Update, 2/15: The devalued award chart is now in effect. It’s a brutal chart, but on the bright side, it’s not charging extra for connecting flights.
| Between the US and: | Economy | Business | First |
|---|---|---|---|
| US, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and USVI | Was 7.5K Now 10K | Was 12.5K Now 15K | N/A |
| North America | Was 10K Now 30K | Was 15K Now 40K | N/A |
| Western Europe (2) | Was 30K Now 55K | Was 45K Now 90K | Was 67.5K Now 135K |
| Eastern Europe (1) | Was 30K Now 50K | Was 45K Now 85K | Was 67.5K Now 130K |
| Turkey | Was 30K Now 40K | Was 45K Now 65K | Was 67.5K Now 100K |
| Middle East | Was 32K Now 58K | Was 47K Now 93K | Was 68.5K Now 140K |
| North Africa | Was 30K Now 60K | Was 49K Now 105K | Was 73K Now 160K |
| Central Africa | Was 30K Now 65K | Was 49K Now 125K | Was 73K Now 190K |
| Southern Africa | Was 45K Now 75K | Was 67.5K Now 140K | Was 100K Now 210K |
| Central Asia | Was 34K Now 60K | Was 52.5K Now 100K | Was 77K Now 150K |
| Far East | Was 45K Now 75K | Was 67.5K Now 130K | Was 100K Now 195K |
| South America and Oceania | Was 52.5K Now 90K | Was 75K Now 140K | Was 115K Now 210K |
For the US, the only remaining sweet spots appear to be for domestic US flights, which include Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands for 10K in coach or 15K in first class each way.
10K one-way in coach to Alaska or Hawaii nonstop or with a connection:
15K one-way in first class:
Update, 2/14: The devaluation may go into effect as soon as today at 3:59pm ET. Be sure to book any last minute awards now!
Update, 2/8: Turkish Airlines has emailed members confirming that the brutal new award charts will go into effect on 2/15. Assuming that happens on Istanbul time, that means you’ll have to book awards by Wednesday, 2/14 at 3:59pm ET to beat the devaluation, but you’ll want to book before then in case of last minute technical difficulties.
Originally posted on 2/7:
As I’ve written about many times, Turkish Airlines has a ridiculously generous Star Alliance award chart.
Unfortunately, the airline now confirms that the old chart is only valid “until February 15, 2024.”
The new chart will be significantly more expensive.
Here is the North America version of the previous and new chart with one-way award pricing:
| Between the US and: | Economy | Business | First |
|---|---|---|---|
| US, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and USVI | Was 7.5K Now 10K | Was 12.5K Now 15K | N/A |
| North America | Was 10K Now 30K | Was 15K Now 40K | N/A |
| Western Europe (2) | Was 30K Now 55K | Was 45K Now 90K | Was 67.5K Now 135K |
| Eastern Europe (1) | Was 30K Now 50K | Was 45K Now 85K | Was 67.5K Now 130K |
| Turkey | Was 30K Now 40K | Was 45K Now 65K | Was 67.5K Now 100K |
| Middle East | Was 32K Now 58K | Was 47K Now 93K | Was 68.5K Now 140K |
| North Africa | Was 30K Now 60K | Was 49K Now 105K | Was 73K Now 160K |
| Central Africa | Was 30K Now 65K | Was 49K Now 125K | Was 73K Now 190K |
| Southern Africa | Was 45K Now 75K | Was 67.5K Now 140K | Was 100K Now 210K |
| Central Asia | Was 34K Now 60K | Was 52.5K Now 100K | Was 77K Now 150K |
| Far East | Was 45K Now 75K | Was 67.5K Now 130K | Was 100K Now 195K |
| South America and Oceania | Was 52.5K Now 90K | Was 75K Now 140K | Was 115K Now 210K |
Worse yet, while current pricing is for the entire one-way journey, it appears that you will have to pay for each flight segment with the new chart, as airlines like British Airways charge with Avios.
If you want to take advantage of the current chart before it turns into a pumpkin, you have 1 week to do so.
As part of the Star Alliance, Turkish can book award travel on airlines like United and Air Canada, they don’t charge any fuel surcharges for flights on those airlines.
You can open a Turkish Airlines mileage account online (Hint: Your password must be exactly 6 numbers or else it will give an error).
And you can book Star Alliance awards with Turkish miles here (Login and then click this link again). Search for one-way at a time for best results.
An economy flight within the US, including Hawaii is now 7.5K miles, but will soon be 10K miles. That’s still a great deal post-devaluation, though connections may make that more expensive.
