kai.lileboo

I just read the new rules for earning. It is definitely much worse and in line with LH earnings.
T, L and V earn 50% only and P, W 25% which is complete disaster. Let's say you got aprox 1500 miles for most EU destinations, now you must buy expensive Q fare to get this.

Even the cheapest W fares on TK were expensive as YQ surcharge is about 280 €.
I would have gotten 36000 miles in J class VCE IST EZE but now only 28000.
What are the airlines thinking?
No way I will requalify again for Elite.

johhenrik

That we earn too much compared to what we pay I guess. I mean, in reality, it's been VERY cheap to get to ELite and Elite Plus. And even cheaper to requalify, so Im not surprised.

LH4116

+1 It's still a walk in the park to requalify compared to LH SEN. SAS EBG/EBD may be roughly as cheap to requalify if you do some cheap mileage runs in Plus, but in general Miles&Smiles is still among the easiest programs in *A.

vincewy

Wow! Look at those new earnings for domestic flights. TK is really bending over backward toward their own Turkish M&S members, it'd be much harder to achieve even C+ (let alone E and E+) for those travelling primarily within Europe and Turkey.

Luckily I just re-qualified for E+ this month by flying so many cheap segments while in Turkey. I'll really need to plan ahead on how to get 40K miles in 2016.

p.s. If anyone hasn't noticed, TK has removed meats on all sandwiches served on domestic flights (now it's just cheese sandwich). I'd be flying with Pegasus or AtlasJet next time instead.

However, for those who fly across the Atlantic frequently, it's still among the easiest. I believe at some point TK will up the renewal requirements for E and E+ too. (ie. 80K within 2 years for E+)

xxlboy

Just curiosity...

You did it with domestic flights?
if yes which segmens were so cheap?

Well tk is generally very expensive for ex turkey flights.

vincewy

ie: DIY-IST-VAN (170 liras - booked 6 months prior), fare class V, 1406 miles so about 5.5 cpm. I believe many city combos between SE Turkey are very cheap too (plug in MSR, NKT, BGG, BAL instead). However, the new rule will give you only 600 miles (2 segments * 300), good luck with P fares, used to be 100% now it's as useless as W for 125 status miles. I could take bus too but both take 5 hours.

New rules favor folks travelling IST-ESB frequently in business class or paying full fares (Y and B).

JessicaTam

I will be in EU towards the end of the year, so I guess that will be the ideal time to burn what miles I have. I better book before 1 July, though.

I hope they don't mess with the requal levels.

andrejpv

So now that we have to book specific fare classes, where is the option to buy 100% mile eco class? Whenever I search online, I always get the 50% ones.

ovenman

I suppose you need to either purchase from TK over the phone specifying the desired booking class, or visit a TK ticket office and do the same.

I did so at the Kuala Lumpur TK city ticket office the other day. Staff was friendly but absolutely clueless about Miles&Smiles. It took some explaining for them to understand why I wanted to book a ticket in 'Q' rather than in 'W'.

moeser

1st of June IIRC

You'll need to book a full flex.The booking classes usually earn 100%.
To see the actual booking class,make a dummy booking.

JessicaTam

Ah yes, thanks for that. Even less dithering time.

ssavard

Not only these changes are certainly making it harder to keep an elite status, it makes me wonder if it's worth it. I have been elite for over twenty years with NWA/Delta and I was flying mostly with the Sky team. With Continental joining Star Alliance and merging with United, I was tempted by Star and I finally decided to try maintaing "Gold elite" on the two alliance with my membership with Turkish.

Now, I have been very impressed with Turkish in the last few years and I was fairly certain that I would concentrate my flying with them and Star in the coming years... that was before the announcement. Now, I know that most airlines are now making those types of changes but I think that they are not handling it very well.

We are less than a month from those changes and it is not possible to know when those changes will take effect. If I buy a ticket today and fly in June, will the old or new chart apply? I try to ask them on the phone and by writing them but could not have any more information. Usually, they will say something like "ticket bough before such a date for a flight between such and such..." but in this case nothing. Also, there is no mention on what happen to the other airlines. The earning table when flying United is still intact with 100% mileage earning on most booking class. Will that still be the case if I fly in june? There is no way to know.

In order to re-qualify for "Elite" (Star Gold) I need on long haul flight before the end of July. I have an event to attend in June in Singapore and if I do it on United, I should be ok for re-qualification as long as they don't mess the earning levels.

At this point, I am just not sure. Do I do it with United for $1200 U.S. and maybe keep my "Elite" status with Turkish or do I do it for $1100 with Air France and stick with Sky and Delta instead?

Hard to decide.

TPJ

I have a feeling it will be a new chart...

AirCanada881

Does anyone know whether it's confirmed that the new chart takes effect June 1st? ie if I buy a one way ticket from Vienna to Hong Kong in J it's 35,000 miles and as of June 1st, 45,000?

moeser

If they are going to change the earning table,they will announce it.E.g. LH P fare.

Yes and yes .