Turkish Miles&Smiles Program Guide: Everything You Need to Know

If you’re a travel miles enthusiast, you probably know about Turkish Miles&Smiles, the frequent-flyer program of Turkish Airlines because of some of its most famous sweet spots. For years, you could find economy flights between the Hawaiian islands and the mainland U.S. for just 7,500 miles each way. You could also fly one way in economy class from North America to Europe for as few as 30,000 miles per direction.

Unfortunately, in February 2024, the Turkish Miles&Smiles program underwent a major devaluation as award prices for almost all flights on Turkish Airlines and its partners increased. Although Miles&Smiles certainly isn’t the powerhouse it once was, you can definitely still find some solid value through this program.

When it comes to racking up Turkish miles, you can do so by taking flights with partner airlines and then crediting them to your Miles&Smiles account.

You also can transfer points to the Miles&Smiles program from Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards at a 1:1 ratio, which is probably the best way to earn this program’s miles for most U.S.-based travelers. So, if you have a credit card from Bilt, Capital One or Citi, you should definitely familiarize yourself with this program as it’s a good way to maximize the value of those points.

Turkish Airlines publishes one award chart for Turkish Airlines-operated flights (which includes both regular and promotional award rates) and another award chart for partner-operated flights. With some searching, you can often find outsized value for Turkish flights offered at promotional rates as well as certain partner flights.

For instance, you can still find one-way economy-class flights between the mainland U.S. and Hawaii on United Airlines for just 10,000 miles. You can also find one-way flights across Canada on Air Canada for 10,000 miles in economy class and 15,000 miles in business class (although business-class award availability on these routes is hard to find).

So, let’s go over everything you need to know about the Turkish Miles&Smiles program, including elite status, how to earn and redeem Turkish miles, and which of those redemption methods offer the most value.

Turkish Miles&Smiles Program Overview

Turkish Airlines was established in 1933 by the Turkish Ministry of National Defense. The airline’s initial fleet consisted of two Curtiss Kingbirds, two Junkers F 13s and one Tupolev ANT-9 aircraft.

The airline began with routes within Türkiye as well as to Greece, Cyprus and Egypt. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Turkish Airlines weathered some serious financial and operational difficulties but continued to expand its route network and became Türkiye’s largest source of foreign currency during that period.

In 2008, after an 18-month integration process, Turkish Airlines made the major strategic move of joining Star Alliance. Today, it remains a member of the world’s largest airline alliance, giving Turkish Miles&Smiles members the opportunity to earn and redeem Turkish miles for flights with any other carrier within the alliance.

Here are all 26 members of Star Alliance:

When flying with any of these partners, you can add your Turkish Miles&Smiles membership number to your booking and earn Turkish miles for that flight. You also can redeem your Turkish miles for flights on any Star Alliance partner directly through the Turkish Airlines website.

Additionally, Turkish Airlines has several non-alliance partner airlines that allow you to earn Turkish miles for flying with them:

You also can earn status miles (the metric used for tracking elite status) for flights taken on any Star Alliance partner.

Turkish Miles&Smiles Elite Status

Turkish Airlines has an elite status program that rewards members who frequently fly with Turkish Airlines or one of its partners. There are four membership tiers within the Miles&Smiles program: Classic, Classic Plus, Elite and Elite Plus.

You’ll start with a Classic membership when you sign up for the Miles&Smiles program, and you can continue to level up to higher tiers by either earning a certain number of status miles or completing a certain number of qualifying flights within one year.

You can earn status miles on flights with Turkish Airlines, AnadoluJet and other Star Alliance member airlines. Once you achieve a Classic Plus tier or above, that status stays valid for two years from the date that you rose to that tier. Then, to maintain that status after the two-year period is over, you’ll need to either achieve a certain number of miles or flights within a one-year period or achieve a certain number of miles or flights within a two-year period.

The following chart includes the requirements for earning each elite status tier, the requirements for maintaining that elite status tier and the benefit that you’ll enjoy at each tier.