A first class flight within the US, including Hawaii is now 12.5K miles, but will soon be 15K miles. That’s also still a great deal post-devaluation, though connections may make that more expensive.
An economy flight to Cancun is now 10K miles, but will soon be 30K miles:
An first class flight to Cancun is now 15K miles, but will soon be 40K miles:
A business class flight to Europe is now 45K miles, but it seems like it will soon be 90K miles:
All that being said, Turkish has changed award charts in the past, but hasn’t always followed through on changing the prices charged, so stay tuned to see what happens next week. But it seems clear that this gravy train is finally coming to an end.
Will you book any awards before the devaluation?
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75 Comments On "[Points Devalued, Remaining Sweet Spots] BRUTAL: Less Than 1 Week Left To Take Advantage Of Incredible Star Alliance Award Bargains Before Massive Turkish Devaluation!"
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Wasn’t sure if I did the right thing to use the for booking 75k TK vs 87.5k AC SFO-MEL in J. Now I realize it was bh
Or perhaps it was the punishment for continuing to deal with them despite everything…
I guess TY and Cap one points just got a bunch less valuable.
Still have good Star Alliance options, like Air Canada and Lifemiles.
But those work with Chase & Amex. To me the biggest advantage of Citi and Cap1 was TK.
100% appeal of citi just went waay down
True – But TY and Cap One pts are way harder to accumulate than MR pts. Cap One doesn’t allow more than ~2 cards and getting multiple SUB’s ain’t going to happen. TY has those very pesky 48 month family rules. I have earned 10X more MR pts and 5x more UR pts than TY/Cap One pts in the last 3 years. Plus, MR has 5X more transfer bonuses yearly than TY/Cap One has. TK was the only unique xfer partner with any value that TY/Cap One had over MR.
Transferred 229000 cap one to lifemiles this morning and it is still not showing in my LM account so keep that in mind.
No question will change peoples calculation on getting Cap1 card
Will this change also affect Turkish operated flights as well? Or just the alliance partners?
They are affected as well.
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/miles-and-smiles/redeem-miles/redeem-miles-on-flights/turkish-airlines-award-tickets/
Side note- I just recently booked a flight for my family using turkish miles to fly on United and I never received a united booking code. I got an email with the Turkish booking code as well as ticket numbers. Showed up to airport and they said no tickets in any of our names. Was forced to purchase new tickets with my united miles. Any idea what I can do to get my miles back?
File a DoT complaint
Normally you can put the Turkish confirmation number on United and you’ll automatically see their confirmation number. The issue may have been that it was never ticketed.
the miles generally dont leave the account then [ime]..
Yes thanks for this. I had a booking that was all jacked up on the TK site (showed multiple flights and other weird things) but when I checked on the UA site, it was totally fine. So everyone should check on the UA site because the TK systems appear to be as bad as their contact centers!
Strange. If you don’t receive a UA confirmation code, if you’re ticketed, any agent should be able to find you on the flight roster.
What will be cheapest option with points to Israel after devaluation of turkish points
VS/AF via Virgin/Flying Blue all less than 40K RT in Y. IB via BA Avios 110K RT in J.
With hefty surcharges though
What’s the taxes/fees on IB via BA?
~$500 R/T on IB. Not much different than TK was. The days of cheap (free) non surcharged rewards are over. Time to deal with reality. People need to stop thinking of miles flights as “free”. We are just arbitraging a different currency for discounted travel. 110K avios is worth ~$1300-1700 (depending on what CC you transfer from) with the ~500 surcharge we are paying $1800 to $2200 in “currency” for the flight. So net discount is ~50%, but not “free”.
Qantas.com
38,200 when available
Can I book a partner flight and reschedule later? Trying to figure how to use 75k turkish miles
I am devastated, I have used the EWR-LHR sweet spot multiple times, I really hope they will not follow through on the devaluation, if they do, the old good days of points and miles will be gone forever….
ANA is still there if u can find RT availability
OJ availability works as well.
OZ? tougher to accumulate
No. Open jaw.
OJ?
Now that’s it over, do you mind sharing what that sweet spot is over jfk-lhr?
How do you book tickets through Turkish for multiple people? When trying to do it online, it only allows for the person whose account it is, I’m never able to book for more people. Was going to book flights tonight, any advice for an appreciated. Called Turkish and spent hours on the phone with them in the past and they always say it can’t be done. Thank you
One of their biggest downsides is the lack of ability to book for anyone other than the account holder online, and needing lots of luck to get a competent rep.
The lucrative value of their miles made it worth the headache sometimes.
