Is award flight redemption worth it on TK?
 

I was just checking awards to europe/africa1 (20k miles) this summer and while availability doesn't seem to be a problem, the taxes+surcharges are at least 230EUR to anywhere other than IST. almost 340EUR for LHR.

at those prices (almost as expensive as retail tickets). is it worth it to ever redeem on TK for awards? or should you stick your mile-burning to upgrades?

The high fuel surcharges make awards in economy not very economical on most airlines, save for getting an award on U.S. based carriers through their own programs.

Upgrades on TK are more expensive than a round-trip award ticket in business and you need to buy at least a higher mid-range fare.
Europe to Africa 1 is 20.000 miles in economy and only 25.000 miles in business. Just 5.000 miles more. Getting on flights that have the real business class seat is a great value for your miles and money.

TK's best deals however are long haul business awards. 70.000 miles to North America and Asia, 85.000 miles to Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires.

Should you plan a trip to one of these regions, it might be worth saving the miles until you have enough.

On the other hand my feeling tells me that TK will soon increase the required miles. That is why I spend my miles once I have enough for my desired award.

Agree with vivamuci
I was able to get J award ticket OW TLL-IST-LHR for 12,500 miles and €87 tax (not much less for Y though), which in my opinion is very good value, considering revenue ticket costs €700+. Y redemption is definitely not good value.
I guess intro-Europe taxes are lower, though using TLV or AMM as starting point you only pay €40 extra in tax and same amount of miles.

And it's relatively easy to accumulate miles on TK's M&S, as you get the exact number of miles as you have flown on TK metal, whether discounted or not. In comparison the LH M&M is useless...

In the Turkish Airlines Capacity Controlled Award Ticket Table, it says that Near-East to North America in Y is 60.000 From $417.

Am I to understand that and award ticket from TLV to JFK would cost at least $417 in taxes and surcharges?
That is even more than EL AL!

It makes no sense to redeem your miles in Economy. Business Class awards offer much more value and they justify paying the high fuel surcharges.

Yes,you are to understand this,consider TK long haul awards in C as upgrades from a very cheap Y ticket!! 417$ is actually at the low end as TK long haul taxes go.

It can actually make sense when traweling on your own money inside europe,but only if you find a low priceed LCC carier one way,which is often the case, and the other way is a lot more expensive,awailability have improved a lot since the awards became almost as expensive as the cheapest normal tickets,and unless them their awailable OW.

MM awards are even more expensive,unless you can get a fly-smart and pay the tax with miles,and as you said LH hardly credit anything for cheap revenue tickets. MM is totaly useless!

Don't redeem in Y on short haul flights!

70k Europe-Asia RT in C (Capacity Controlled) is an excellent value, even with taxes/YQ of 400-500 EUR. The same award on Miles and More would be 135k miles and even more EUR for taxes/YQ:D

I tried to book 2 Business Class award ticket from BKK to IST for this summer but found out that there was almost no availability.
All the dates i was asking for was not available or only one seat.
I think that the BKK route is one of the worst for a award ticket.
In the end i ended up with using the miles for partner award tickets on another star airline which was no problem at all.

It is indeed difficult to find available award seats in C on IST -BKK, but it's not impossible. Over the last 12 months I have had 5 award trips in C on SGN-BKK-IST, but I usually got a rather flexible travel schedule.

I just redeemed and burned all of my award miles (for flying during dead/second membership year).

BOS-IST (or to many points in Western Europe through IST) is 45000 for I, indeed very good value. Upgrade from Y to J using miles, not so much, as you're paying miles using seat guaranteed rates and it's the same 45000 miles, you'd be better off using E+ upgrade vouchers.

Regional flights to Gulf regions, 12500 for Y (X) and 17500 for J (I). Again, depending on aircraft. I redeemed DXB-IST for 17500 miles (I fare bucket), almost guaranteed widebody (either 777 or A330), this is actually even better value than North American segments using I fare as the flight is about half of flight time to NA from IST. OTOH, for MCT-IST, I might be neutral to both Y and J as J may be blocked middle seats on narrow bodies.

As a caveat, availabilities for I on North American segments are ridiculously scarce with the exception of IAH, YUL and BOS, nonexistent for LAX and JFK.

Don't redeem in Y for any flight period. Quick example, North American awards, 30000 for N and 45000 for I, which offers better value? When purchasing revenue tickets, J is usually at least 4 times as much as Y.

After a few planning and searches, I would only recommend redeeming miles for I fares with at least one long/medium haul segment of 3 hours or longer in a WB aircraft with the exception of BKK which awards are scarce and you can buy revenue RT J tickets for under $2000 from Scandinavia.

In addition, many connections through IST require no additional miles. For example, BOS-IST requires 45000 miles, BOS-IST-CDG/LHR/AMS/FRA also requires 45000, if you have the schedule ready and confirmed, always redeem married segment(s), if/when available, to your advantage.

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