One great thing about the Miles&Smiles elite status program is that it’s far easier to retain a status tier than it is to earn it.

For example, if you want to earn Elite Plus status, you’ll have to earn 80,000 status miles in a 12-month period. However, once you reach that status level, it gets considerably easier to keep it. All you have to do is either earn 40,000 status miles in any 12-month period during your two-year Elite Plus status validity period or earn 60,000 miles over the entire course of the two-year Elite Plus status validity period. So, once you reach a status tier, it’s easy to keep it active.

When it comes to the most notable benefits of elite status, the complimentary access to Turkish Airlines lounges (available for domestic flights only to Classic Plus members and for domestic and international flights to Elite and Elite Plus members) is one of the more notable benefits of an elite status.

Additionally, the ability for Elite and Elite Plus members to get 50% off a second business-class ticket when you buy a paid business-class ticket could save you a lot of money if you tend to book flights for two passengers.

Interestingly, Elite Plus status doesn’t offer that many more benefits than Elite status despite being significantly more difficult to achieve. The only additional benefits that come with Elite Plus over Elite status are two cabin upgrades, 5 extra kilograms of baggage allowance, guaranteed seats for reservations booked at least 72 hours before departure and the ability to gift Elite status to up to three people (for the high price of 40,000 miles per person).

These additional benefits are rather unremarkable considering that you have to earn twice as many status miles to achieve Elite Plus status compared to Elite status.

How to Earn Turkish Miles

The most obvious way to earn Turkish miles is to take flights on Turkish Airlines or one of its Star Alliance partners. However, you also can transfer points from credit card rewards programs, transfer points from hotel rewards programs or make bookings with hotel or car rental partners. Of course, some of these methods will earn you far more Turkish miles than others.

So, let’s take a look at all of the different ways that you can rack up Turkish miles so you can start saving up for your next reward.

Flying with Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet

The number of miles that you’ll earn for flying with Turkish Airlines or AnadoluJet (a low-cost regional subsidiary of Turkish Airlines) depends on the actual distance of the flight, the cabin class and fare code on the ticket, and your status in the Miles&Smiles program.

However, having an elite status in the Miles&Smiles program will affect your miles earnings only if you’re flying in business class, in which case Classic Plus, Elite and Elite Plus members earn 25% more miles.

Flights within Türkiye earn a fixed number of miles depending on the cabin class but not the distance flown.

Here’s the earnings chart for all flights operated by Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet.

So, for example, if you were to take a 1,500-mile flight on Turkish Airlines in economy class (fare code Y), then you’d earn 1,875 Turkish miles regardless of your membership tier (1,500 miles flown x 125% = 1,875 Turkish miles).

However, if you were to take a 700-mile flight on Turkish Airlines in economy class (fare code Y), then you’d earn the minimum mileage of 1,250 miles regardless of your membership tier. That’s because the calculated mileage would be below the minimum (700 miles flown x 125% = 875 Turkish miles).

On economy-class flights, all Miles&Smiles members earn the same number of Turkish miles on flights regardless of their membership tier. However, for business-class flights, Classic Plus, Elite and Elite Plus members always earn 25% more miles than Classic members.

For instance, if you were to take a 1,200-mile flight on Turkish Airlines in business class (fare code C), you’d earn 1,800 Turkish miles as a Classic member (1,200 miles flown x 150% = 1,800 Turkish miles). However, if you had Classic Plus, Elite or Elite Plus status, you’d earn 2,100 miles (1,200 miles flown x 175% = 2,100 Turkish miles).

Flying with Partner Airlines

You can earn Turkish miles on flights with any of its partner airlines. To do so, you’ll need to select Turkish Miles&Smiles as your frequent-flyer program of choice when making your booking.

The number of Turkish miles that you’ll earn for a partner flight depends on the specific partner that you’re flying with, your cabin class and booking class, and the actual distance of your flight. Mileage earnings on partner flights don’t depend on your Turkish Miles&Smiles membership tier.

