Turkish Airlines offers incredible award value on North American flight redemptions. It’s a great strategy for flying on Star Alliance airlines like United or Air Canada at a cheaper cost. You may be thinking to yourself, “That’s great, but I never fly Turkish Airlines and I certainly don’t have any of their miles.” A few quick notes on that:

• We collectively had 40,000 Turkish miles in our Miles & Smiles accounts without ever once flying on a Turkish Airlines plane.
• We had those miles because Turkish Airlines offered status matching when the Star Alliance Gold loophole through Aegean Airlines closed.
• Open a frequent flyer account with as many airlines as you can. They’re free!
• Use the website wheretocredit.com to find the highest mileage accrual rate for your flights.
• Turkish Airlines is a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.

Why isn’t everybody doing it?

The only catch is that you must go to a physical Turkish Airlines office to redeem miles for partner awards. This places a pretty decent barrier to entry into the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program for people living in the US who want to redeem for non-Turkish flights. Additionally, the miles expire three years after accrual and there is no method to extend them.

That’s exactly why we both had expiring miles in our Miles and Smiles accounts. There is no Turkish Airlines office in Dallas and the closest is located in Houston. Recently, we both traveled to Chicago for work obligations. Before departing ORD airport we visited the Turkish Airlines ticket counter in Terminal 5 to redeem miles for a last minute flight.

Turkish Airlines Partner Award Booking Process    

When I’m not traveling, I’m fortunate that I work remotely. My husband travels weekly for his job. So I impulsively decided to use my expiring Turkish miles to return to Chicago with him again. However, a round-trip economy ticket was $674 or 25,000 miles with United. Whereas I could redeem 15,000 Turkish miles for the exact same flights.

Cash price for the United flights I wanted fly last minute with my husband

I first searched for award availability on United.com and wrote down the specific flight numbers I wanted to book. I gave the ticketing agent the flight numbers, my Turkish frequent flyer number, and ID.

United wanted 25,000 miles for the same exact flights. You can transfer Chase points to United 1:1.

He went into the back office to search for availability and asked us to take a seat while we wait. After about 15 minutes he reappeared and called us to the counter. He found availability on the flights I requested. Then gave me a print out that included the flight details, reservation number, and taxes/fees due.

My husband’s account contained enough miles for a roundtrip business class ticket within North America. My account was short 2K miles for a roundtrip economy ticket. Since you must physically appear at a Turkish ticketing office to redeem, we thought it made sense to empty my account first because my husband travels to Chicago weekly and I do not.

What Went Wrong

We knew we could buy or transfer the remaining miles for a small fee to make the redemption. I was anticipating completing the entire transaction at the counter. However, this is where things got weird. The agent said he could not accept my credit card at the ticket counter or finish the transaction. Instead he instructed me to call 1-800-874-8875 to obtain the remaining 2K miles and pay the taxes which were $132.02.

This confused me because everything I read online heavily emphasized that you MUST book and pay for Star Alliance partner awards at a Turkish office and could NOT do it via phone or online. The agent said my reservation would still be valid for the next 72 hours in order to pay the taxes/fees. He even said, “I’m going to keep working on this to see if I can get the taxes and fees total lower.” I trusted him, thanked him, and we went through security to board our flight home to Dallas.

However, when I called the number he provided the next morning my suspicions were confirmed. After speaking to multiple agents and supervisors…sure enough it was literally impossible for them to take my credit card over the phone because the award ticket was not on Turkish. *EYE ROLL* Every person told me that I needed to return to a Turkish office to complete my transaction—and I was now in Dallas.

Fortunately, one of my fellow travel nerds (who I met in the Facebook group Award Travel 101) lives in Chicago and offered to help. On his way home from work he stopped in the Turkish Airlines office located in downtown Chicago—not ORD airport. Armed with all of my information he explained the situation and within a few minutes completed the transaction on my behalf. Moments later I received an e-mail confirmation and e-ticket. Turns out the original agent did manage to lower the fees (like he mentioned) because the booking total came to $80.86 compared to the $132.02 on my printed reservation.

In the end my round trip DFW to ORD flights cost 15,000 Turkish miles and $80.86

The Approved Solution

Luckily this story ended on a positive note and the ticketing agent did some things correctly despite the miscommunication. Customers can buy or transfer remaining necessary miles but CANNOT pay the fees over the phone. The problem could have been entirely prevented if I  transferred the remaining miles or purchased them ($30 per 1,000) online before leaving the Turkish Airlines office. Then paid the fees with my credit card at the desk. Next time we know to only attempt award ticketing when all necessary miles are in the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles account.

My goal is to use our last expiring miles to fly Air Canada business class to Vancouver over a long weekend. Stay tuned.

