When it comes to the number of destinations served, Turkish Airlines is one of the largest airlines in the world, serving nearly 300 destinations across Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas. A member of Star Alliance, it has two dozen airline partners, and you can transfer miles from three major card issuers, so there’s plenty of opportunity to redeem points.
This guide will walk you through the steps and strategies to effectively redeem Turkish miles, whether you’re using your Miles&Smiles rewards to book award space directly or using partner airlines’ miles for your Turkish Airlines tickets.
About Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
The Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles program is a comprehensive loyalty scheme designed to reward frequent travelers with a plethora of benefits. As a member, you can earn miles flying with Turkish Airlines and its Star Alliance partners, staying at partner hotels, renting cars, and making purchases with affiliated credit cards.
How to earn Turkish Airlines miles
Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles offers a wealth of opportunities for travelers looking to rack up the rewards.
Flying
The easiest way to earn Turkish Airlines miles is by flying Turkish Airlines or one of its 25 Star Alliance partners:
- Aegean
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- All Nippon Airways (ANA)
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- Egyptair
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- SWISS
- TAP Air Portugal
- Thai Airways
- United Airlines
Outside of Star Alliance, Turkish also partners with Azul Brazilian Airlines, Indigo Airways, Olympic Air, and GOL Airlines.
Credit card
The Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Premier Visa Signature credit card may not be a familiar name stateside, but it is available to U.S. residents.
Cardholders earn three miles per $1 spent on eligible purchases with Turkish Airlines, two miles per $1 spent on dining, groceries, entertainment, and lodging, and one mile per $1 spent elsewhere. As a welcome bonus, new members can even earn 40,000 bonus miles after meeting a minimum spending requirement within 90 days of account opening.
Transfer partners
Still, you don’t need a co-branded card to earn Turkish miles for award tickets. Thanks to partnerships with flexible point currencies Bilt Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou points, you can easily convert your points to miles. Each of these currencies transfers over to Turkish Airlines at a 1:1 ratio.
Hotels and rental cars
Turkish Airlines has partnerships with a number of different hotel and rental car companies, allowing you to earn Turkish miles on your bookings.
The fare types available on Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines has two fare classes, economy, and business. Economy is broken down into three categories:
- EcoFly: With the most budget-friendly option, travelers are permitted 15kg (33 pounds) of checked baggage and 8kg (18 pounds) of cabin baggage.
- ExtraFly: Passengers at the next level up can select their own seats, travel with 20kg (44 pounds) of checked baggage and 8kg cabin baggage, and receive an extra 250 miles.
- PrimeFly: Offering more flexibility, PrimeFly fares come with standard seat selection, free refunds, and ticket reissue up to an hour before departure and an extra 500 miles. Travelers can carry 25kg (55 pounds) of checked baggage and 8kg cabin baggage free of charge.
In business class, passengers get all the perks — lie-flat seats, high-quality meals served on porcelain dinnerware, complimentary Ferragamo travel sets, and Denon noise-canceling headphones, as well as preferential check-in, an extra luggage allowance with priority collection at baggage claim, and even more miles earned on travel.
Note that the cabin types you’ll find onboard are going to vary based on where you’re flying; some aircraft are more updated than others.
How to book Turkish Airlines flights using rewards points
Interestingly, using Turkish Airlines miles for Turkish Airlines award flights isn’t the best way to book. This is due in large part to Turkish Airlines’ recent devaluation of its Miles&Smiles program. Instead, you’ll want to rely on one of Turkish Airlines Star Alliance partners to book your flights.
This isn’t something you need to know off the top of your head — with point.me, you can search for the Turkish Airlines award flights you want and automatically see the best ways to book.
Booking Turkish Airlines business class flights with miles
While it’s possible to snag award space in economy, Turkish Airlines has an incredible business class experience; Baklava at 30,000 feet, anyone? So, if you’re looking to book with miles, leveling up is the way to go.
Here’s an example of a one-way flight from Denver (DEN) to Istanbul (IST) with Air Canada Aeroplan, a Star Alliance partner. As you can see, Air Canada is going to charge you 90,000 Aeroplan points to book a business-class seat.
But when you click over to point.me and check your options, you’ll see that the exact same flight is also bookable via SAS — for just 78,000 miles.
Rather than spending all your time researching various award charts and transfer partners, let point.me do the heavy lifting — with the click of a button, you’ll be able to tell easily when and how to redeem your miles for maximum value.
How to redeem Turkish Airlines miles to get the best deal
Despite Turkish’s recent devaluation of award tickets, it’s still possible to find good — and cheap — award space. The key is broadening your scope: To score the best deals, you’ll want to search for Star Alliance award availability and book on the Turkish Airlines website (or just cut to the chase and let point.me handle the details for you).
Booking a Turkish Airlines partner flight with miles
Booking United Airlines flights from the continental U.S. to Hawaii with Turkish Airlines miles is perhaps the best example of this. United charges 25,000 miles one way for this particular award ticket, but you’ll pay just 10,000 miles for the same fare via Turkish Airlines — meaning you’ll be getting more than half off by booking through Turkish.
As a member of Star Alliance, Turkish has 25 partners you can tap to find similar deals, as well as four non-alliance affiliations.
More ways to redeem Turkish Airlines miles
You aren’t limited to booking award flights when looking to use your Turkish Airlines miles, whether it’s on Turkish Airlines–operated flights or a partner airline. You have options — just know that none of them are as good as choosing to redeem miles for an award ticket.
