A few weeks ago I wrote about one of the sweetest redemptions for domestic itineraries. It involves booking United domestic Saver (X) award tickets through Turkish Airlines for 7.5k miles. You can read a little about it here. Well, that may soon be coming to an end with potential devaluation upcoming.

Update (02/08): I’ve confirmed this to be the case effective February 16th. All bookings made until then still will reflect the original price, so book in the next week!

As reported by some eagle-eyed bloggers, Turkish has published new award charts for both TK and Star Alliance tickets. Most redemptions saw devaluations by 10-15%, with some even doubling in price! Awards in business class between the US and Europe used to cost just 45k miles. Now it’s at 85k miles, about 90% more.

One interesting addition is the implementation of additive award rates. Historically a flight from Region A to C via B would be charged as just A to C. Now, it will be charged by segment: A to B + B to C. Every connecting award will soon cost more.

However, the award chart excludes domestic US awards. Before, the charts highlighted 15k round trips on domestic award redemptions.

But, interestingly enough, a document uploaded on January 26 still reflects the old redemption rates. In addition, the website still shows the old rates. Perhaps this change hasn’t quite kicked in yet?

The bottom line is that I have some miles sitting in Turkish and I will use that to book something ASAP before rates go up. If you have any reason to book flights in the near future, I suggest you take advantage of this great value while it still lasts. Just bear in mind that Turkish charges $70 for any changes or cancellations, so make sure your travels are indeed feasible before booking.

Final Thoughts

If true, this devaluation is MASSIVE and closes one of my favorite sweet spot redemptions domestically. Maybe it’s time to switch back to United as the primary redemption for domestic United flights since there’s no change or cancellation fee!