Hi all,

First timer here - have been reading in the dark but not participate until now.

I am 33K short to qualify for e+ (first year E). I am about to lose about 15K in end of march and was wondering what are my options to try and make it before that.

1. First - is there a way to accumulate status miles not through flying? I know CC is for Turkish only. What if I transfer from another TK member?

2. If flying is my only option, what are some cost-rewarding options? I live in NYC and have a flight coming back from ABJ (Ivory Coast) at the beginning of the month.

3. I read that someone said that you can buy miles if you are under 10K miles. Can anyone else confirm it?

Thanks for the help in advance!

You could fly any Star Alliance partner and credit the flights to M&S. Check the earning rates to see whether some UA mileage runs work for you.

33K sounds like a lot of miles to pick up in a month. You do appear to have re-qualified for Elite though so that's another three years of *A Gold there.

You can only buy status miles during your second year to re-qualify, not to jump up a level.

Thanks. Yes - most of my miles come from SA rather than TK. The past year I have been flying quite heavily and I doubt I'll manage to do so going forward. So, my thinking is try and make it as protect is much easier than qualify.

What about miles transfer, from either members or any US credit card?

You're better off ensuring an Elite re-qualification, then during the next 2-3 years keeping an eye open for status matches or try to squeeze the 25K miles into every first year of your re-qualification cycles.

E+ only adds value when flying TK - i.e. the upgrade vouchers. And of course the soft landing back to Elite. But making it to E+ during year 1 of E doesn't actually add much to the overall *G clock (versus just re-qualifying for E in year 1) if that makes any sense...

Thanks. The best I found for now is abj-ist-nyc in S for 8900 miles

Not sure I understood what you are saying: extra miles accured on the first year will not count towards protecting my elite status? Ilmy understanding is that while trying achieve e+ it will still count towards protecting e even if I'm unsuccessful

Let's assume you hit 40K for Elite on 31st December 2017, and you earned those 40K between 30 June and 31 December.

You are now Elite as of 1 January and you have until 31 December 2018 to earn 25K miles to re-qualify Elite in the first year of your cycle. However you are Elite until 31 Dec 2019 no matter what.

You also have until 30 June 2018 to keep going all the way to 80K for Elite Plus.

Make sense so far? OK. You manage the whole 80K on 31 May 2018 (continuously looking back 12 months to check for a total of 80K miles). That gets you E+ until 31 May 2020 and a soft landing to E until 31 May 2022.

If you don't manage 80K (i.e. an extra 40K), but manage 25K between 1 January - 31 Dec 2018, then you re-qualify for Elite. That adds another 2 years to the end of your Elite status, so you are Elite until 31 December 2021.

So... my point is that you aren't really extending the clock on *G that much. (May 2022 versus December 2021) E+ is valuable for the upgrade certificates on TK, but otherwise doesn't do much with the rest of the *A.

Yes, that's what I fiugred. Assuming that one travel because one needs and not just to collect miles the accural of miles will happen regardless. I was just looking to capitalize on future travel to try and squeeze qualify for e+.

I also agree that the voucher are the main difference (which for me is a very nice perk because I do fly with to at least twice a year). Also, qaulifying is harder than protecting so theres that.

If you are based in SA (or flying to often) look into Ethiopian Airlines. Almost all of their economy fares credit 100% to Miles and Smiles. That said, 33K is a lot, I am afraid I cant see any possible shortcut. I myself is in the same situation, about 25-30K away from Elite+ status in the first year and many of my miles about to expire soon. And I am not sure spending long weekends on intercontinental mileage runs is a good idea if I want to stay married.

Example:
ET in economy return JNB-LAX (via ADD, DUB) is a 23,300 miles trip at around $ 900 according to ITA Matrix search, credit 100% to Miles and Smiles.
https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-i...nes/index.html

You can also look for mileage runs to other destinations such as Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore etc.

You hard core mileage runners make me smile. The whole point of status, collecting miles, etc. is to NOT have to fly JNB-ADD-DUB-LAX in Economy!

Thats exactly what my wife says