I love how we’re increasingly seeing airlines launch gamified promotions, which are great in terms of member engagement. It felt like airlines didn’t bother offering these kinds of promotions for so long, but we’ve seen several of these in recent times, from programs like SAS EuroBonus, Etihad Guest, Ethiopian ShebaMiles, and JetBlue TrueBlue.
It’s amazing how we’re seeing one after the other, so huge kudos to SAS for leading the pack with that. We’ve now seen Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles launch an absolutely epic promotion, offering one million miles for anyone who flies the carrier to six continents.
With Turkish Airlines’ new promotion, Miles&Smiles members can earn one million bonus miles for flying with the airline to all six continents that it serves. As you’d expect, there are some terms to be aware of:
- You must book travel and travel between June 27 and October 27, 2025
- For the purposes of qualifying for the promotion, only arriving destinations will be considered; departure points and transit stops won’t cont toward this offer
- Flights with the final arrival point in Türkiye or the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus don’t count toward this offer
- Award tickets, corporate agreement bookings, staff tickets, and tickets purchased with a promotion code, are excluded from this promotion
- The million bonus miles will be credited to eligible accounts between November 1 and November 15, 2025
- Only itineraries originating from or transiting through Istanbul are eligible; that means fifth freedom flights aren’t included for the purposes of this offer
- Flights must be credited to the Miles&Smiles program, and retroactive mileage claims don’t qualify
- Flights must be operated by Turkish, so codeshare flights and flights operated by Star Alliance partner airlines aren’t eligible
I adore the increasing number of promotions that we’re seeing from major airline loyalty programs, encouraging this kind of wild behavior. This is a cute promotion that plays into the fact that Turkish Airlines is the world’s most global airline, serving more countries than any airline in the world.
So is this promotion worth pursuing? Since you’d need to fly at least six one-way trips (to visit six continents), this means you’re essentially earning roughly 167,000 bonus miles for each continent you check off. If you were to value Turkish miles at one cent each (a conservative valuation), that’s like a $1,670 bonus for each continent you visit.
I think you absolutely could come out ahead here, and could end up paying well under $10,000 for these tickets (which would be the value of the prize, if you were to value the miles at one cent each).
The question ultimately comes down to how many long haul flights you’re willing to take in economy for a prize like this, or whether you can find a deal on premium cabin flights. Alternatively, I suppose you could pay cash for economy tickets, and then use miles to upgrade to business class, so that you can take these flights in comfort.
Another factor here is how many flights you’d naturally take on Turkish during the promotion period, because then you should view the challenge based on the incremental number of flights required.
Like, if you’d fly the airline to two continents during the promotion period anyway, then your return on those four incremental continents is 250,000 miles each. That’s enticing.
Admittedly some of these continents are much easier to knock out than others. Flying to Asia, Europe, and Africa, is straightforward enough, and can be done on a flight of just a few hours. But then you’d need to fly to North America, South America, and Australia. So we’re talking about three long haul destinations, and that says nothing of the potential need to position.
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles has just launched a lucrative new promotion, offering one million bonus miles for flying with the airline to six continents. This is such a fun offer, and I’m tempted to consider completing this.
Ultimately three continents can easily be knocked out with short flights, while three continents require taking long haul flights. It has been a year (or 15) since I’ve taken a long haul flight in economy, though this is as close to tempted as I’ve been…
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ promotion for one million miles?
