{"id":235272,"date":"2025-11-13T23:59:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/?p=235272\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:27:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:27:41","slug":"turkish-airlines-million-miles-posted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/news\/airlines\/turkish-airlines-million-miles-posted\/","title":{"rendered":"I Flew to Six Continents for Turkish Airlines\u2019 Million-Mile Challenge \u2014 and It Finally Paid Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the heels of the success of SAS's million-mile challenge<\/a>, Turkish Airlines launched its own head-turning million-mile promotion in June 2025: Fly Turkish Airlines to six continents to earn one million bonus miles<\/a>. The promotion sparked so much interest that the airline closed it down to anyone who didn't purchase tickets by July 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

When the promotion was announced, my wife and I already needed to fly from Europe to South America and then onward to North America. That meant we could strategically book flights to complete half of this challenge without adding too many extra flights. So, we put together a plan to earn 2 million miles at a cost of around $3,100 each<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Halfway into the challenge, we had some regrets. This was a lot<\/em> of miles in economy, and we found out the hard way that flying Turkish Airlines A350 economy is particularly uncomfortable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Katie Genter<\/em><\/enter><\/figure>\n

And then, it got worse. An Air Canada staffing delay on a positioning flight from Vancouver (YVR) to Seattle (SEA) caused more than a 3-hour delay arriving in Seattle. That was barely enough to make us miss our Turkish Airlines flight from Seattle (SEA) to Istanbul (IST) and then onward to Amman (AMM) to claim Asia.<\/p>\n

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The flight that we just missed from Seattle to Istanbul. Photo by JT Genter \/ AwardWallet<\/em><\/enter><\/figure>\n

With Turkish Airlines trying to charge thousands of dollars for us to rebook on the later Turkish Airlines flight, we abandoned that leg and flew Finnair to Europe to catch up to our onward flights from Istanbul (IST) to Cairo (CAI). We then booked a round-trip from Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Istanbul (IST) for a couple of months later to complete the Asia segment.<\/p>\n

Little did we know we still had the worst part of the challenge ahead. On what we planned to be our last flights of the challenge — an ultra-long-haul from Istanbul (IST) to Melbourne (MEL) via Singapore (SIN) — a passenger got so drunk and belligerent that the crew shut down the cabin and didn't serve any food or drinks for the back half of an 11-hour flight.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by JT Genter \/ AwardWallet<\/em><\/enter><\/figure>\n

Add in broken in-flight entertainment, broken lavatories, inoperative Wi-Fi, and exceptionally rude passengers. It was a very, very long journey.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by JT Genter \/ AwardWallet<\/em><\/enter><\/figure>\n

But all of those memories just got a bit more fond. This morning, my Turkish Miles&Smiles balance was finally updated. Just two days before the November 1-15 posting window ended, Turkish Airlines deposited one million miles<\/strong> each into my wife's and my accounts for completing this challenge. We are both now Turkish Airlines miles millionaires!<\/p>\n

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Screenshot of Turkish Miles&Smiles<\/em><\/enter><\/figure>\n

Turkish Airlines included “Great Voyager #00155” in my posting and “Great Voyager #00645” in Katie's miles posting. I'm curious if this indicates that there were at least 645 Miles&Smiles members who completed this challenge. If you completed this challenge and have a higher number than 645, please let me know in the comments below!<\/p>\n

How We Plan to Use Our Two Million Miles<\/span><\/h2>\n

Ideally, these two million miles would give us a stash of Turkish miles to utilize as we find good value over the next 3-5 years. However, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles expire after three years regardless of activity<\/a>. So, we need to utilize these two million (plus our ~25k earnings each from the flights themselves) in a relative hurry.<\/p>\n

We'll be utilizing Turkish Airlines sweet spots<\/a>,\u00a0such as:<\/p>\n