25% discount on Turkish awards to/from Seattle (biz class from 33,750 – maybe)

Turkish Airlines has launched a new route to Seattle in celebration of the new route and I had to copy and paste the name from One Mile at a Time. For a long flight, this could be an excellent deal.

The Deal

• Turkish Miles & Smiles is offering a 25% discount for award tickets on its newly opened Seattle route for bookings and travel between June 24, 2022 – December 24, 2022 (note that this post is publishing on June 23rd, so the sale isn’t live yet for a few hours)
• Direct link to this deal

Key Terms

• The offer is valid for tickets issued between 24/06/2022–24/12/2022, with travel dates between 24/06/2022–24/12/2022.
• Campaign will provide 25% Miles discount on one-way or round-trip, Business Class and Economy Class promotional award tickets on Turkey flights from/to Seattle.
• Changes in reservation for award tickets issued within the scope of the promotion are allowed, taking into account the ticketing 24/06/2022–24/12/2022 and the travel date of 24/06/2022–24/12/2022.
• Miles can be refunded within 1 year of the date on which the ticket is issued.
• Miles&Smiles Award Ticket rules apply within the scope of the special offer.
• All taxes will be charged.
• Promotional award tickets are subject to availability due to limited seat capacity.
• Ticketing and travelling periods start and end according to the local time in Turkey.
• The related promotion is only valid on scheduled flights operated by Turkish Airlines. It is not valid on Turkish Airlines codeshare flights, Star Alliance partner airline flights and AnadoluJet flights.
• Tickets subject to this special offer can be issued through our call center, online channels, agencies and sales offices.
• The right of use cannot be transferred within the scope of the offer.
• This offer is only valid to Miles&Smiles members. To benefit from the offer, non-members must first register to Miles&Smiles Program.
• Turkish Airlines reserves the right to take legal action against the related parties found to have contravened any rules.
• Turkish Airlines reserves the right to change terms and conditions, definitions and other information pertaining to the special offer and to cancel the offer at any time.

Quick Thoughts

The sale won't be live until June 24. This should go live at 5pm Eastern time today because of the time in Turkey.

Turkish has one of the lowest prices for flights between the US and Europe at the normal saver level of 45K miles each way. You would pay just 33,750 miles each way if you could find a saver class seat.

In the economy class taxes and fees are around $75-$100 each way, while business class taxes and fees are around $200-$250 each way. Economy class is a good deal at 22,500 miles each way, but I would happily pay an extra 11,250 miles and $100 for a flat bed business class.

The problem is that I don't see saver-level business class availability on any of the dates I tested. The equivalent of 105K miles one-way is what I see. I don't think the 25% discount will apply to the "anytime" price but only the "promotional" price. I wonder if they are holding back saver space in anticipation of the sale and will release some when this goes live. A person can hope.

The sale is only available on Turkish flights. I don't know if it will work on connecting itineraries that go beyond Istanbul.

If you know the Star Alliance booking tool, you should be able to find this sale. You can check the box on the home page if you want to buy an award ticket with miles. There are no flights on that day if the next page is blank. By a day, try hitting the next button.

The weekly calendar view should be expanded once you find a day with availability.

You can see which days have flights available by looking at the columns. Clicking them changes the column to blue. Nothing else is done by it. It doesn't switch to viewing availability for the date with the blue column The Turkish website isn't the best award booking engine, but it works well once you get used to it.

If you are an economy class traveler looking to fly to Istanbul from Seattle, this could be a good choice. Turkish charges a cancellation fee of just $25 per passenger, so it won't cost you a ton. It's possible that changes cost the same amount. I am not sure if it is easier to change an itinerary on Turkish metal than it is to change an itinerary in the past, but I just put a hold on what I wanted and then canceled and used the miles I got back.

I don't know if this will be useful for the challenge.