Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles offering 20% rebate on award tickets

Last month, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles carried out a massive devaluation of its award charts.

It was carnage, no two ways about it. Goodbye 45,000 miles sweet spots to Europe, farewell 67,500 miles awards to the USA. Hello segment-by-segment pricing, and price hikes of up to 100%.

Turkish Airlines is now attempting a mea culpa of sorts with a 20% rebate on award tickets, valid for travel up till 30 June 2024. It’s a valiant attempt, but frankly speaking, the damage has already been done.

Turkish Miles&Smiles 20% award rebate

Details

Here’s the key details of Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles award promotion:

• Booking period: 4-31 March 2024
• Travel period: 4 March to 30 June 2024 (Or possibly 31 August 2024; there is a discrepancy between the table and the T&Cs. When in doubt, assume the more restrictive clause is true)
• Applicable carriers: Turkish Airlines only
• Award types: One-way or Round-trip
• Applicable cabins: Business or Economy Class

The offer is valid for any route on the Turkish Airlines network, whether domestic or international.

Members will be automatically refunded 20% of the miles spent on award tickets, credited within one week of the flight. Miles awarded under this campaign can be used until 31 December 2025, and there is no cap on the maximum rebate that can be received.  

Do note that this is a rebate, not a discount. In other words, if an award costs 100,000 miles, you need the full 100,000 miles to book it, not just 80,000 miles. Moreover, the rebate only applies to award tickets issued in the member’s own name. If you redeem tickets for companions, the rebate will not apply to them. 

Award tickets can be changed or cancelled for a US$70 fee. This too appears to have been hiked, as I distinctly remember it being just US$25 at the start of the year. 

Is it worth it?

A 20% rebate would have been an excellent deal at the start of the year, but we’re living in a post-devaluation world now. 

To illustrate, consider the table below. A 20% rebate obviously makes things cheaper, but it’s still a far cry from the prevailing prices at the start of the year.

Part of the reason why the price hikes are so acute is that Turkish Miles&Smiles now uses segment-by-segment pricing for Turkish Airlines flights connecting in Turkey. 

For example, a Turkish Airlines award ticket from Dubai to London will soon be the sum of:

• an individual Dubai to Istanbul award
• an individual Istanbul to London award

The impact will be unavoidable if you’re using Istanbul as a transit point, which I imagine will be the case for the vast majority of travellers.

Conclusion

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles is now offering a 20% rebate on all award flights booked by 31 March 2024 and flown by 30 June 2024 (or potentially 31 August 2024, depending on whether the table is correct or the T&Cs are correct).

Unfortunately, its recent devaluation makes this more or less irrelevant. You should have already cashed out your entire balance prior to the devaluation, so this sale is really only for those who didn’t get the memo.