Thanks. Last time, when I did get 1 rep to do it, at the last step, the credit card wouldn’t go through. Tried multiple cards, all with no issues, and it wouldn’t process.
I just used 45K for EWR-LHR, and had to do HUCA 3 times until an agent was able to find and book the ticket…
there is a way you first have to add them to your account. A agent once walked me through how to do it and i added family members to my account and can book them online. I don’t remember the process but it is ( or at least once was ) possible
You could book for anyone else if the account owner is flying with them, but first, you must add them to your account. Go under My Personal Details, find where it says My Companions, and add all travelers there. Everything should go smoothly from there. Good luck if you are attempting to book without the account owner on the itinerary. It might work for you and it might not. You can try emailing their various ticketing offices and see if they can do it for you.
That’s all good if account owner has already booked for themselves at least once
What if account owner has never booked? I don’t know if we did or not, but when trying to search for 2 tickets after adding a companion, message says “The first award ticket can only be issued under your name” and it won’t search.
Thanks
So you first check on the operating airline if they have saver award (X) availability, then you know you can book that amount of available seats with their partner
I had no problem booking for family member (was not flying with them) I did have to call to do it over the phone but was simple ime
This is so brutal!
OUCH! never saw such a brutal devaluation!
I just transferred 90K to Turkish to buy 3 tickets and due to an unspecified error they couldn’t book it, now I’m stuck with 90k devaluated points
Call them, HUCA until a rep is able to do it for you
@Dan –
Does it make sense to book a ticket now (e.g. from US to Israel) for a random date even though I don’t want to fly – just to take advantage of the lower rates. Then later down the line reschedule the flight for a date that I will want to fly? (it seems rescheduling is only $70/ticket)
Is there anything that I am missing here that may cause me problems down the line by doing this?
You’ll pay the $70 change fee per ticket plus the mileage difference, unless there is a significant schedule change. Don’t book unless you’re willing to actually fly on the date you selected.
official email came this morning
Can you forward it to me? dan@dansdeals.com
Got this email:
Dear Miles&Smiles Member,
We would like to inform you that the Miles amounts for
award tickets and cabin upgrades will be updated soon.
The updated Miles amounts will be valid from
February 15, 2024. For detailed information,
you can visit milesandsmiles.com
Miles&Smiles
The Turkish government is very antisemetic, don’t give them any business even if you save a couple dollars, you’re literally selling your soul to save a couple bucks
Do they own Turkish Airlines?
Is there a calendar for searching flights for award on Turkish or you do have to check one date at a time?
You can use AirCanada.com or saver awards on united.com and use those dates on the Turkish website.
I’ve recently had where there was plenty availability for award seats for a particular UA flight on TK’s site, but none on AC’s site, so may be worth it to check TK regardless
So is there any sweet spot left after the devaluation?
Why can’t Jews ever learn: Don’t give your enemies parnasah – even (or especially) if you’re making a buck.
Thanks for the information Dan. I had over 70,000 miles in my account and my wife had 40,000. We wanted to use them up before he devaluation. We got return tickets from Toronto to Newark for 10 K each way (United) as well as Toronto to Dallas for the same. We then booked business from Toronto to Vancouver for 12.5 K. Those two destinations were with Air Canada. For the AC flights, there was an error booking online at the final stage of the booking (a glitch in their system probably) so I called them. They easily made the booking, sent the eticket and all is confirmed. Now I have used up all of our points before the devaluation.
Thanx Dan. Just booked bunch of 45k tk ua metal no surcharges business. Steal
Sad to see those go!
Dan, what’s the cheapest way to fly business class to Israel using points now?
Curious as to what route you booked, I wasn’t able to find any
Dead
Still alive eg. EWR-LHR Feb 19,21,22,23,26 etc.
Dead as of 7.30pm ET
Still live for me.
WAW-JFK already has the new pricing
flights departing USA or anywhere still Feb 14 still alive
you can still get old price for round trips when originating anywhere still Feb 14
Had stranded TK from cancellations. Just booked DTW-IST-CDG on TK for 45k and AMS-TPE on BR also 45k. Thanks dansdeals for alerting about the Deval.
HISTORY!
dan, would public comments make them modify their award charts?
The end of an era
I guess I have 30k TA points for sale now, not worth spending after taxes.
hey dan unrelated to this post, im thinking of opening the Alaskan card in order to fly elal to israel but not sure if im gonna be able to fly elal before they end their partnership. do i have to fly by june or i just have to book but i can fly even after the partnership ends?
thanks
Every route I search in the US it shows the flights but says no seats available
Is this devaluation for United miles?
Hey, I’m a bit clueless on the whole points idea. Can someone fill me in?