Miles&Smiles Permanently Stopping Printing Physical Cards
 

So, an era has come to an end as Miles&Smiles had decided to stop printing Miles&Smiles cards to adapt to the digital era.

The news was sent to members by e-mail today.

Screenshot of mail in Turkish:
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...73b6aefd34.png

So, this means that

- The TK Miles&Smiles card print desk at IST would close.
- Lounge access on other *A carriers for *G members could be painful and we might see more denials at lounges as sometimes they want to see the physical card ( Example: Air Canada not accepting digital cards )
- No more baggage tags as well
- Fewer people would be able to cross-benefit from two different FFPs perks.

We just got our physical cards recently without any mentioning that the card is the last card that we will ever receive.

No cards, no food, no beverages, no carry-on.
Like a bus.
Price - same as before.
New (low cost) long-haul era is coming...
Logical.

Tk constantly follow the way to reduce every day more costs!

Currently it would be no big lost if they decide to stop international flights!

Great news. Less useless plastic.

In general I would agree with your view but it's not everywhere that they accept digital cards. I had issues at *A AMS lounge - they demand to see the physical cards even though I have my TK G on my boarding pass. I didn't have my cards at that time and I told them that TK didn't make them so they accepted the digital cards after some struggle.

Same, it was March 2020 ( just before flights have stopped ), where I was asked the physical card at different *A lounges even when my boarding pass had TK*G

Just follow the BA method, stop proactively sending them out but anyone who requests them may receive one. For Classic and C+ members I can understand cutting the cards since they are rarely needed.

My card expires June 2022, so still plenty of time for this policy to change a few times before then.

Than I was a lucky one - last year I got a black E+ card without any expiry date ;)

I do not recall when was the last time I was required to show a card. Some 2 weeks ago they had issues with reading the barcode on my LO OLCI B/Pass in SOF, so I even wanted to show her a card, but she just typed the FF number shown on the B/Pass.

Out of the blue I received a new TK Elite card by post yesterday with the new extended expiry date :rolleyes:

So could this be interpreted as them getting rid of their existing stock of plastic and/or still being under contract with the agency that prints the cards?

Exactly, totally with you here. Any Star Alliance lounge I have visited around the world so far, I was never asked for the physical card.

LH/LX FRA,MUC, ZRH, AV at MIA plus a handful of Star Alliance contract lounges have asked for it.

I am based in Germany and until March I did fly LX a lot - in TXL and ZRH I was never asked for the card (about 40 times in the last two years, I also credited the miles to TK so my status was on the digital boarding pass, reflected as "TK*G"). In DUS I was asked a few times until 2 years ago, but they seemed to also have switched to "status on boarding pass = enough" the last times. During the last 5 years, flying more than 10 different *A carriers worldwide I can't remember ever being asked for the physical card except in DUS.
All flights have been in C and credited to TK = showing *G in the booking / on the boarding pass.