tl;dr – A list of travel deals(s) I’m moving on that you may also want to consider.
We’re back with another installment of “Deals I’m Booking That You Should Book Too”, a weekly series where I walk you through a random (possibly more) curated deal(s) – points & miles, cash, otherwise (?) – that I find compelling for one reason or another. You can find the past installments here (and yes, volumes 3-5 are on their way, I have forgotten!). Ok, let’s dive into it.
Business Class to/from Istanbul for ~$1200
Man, oh man – a solid one here. Turkish Airlines flies to more countries – more than 120 – (it holds the Guinness World Record) than any other airline in the world.
The carrier doesn’t offer a first-class product, but it does have a solid business class that is heavily featured throughout its fleet.
I recently flew Turkish Business Class from Panama City, Panama, to Istanbul and found it to be a solid experience overall.
You could do a lot worse here and thankfully this promotion isn’t (hopefully) one that Turkish will pull on a whim.
Turkish Airlines puts its Miles&Smiles miles on sale a few times a year. Historically, the best deals have featured a 100% mileage bonus on your purchase (buy 50,000 miles, get an additional 50,000). Saver award fares for flights between Istanbul and several cities in the Americas can be had for as little as 65,000 Miles&Smiles miles.
The cost to purchase 32,500 miles (which become 65,000 miles when the 100% bonus is added in)?
$975.
The price of a ONE-WAY business class fare from JFK to IST in cash?
$3355.
You’ll double the price for a round-trip, meaning approximately $2,400 is your out-the-door price to fly lay-flat there and back. The cash price is almost $7K, so that’s a steal. Actually, when it might be even cheaper than that. When I gated through the purchasing flow for the 32,500, I noticed I was targeted for a discounted offer for purchasing more miles. Had I opted for the 60,000 purchase, I was eligible to save an additional 15% which I believe should still come with a 100% bonus, meaning I’d need only an additional 10,000 miles to have enough for a roundtrip redemption.
Important thing to note: The fine print of the sale indicates that the bonus miles will be awarded WITHIN 7 DAYS OF PURCHASE. So you WON’T see the bonus reflected in the amount of miles you purchase at checkout.
What makes this deal even more compelling is the fact that award availability is typically very strong on Turkish Airlines. As the carrier flies to so many cities, there’s a good chance you can find a date and time that works for you, from your airport of choice – even from popular cities like New York (JFK).
Right now, there’s some absolute legend out there reading this and plotting serious moves. I can hear the palm rubbing from here, as that legend is looking into using a suite upgrade award for a Hammam room at the Park Hyatt Istanbul – Macka Palas.
That legend realizes that Istanbul is so perfectly strategically located that you can really use this flight to set you up for additional European travels, African travels, Middle East adventures, or Asian gallivants.
If you’ve been hawking availability to Paris or Vienna or somewhere else where it’s just not coming available for your dates, why not see if you can lay flat in Istanbul – grab some spices – then head to wherever you were originally planning to go. In all likelihood, you can buy enough points to cover a separate business class fare to that final destination at a steal of a price as well.
I’m a big proponent of the ‘ole Blackbeard’ adage “you should never pay more than $1500 cash for business class, if you’re going to pay cash,” and that’s been proving true more and more (see here.)
You’ll Want to Act Fast – This Deal Ends Today
This latest sale, which may or may not be targeted (check your email), ends on December 22nd (presumably by midnight, IDK it’s not clear) but that’s Turkish time (GMT +3). So if you’re reading this today and are based in the US, then you probably have until just after lunchtime to make a move (if that).
The power of points and miles.
