Hi everyone,

I'm a Turkish Airlines Gold member with 96K miles and will be 1K with them by the end of the month. I used to fly with them a lot but lately not so much. I'm now travelling with United for work to China about every other month and travel a couple of times domestically within US. To be honest, I see no value of staying with TK anymore. Yes, I get access to United lounges, priority boarding and luggage handling but that's it! No other perks like complimentary upgrades as all my other co-workers who have United MileagePlus elite statuses get. Don't get me wrong, TK is a great airline and I absolutely love their service/food/new planes and their FANTASTIC lounge at IST and I will for sure use them for flying to Middle East but everything else about them is useless! Their website is terrible, you can't do ANYTHING on their website. Heck you can't even change your seats on their website and I've never been able to use any of my TK miles for UA or LH upgrades via their customer service. Granted, I don't exactly know the booking fares and rules for upgrading between classes but every time I've called them about an upgrade it seemed to me like they don't even know what I'm talking about. I'm debating whether or not to switch to UA MP and start earning miles with them. Yes, I know with United's new policies I won't probably get to Gold status easy and fast, but I figure with my ~90K miles/year travel I can keep using my TK Gold status benefits for 2 years and will probably be able to get to United Gold by the time my TK expires. The only thing preventing me from switching is loosing the ~100K miles I've flown with TK so far but to me getting upgrades on UA/LH is the most important thing and if I'm not gonna get any of that with TK elite status, I'd rather start from scratch. I don't even know if I'll get any special perks for becoming 1K with TK.

Sorry for the long post and all the nagging, my question is: what do I get by staying with TK? and whether I should switch to UA MP or not.


1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
upgrades mostly (when I fly with my wife, don't care about business travels)

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
~90K actual fly miles. ~8 international, ~3 domestic

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
economy mostly and sometimes pre. eco.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Both work and pleasure. United is my company's preferred airline (economy) and usually choose UA/LH/TK for our (me+wife) personal travels

5. Which routes do you fly most often
LAX->China (different cities): ~8/year
U.S. domestic: ~3/year
LAX->Middle East: ~1/every 2 years

6. What is your home airport?
LAX (but can also make a connection at SFO)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
Turkish Airlines Gold with 96K miles. Will get to 1K this month and will get to Elite Plus (Turkish's top tier status) by the end of the year if I continue earning miles with them

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Because of my TK Gold status, prefer to stay with *A