendum, which passed with a narrow 51.4% “Yes” vote, fundamentally changed Turkey’s system of government from a parliamentary republic to an executive presidential system, severely weakening the separation of powers and accelerating Turkey’s transition toward a more authoritarian system. Beware of your (and others) attempts to diminish the significance of the name change and what’s going on in Turkey these days.
The Turkish people deserve better. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, and others like him, are probably a better alternative for the country, but Erdogan arrested him on fake charges earlier this year to stop him from running against him. Feels very Putin-Navalny to me.
And did anyone ever FIND space to Hawaii at those rates? I think not.
While the Miles & Smiles program may have had sweet spots in the past, and TK’s onboard service is good, their ground handling is amateurish. If anything goes wrong with your booked itinerary you are at the mercy of rude, incompetent agents who rely solely on 3rd World technology that requires agents to “call Istanbul” and wait for responses that can take several days. Even the on Airport staff in IST is untrained and often unprofessional.
“Lets do the false equivalences while we’re at it… like, this isn’t a shift due to independence, like Southern Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (1980), or Burma to Myanmar (1989), or Zaire to DRC, etc.”
I won’t comment on the other ones but the changing of the name from Burma to Myanmar was more about a repressive, murderous military regime (SLORC) changing the name to make themselves look better. The change was authoritarian and not democratic. Independence had came decades before so it was not really part of the reason to change the name at that time. The military continues to run the country, even during times of so called civilian governments. It also continues to slaughter minorities. Defenders of the Tatmadaw and governments controlled by Tatmadaw generals do not earn any respect in my opinion. I believe defending the name change is defending the military regimes.
Too much politics re airline devaluation. I have a lot of miles & I am not smiling. They had a good program and seem determined to wreck it. Don’t know why. Economic struggles at home?
“Recall… Estados Unidos. Hellas. In those other languages it is that, but in English it’s United States, Greece, and it’s still very much… Turkey.”
Estados Unidos by itself is ambiguous and to say that it only means United States as in the United States of America is both ignorant and arrogant. There was/is Estados Unidos de Centroamérica, Estados Unidos do Brasil, Estados Unidos de Colombia, Estados Unidos de Venezuela, and Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
@jns — When writing that earlier, I fully expected someone like you to do the ‘umm ackchually’ and bring up United States of Mexico, etc., but, like, c’mon, when people say United States, even Estados Unidos, they’re mostly referring to the USA, not Mexico, etc. Get real.
On Myanmar, oh, yeah, totally, screw the military junta. Free democratically-elected Aung San Suu Kyi, and stop the civil war. I feel for the Burmese people.
I’m keeping my elite plus status with TK because it’s still the easiest to maintain (valid 2 years and low mileage requirement). Star Gold benefits are awesome especially with United clubs (no access with UA *G). And I still manage to use my upgrade vouchers even though they made it really difficult. So basically I think Miles&Smiles is still the best Star Alliance FF program
@1990 Also, their government really should recognize the horrors of what they did to Greeks and Armenians in the 1910s and 1920s.
I applaud you, sir. Thank you for saying this.
Called TK today, told me them to delete my account. Do not care that I lose unused miles or TK Elite status. Not giving them even one more dollar.
@Karo — More people should say it.
@John Doe — Good choice, sir.