Each partner airline has its own mileage accrual chart, all of which you can view on the “Earn miles as you fly” page on the Turkish Airlines website. Click on the logo of the partner airline that you plan on flying with to view that airline’s mileage accrual chart.

It’s worth noting that you can earn Turkish miles with any member of Star Alliance as well as four non-Star Alliance airlines: Azul Brazilian Airlines, IndiGo, Olympic Air and GOL Airlines.

For example, here is the earnings chart for GOL (a low-cost Brazilian airline based in Rio de Janeiro):

Using these earnings charts is pretty much the same as using Turkish Airlines’ own earnings chart. For instance, if you were to take a 1,000-mile flight on GOL in premium economy class (fare code C), you’d earn 1,500 miles (1,000 miles flown x 150% = 1,500 Turkish miles).

Turkish Airlines Co-Branded Credit Cards

Turkish Airlines has several co-branded credit cards issued by a variety of different banks that allow you to earn Turkish miles for making everyday purchases. Unfortunately, none of these cards are available in the United States.

However, if you happen to live in Türkiye, Israel, Jordan or one of the other countries where these credit cards are available, then signing up for a Turkish Airlines co-branded credit card is a great way to rack up Miles&Smiles miles quickly.

To learn more about Turkish Airlines co-branded credit cards, visit the carrier’s website.

Transfer Partners

For most U.S. consumers, the most effective way to boost your Turkish miles balance is going to be to transfer points from either Capital One Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards or Bilt Rewards. These credit card rewards currencies transfer to Turkish Miles&Smiles at a 1:1 ratio. So, if you were to transfer 100,000 Citi ThankYou Points, you’d receive 100,000 Turkish miles.

Here are some of our top picks for credit cards that earn Capital One Miles:

• Capital One Spark Miles for Business Card ($0 for the first year, then $95)
• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card ($0 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card ($95 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture X Business ($395 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card ($395 annual fee)

It’s also worth noting that you can convert cash back earned with Capital One cashback cards (such as the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card) to Capital One Miles if you also hold a Capital One Miles-earning card. So, if you have both the Venture and the Savor cards, you can convert all cash back earned with the Savor card to Capital One Miles in your Venture account at a 1:1 ratio and then transfer those miles to Turkish Miles&Smiles (or any other Capital One transfer partner).

Here are some of our top picks for credit cards that earn Citi ThankYou Points:

• Citi Rewards+^® Card ($0 annual fee)
• Citi Premier^® Card ($95 annual fee)

Likewise, if you have a Citi cashback card (such as the Citi® Double Cash Card or the Citi Custom Cash® Card), you can convert that cashback to ThankYou Points at a 1:1 ratio if you also have one of the Citi ThankYou Points-earning cards. Then, you can transfer those ThankYou Points to Turkish Miles&Smiles (or any other Citi transfer partner).

Turkish Miles&Smiles is also a transfer partner of Bilt Rewards, a credit card issuer that allows you to earn points for paying rent at more than 2 million rental homes across the United States with the Bilt Rewards Mastercard. Bilt points transfer to Turkish miles at a 1:1 ratio. So, your rent payments could help you book your next flight.

You can also transfer points into Turkish Miles&Smiles from three major hotel rewards programs. However, doing so is usually a bad idea as these programs offer unfavorable transfer ratios.

Here are the hotel partners and transfer ratios:

• Hilton Honors (10:1 transfer ratio)
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 transfer ratio) — Earn a bonus of 5,000 Turkish miles for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points transferred at once.
• Wyndham Rewards (5:1 transfer ratio)

As you can see, these transfer ratios are very poor and will quickly devalue your hotel points. You’re much better off spending those points through the hotels’ native programs than transferring them to Turkish Miles&Smiles.

Hotel Stays

You can also earn Turkish miles directly for booking hotels with certain hotel chains and online booking engines. For one, the Miles&Smiles program has a booking portal on its website powered by Booking.com and Jolly. Miles&Smiles members can earn 2X miles per 1 euro spent through the portal. You can also earn miles for making your reservation through Booking.com and then selecting Turkish Miles&Smiles as your rewards program of choice.

