Accumulating Miles & Smiles points? Get ready for a monstrous devaluation from Turkish Airlines

Miles & Smiles is a very popular loyalty program in the Italian market, especially for all passengers who have exploited in the past the generous status matches offered by Turkish Airlines frequent flyer.

Not only is TK the company, in the world, that reaches the largest number of destinations, but it is also present with many frequencies on many Italian secondary airports and, thanks to an extensive network that Will soon take it to Australia as well attracts millions of passengers each year who transit Istanbul's spectacular airport to fly around the world.

The devaluation

Of course in Italy there is no possibility to transfer points obtained using credit cards into Miles&Smiles points, but the (unannounced) devaluation is really the kind that can make a program drop out. On balance, M&S suddenly goes from one of the best programs to one of many. In these past 18 months we have seen many devaluations, hand in hand with the increase in the cost of cash tickets, but this is definitely one of the ugliest.

Turkish Airlines has updated its award charts; not only have award tickets increased, but the fare rules by which tickets are issued are also changing. Goodbye to the approach flight and/or eventual connection to the final destination. No longer a cost therefore by zone, but by segment: a real bloodletting

Less than 10 days' notice

The changes are expected to take effect on Feb. 15, I use the conditional because the company's message is a little bit cryptic.

Flying to the U.S., taking advantage of partners Star Alliance from Italy cost 45,000 points in business class, Today the same route could cost no less than 65k with a direct United flight, but if on the contrary you were aiming for a stopover in Frankfurt, Munich or Lisbon it goes up to 85k.

The same is true for flights in the US. It used to cost 7500 miles in economy and 12.5k in business to fly to Hawaii from the mainland; now it costs almost twice as much.

In conclusion

Let those who have M&S points decide what to do with them quickly, in the future if we also consider the surcharges that TK applies to award tickets it is not worthwhile at all to bet on this program as accumulation, much better to bet on Lufthansa's Miles & More (which also has new dedicated credit card or on Singapore Airlines' Krisflyer, which at least is an American Express partner and launches offers each month to redeem discounted award tickets.

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