Turkish Airlines has just officially announced a change to their award chart for the Miles&Smiles programme, which instantaneously makes it from one of the good programmes to one of the not-so-good ones. The changes, fortunately, roll out on February 16, 2024, so we still have some time to get the bookings done.

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles programme

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles loyalty programme is a transfer partner of Citi, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank (Diners Club and Infinia) and is a great loyalty programme for travel not just in India but from India to other parts of the world as well. For instance, around India, the loyalty programme issues economy tickets for just 7,500 miles (including connections) and business class tickets for just 12,500 miles (again, including connections).

Here is a list of some of the other one-way business and economy class tickets on Turkish Airlines:

• India to Turkey for 20,000 miles in economy and 40,000 miles in business
• India to the US for 55,000 miles in economy and 125,000 miles in business
• India to North Africa for 52,500 miles in economy and 85,000 miles in business

The full chart is here.

There were other amazing deals as well. However, these will only last for a while. Earlier in the week, Turkish Airlines published a new award chart, which moved the needle in terms of how the pricing will change for Turkish Airlines and Star Alliance redemptions using the airlines’ loyalty programme.

Here is the new award chart from the airline’s website. It reflects one-way pricing for the airline’s chart.

The following change is even more devastating. Right now, Turkish used to price tickets as Origin to Destination (the old-school classic way of pricing awards). Now, Turkish will move to additive, per-segment award pricing. For instance, here is an example that the airline presents on the website for an award from Dubai to London.

In this case, the earlier one-way redemption in the economy cabin used to be 27,500 miles, but now, it will be priced as two separate segments, so the amount of miles due goes up to 33,000. And if you used to get the “promotional” pricing, which was 15,000 miles, then this is over a 100% hike.

Fortunately, domestic ticket redemptions on Star Alliance partner airlines are not increasing much. Both for Economy and Business Class, these will go up just by 2,500 miles per passenger, so just 10K Miles in Economy and 15K Miles in Business Class for bookings made after February 15, 2024.

I would suggest only booking firm tickets if you have any plans in the next few days. If your plans don’t work out, the ticket cancellation fee for awards is USD 70 (INR 5800) per sector per passenger.

My Analysis

These changes are massive when you combine those factors (additive pricing and a new award chart). For example, a Delhi to Istanbul and onwards to Los Angeles business class award will move from 52,500 miles to 100,000 miles. Not to forget the high fuel surcharges the airline passes on to customers.

Here are some prominent changes:

• India to North America
  • Economy
    • Star Alliance moves from 34,000 miles to 60,000 miles (+76%)
    • Turkish Redemption moves from 55,000 miles to 80,000 miles (+45%)
  • Business
    • Star Alliance moves from 52,500 miles to 100,000 miles (+90%)
    • Turkish Redemption moves from 125,000 miles to 185,000 miles (+48%)
  • First Class
    • Star Alliance moves from 77,000 miles to 150,000 miles (+94%)

Bottomline

Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles loyalty programme will introduce a new award chart, which will represent a significant devaluation as of February 16, 2024. Award costs will increase significantly, and award pricing will also move to be additive, which means that you pay for each segment rather than from origin to destination.

What do you think of the Miles&Smiles award chart devaluation?

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