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