Turkish Airlines' loyalty program with access to Star Alliance partner flights and a unique free Istanbul stopover on round-trip bookings. Despite recent price increases, still offers competitive rates for transatlantic premium cabin flights.
These cards earn transferable points that can be converted to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.
Our Valuation
1.5 cents per point(CAD)
1.1 cents per point (USD)
Turkish Miles&Smiles offers fixed Star Alliance partner pricing and a unique free Istanbul stopover on round-trip awards, but two devaluations in 2024-2025 have significantly eroded its legendary sweet spots. No Canadian bank program transfers to M&S, so most Canadians should book Turkish Airlines flights via Aeroplan and reserve M&S miles for niche use cases like US domestic business on United at fixed chart rates.
Last updated: February 8, 2026
Turkish Airlines, with its global hub in Istanbul, flies to more countries than any other carrier in the world. With a fleet of 400 aircraft, the airline flies to more than 300 destinations in 120 countries.
As one of the biggest and best airlines in the world, it’s important for you to familiarize yourself with its frequent flyer program, Miles&Smiles.
The program allows you to earn miles that can be redeemed for flights not only on Turkish Airlines’s massive network, but also on its Star Alliance partners as well.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything there is to know about Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, including how to optimize your earning and redeeming within the program.
Even with the bonus, it’s an unfavourable exchange altogether, so you should only convert your Marriott Bonvoy points to Turkish miles when you need a top-up on a planned redemption. Otherwise, you should save your Bonvoy points for aspirational hotel and resort stays.
Transferring Marriott Bonvoy Points into Airline Miles
Read moreOther than Marriott Bonvoy, you could also transfer points from the following hotel programs at suboptimal rates:
If you’re flying wholly within Türkiye, you’ll earn a fixed amount of miles, depending on your cabin class and not your distance flown. You can expect to earn 150–600 miles in economy, or 1,000–1,250 miles in business class.
On the other hand, if your ticket involves international segments, the number of miles you’ll earn depends on your distance flown, cabin, fare class, and elite status.
You’ll earn miles based on the following earning chart:
Turkish Airlines is a member of Star Alliance; thus, you can earn miles with any of its alliance partners. The airline also partners with a few non-alliance airlines as noted below.
The following are Turkish Airlines’s airline partners:
Star Alliance
Non-Alliance Partners
By default, a block of 1,000 Turkish miles can be purchased for $30 (USD) or 3 cents per mile. You’re allowed to buy up to 50,000 miles per calendar year.
Sometimes, the airline holds promotions that entail up to 100% bonus miles. If you chance upon a 100% bonus promotion, your acquisition cost drops to 1.5 cents per mile.
When you book your accommodations with the following hotel chains and platforms, you may choose to earn Turkish miles at the following rates:
However, even though Turkish Airlines redemptions are "zone-based", the amount of miles needed for a redemption is additive instead of truly zone-based.
For example, if you fly from North America to Frankfurt with a stopover in Istanbul, you'll have to add up the cost for a flight between North America and Türkiye zones and between Türkiye and Europe zones, instead of just looking at the cost for a flight between North America and Europe.
There are two award charts: one for promotion award tickets, and one for regular award tickets. Naturally, promotional awards, akin to “Saver” awards, are somewhat more difficult to find. You can think of it as Turkish Airlines’s way of imposing dynamic pricing.
Despite flying to 120 countries, Turkish Airlines has only divided the world into 12 redemption zones. The US and Canada are both in the North America zone.
Thus, from any city in the US or Canada, a one-way business class ticket to Türkiye costs 65,000 miles as a promotion award, and 135,000 miles as a regular award.
Also note that Turkish Airlines passes on carrier-imposed surcharges on award redemptions, though they are modest in most cases.
Companion tickets have their own promotional and regular award charts, and you may notice that the redemption costs are substantially lower than redeeming for tickets with miles outright.
A one-way business class companion ticket from the US or Canada to Türkiye costs 45,500 miles as a promotion award, and 94,500 miles as a regular award.
Compared to tickets redeemed with miles outright, companion tickets require 30% fewer miles for redemption.
