11 hours ago
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Turkish Miles&Smiles devalues award prices to Hawaii by 150%, bumps other domestic awards up by 50%
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Turkish Miles&Smiles has been a popular program for travelers to Hawaii. Award space has been notoriously difficult to find, even when using tools like Seats.aero. Still, redeeming 7,500 Turkish miles (or more recently, 10,000 Turkish miles) to fly one-way on United Airlines between the continental U.S. and Hawaii has been an award travel bucket list item.
Well, the airline just threw cold water on this bucket-list item and all other domestic Turkish Miles&Smiles awards operated by partner airlines. As first reported by Loyalty Lobby, Turkish Airlines published and implemented new domestic award charts for its partners (including Star Alliance airlines like United) on Dec. 3 without any advance notice to its members. To make matters worse, domestic award flights to or from Hawaii now carry a separate price from other domestic flights.
Below is an overview of the Dec. 3 changes.
Economy | 25,000 (previously 10,000) | 15,000 (previously 10,000) |
Business | 40,000 (previously 15,000) | 22,500 (previously 15,000) |
First | 50,000 (previously 20,000) | 30,000 (previously 20,000) |
These increases for award flights between the continental U.S. and Hawaii mean booking through another program will almost always make sense. This is especially true since these awards are not currently bookable through Turkish Miles&Smiles. After all, I haven't found any bookable award flights between the continental U.S. and Hawaii in the last few days, and Seats.aero currently shows no Turkish awards between North American destinations.
However, you may find instances where redeeming 15,000 miles for a one-way direct flight within a country could make sense. This might be a transcontinental United or Air Canada award, or perhaps a Thai Airways flight within Thailand.
Finally, it's worth noting that Turkish's region-to-region partner award charts and the award charts for Turkish-operated awards have remained intact. Especially after Turkish recently awarded millions of miles to those who completed its six continents challenge, many believed a devaluation would happen. Hopefully, the domestic award increases are the extent of the Miles&Smiles devaluations for now.
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Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
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