You can earn Turkish miles for making bookings directly with certain hotel chains as well. The following table includes all of Turkish Airlines’s hotel partners and mileage earnings rates for each respective company.

With some of these hotel partners (such as Marriott Bonvoy or Wyndham Rewards), you’ll be forfeiting the opportunity to earn that hotel’s native rewards currency by electing to earn Turkish miles for your stay.

For example, you can’t earn both Marriott Bonvoy points and Turkish miles for your stay at a Marriott property. So, in these cases, you’ll want to weigh which currency you’d rather earn. In most cases, you’re better off earning hotel points.

Car Rentals

Like most frequent-flyer programs, Miles&Smiles is partnered with several car rental companies that allow you to earn Turkish miles for qualifying rentals. The following table includes all of Turkish Airlines’ car rental partners and how many miles you could earn with each respective company.

Unlike hotel rewards programs, most car rental companies don’t have their own rewards currency, so there’s really no downside to electing to earn airline miles for car rentals.

However, most of these car rental companies also have partnerships with several other loyalty programs. So, before you elect to earn Turkish miles on your next car rental, you may want to consider whether you’d rather earn a different airline’s miles instead.

Other Partners

Turkish Miles&Smiles is partnered with several other companies that allow you to earn Turkish miles for using their services. These include online travel booking sites, retail stores, Wi-Fi providers, secondhand car-buying platforms and more.

Here are some of Turkish Airlines’s other partners and how many miles you could earn with each of them.

How to Redeem Turkish Miles

When it comes to redeeming Turkish miles, the best way to maximize your value is to purchase award flights on Turkish Airlines or one of its partners. While there are several other options for redeeming your miles (such as buying merchandise through Shop&Miles or buying fuel at Shell gas stations), these options don’t offer as much value.

Nevertheless, let’s discuss all of the different ways to redeem Turkish miles and which of these options provide the most value.

Flying with Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet

The most obvious way to redeem Turkish miles is to purchase award flights on Turkish Airlines or AnadoluJet. To buy an award flight on Turkish Airlines or AnadoluJet, you can simply go to the Turkish Airlines homepage as if you were going to book a flight with cash, then click on the “Award ticket” box and sign in with your Miles&Smiles credentials.

After that, you can enter your desired origin, destination and travel dates, and the search engine will show the results that match your search query and their respective prices in miles.

Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet award flights are based on a region-based award chart that includes two different types of fares: standard award fares and promotional award fares, which are considerably more affordable. In general, you’ll get far more value for your miles if you’re able to purchase award tickets when they’re being offered at promotional prices.

Unfortunately, the Miles&Smiles award chart for flights operated by Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet underwent some changes in February 2024 that were bad for members. Award prices, both promotional and standard, increased across the board, making it significantly more difficult to get good value out of your miles.

Here’s the updated Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet award chart:

The award rates in the chart above are for one-way award flights. You also can book round-trip award flights for twice the number of miles expressed in the chart above.

For example, according to these award charts, a standard round-trip business-class ticket from Türkiye to the Southern Africa region would cost you 300,000 miles. However, if you were to purchase the same ticket at the promotional award rate, it would cost you 150,000 miles. That means that you’d be getting a 50% discount just by booking your flight at the promotional rate.

Of course, it can be much more difficult to find award flights at promotional rates than regular rates. So, if you want to get the lower price, you’ll probably have to do a good deal of searching and be flexible with your travel dates.

Another unwelcomed change that was enacted in February 2024 is that connections are now priced separately when paying with miles. For instance, if you want to fly from North America to Europe via Istanbul International Airport, you’ll need to pay for an award flight from the North America region to the Türkiye region and then another award flight from the Türkiye region to either the Europe 1 or Europe 2 region.

Before these changes were put in place, these flights in economy class would have cost you between 30,000 and 45,000 miles at promotional rates, which was excellent. Alas, members will now have to redeem 50,000 to 75,000 miles in economy class and 85,000 to 175,000 miles in business class for flights from North America to Europe that connect through Istanbul (depending on whether you’re flying to the Europe 1 or Europe 2 region and whether you get a regular or a promotional rate).