Featured image courtesy of Turkish Airlines Press Room

The post Redeeming Turkish Airlines miles for United flights appeared first on Seize the Globe.

This post will cover two of the main premium travel loyalty rewards currencies: Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards. I’ll walk you through how I booked my award flights to Italy by leveraging these currencies and the Star Alliance network.

This isn’t my sexiest award travel redemption by any means, but when award bookings align perfectly for convenience it’s always a win. My husband travels on a weekly basis and internationally for extended periods of time. His current business trip is in Italy for 2 weeks. To be honest, I’ve been missing him quite a lot recently. Luckily, I managed to join him for only $96.55 cash out of pocket and I am writing this from Bologna. 

Instead of flying business class on a completely separate oneworld itinerary using American Airlines miles (like my previous Qatar flights), I decided to redeem for cheap economy tickets on my husband’s exact same flights. His company booked him on a paid business class fare, so the plan was for us to possibly switch seats half way through the flights anyway.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to seven different airlines—which includes United that transfers at a 1:1 ratio. I found award availability on United website for a one way ticket to Milan (DFW-FRA-MXP) on Lufthansa for 30K miles. Luckily this matched my husband’s itinerary! If you’re completely unfamiliar with airline alliances, the way I could book a Lufthansa flight using United miles is because they are both members of the Star Alliance network.

Here I transferred 30,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to my United Mileage Plus account—and they posted immediately. Below is my receipt for the one way ticket from Dallas to Milan which only cost $41.50 in taxes/fees.

American Express Membership Rewards

Now, the reason why I didn’t book a round trip is because there happens to be a current targeted promotion for a 20% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan which is the loyalty program for Air Canada (another Star Alliance member).

Using Aeroplan’s website, I found award availability for the return leg home on United for 30K miles and $55.05 USD in taxes/fees. Thanks to the 20% transfer bonus, this saved me 5K American Express Membership Rewards points. Unfortunately, the Lufthansa flight was not available via Aeroplan. Otherwise, I would have preferred to book the entire round trip using this promotion.

This is an example of why it’s a great strategy to earn diverse types of points and miles because it allows flexibility to take advantage of different award redemptions.  Our unwritten “rule” is that we, personally, only redeem points/miles for premium, international cabins TOGETHER. This was our first trip booking different fares and asking flight attendants to allow us to spend time together and switch seats. The Lufthansa staff on board our flight from Dallas to Frankfurt were incredibly accommodating. We’ll see how United handles it when we try the same thing on our return flight from Milan to Newark.

Lufthansa business class lie flat seat and breakfast arriving into Frankfurt thanks to Chase!

The post Using Chase and American Express Points to Fly to Italy appeared first on Seize the Globe.

How/why we booked Le Méridien Resort and Spa Koh Samui:

Continuing from my Thailand Honeymoon – Part 1 post that detailed the first half of our trip…

Full disclosure: the honeymoon was super high on the priority list. To put it in perspective, we booked the tickets four weeks after our engagement and before I put a single wedding dress on my body. Our strategy for flights was a little out there for most people, but since Sean and I like to maintain several different types of elites statuses we wanted to turn it somewhat of a mileage run as well. I have status with oneworld carriers and Sean is Star Alliance Gold originally through Aegean, but now also using Turkish Airlines. That is a whole different blog post altogether, but if you want to learn a little about the details you can read my old post here (it’s outdated since Aegean restructured their loyalty program shortly after). Therefore we knew we wanted to travel on a Star Alliance carrier so we could not only rack up tons of miles for Sean to maintain his elite status, but also for the fabulous lounge access during our connections.

First lounge stop of the trip. United Airlines Red Carpet Club at NRT

As for the hotels, we decided to split the duties for choosing our lodging. Sean selected the resorts for the first week and I decided on using Starwood (SPG) points to book our second week. The reason why we did this is because Thailand is very inexpensive. Although we could have stayed in Conrad and W hotels the entire time we simply did not wish to spend all of our points because it would not be the best value of redemption. The Starwood property I chose was the Le Méridien Koh Samui Resort and Spa. Sean and I have stayed at several SPG properties and both hold Gold elite status with them. Sean once missed earning Platinum status by 2 nights one year and that’s hopefully a mistake we’ll never overlook again. Our elite status not only gives us extra points each time we stay at a property, but it frequently means free upgrades to suites at check-in. Additionally, the Starwood Preferred Guest program is one of the few travel loyalty programs that allow spouses to transfers points between accounts for free!

