✈️ Um, hello! United Airlines is offering discounted end-of-summer flights to multiple U.S. hubs, including Newark, Denver, and LA, with fares starting under $200. Find more about it here.
Good morning from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and welcome back to another Friday edition of Daily Drop.
I might be traveling around some weird places, but today’s tips are perfect for you ‘Muricans out there:
✈️ Award Drop: US to Istanbul in business class
There’s nothing like flying for ten hours (or more) in a lie-flat bed with excellent catering and solid service.
Of course, this is easier said than done, given how hard it can be to find availability for these flights at reasonable rates.
But right now, there is widespread availability to fly from the U.S. to Istanbul in business class on Turkish Airlines for as little as 63,000 miles.
Courtesy of Turkish Airlines
The Routes
This deal is available from any of the cities that Turkish Airlines serves in the U.S., including:
New York
Chicago
Atlanta
Boston
Denver
Dallas
Houston
Seattle
Washington, D.C.
Turkish flies nonstop to all of these cities
The Dates
There is sporadic availability beginning in early 2025, with plenty of dates still available through April.
You’ll have to play around to find availability, especially if you want more than one seat.
Still, I was able to find plenty of good options!
Given how far out these dates are, it will help if you can be flexible with your departure.
The Price
The best way to book this is definitely with Avianca LifeMiles.
At just 63,000 miles and less than $30 in taxes and fees, this is the lowest points price and a very modest cash charge.
The next best option is Aeroplan, which you can book for 70,000 points (from the East Coast) and around $60 USD in taxes and fees.
Of course, you can also use Turkish miles for this deal.
Although you will only pay 65,000 miles, the taxes and fees are much higher, so it’s not nearly as desirable as the other two programs.
How to get those miles
Earning Avianca LifeMiles or Aeroplan points is a piece of cake.
First, Avianca miles transfer from any of the following bank programs:
Aeroplan points have a slightly different set of programs you can transfer from:
This means that if you have recently signed up for one of the elevated card offers that we’ve recommended, you could easily book a flight like this (maybe even a couple times).
This card is still offering 120,000 points with an annual fee under $100.
With a little extra spending on the card combined with that offer, you’re looking at a round-trip in one of the world’s best business-class seats.
The Bottom Line
This is an excellent opportunity.
While this deal applies mainly to get to Istanbul, you can always connect onward to other places in Europe using miles or even a cheap cash flight.
For example, you could book this flight from Istanbul to Budapest for just over $40. 👇
Ten hours in a lie-flat bed and a two-hour cheap cash flight for under $100 out of pocket is a great way to get over to any city in Europe in comfort!
I’d book these sooner than later if you have plans to travel to Europe (or beyond) early next year, because I don’t suspect availability will stick around for very long.
🇺🇸 Sweet Spot Highlight: Domestic flights on the cheap
In the last section, I mentioned that using Turkish miles to fly on Turkish was not really a great deal.
In fact, there aren’t many cases where it ever makes sense to use Turkish miles.
One of the exceptions to that might surprise you…
You see, one of the best sweet spots in the business is actually using Turkish miles to book domestic U.S. flights on United Airlines.
According to the Turkish Airlines award chart for partner airlines, you can book flights in the U.S. for as little as 10,000 miles in economy or just 15,000 miles in business class.
So why is this so “sweet,” you ask?
Well, because there’s no distance cap… so, you could book a flight on United (since Turkish and United are Star Alliance partners) from Newark to Dallas for just 10,000 Turkish miles.
But it gets WAY better…
Let me repeat this… there’s no distance cap.
So you could ALSO book something like Boston to Honolulu… also for just 10,000 miles.
For reference, if you booked this flight on United, you’d be shelling out at least 25,000 miles… on a good day. 👇
The best part of this sweet spot is that, unlike in the past, you can now book awards like this online right on the Turkish website.
On the home page, just click the “Star Award Ticket” tab and search for your route and dates.
After running just one random search for early 2025, I easily found availability on the exact route I described earlier (Boston to Honolulu) for just 10,000 miles one-way.
If you flew this same route in business class, you’d only need to spend 15,000 miles, which is an amazing deal.
Since these two flights are operated by the 757 and 777, you’d be in lie-flat seats the entire way… for 15,000 freaking points!!!
So don’t underestimate the value of international award programs, even if you mostly travel around the U.S.
If you want to rack up Turkish miles, you can just transfer points from:
So, if you recently signed up for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (like I did), you’d already have enough Capital One miles in your pocket to book eight domestic flights on United, all for less than $100.
It truly doesn’t get any more “sweet” than that, folks. 😊
Current Transfer Bonuses
70% bonus from UR Points to Marriott Bonvoy (ends August 14th)
20% bonus from ThankYou Points to Wyndham (ends August 17th)
25% bonus from ThankYou Points to Flying Blue (ends August 17th)
20% bonus from MR Points to Hawaiian miles (ends August 31st)
20% bonus from Capital One Miles to Qantas (ends September 1st)
30% bonus from MR Points to Avios (ends September 30th)
PLUS, there are 12 cards with elevated offers right now!
That’s gonna do it for this week, folks!
I feel like this was an especially jam-packed week of travel content, and I hope you’re able to put these deals to good use.
For now, have a great weekend and be ready for another week of Daily Drop starting on Monday.
Cheers,