Companion Tickets

One great way to get more value out of your miles is by purchasing companion ticket awards on Turkish Airlines or AnadoluJet. Keep in mind that this option is not available for Star Alliance partners.

A companion ticket is similar to a “buy one, get one 30% off” deal. If you purchase a revenue ticket (paid for with cash) on a particular route, you then have the option to purchase a companion ticket on the same flight for 30% fewer miles than you’d pay if you bought an award ticket outright. Unfortunately, you can’t purchase companion award tickets with other award tickets; only revenue tickets qualify.

For instance, if you were to purchase a standard round-trip business-class award ticket within the Europe 1 region, it would cost you 60,000 Turkish miles. However, if you were to purchase a round-trip business-class revenue ticket in the Europe 1 region with cash and then book a companion award ticket, it would cost you 42,000 miles (with a 30% discount).

If you plan on booking two tickets on a Turkish Airlines or AnadoluJet flight in the future, using the companion award ticket is a fantastic way to get more value out of your miles. Companion awards are also available (but harder to find) at promotional prices. So, if you can find a promotional companion award ticket, you’ll get even more value.

Flying with Partners

Prior to changes made in February 2024, the Miles&Smiles program used the same award chart to price partner awards as it did for Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet awards. However, Turkish Airlines now publishes a separate award chart that applies to flights operated by both Star Alliance and non-Star Alliance partners.

To view the Miles&Smiles partner award chart, you can visit the “Award Ticket” page (which you can find under the “Redeem Miles” section of the “Miles&Smiles” dropdown menu on the Turkish Airlines website homepage). Then, select the “Award Tickets on Star Alliance and Partner Airlines” option.

To book Star Alliance award flights, you’ll need to sign in to your Miles&Smiles account and select the “Award Ticket” option from the dropdown menu below your name.

From there, you can select the “Star Award Ticket” option and search for your desired origin, destination and travel dates. Then, the site will display all Star Alliance-operated flights that match your search query.

Unfortunately, award rates for many partner-operated flights were also increased as part of the February 2024 changes. For instance, Miles&Smiles members could previously fly one way within the United States for just 7,500 miles in economy class and 12,500 miles in business class, but those rates have been increased to 10,000 miles in economy class and 15,000 miles in business class.

Nevertheless, despite the large devaluation, it’s still possible to find some redemptions that offer solid value per mile through this program.

One-Way Flights to Hawaii from Mainland U.S. for 10,000 Miles in Economy Class

The Turkish Miles&Smiles used to offer the lowest rates for award flights from the mainland U.S. to Hawaii. Although award flights on this route have recently increased in price, you can still find one-way flights from the contiguous United States to Hawaii for just 10,000 miles in economy class (an increase of just 2,500 miles) and 15,000 miles in business class.

Since cash fares between Hawaii and the mainland U.S. can often be over $400 per direction (even in economy class), booking these awards through Turkish Miles&Smiles can offer great value.

Now, because of these low prices and the popularity of Hawaii as a vacation destination, award tickets from the mainland U.S. to Hawaii can be difficult to find, particularly in premium cabins. However, it’s worth doing some searching as these flights can offer outstanding value.

For example, we found a one-way economy award on a United flight through Miles&Smiles from Denver (DEN) to Honolulu (HNL) for just 10,000 miles.

When we searched for the exact same flight through the United website, the cash price was $460.

That means that this redemption would give you a value of about 4.6 cents per mile, which is fantastic and particularly impressive for an economy-class award. You should be able to find even better value on premium cabin awards on these routes, but those are harder to find.

Another great thing about these United-operated flights is that Miles&Smiles doesn’t pass along fuel surcharges, which means that out-of-pocket costs for these award flights are typically low. For instance, for the example above, the taxes and fees are just $5.60.

As you can see, using the Turkish Miles&Smiles program is one of the best ways to get from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii for cheap.

