UPDATE: The reason we appear to be seeing the “old” pricing on the Turkish Airlines website is that new post-devaluation pricing does not go into effect until February 16, 2024.
Language has been added suggesting the old award charts are valid until February 15, 2024, giving us one week to book under old redemption rates. This advance notice, though limited, is greatly appreciated.
Turkish Airlines has still not officially confirmed this devaluation outside of that single webpage, but I would now say it is all but certain.
It appears that Turkish Airlines is on the brink of a massive devaluation of its Miles & Smiles program. If you are holding miles in the program, now might be a very good time to make a future booking before rates increase.
It Appears Turkish Airlines Is Planning A Massive Miles & Smiles Devaluation
As noted by Prince of Travel, Turkish Airlines has just published new award tables on its website that contradict recently-published award charts and suggest that the price of awards on both Turkish Airlines and on partner carriers is about to go way up.
Turkish Airlines may be a pain to deal with but has long offered exceptional value on award tickets, with one-way tickets between the USA and Europe (via Istanbul) pricing at only 45,000 miles in business class. Even with fuel surcharges, that is one of the most attractive ways to cross the Atlantic. Traveling further to Africa, the Middle East, or Asia also represented an outstanding value both outright and compared to its peers.
It was just last week, on January 26, 2024, that Turkish Airlines published stylistically-updated award charts reflecting the prevailing rates:
As you can see, this chart reflects pricing we have seen for years.
New Award Chart
But on another part of its website, it has now published a new table for Turkish Airlines flights and the implications are not pretty. Here’s the new chart:
Note that a one-way “promotion award ticket” (i.e. saver level award) in business class from Turkey to North America is now 65,000 miles (up from 45,000).
That represents a 45% increase in price.
It does not appear that “award ticket” prices (i.e. standard level awards with access to more seats) have increased.
But it gets worse.
Additive Pricing Per Segment?
Note the chart above is to/from Turkey. Below the chart, Turkish Airlines has published guidelines for how to calculate how much an award ticket will cost:
For flights departing from abroad – connecting in Turkey – and arriving abroad, the sum of the Miles for flights arriving and departing from Turkey is taken as the basis.
For example, if you want to issue an economy class promotional award ticket from Dubai to London, you need to spend 18,000 Miles for the DXB-IST segment and 15,000 Miles for the IST-LHR segment, totaling 33,000 Miles.
Currently, an economy promotional award between London and Dubai is only 15,000 miles, so this represents an increase of more than 100%.
Historically, Turkish Airlines has used zone-based pricing so flights to anywhere in Europe were the same price as flying only to Turkey (i.e. 45,000 miles for business class from Los Angeles to Istanbul or Los Angeles to Dublin via Istanbul). It appears now that Turkish will employ per-segment pricing, much like British Airways does when redeeming Avios.
If true, an award between Western Europe and the USA in business class would rise from 45,000 miles to 85,000 miles, an increase of 89%.
Partner Redemptions Also Rise
Unfortunately, this change does not just impact Turkish Airlines flights, but also redemptions on partner carriers.
Take a look at pricing:
85K for business class between Europe 1 and North America represents an 89% rise in price while first class tickets rise from 67.5K to 130K, a 100% increase.
It appears that domestic flights (long a sweet spot for flyers in the USA wanting to travel to Hawaii) will increase slightly in price, from 7.5K one-way in economy class and 12.5K in business class to 10K in economy class and 15K in business class.
The old chart is still available online.
A Devaluation Is Reasonable, But A Sudden, No-Notice Devaluation Is Not
It has been years since Turkish Airlines devalued its award charts. During a time in which virtually every other program has devalued, a devaluation itself is not unreasonable.
The new rates, while painful, will still leave some value in the program.
But we have heard no formal announcement from Turkish Airlines yet and essentially doubling redemption rates overnight without notice is a textbook example of stabbing customers in the back.
Then again, Turkish Airlines isn’t known for customer service…
CONCLUSION
We will have to mark this story as developing, but it does appear we are on the verge of a massive devaluation from Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles.
The award booking engine online is still pricing at old rates as of 2:00 AM ET, so if you are thinking about a redemption and already have the points in your account, consider booking something now before prices rise.
This could all be a false alarm, but I doubt it…
So they’re turning into Avios except with a lot more difficulty to make many bookings? Not good. And it’s not like finding business class award space is a walk in the park anyway.
I really don’t get the logic of additive pricing, it’s like airlines are going out of their way to disincentivise those who aren’t based in their hub and have to take connecting flights- in other words, turning revenue pricing logic on its head and driving customers away.
Given how cheap their paid J often is it’s almost better to pay cash and credit the miles elsewhere. Honestly, given the true hell the customer service is I found TK to be less than ideal for redemptions when even cheap. Now, it’s a no go.
Their business class pricing is wild. They often charge about $1000 just for a return between the UK and Turkey or the Balkans (BA J fares on LON-SOF start at £200 rtn), while it’s not unusual to see Far Eastern destinations priced at €1600 or so (when everyone else is asking for about double that).
Asia, ME and ex Europe to the U.S. are the two areas where I see often very reasonable one way J fares last minute. Often half what others are charging.
Exhibit #600 that Turkish sucks. You don’t have to take my word.
Even though it’s still 45,000 miles for a J flight to Europe, surcharges went way up to $1,100 per person. I tried to book for four and it jumped from $440 total to $4,000+. Even with that, online booking failed anyway (was just trying to go all the way to the payment page).
Booking through the app the surcharges show correctly (under $300). Unfortunately, the space for 4 people is gone now.
I definitely miss 47K IAH-IST-AUH, but with that gone, TK becomes fairly irrelevant to me despite how many places they fly. I’d rather fly QR anyway, and they’re impractical for most of Europe. I also don’t get everyone’s fascination with the lounges in IST. The food is marginally above average, the drinks are well below. Seating is a disaster. I think their only selling point for me is IST as a destination, but I’m a sucker and I’ll just fly 3.5h in Club Europe because I’m a OW simp.
They’re very practical for most of Europe as long as you are travelling from/to Asia or East/South Africa. Business class between Europe and the Far East is a lot better with a short flight and a long one than breaking it up transiting DXB/AUH/DOH in the middle of the night (the reverse is true for Y as you don’t want to be stuck in that seat for 12 hours).
Flying between N. America and the UK/Benelux/France/Iberia (the peninsula not the airline) via IST only makes sense if you need the additional mileage earnings.
With these changes and TK biz reward space in my city largely disappeared…. I’ll be moving on from TK and Miles and Smiles. I burned my last 45K this morning for a biz flight later this year. Now at a balance of zero.
Before the pandemic they even used to have some nice biz fares between NA and Europe … especially Europe originating. Not so much anymore. I think their service has slipped too post pandemic IME and my tolerance for the old biz seats on the 777 is now very low— very uncompetitive. It was good while it lasted but their fuel surcharges, along with per segment pricing and uncompetitive mileage rates— no thanks., It’s kind of a relief in a way given how frustrating their customer service could be.