After I confirmed the availability of our preferred dates on spg.com, I called Starwood in order to hold our reservation because I did not have enough points in my account to cover the stay. The rate was 12,000 SPG points per night for the standard room and the fifth night was free. When I called the Gold Service Desk and spoke to a customer service representative, he helped me both transfer points from Sean’s account to cover the balance and put the reservation on a 7 day hold until the transfer fully processed. The agent on the phone asked me about the purpose of our trip and after I told him it was a honeymoon he made sure to document that in the reservation. This piqued me interest and I proceeded to ask him about the potential of getting a complimentary upgrade since I noticed that I could not book a suite for that particular week. He gave me a blanket statement that there’s always a possibility when there are special events like honeymoons involved. That’s when I really started to investigate. You see, honeymoons are an incredibly memorable time in people’s lives. Hotels absolutely love going above and beyond for honeymooners in order to establish a brand loyalty. Hotel chains know that if they can make a good first impression on your honeymoon then it is very likely that you will return to either the same property or similar resorts within their portfolios for future trips such as anniversaries.

From there I took it a step further and decided to directly contact the resort’s General Manager. I used a combination of researching on TripAdvisor and LinkedIn to locate her name and contact information. Then I sent the following e-mail:

Hi Xxxxxxxxx,

I recently booked an award booking for my upcoming honeymoon at Le Méridien Koh Samui Resort & Spa in April 2015. We were really looking forward to booking the Plunge Pool suite, but  unfortunately it was not an option for an award booking. I am an SPG Gold member and my account number is xxxxxxxxxxxxx and the reservation confirmation number is xxxxxxxxxxxx (15 – 20 April 2015). We are beyond excited to be celebrating our honeymoon at your property. We just wanted to connect with you and see if anything could be done in terms of an upgrade to the plunge pool due to our Gold status and since it is our honeymoon? Please let us know! We absolutely cannot wait to begin our marriage at your beautiful resort.

She responded within a few hours and said that she would be happy to help. She explained that I would need to follow up with her as our check-in date approached because I had contacted her 7 months in advance and did not have enough visibility to predict the capacity of the hotel. Additionally, she also told me how to properly secure the Plunge Pool Suite option using additional points in case we felt more comfortable knowing it was confirmed beforehand. I decided to risk waiting to see what type of complimentary deal SPG could offer instead.

Over the course of the next few months of wedding planning, I periodically kept in contact with the General Manager and was feeling pretty good about the situation. I knew that no matter what happened, we still had an incredible honeymoon planned and an entire week in the Gulf of Thailand and three other resorts to visit!

Final Stop: Le Méridien Resort and Spa Koh Samui

It was hard to believe that our honeymoon was close to complete, but we still had five more nights to enjoy at this gorgeous SPG property! Everything at this resort was calm and serene—even beginning at the check-in process. After taking a short ride from Mantra, we arrived at Le Méridien and were escorted through the breathtaking outdoor lobby to wait in a comfortable lounge area and served mocktails. After a few minutes of decompressing from the hotel transfer, a front desk employee approached and began to inform us about the resort’s amenities while checking us in. Unfortunately, the General Manager was traveling in Bangkok but she made sure to annotate our reservation with a complimentary upgrade to THE PLUNGE POOL SUITE.

We couldn’t believe it actually worked. Here we were with the opportunity to stay five nights in a private, luxury suite for free thanks to the SPG program! Needless to say, it was a spectacular stay. The staff was incredible and they really took time to take care of the details. This included complimentary drinks for our elite status as well as surprise room service desserts to celebrate our new marriage. Since the previous week was non-stop adventure and exploring different resorts, we took the few days to just relax together and enjoy the glorious pool and island of Koh Samui.

The post Thailand Honeymoon: Part 2 – Le Méridien Koh Samui appeared first on Seize the Globe.

• Sign up for an Aegean Airlines Miles & Bonus account
• A3 automatically deposits 1,000 miles–just for registering!
• You now have 1 year from your first flight credited to A3 to earn 20,000 miles total and get awarded *G status. Basically only 19,000 miles after they hand you 1,000
• The caveat to this is great. Even if you only manage to earn 4,000 additional miles and hit 5,000 total–you earn the Aegean Blue card which equates to *S
• From there you now must earn 16,000 points in order to earn *G and they give you another full year in order to accomplish this. Basically the clock resets

Sounds too good to be true? Check their terms and conditions page here.

UPDATE: Since this publishing Aegean changed their requirements for earning elite status. Now you need to fly 24,000 miles within 12 months and four of your flight segments MUST take place on Aegean or Olympic Air. If you do not meet the four flight segment criteria, then you must fly 48,000 miles on any Star Alliance partners. Although the loophole previously available no longer exists, you can still earn Star Alliance Gold status with Aegean. There are just a few better options out there. What we did was have my husband status match to Turkish Airlines–so now he currently hold Star Alliance Gold status through TWO airlines (until November 2016).