Note that there are rules surrounding companion tickets, including:
Unfortunately, due to a severe devaluation in 2024, there isn't much to get excited about with partner award flights any more with Turkish miles.
Let’s take Washington DC (North America zone) to Lisbon (Europe 2 zone) as an example. A one-way business class redemption on TAP Air Portugal costs 90,000 miles, which isn't great value for a transatlantic crossing.
Keep in mind that the workflow for a partner award search is different from a Turkish Airlines award search. You must go to your Miles&Smiles account dashboard, navigate to "Miles transactions", and find the “Star Alliance award ticket” toolbar.
Alternatively, you can also call Miles&Smiles to book your chosen partner award flights, since Turkish Airlines doesn't seem to show all available Star Alliance flights online.
For any miles upgrade request, your flight must be paid under eligible fare classes. For Star Alliance upgrades, it doesn’t matter which Star Alliance carrier issued your ticket.
Since only higher fare classes are eligible for an upgrade with miles, you can’t expect deeply-discounted tickets, such as basic economy ones, to qualify.
For a one-way ticket from North America to Greece (Europe 1 zone), an economy to business class upgrade costs 85,000 miles, while a business class to First Class upgrade costs 130,000 miles.
If you check the award redemption table, the cost for an upgrade with miles is the same for a promotional or “Saver” award redemption. Hence, one of the few instances where it might make sense to upgrade with miles is when you can’t find award availability on the days you need to fly.
You can maximize your redemptions and find “sweet spots” by considering the coverage and limits of each zone.
Important update (December 2025): Hawaii was previously included in the North America zone, making it a standout sweet spot. However, following the December 2025 devaluation, Hawaii has been separated into its own zone with significantly higher pricing — a one-way economy redemption from the mainland to Honolulu now costs 25,000 miles (up from 10,000), making this former sweet spot far less attractive.
Going by the redemption chart, a one-way intra-North America redemption costs 30,000 miles in economy and 40,000 miles in business class.
However, there seems to be still be some flights priced under the previous award chart.
You can also book other transcontinental United or Air Canada flights at the same rate – assuming you find availability, of course.
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Sweet Spots with Turkish Miles & Smiles (Cheap Awards to Hawaii!)
Read moreNaturally, long-haul flights, like Toronto or Montreal to Istanbul, are harder to come by as promotional or “Saver” awards; thus, you’d often have to pay more miles under the regular award table. However, higher-frequency flights like Istanbul to New York generally have more availability.
It’s likewise easier to find promotional award pricing for intra-Europe flights on Turkish Airlines. These include flights departing for other Star Alliance hubs, such as Frankfurt (Lufthansa) and Warsaw (LOT Polish Airlines), should you wish to connect to these partners.
Another tip you should be aware of is Turkish Airlines’s stopover program, which includes award tickets, unlike other carriers. Remember, you may add a stopover in Istanbul when you book a round-trip Turkish Airlines flight award.
Business class award passengers are entitled to two nights at a five-star hotel, while economy award passengers are entitled to one night at a four-star hotel.
To qualify, your award ticket’s stopover in either direction must be for at least 20 hours, and you must not be coming from or connecting to a domestic flight in Türkiye.
Further, your award ticket must’ve been issued by Turkish Airlines under the Miles&Smiles program. Turkish Airlines flights on tickets booked by other Star Alliance partners aren’t eligible.
Status Miles are earned through flying Turkish Airlines, AnadoluJet, and partner airlines, and they’re distinct from program miles, which you can use for redemptions. You’ll usually earn the same number of Status Miles as program miles.
You’ll need to earn the following Status Miles to advance to the next tier:
The program’s zone-based redemption charts went through some recent devaluations, which did away with most of the program's great deals and sweet spots.
Still, there are still some solid redemption options, especially if you want to prioritize travel with Turkish Airlines or can leverage some partner redemptions that still offer good value.
First-year value
$336
Monthly fee: $15.99
• Earn 1,250 points per month upon spending $750 per month for 12 months
Earning rates
Key perks
Monthly fee: $15.99
• Earn 1,250 points per month upon spending $750 per month for 12 months
Earning rates
Key perks