One-Way Flights from the U.S. to Europe for 55,000 Miles in Economy Class or 90,000 Miles in Business Class

You can also find decent value on award flights between the U.S. and Europe operated by Turkish Airlines and certain Star Alliance partners (such as Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines). With the new Miles&Smiles award chart, one-way flights between the North America region and the Europe 2 region cost 55,000 miles in economy class and 90,000 miles in business class, whether you’re flying with Turkish Airlines or one of its partner airlines.

In particular, if you can find business-class award space on Lufthansa flights between the U.S. and Europe, you can get great value. Although, you’ll most likely have to pay a lot of money out of pocket. For instance, we found a Lufthansa-operated business-class award itinerary between New York City (JFK) and Munich (MUC) for 90,000 miles each way (180,000 miles round-trip) and $2,078 in taxes and fees.

While 180,000 miles and $2,078 in cash may sound like a lot, if you were to book the same round-trip flight through the Lufthansa website with cash, it would cost $11,182.

So, by booking this flight with miles instead of cash, you’d be getting a value of over 5 cents per mile (factoring in the $2,078 in taxes and fees that you’d still have to pay to book the award flight). Of course, for many people, paying over $2,000 out of pocket for an award flight is a deal-breaker. However, if you’re willing to pay that much in taxes and fees, you can get great value by booking Lufthansa business-class flights between the U.S. and Europe.

You can also often find solid value on both business-class and economy-class flights between the U.S. and Europe operated by Turkish Airlines. Plus, these flights often charge far lower taxes and fees.

One-Way Domestic Flights Within North America for 10,000 Miles in Economy Class or 15,000 Miles in Business Class

One silver lining of the changes made to the Miles&Smiles award charts is that one-way domestic flights within any country now cost 10,000 miles in economy class and 15,000 in business class. This means that you can get great value on domestic flights within countries such as the U.S. or Canada where domestic flights can be long and expensive.

For instance, we found an Air Canada-operated award flight from Vancouver, Canada (YVR), to Montreal (YUL) in economy class for just 10,000 miles per direction plus 41 Canadian dollars (about $30 at the current conversion rate).

If you were to book the same flight with cash through the Air Canada website, it would cost you $343.

Thus, if you were to purchase this flight with miles through the Miles&Smiles program, you’d be getting a value of about 3.1 cents per mile (factoring in the taxes and fees which you’d have to pay on the award flight), which is pretty great for an economy-class award.

It’s worth noting that the Miles&Smiles website is notoriously glitchy and there may sometimes be award availability that doesn’t appear online (particularly if that award space appears on other Star Alliance sites like Air Canada Aeroplan or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer). So, you may be able to find more availability on these partner awards by calling Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles customer support at 1-800-874-8875.

Cash&Miles

You have the option to pay for flights partially with miles and partially with cash with the Cash&Miles feature. With this option, you can pay for up to 50% of a cash flight with miles. There’s no single conversion rate of cash to miles when using the Cash&Miles option. The conversion rate depends on factors like the flight origin, destination, date, fare, cabin class and more.

Unfortunately, using your miles this way typically doesn’t provide good value. You’re typically better off purchasing award flights either entirely with cash or entirely with miles.

Upgrade Awards

Turkish Miles&Smiles members also have the option of redeeming miles for upgrades both on Turkish Airlines and Star Alliance partners. Upgrade awards aren’t currently available on non-Star Alliance partners.

Upgrade awards on Turkish-operated flights are priced according to the following chart.

The award prices expressed in the chart above are for one-way flights. You also can purchase round-trip upgrade awards for twice the number of miles displayed in the chart above.

It costs 20,000 miles for upgrades from economy class to business on direct Turkish Airlines flights within the same region (with the exception of flight upgrades within Türkiye, which cost 10,000 miles). For example, if you were to purchase an upgrade on a one-way direct flight within the Europe 1 region operated by Turkish Airlines, it would cost you 20,000 miles.

