Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles has launched an interesting promotion where members can earn status miles while redeeming their miles on award flights…

You can earn 5% of the redeemed miles in the form of status miles, with a maximum of 5,000 status miles. i.e. if you redeem 100,000 miles on award flights, you will earn 5,000 status miles.

This promotion is valid for award tickets that are:

• Booked between August 16th and September 15th, 2021
• For travel between August 16th and December 31st, 2021
• Booked for travel on Turkish Airlines metal only (no codeshares or Star Alliance partners)

You can find full details of the promotion by clicking here.

What Are Status Miles?

If you are not familiar with Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles, the concept of “status miles” is a bit different from that of “bonus miles” (or redeemable miles). Status miles don’t get you free flights, they simply help you on your way to elite status. (similar to how American Airlines AAdvantage, as well as others, have the concept of Elite Qualifying Miles as different from redeemable miles)

Miles & Smiles offers two tiers of elite status that are equivalent to Star Alliance Gold – Elite Plus and Elite. (Star Alliance Gold is what you need for lounge access, priority boarding/check-in, etc.)

In order to qualify, you must complete the following number of Status Miles within a rolling 12-month period:

• Elite Plus – 80,000 miles
• Elite – 40,000 miles

These potential 5,000 status miles could certainly help you on your way to elite status, but the promotion probably is more interesting to those seeking to renew their existing elite status…

Renewal

Once you reach Elite status, your account will be upgraded for TWO years. If you are having a big travel year, you can also continue towards Elite Plus status using the same 40,000 miles that got you Elite status.

Because of the two-year cycle, Elite members have two ways of renewing their Elite status (assuming that you are resident outside of Turkey):

• 25,000 status miles during Year 1 of their renewal cycle
• 37,500 status miles over both years of their renewal cycle

Similarly, Elite Plus members have two ways of renewing their Elite Plus status:

• 40,000 status miles during Year 1 of their renewal cycle
• 60,000 status miles over both years of their renewal cycle

The two-year cycle (based on the actual date that you qualify for elite status) takes some getting used to. But Miles & Smiles elite members should be well aware of how helpful 5,000 status miles will be when trying to reach a “year 1” target of 25,000 or 40,000 status miles.

The Bottom Line

Since many people hold off on spending their miles because they need to reach or renew a certain level of elite status, it’s an amazing benefit to be able to do both things at once. I simply wish that this was a permanent feature of Miles & Smiles, and not a limited time promotion at a time when my status renewal is already assured…