Deal: Turkish Airlines Award Sale, 30% Off Select Routes

2023 has not exactly been a great year for airline/travel deals. Black Friday was underwhelming with only a handful of acceptable offers for very specific city pairs. This Turkish Airlines Award Sale via Miles&Smiles programme however could be a great way to get some last minute/2024 trips booked!

I’ve not generally paid much attention to Turkish Airlines programme, as I already have 2 Star Alliance programmes I credit to with 3rd that I use for occasional trips. I’ve seen Turkish promote Awards sales for Economy before but this one is for both Economy and Business so lets take a look.. 

Turkish Airlines Award Sale Offer

The main terms of the deal are:

• This award sale is applicable for tickets issued between 18/12/2023 – 27/12/2023, with travel dates between 18/12/2023 – 31/05/2024.
• Sale is active on all domestic and select international destinations.
• 30% Miles discount valid on “promotional award” tickets for one-way or round trip flights in Business Class or Economy Class. Here “promotional award” is essentially the saver level awards that other programmes
• Tickets refundable within 1 year of the date of issue. Miles refund/changes to reservations and routes subject to additional fees.
• Miles&Smiles Award Ticket rules apply within the scope of the special offer.

Destinations Applicable

Abidjan, Aktau, Alexandria, Algiers, Almaty, Amman, Amsterdam, Asmara, Astana, Athens, Baghdad, Bahrain, Banjul, Bari, Batumi, Beirut, Belgrade, Bilbao, Billund, Bishkek, Bordeaux, Bremen, Budapest, Bukhara, Cairo, Caracas, Casablanca, Catania, Chisinau, Cologne, Conakry, Constantine, Copenhagen, Cotonou, Dakar, Dammam, Dar Es Selaam, Detroit, Dhaka, Doha, Dubrovnik, Durban, Dushanbe, Dusseldorf, Entebbe, Erbil, Fergana, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Hong Kong Hurghada, Kigali, Kinshasa, Kuwait, Lefkosa, Leipzig, Ljubljana, Lyon, Madrid, Malaga, Malta, Maputo, Marrakech, Marseille, Nairobi, Naples, Nouakchott, Nuremberg, Oran, Osaka, Palermo, Panama, Podgorica, Pointe-Noire, Pristina, Riga, Riyadh, Rome, Salzburg, Samarkand, Sarajevo, Sharm El – Sheikh, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Taif, Tallinn, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Thessaloniki, Tivat, Toulouse, Tunis, Turkistan, Ulaan Baatar, Urgench, Valencia, Varna, Vilnius, Zagreb

Examples Trips

Now lets look at some examples to see what this means in practice.

Turkish Miles&Smiles Award tickets from Europe to USA can generally be booked for 45,000 miles one-way at saver/promotional award level, which already represents an excellent deal. I should note this is however only for Turkish Airlines metal !

Through this offer this comes down to 31,500 Miles, which a superb deal ! As a point of comparison Aegean ( my main Star programme) charge 55,000 for these as standard award and do not offer discounts.

Here is a Amsterdam to New York itinerary

A return from most Europe to USA destinations comes at 63,000. Note this is generally the same for other US routes and taxes come in around 200 Euros. These fees are reasonable in comparison to other airlines and looks cheap compared to likes of British Airways and Virgin !

I’d say select Asia routes are even better value with Hong Kong at 31,500 + 299 Euros in taxes and fees 

 

Naturally Asian/African Itinerary makes better sense for us in UK/North Western Europe so you are not doing an unnecessary de-tour

When you are flying as far as South/Central America is might not seem so bad however. 36.000 Miles for Panama is again amazing value for such a long flight with fewer direct options from Europe and thus much more pricier in other programmes.

Nothing screams like a deal as much as seeing the stark contrast between the regular award ticket price against this promo !

The taxes and fees come in at 380 Euro on this route, which is still reasonable.

London Routes

While London is not specially a sale city, you can use this deal as long as your destination is. The trouble is, there is far less saver level availability. And even when you do find some rare dates, you will offcourse pay much higher charges.

The Hong Kong example above is available on more limited dates than Amsterdam but taxes and surcharges come in over £350 in taxes one-way

What is Turkish Airlines Business Class Like?

On the whole Turkish Airlines is a solid airline comfortably in my top 10. Not only does it have great onboard service with chefs and great Do&Co catering. They offer good amenities abroad with a fantastic airport and lounges to boot !

The hard product is very comfortable but now rather dated on the 777 and A330 Business Class. However there are now plenty of 787 and A350 in the fleet for you to select specific routes if that is a big deal.

Unfortunately my last 3 trips with them have all ended up on a A330 or A320. I’ve already a couple of Turkish Airlines trips booked for 2024 which are currently slated to be on A350/787, I will report back on.

What If You Are Not a Miles&Smiles Member?

Join! Simple.

You’d ordinarily earn Miles&Smiles miles via flying either Turkish or other Star Alliance carriers and credit to Turkish. That is too late to do to take advantage of this offer.

However if you miles sitting in Marriot Bonvoy / Bilt Rewards / Capital One, you can transferral miles to Miles & Smiles right away and it should clear in 2-3 days.

Overall Thoughts

This Turkish Airlines award sale is genuinely a true deal that I am sure will be popular. It’s also shined the light on me on how invaluable the Turkish Airlines programme can be, generally even without the sale !

The range of destinations on offer on this instance is reasonably broad and what is great is if your city is not listed on the qualifying cities above, you may not be out of luck. You only need to travel to or from one of the listed cities to trigger the 30% discount !

Personally I have most of my 2024 trips already booked so unable to take advantage of this, otherwise I’d be all over it and book multiple trips on the back of this. If you were still in planning stages for first half of 2024 trips, now may be the time to solidify that.

Book directly on Turkish Airlines here. Remember this promotion ends on 27th December!