There’s bad news for those with a large balance in the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles programme this week, with the Star Alliance carrier rolling out a very short notice and very significant devaluation to its award charts.

The airline first advised members about this change by email at about 9pm Istanbul time on 8th February 2024, and the new award rates kick in only six days later, from 15th February 2024 (presumably at 0.00am Istanbul time).

That leaves members precious little time to redeem at current award rates, though that’s definitely a strategy you should try to employ if you’re in this boat, since the new rates mean parting with significantly more miles for an award ticket.

You’ll therefore need to lock in an award ticket for travel over the next year by 11.59pm on Wednesday 14th February 2024 Istanbul Time, which is 4.59am on Thursday 15th February 2024 Singapore Time, in order to take advantage of the current rates.

New award rates

Here’s how the new award rates for redeeming Miles&Smiles miles on Turkish Airlines flights look compared to the current rates, for travel to or from Turkey.

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
Promotional Award Rates
(one-way)

Turkey to / from	Economy	Chg.	Business	Chg.
Turkey	3,800 4,500	18%	6,300 10,000	59%
Europe 1	7,500 10,000	33%	11,300 20,000	77%
Europe 2	10,000 15,000	50%	15,000 25,000	67%
C Asia	15,000 20,000	33%	25,000 35,000	40%
Middle East	12,500 18,000	44%	17,500 28,000	60%
N Africa	15,000 20,000	33%	25,000 40,000	60%
C Africa	20,000 25,000	25%	40,000 60,000	50%
S Africa	30,000 35,000	17%	55,000 75,000	36%
Far East	30,000 35,000	17%	45,000 65,000	44%
N America	30,000 40,000	33%	45,000 65,000	44%
S America	40,000 50,000	25%	55,000 75,000	36%
Oceania	40,000 50,000	25%	55,000 75,000	36%

This reflects award rate increases of between 17% and 77%, depending on your cabin class and routing.

For a Singapore – Istanbul promo award ticket in Business Class, the increase from 45,000 miles to 65,000 miles is a 44% increase.

You can see which countries are in each of the award chart’s zones below (click to expand):

Worse news – additive segment pricing

The devaluation is something of a “double whammy”. Turkish isn’t just increasing miles rates payable for trips between Turkey and its international destinations, but is also going to implement “additive” award pricing on a sector-by-sector basis, a similar policy already used in the British Airways Avios programme.

The new award chart therefore only has a to/from Turkey table – if like most of our readers you’re merely transiting at the carrier’s Istanbul hub, you’ll pay two separate award rates added together for the two legs of your trip.

Here’s an example the airline provides for this new pricing structure, for a one-way Promo Economy Class award from Dubai to London via Istanbul, a routing that currently prices at 17,000 miles, but will soon cost 33,000 miles (a 94% increase).

For a Singapore – London award in Business Class, this takes the current award rate of 45,000 miles not just to 65,000 miles (the new Far East – Turkey rate), but to 90,000 miles, because you’ll have to pay the Turkey – Europe 2 award rate for the second sector of the journey as follows:

This is double the current award rate (100% increase), decimating this cheap redemption option to Europe, especially when you consider that Miles&Smiles adds significant fuel surcharges to award tickets, a policy which looks unlikely to change from 15th February onwards.

If you are redeeming a Turkish Airlines flight from overseas to Turkey, with a destination in Turkey other than Istanbul as your final destination, you’ll pay an additional fee for the domestic flight as follows:

• Economy Class: 2,000 miles for a promotional award ticket or 4,000 miles for a guaranteed seat award ticket
• Business Class: 5,000 miles for a promotional award ticket or 7,000 miles for a guaranteed seat award ticket

For example, on a Business Class promo award routing like Singapore – Istanbul – Bodrum, the award rate will be 70,000 miles (65,000 miles SIN-IST + 5,000 miles IST-BJV).

Other currently-great rates when redeeming Turkish Airlines flights with Miles&Smiles miles include Asia to North America for 67,500 miles in Business Class – that’s changing to 130,000 miles (a 93% increase) and Asia to South America for 75,000 miles in Business Class – hiking to 140,000 miles (an 87% increase).

Even Economy Class awards used to be worth considering with this programme, with a Singapore – Istanbul – London redemption in this cabin coming in at 30,000 miles, but that will increase to 50,000 miles from 15th February – 67% more.

Star Alliance awards also increasing

Miles&Smiles is also increasing its award rates when you redeem for Star Alliance and partner flights using the programme.

In this case the airline is retaining its zone-based award chart, which currently displays round-trip award rates, as shown below.

The new chart, effective from 15th February 2024, now displays one-way award rates, as shown below.

The same hefty increases are felt here, and remember the old chart is showing round-trip rates, while the new one is showing one-way pricing.

As an example, when using Turkish M&S miles to redeem Singapore Airlines flights between Singapore and Japan or South Korea (intra-Far East zone), the current competitive award pricing of 20,000 miles one-way in Economy Class and 35,000 miles one-way in Business Class takes a big hit.

The new rates will be 35,000 miles one-way in Economy Class (75% increase) and 50,000 miles one-way in Business Class (42% increase).

A one-way intra-Europe Star Alliance award, for example from Germany to Spain on Lufthansa, will be hiked from 10,000 miles in Economy Class or 15,000 miles in Business Class to 25,000 miles and 30,000 miles respectively, increases of 150% and 100%.

What now?

You can transfer Citi ThankYou Points or Citi Miles into Turkish Miles&Smiles, but unfortunately it takes around a week so it’s too late to now do so and reliably have the miles in your account in time to make a redemption at current rates, even if you see one available.

Instant transfers into Miles&Smiles are possible from the HSBC TravelOne card, but the conversion ratio is poor at 3.5:1, instead of the usual 2.5:1, nearly 30% worse than you’ll get with KrisFlyer, so it’s not worth considering for most of our readers.

Our advice would be to try and cash out whatever balance you have in Miles&Smiles without adding to it via a credit card points transfer, if possible, even for a short intra-Asia or intra-Europe flight you might use, if that’s all your balance allows for.

In this sense, the very short notice Turkish Airlines is providing for this devaluation is a big negative aspect – there’s simply too little time for many to act and lock in a valuable redemption.

Turkish Airlines is taking a knife to its valuable Miles&Smiles award charts next week, with significant hikes in miles redemption rates across the board, effective from 15th February 2024.

Not only does this affect award pricing to and from Turkey, but also a sector-by-sector pricing policy will mean anyone connecting through Turkey (like most people are doing) are hit twice, practically doubling the cost of many redemptions including Asia to Europe ones in Business Class.

It was probably a matter of time for these excellent award rates to suffer an adjustment, but Turkish has waited many years and this sudden change is a devastating one.

Do be sure to try and cash out your Miles&Smiles balance by the end of 14th February 2024, because the new pricing will go live on 15th February.

(Cover Photo: Alireza Akhlaghi)