British Airways Avios and Turkish Miles&Smiles Both Devalue

Never a fun news day when the story is not one but two devaluations.

The British Airways one isn’t a game changer, though both Avios points required and fees rise. Turkish, on the other hand, has all but killed off the reasons people in the US transfer bank points to Turkish in the first place…

British Airways Avios Devaluation

This one should be in your email direct from BA by now. This takes effect December 15, 2025.

At least they are giving a bit of notice before hiking and the hikes aren’t substantial – in the 10% range. You can still adjust existing reservations until Dec 14th, but after then it will incur the new price. I do find the increase of “fees that are just fees to be fees” much more bothersome than the Avios increases as I simply don’t support random surcharges to redeem for award travel.

Changes are outlined on this page.

Example increases:

Turkish Miles&Smiles Devaluation

This devaluation, flagged by Gary at View from the Wing, hurts more simply because a) Turkish was a miles and points lover’s sweet spot for so long, for United flights in North America and Star Alliance flights to Europe.

Years ago, this was almost a secret program. You could only transfer from Citi ThankYou and I believe it was Nick Reyes at Frequent Miler that discovered that you could book flights in North America (like EWR-HNL!) for just 7,500 miles in economy or 12,500 in Business. Canada was also included.

During COVID, I was able to book two business seats on that exact route, from EWR-HNL, for 25,000 total miles. It involved emailing multiple Turkish ticket offices and all sorts of “award fun” but what a steal!

You also used to be able to book flights from the US to Europe in Business for 45,000 miles.

In February 2024, Turkish devalued substantially. Perhaps inevitable as Capital One added Turkish as a transfer partner as did Bilt. They liked selling the miles, but more miles being redeemed almost certainly brought too much attention to sweet spots.

This devaluation was the end of the cheap flights to Europe, but flights in North America only got hit a small amount, increasing from 7,500/12,500 to 10,000/15,000.

As Gary flags, these are now a thing of the past and Hawaii even gets separated out now specifically for an extra hike.

• Those 10,000 economy awards move to 15,000 miles one way; 25,000 miles if to/from Hawaii.
• Business? Now 22,500 miles one way to/from Hawaii goes to 40,000 miles.

I do think that the last remaining use of Turkish miles, which already have a big competitive disadvantage of hard expiring after 3 years (meaning they cannot be extended with activity), is simply on Turkish’s own metal to/from Türkiye for 65,000 miles (saver award).

I have to think that Miles&Smiles has come full circle now. Nobody knew about them many years ago. They had great deals. People found them. People wanted them as a transfer partner. They devalued to increase margins. People kept transferring. They killed off anything left worth booking. And now? I think the Golden Goose is cooked.

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