Originally Posted by
ambush276
So from what i have read on the forum so far.... Once the status match begins you have 4 months to fly a turkish air flight, then from that date (or the date the status match begins?) you have to then accrue 15,000 status miles on TK metal.
So let's say one emails turkish airlines March 1st.. they hear a response back on april 1st saying your status match has begun. Does this mean that by August 1st one flight has to be flow on TK metal, and by March 31st the following year 15,000 miles must have been flown on TK metal?
So for example, let's say covid was obliterated and I wanted to take a summer trip to Turkey.
If I flew LAX->IST on June 1st, and a return flight on IST-> LAX on June 15th, i would satisfy the TK metal requirement in 4 months (before the August deadline). Furthermore, let's assume this was an economy Y class fare, on the TK website calculator this seems to be about ~8500 miles each way, therefore, the roundtrip would be > 15,000 miles. Would this satisfy the TK 15,000 miles OR do those 15,000 miles only begin after that first flight (meaning i would have to take one more LAX->IST one way (Y-fare) to hit the 15,000 minimum).
It says that the status will be extended for 2 years.
TIMELINE Recap:
March 1st, 2021: request
April 1st, 2021: status match begins
June 1st, 2021: LAX->IST (one way, y class)- 8500 points
June 15th, 2021: IST->LAX (one way, y class) - 8500 points.
In this example i would have cleared the TK metal in 4 months and the 15,000 miles requirement. Therefore My status would be extended until April 1st, 2023?
Now when it comes to maintaining status: I am not a turkish resident/citizen, so it appears i either need to accrue 25,000 status miles in 1 year or 37,500 status miles over 2 years.
In the situation i spelled out, This means that starting on April 1st, 2022, I would need to earn 25,000 status miles before April 1st, 2023 to extend my status until April 1st, (2024 or 2025)?
Or I would have to earn 37,500 status miles before April 1st, 2024, in order to extend until April 1st, (2025 or 2026)?
This was also a bit confusing.
I hope this was not too confusing of a question, but i have read so many different posts on this that my head started to spin.
First, your first TK flight would not count for the 15000 miles. All your flights after your second TK flight would count for the 15k miles.
If you're approved on 1 April 2021, you would have time until 31 March 2022 to fulfill the 15k miles requirement ( only TK flights ). From 1 April 2022 till 31 March 2023, you would need to accrue 37500 miles to retain Elite status so it could be extended until 31 March 2025.
Your *A partner flights in your first year would count only for your achievement to Elite Plus which is 80k miles in any given 365 day period. Your first TK flight would also count towards your progress to Elite Plus but not for the 15k miles.
Also another point that a TK IST-LAX ticket in Economy would not always give 100% mileage. Different from US-based carriers, TK awards status miles per fare buckets rather than travel class, if you fly on a discounted Economy fare bucket, you might get 25% mileage for that sector instead. If you would like to get 100% mileage, you would need to purchase a higher fare bucket which might be just a few dollars less than a discounted Business Class ticket.
Another reminder that according to the latest data that I've heard, TK had stopped their status match due to COVID and I am not 100% sure if they are accepting new applicants for the status match.