The worst ways to redeem Turkish Airlines miles
The following redemptions are generally only recommended if you’ve got a ton of miles about to expire and you can’t travel. Otherwise, flights will always provide the best value for your miles.
- Online shopping
- Gift cards
- Cash and miles bookings
- Flight upgrades
- Credit-card statement credits
- Lounge access
- Seat selection
- Freezing the price of a flight
Tips for finding Turkish Airlines award seats
No matter which frequent flyer programs you’re using, it’s a great time to be flying with Turkish Airlines in both economy and business class. But Turkish Airlines tends to be stingy with award space and only releases seats when it’s sure it won’t be able to sell them for cash, so you’ll find better award availability if you don’t mind waiting until the last minute.
In general, that kind of flexibility is key to finding award seats on any airline, because award availability isn’t static — airlines release space sporadically, and new seats pop up regularly. If you’re locked into a single travel date, it narrows down your options and makes it exponentially more difficult to find award space.
You may also want to consider traveling during the shoulder season or off season, especially if you’re looking for business-class space. Demand isn’t as high then, so you should be able to find seats more easily.
But our top tip for finding a Turkish Airlines award ticket is to use point.me. This is because availability can be hard to find, especially on sought-after routes. point.me saves you the effort of searching manually on multiple websites for Turkish Airlines flights.
Instead, you’ll simply put in your travel dates and where you’re flying, and point.me will give you the results hassle-free. Even better, we’ll let you know the best way to redeem miles so you can save as many of your rewards as possible.
Frequently asked questions about booking Turkish Airlines flights with miles
What are Turkish Airlines’ airline partners?
In total, Turkish Airlines has 29 partner airlines:
- Aegean
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- ANA
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian
- Avianca
- Azul Brazilian Airlines
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- Egyptair
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- GOL Airlines
- Indigo Airways
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Olympic Air
- SAS
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- SWISS
- TAP Air Portugal
- Thai Airways
- United Airlines
What are Turkish Airlines’ transfer partners?
Turkish Airlines has three transfer partners that allow you to convert your credit card points to Turkish Airlines miles:
- Bilt Rewards
- Citi ThankYou points
- Capital One Miles
What are Turkish Airlines’ tier status levels?
Turkish Airlines has four levels of elite status:
- Classic: Earn 1,000 welcome miles after the first flight and additional miles with Turkish Airlines, Star Alliance partners, and Miles&Smiles credit-card transactions. Award tickets and cabin upgrades are available.
- Classic Plus: Activated above 25,000 Status Miles or on 40 flights. Benefits include Classic and Star Alliance Silver privileges, CIP lounge access and check-in at business-class counters for domestic flights, and additional baggage allowance on some flights.
- Elite: Activated at 40,000 Status Miles. Benefits include Classic Plus and Star Alliance Gold privileges, access to CIP lounges on Turkish Airlines domestic and international flights, private telephone helpline, free standard seat selection for Turkish Airlines flights, additional baggage allowance, and access to special passport desk and entrance at Istanbul Airport International Arrivals Terminal.
- Elite Plus: Activated at 80,000 Status Miles. Benefits include Elite privileges and gifts for three people, guaranteed seats on certain cabin classes, two free cabin upgrades on Turkish Airlines flights, and additional baggage allowance.
How do I earn miles with Turkish Airlines?
There are a few ways to earn miles with Turkish Airlines, including credit card spending, flights, transfer partners, rental cars, and hotel bookings.
How do I redeem miles with Turkish Airlines?
You can redeem miles for an award ticket via the Turkish Airlines website.
How many Turkish Airlines miles do I need for a free flight?
The number of miles you’ll need for an award ticket depends on where you’re flying. For example, one-way flights throughout the United States cost just 10,000 miles.
Can I book Turkish Airlines flights with United miles?
Yes, you can use your United miles to book Turkish Airlines flights by searching on the United website.
Can I book Turkish Airlines flights with KrisFlyer miles?
Yes, because Singapore Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, you can book Turkish Airlines flights using your Krisflyer miles on the Singapore Airlines website.
Can I use SkyMiles on Turkish Airlines?
No, you cannot use Delta SkyMiles to book with Turkish Airlines.
Can I use Amex points on Turkish Airlines?
The only way to use your Amex points for a Turkish flight is to book through the Amex Travel portal. You can also transfer to a Star Alliance partner, such as ANA, and book Turkish Airlines through there.
Can I transfer Chase points to Turkish Airlines?
No, you cannot transfer Chase points to Turkish Airlines.
Do Turkish Airlines miles expire?
Yes, Turkish Airlines miles expire three years after you’ve earned them.
Can I transfer or gift my Turkish Airlines miles to someone else?
Yes, you can transfer your Turkish miles to anyone you like.
Can I book a flight for someone else with my Turkish Airlines miles?
Yes, you can book a flight for someone else with your miles, though you may need to call rather than use the Turkish website.
Can I book a Turkish Airlines flight using a combination of miles and cash?
Yes, Turkish allows you to redeem your miles for a cash-plus-miles booking.
Getting started on point.me
The flexibility provided by the Miles&Smiles program, combined with Turkish’s extensive network of Star Alliance partners, ensures that members have numerous options for exploring the world while maximizing their rewards. Still, it can be difficult to know exactly how and when to leverage your miles. Rather than sifting through 10 different websites and 20 different airline programs to figure out award travel, we’ll do the work for you. All you need is your dates, your airports, and who’s traveling and where, and our real-time search and booking engine handles the rest. Try it for free today.
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