Turkish Airlines publishes a separate award chart for upgrade awards on Star Alliance partners, which can be found under the “Redeem Miles” section of the “Miles&Smiles” dropdown menu on the Turkish Airlines website homepage.

Although you can use miles to upgrade Turkish Airlines flights from economy class to business class only (due to the fact that Turkish Airlines doesn’t offer a first-class product), you can use Turkish miles to upgrade from economy to business or from business to first class on Star Alliance partners.

In general, you can get more value out of your miles by redeeming them for award flights instead of upgrades. However, upgrade redemptions on Turkish Airlines or Star Alliance partners definitely aren’t the worst ways that you could spend your Turkish miles.

Flight Extras

Turkish Miles&Smiles members can use their miles to purchase extras on their flights, including extra baggage, taxes and seat selection.

Only Miles&Smiles Classic Plus, Elite and Elite Plus members have the option to redeem miles for taxes on award flight purchases. When redeeming your miles this way, you can redeem 1,000 miles for 100 Turkish lira (about $3.50 at the current conversion rate) in taxes. That means you’d be getting a value of about 0.3 cent per mile, which is extremely poor. So, you’re much better off redeeming your miles for award flights and then paying any taxes on those award flights in cash.

Regardless of your Miles&Smiles membership status, you can redeem your miles for extra baggage on flights. The cost in miles depends on several factors, such as flight route, layovers and the airline operating the flight.

Miles&Smiles members also can redeem their miles for seat selection on flights, including extra legroom seats, emergency exit seats, standard seats and baby stroller seats. Miles&Smiles Elite and Elite Plus members receive standard seat selection for free.

In general, redeeming miles for flight extras provides little value per mile, meaning you’re better off saving your Turkish miles for award flight redemptions.

Buying Merchandise Through Shop&Miles

Through the Turkish Airlines Shop&Miles portal, you can redeem your Turkish miles for merchandise and dining in several countries throughout the world, including:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States

Each of these countries have different partner brands that accept Turkish miles and different offers. You can either purchase gift cards or use the MilesPoints or MilesPay option. The MilesPoints option involves using your miles to purchase points that can then be spent at certain retailers. The MilesPay option involves shopping through a specific partner platform and redeeming Turkish miles directly for products or services.

Unfortunately, redeeming miles for merchandise through Shop&Miles is a poor deal. For instance, you could buy an IKEA gift card for 3,000 miles worth 300 Turkish lira (about $10.50).

Thus, this redemption would yield a value of less than 0.3 cent per mile. As you’ve seen from previous redemption examples, it’s possible to get far more value out of your miles.

The Bottom Line

The Turkish Miles&Smiles program has been a long-time favorite of points and miles enthusiasts because of its incredible sweet spots. Unfortunately, the program experienced a major devaluation in February 2024 when award rates increased across the board and many of these sweet spots disappeared.

Still, the Miles&Smiles program has a lot to offer for U.S.-based travelers, mostly due to the fact that it’s a transfer partner of Bilt Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Capital One Rewards and the fact that Turkish Airlines is a member of Star Alliance. That means that you can transfer your credit card points to the Miles&Smiles program and redeem them for Star Alliance flight awards that offer outsized value.

In particular, you can find excellent value on domestic flights around the U.S. and Canada operated by United Airlines and Air Canada, which makes the Turkish Miles&Smiles program relevant for U.S.-based readers.

For example, you can fly one way in United economy class from the mainland U.S. to Hawaii for just 10,000 miles. You can also fly one way domestically in Canada for just 10,000 miles in economy class or 15,000 miles in business class.

A great way to get even more value out of your Turkish miles is to redeem them for companion awards. When you purchase a flight ticket with cash for yourself on a Turkish Airlines flight, you can buy a companion ticket with Turkish miles on the same flight for 70% of the standard mileage rate.

All in all, while Turkish Miles&Smiles may not be the frequent-flyer program that you use most often, it’s certainly one that you should be familiar with (particularly if you have a Bilt Rewards, Capital One or Citi credit card) as this program offers some solid sweet spots on its own flights as well as Star Alliance partner flights.