Turkish Airlines is one of our favorite ways to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and their miles are incredibly valuable, to boot. A new promo makes that case even stronger if you want to fly economy or business class to Europe, the Middle East, or even Africa next year.
Turkish is running a promo for 30% off for award fares booked using Turkish Miles and Smiles to Europe, bringing economy tickets down to 21,000 miles each way … and just 31,500 miles for lie-flat Turkish Airlines business class! This promo works on Turkish flights through May 31, 2024, but don’t wait to book: This promo ends next Wednesday, Dec. 27 – and availability could disappear sooner.
Don’t have Turkish miles? You may have an easy way to get them: The airline is a Capital One transfer partner, Citi transfer partner, and partners with Bilt Rewards, too. That means just 31,000 points and change from a *venture x* or *citi premier* can get you a lie-flat seat like this to Istanbul (IST), then connect far beyond.
Read our full review of Turkish Airlines business class!
And it’s not just a few nonstop routes that are eligible for this sale, either. It works from all of Turkish’s North American gateways: Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Chicago-O’Hare (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Detroit (DTW), Houston-Intercontinental (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), Montréal (YUL), New York City (JFK), Newark (EWR), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), Toronto (YYZ), Vancouver (YVR), and Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD).
While you can fly nonstop to Istanbul, you’ll get an even better deal by connecting onward from Turkish’s hub to one of 150-plus destinations throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Here’s the full list, with a few highlights below.
- Athens (ATH)
- Belgrade (BEG)
- Budapest (BUD)
- Catania (CTA)
- Dusseldorf (DUS)
- Frankfurt (FRA)
- Hamburg (HAM)
- Ljubljana (LJU)
- Madrid (MAD)
- Malta (MLA)
- Naples (NAP)
- Podgorica (TGD)
- Pristina (PRN)
- Rome (FCO)
- Salzburg (SZG)
- Skopje (SKP)
- Sofia (SOF)
- Stuttgart (STR)
- Varna (VAR)
- Zagreb (ZAG)
Just head to TurkishAirlines.com, log into your account, and start searching for award tickets. If these discounted tickets are available, you’ll see them in your results.
Economy is certainly a deal, but the best bang for your buck on this promo has got to be at the front of the plane in Turkish’s fancy business class. It was so good, in fact, that we gave our Thrifty Traveler Premium members first dibs at booking it earlier this week with an award alert.
Business class to Europe for under 32,000 points is an incredible value. And there weren’t just a handful of days to book, either. Look at all this business class availability when we first sent this alert to subscribers!
Some of these dates may have been snapped up by our subscribers already, but there are still plenty of dates available. Travel between March 27 and April 15 is blacked out.
You’ll find the most dates from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD), Montréal (YUL), New York City (JFK), and Vancouver (YVR). If you don’t live in one of those cities, book a positioning flight to take advantage anyway!
Here’s a perfect example: Flying from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to Athens (ATH) in business class doesn’t come easily – or cheaply. With this promo, it’s somehow both!
Turkish passes on a decent chunk of taxes and fees on award tickets – more than $200 no matter which cabin you book. But for a trip this cheap, that’s a small price to pay.
Bottom Line
This promotion from Turkish Airlines might be the best way to fly to Europe and beyond next year, with economy fares as low as 21,500 miles each way and business class even better at just 31,500 miles.
But don’t wait around. While travel through May 31, 2024 is eligible, you need to book by Dec. 27 to take advantage – or perhaps even sooner as savvy travelers beat you to the punch.