Turkish Airlines has made some subtle changes to its Miles & Smiles program to make provisions for regional and geographic differences.
Changes to the programme include:
An increase in the number of award seats available on every flight, making it easier to secure Capacity Controlled Award Tickets. This will apply to all aircraft.
An elimination of the different requirements for high or low season travel for seat-guaranteed award tickets. This will standardise the number of miles required throughout the year.
By using 50 percent of the miles required for an award ticket, members will now be eligible for an award ticket in Economy for the outbound flight, a Business Class ticket on a return flight, a capacity controlled award ticket on an outbound flight or a seat-guaranteed award ticket on a return flight.
Members will now be able to use a single table to determine requirements for a capacity controlled award ticket on Turkish Airlines as well as for Star Alliance partner airline travel.
Passengers traveling with a companion may obtain an award ticket for the accompanying passenger using only 70 percent of the required miles if the member’s purchased ticket qualifies to accrue additional miles.
There have also been changes to the ways in which miles are earned. Previously, all mileage accrual was tied to the cabin occupied during travel (i.e. Business or Economy). Under the new scheme, miles will be awarded against the booking classification of the ticket, giving more rewards to higher fare categories.
The new minimum award will be 600 miles for domestic flights - irrespective of distance actually flown -and for short-haul flights the minimum award will increase to 1000 miles instead of 500 miles. This minimum award may be supplemented with additional award miles if the passenger pays a higher fare. These minimum rewards will now also apply to promotional tickets.
Like Elite and Elite Plus members, Classic Plus travelers will now also receive additional miles when traveling in Comfort or Business Class on International flights.
Finally, there are also changes to the rules regarding mileage upgrades. The new rules will allow regional upgrades to the next cabin for a fixed number of award miles and will not be dependent on the fare paid for the original ticket.
All changes come into effect on 1 June 2014. For full details on both the program and these changes, visit www.new-milesandsmiles.com.