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Turkish Airlines is running an unadvertised sale between Seattle and select cities in Europe and the Middle East. As flagged by Thrifty Traveler Premium, you can book award flights from Seattle to these destinations for as little as 21,000 miles in economy or just 31,500 miles in business class.
You're going to need Turkish Miles & Smiles to take advantage of this promotion. Don't worry if you don't already have Turkish Miles & Smiles; you can transfer from Citi ThankYou Points, Capital One Miles, and Bilt Rewards at 1:1 transfer rates.
Turkish Airways Miles & Smiles Flash Sale
In February-April 2023, you can book a one-way flight from Seattle through Istanbul to destinations in Europe or the Middle East on Turkish Airways for as little as 21,000 miles in economy or 31,500 miles in business class. This seems to be an unadvertised addition to the Miles & Smiles 30% off promotion currently being offered by the airline — although the discount varies by route.
Seattle to Rome
For example, fly economy class from Seattle to Rome via Istanbul for 21,000 miles, plus just $114.50 in taxes and fees:
Or fly business class from Seattle to Rome for 31,500 miles each way, plus $282.50 taxes and fees:
Seattle to Tel Aviv
Another appealing route currently on sale is from Seattle to Tel Aviv, Israel via Istanbul. This route currently costs 22,400 miles in economy or 32,900 miles each way in business class:
Seattle to Muscat, Oman
The longest route that we could find (without backtracking) is from Seattle through Istanbul to Muscat, Oman. You can book this route for 22,400 miles each way in economy or 32,900 miles in business class.
Other Eligible Routes
As compiled by Thrifty Traveler Premium, discounted awards are also available to the following destinations:
- Amman (AMM) – 33k
- Bahrain (BAH) – 33k
- Beirut (BEY) – 33k
- Bologna (BLQ) – 32k
- Bucharest (OTP) – 32k
- Budapest (BUD) – 32k
- Cologne (CGN) – 32k
- Doha (DOH) – 33k
- Frankfurt (FRA) – 32k
- Ljubljana (LJU) – 32k
- Madrid (MAD) – 32k
- Malta (MLA) – 32k
- Naples (NAP) – 32k
- Podgorica (TGD) – 32k
- Pristina (PRN) – 32k
- Riyadh (RUH) – 33k
- Sarajevo (SJJ) – 32k
- Sofia (SOF) – 32k
- Stuttgart (STR) – 32k
- Tblisi (TBS) – 32k
- Thessaloniki (SKG) – 32k
- Vienna (VIE) – 32k
- Vilnius (VNO) – 32k
- Zagreb (ZAG) – 32k
- Zurich (ZRH) – 32k
How to Take Advantage of This Offer
To find these deals, log in with your Miles and Smiles account and select “Award ticket – buy a ticket with miles” when searching. You can get the same deal flying back from these select destinations to the US, except the taxes and fees are a bit higher.
Turkish Airways has operated their direct Seattle to Istanbul flight 4 times a week starting on May 27, 2022. The aircraft is a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner — one of my favorite airlines in the skies.
AwardWallet Editor JT Genter recently got a chance to fly in just this product and found it to be excellent:
Transfer from Citi and Capital One to Turkish Miles and Smiles
If you don't already have Miles and Smiles, you can transfer points from your Citi, Capital One, or Bilt:
- Citi ThankYou Points transfer to Turkish Miles at a 1:1 transfer ratio and take one day to process. You can buy 1,000 Citi ThankYou Points for $25.
- Capital One Venture Miles now transfer to Turkish Airways Miles and Smiles at a 1:1 transfer ratio (instant transfer).
- Bilt Rewards also transfer to Turkish Miles & Smiles at a 1:1 transfer rate.
Just make sure to create a new Turkish Airways account if you don't already have one. If you have more than enough miles, don't forget you can use Miles & Smiles to book inexpensive award flights with any Star Alliance airline.
Is this a deal you would take advantage of?
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Great article! Can I transfer my United Airlines miles to Miles and Smiles to take account of this offer?
Unfortunately not. However, you can transfer Citi ThankYou points, Capital One miles, or even Marriott Bovnoy points to Turkish Miles & Smiles. See all of your points and miles transfer options here: https://awardwallet.com/mile-transfer-times
I’ll add this to my bucket list as my return from Istanbul for a future trip, but for now, I’m about 10k shy of the Bilt points needed to book this. However, it’s a goal worth saving up for!
Business is 105,000 now
That’s only on dates that don’t have saver availability. Search some other dates and hopefully you’ll find the sub-34k fares!
This seems to show up as 105,000 miles one way for me? How can you find this?
That’s the price for non-saver dates. I’m still seeing sub-34k awards on some dates.
I’ve flown this several times however I’ve just tried numerous dates and nothing shows for under 105K business?
great deal! plus, if you have a stop of several hours turkish airlines offers a free tour or free hotel!
Unfortunately, it looks as if “Stopover Free Accommodation Service has been temporarily suspended as a precaution to Corona Virus (COVID-19) as of 13th of March, 2020.” https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/flights/stopover/
Just you to know the Turkish lira has hit a record low last Nov , this means that holidays will be cheaper than ever.
31,500 miles for business class on Turkish is a great deal.
It is definitely an excellent opportunity to get to know Turkey, I recommend it. Don’t miss out on this fascinating country!
If you are contemplating travel to Turkey, I highly recommend a couple of weeks exploring the west of the country at least, outside of Istanbul. Amazing place, lots of Roman and ancient history, the food is absolutely superb, ( particularly their wonderful breakfasts) and the country is well set up for tourists. Politics aside, a very worthwhile travel destination.
This is a great deal for AA flyers from South America due to easy and big number of combination of routes that AA has bettwen Dallas Airport and South Americas airports .
It seems to be a great opportunity!
They are now 31500 miles in business
Thanks for the heads up! We updated the post.
That is an amazing deal for both economy and business class–especially business class. But my big points are with Chase and others that don’t transfer to Miles and Smiles. Istanbul is an amazing place and I would love to go back some day. However, in addition to this not being a deal for me, travel to Asia during the ongoing Covid crisis is more hassle than I want right now.
Istanbul is always a great city for a layover.
The Turkish Airlines Business Lounge in the New Istanbul Airport is supposed to be fantastic.
TK hard product in Long haul is is great and the short haul business probably the best in Europe, so can be worth the detour to IST.
Looks like a good way to visit turkey on the cheap
What a great deal! Time to open up a Citi Premier card to transfer all those points to Turkish Miles and Smiles.
Thanks for the tip! Istanbul is also also a short distance from other places, it is easy to hop back to Greece and even Italy in the same trip .
Always wanted to go to IST and have heard great things about TK’s hard and soft products
Feels like the fee surcharge ($170) is a bit too high…
100% agree. I paid $563 for a one way ticket from ATH-IST-BOS-RDU for a flight in October 2019 — 22,000 miles + $170 doesn’t seem like a great deal.
That business class ticket seems like a GREAT deal though.
A great opportunity to enjoy the excellent business class of Turkish
This is certainly a very good deal. Does anyone know how the overall availability is for 2 seats ?
This is an awesome opportunity to visit Turkey. I’ll definitely be checking it out to get a chance to visit Turkey for the first time.
Turkey nowadays is a gate to America for Europeans. You just have to spend 2 weeks there before departure.
I’m refraining from nonessential travel at this time, but will look for good deals to fly to Turkey in the future.
That’s a hot deal. Headed to Turkey next year (knock on wood). Luckily got a similar price on the direct flight from LA.
Istanbul was Constantinople…Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople…Now it’s Turkish delight on a moonlit night