What’s the Value of Turkish Airlines Miles?

Turkish Airlines is a Star Alliance member that allows you to book redemptions through Miles&Smiles, the airline's loyalty program. The website can be difficult to navigate, but if you can get past that, there are ways to squeeze a lot of value out of Turkish Airlines miles.

Based on our analysis, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles points are worth 0.7 cent each. This is a median value, drawn from real-world data collected for 80 Turkish Airlines economy routes.

NerdWallet's valuation of 0.7 cent per Turkish Airlines mile provides a median value you can use to determine the relative value of your own redemptions. It is effectively what you can expect to get from your miles if you use them for a random redemption.

However, this means you can get more value by looking for Turkish Airlines sweet spots and using more advanced award techniques. It also means you can end up getting lower value than this if you’re not careful.

» Learn more: How to make the most of flying in Turkish Airlines' economy class

How much are Turkish Airlines worth in dollars? With the calculator below, you can figure out the value of your Turkish Airlines miles in dollars, calculated with our estimated value.

NerdWallet's analysis found that Turkish Airlines miles are best redeemed 90 days before departure, where the average redemption was 1 cent per point. You may also be able to find some good deals on close-in bookings, where the highest redemption we saw was 1.7 cents per point when purchased 15 days before departure.

Unlike some other airlines, Turkish Airlines still has a published award chart, making it easy to understand how many miles your flight redemption will cost. Keep in mind that the airline uses per-segment pricing, meaning if you are flying from the U.S. to Europe via Istanbul, you will need to pay the award price for each segment.

Here's what we found when looking at Turkish Airlines point valuations across different booking windows.

• 0.7 cent each when booking 15 days before departure, with a range of 0.5 to 1.7 cents per mile.

• 0.8 cent each when booking 60 days before departure, with a range of 0.4 to 1 cent each.

• 1 cent each when booking 90 days before departure, with a range of 0.4 to 1.4 cents each.

• 0.6 cent each when booking 180 days before departure, with a range of 0.3 to 0.9 cent each.

As a member of the Star Alliance, you can redeem Turkish Airlines miles for award flights on alliance members like United, Air Canada or ANA.

One of the best ways to use Turkish Airlines miles is on flights to Hawaii from the continental U.S., which only cost 10,000 miles in economy or 15,000 miles in business class.

» Learn more: The beginner's guide to points and miles

We analyzed the cash and points prices of 80 Turkish Airlines flights across a range of international routes. A regular economy fare class was used for all pricing data to be able to compare the valuations of similar Main Cabin-type fares that are bookable with points or miles on other airlines.

Departure dates were selected at 15, 60, 90 and 180 days from the day of the analysis. Return dates were chosen eight days after the departure date. This process allowed us to analyze a wide combination of days of the week and not bias the data towards expensive (i.e. weekend) or cheaper (i.e. midweek) flights. We used the median value of the dataset as the average.

This method differs from many others in that it looks at real-world redemptions rather than hypothetical, maximized redemptions. The advantage of this approach is that it provides an actual, real-world indication of how much these points are worth on average. That said, it doesn’t take into account the high-value redemptions that points enthusiasts seek.

Wondering what you can do with those Turkish Airlines miles? Check out our point collector's guide to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles (including some of the best ways to use Turkish miles), what to expect when you fly Turkish Airlines business class and learn which credit card is best for international award travel.

Featured photo courtesy of Turkish Airlines.