“Members who hold a BLUE Card and who have earned at least 16,000 Tier Miles within twelve (12) consecutive months from their first miles-accruing flight on the previous tier will receive the GOLD Card. If, however, the Blue Member, after completion of the aforementioned twelve-month period, has gathered less than 16,000 Tier Miles, then he/she shall remain a Blue Member, whilst the Tier Miles collected during that twelve-month period shall not be automatically reset, but shall rather be successively deleted one (1) year from the day of each respective flight event, effected within the 12-month period in question.”

The post Earn Lifetime Star Alliance Gold through Aegean Airlines appeared first on Seize the Globe.

Even for the novice travelers, most people are aware that the American Express Platinum charge card is notorious for excellent travel benefits. I plan on writing a series of posts specifically pertaining to this unique card. It happens to be one of the favorite cards I have in my own wallet and there are numerous strategies to maximize all the benefits it has to offer. To kick it off, I am going to address the $200 airline fee credit because this is one of the most overlooked and underutilized features.

For those of you who are American Express members or thinking of applying for a Platinum Amex here are some basic things you need to know about the $200 airline fee credit:

• You are entitled to $200 of airline fee credit per CALENDAR year. Not the anniversary when you opened the account–January 1st of each year
• You must specifically enroll in this benefit and indicate which airline you prefer (American, Delta, United, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue, Frontier, Soutwest/AirTran)
• You may do so by calling the number on the back of your card or going here
• Consider applying for the Platinum Amex in late Q3 or during Q4. This way you have the ability to earn two x $200 credits in one 12-month period!
• I usually sign up for an airline that I do not have an associated co-branded credit card or elite benefits
• This is intended to cover incidental fees such as checked bags, overweight baggage fees, in-flight refreshments, pet flight fees, seat assignment fees, etc. when you use your enrolled Platinum (Business or Personal plus Centurion) Amex
• Keep in mind that one can expand this benefit even more by also having the Business version

Here are a few strategies in which you can maximize the full $200 every year and slash that $450 fee in half instantly (just with this one benefit):

Use your enrolled Amex to purchase airline gift cards.

• Purchase small amounts at a time. $50 to be conservative. However, members have had success with higher values. (Delta – increments over $50 will not work)
• Wait for the transaction to post and you will see the credit appear in anywhere from 48-72 hours (I have been told the longest was a week, but I have never experienced this)
• Do this four times and you now have $200 worth of gift cards for your airline of choice
• My experience is that American and Delta will limit you to three gift cards per transaction. So if you purchase in increments of $50, that is $150 off your next ticket
• You can also use them to purchase day passes for lounges that you do not normally have a membership nor access to
• Confirmed gift card reimbursements reported: American, Delta, Southwest, Alaska Airlines, US Airways
• United must be done through the Gift Registry
• Unfortunately, no dice for Hawaiian Airlines or JetBlue

Other reported reimbursement successes include: United award cancellation fees (required calling Amex), JetBlue Even More Leg room fee, Hawaiian Air Premier Club membership ($200/$250), and more.

There are those who have experienced actual flights getting reimbursed. However, these were under $100 (i.e. inter-island Hawaiian flights, etc.). Rare these days.

Lastly, for those that were given a credit with American/US Airways for the loss of access to the Admirals Clubs/US Airways Clubs back in March, you can use the $100 – $500 (highest reported) in the same manner. ***Note*** This is IN ADDITION to your original $200 airline fee credit. American Express always does a nice job when it comes to retention offers or even creating new member benefits whenever something like that happens. For instance, they not only offered additional airline reimbursement fees that I just mentioned but also MR bonuses (as reported by TPG), and Amex is even in the process of building dozens of new American Express Centurion lounges throughout the country. These lounges put every single domestic lounge to shame, to say the least, with benefits including free massages and manicures, premium meals created by famous culinary experts, and signature cocktails. These are the types of lounges that won’t make you bat an eye at losing access to the regular domestic carriers’ lounges. Current locations are DFW and LAS with SFO, MIA, and LGA to be finished in the coming months.

Please also remember that in addition to initially specifying your airline of choice, if you would like to change the airline for the following year you must call and do so. Otherwise your airline preference will remain the same. This may be done ONCE per year.

Lastly, each airline listed has its own specific thread on FlyerTalk that discusses this very topic. That means you have the ability to research other fliers’ experiences prior to you deploying your own strategy.

Please feel free to leave questions in comments section. I have maxed this offer two years in a row plus the American/US Airways credit earlier this year.

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