It's possible to fly Turkish Airlines business class for FREE.
Today, I'm going to show you how to do it.
Hey, we're Jana and Brett. And if you saw our video of us enjoying
the Turkish Airlines business class experience,
we imagine you can picture yourself snoozing in
those lie flat seats or chowing down in the airline lounge, too.
But if you pay out of pocket, this usually costs $3,000-$4,000
for a one-way ticket between the U.S. and Europe.
And as great as the experience was, we'd never pay that.
So maybe you're like us and you want the luxury of a king or queen in business class
on a backpacker's budget.
Well, it's possible. We did this experience for just
$200 a person but it gets even better for you.
Today, we're going to show you how to fly a Turkish
Airlines business class for completely free.
And since our channel is about traveling Europe, we're going to show you how to
do that while flying between the U.S. and Europe.
Ready? Let's go.
Most airlines will let you book a flight one of two ways:
by paying with a currency like the U.S. dollar or the euro,
or by booking what's known as an award ticket using points and miles.
A one-way business class flight on Turkish Airlines between the
U.S. and Europe costs only 45,000 miles.
The reason I'm saying only is because it usually costs
30,000 miles to fly an economy and at least 60,000 in business class.
So 45,000 points for business class is one of the best deals around.
But those numbers might seem completely meaningless right now
because you're Turkish Airlines, Miles, account balance is likely zero.
So how do I get Turkish Airlines miles?
There are lots of ways to get your hands on Turkish Airlines miles,
but the best way to get a whole lot at once is by signing up for travel credit cards.
Most travel credit cards give you a sign up bonus after you spend a
certain amount of money on the card in the first few months.
You also earn a small amount of miles for each dollar you spend on the card.
So you're probably thinking, Great, I'll open a Turkish Airlines credit card,
collect the sign up bonus and book my business class flight for free.
Well, unfortunately, there's not a credit card in the U.S.
that allows you to directly earn Turkish Airlines Miles.
But don't worry, because there's still a way to earn enough points to book that
free Turkish Airlines business class experience.
I'm going to show you 7 steps using travel credit cards that allow you to earn miles
Now that can be used for Turkish Airlines Later
Two major credit card programs are best for performing this trick:
Citi thankyou points and Capital One Venture Miles.
Both programs allow you to take their currency and trade it for
Turkish Airlines miles at a 1:1 ratio,
just like trading the dollar for a euro or a sheep for a pig…sort of.
So step 1 towards your goal of flying Turkish Airlines business class for free
is to open a travel credit card that earns points or miles in one of these programs.
There are currently three of these credit cards that will give you enough points to
book Turkish Airlines business class just from the sign up bonus alone.
The Citi Premier, which gives you 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first three months.
The Capital One Venture Rewards, which gives you 60,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first three months.
And the Capital One Venture X, which gives you 75,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first three months.
Once you do that, you'll be sitting on enough
points to book an award ticket for Turkish Airlines business class.
But how do I actually trade those points for Turkish Airlines miles?
That's step 3!
I've jumped into my Capital One account, and I'm going to show you how to transfer
venture miles to Turkish Airlines since there are two Capital One cards on the list.
In your account, click this button that says “Redeem” and
then scroll down to the option that says “Convert Rewards.”
Scroll down to find Turkish and click “Transfer miles.”
Now, this is a good time to point out before you actually transfer your miles,
you're going to need a Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles account.
Here's how you create that. Head over to Turkish Airlines dot com and click “Sign up.”
Enter all the required info. And then, before you click submit, make sure you're using the
same name on your Miles & Smiles account as you already have on your Capital One account,
because well, that's pretty important.
Now, click “Submit” and make note of your membership number,
which you're going to need in the next step.
Now, back in your Capital One account, enter your new membership number and click “Next.”
Type in the amount you need to transfer.
In this case, the 45,000 and click “Complete transfer.”
I'm not actually going to do that because transfers are not reversible and
I don't currently have any plans to fly Turkish Airlines, unfortunately.
But once you've submitted your transfer,
those points should arrive and your Miles & Smiles account within 24 hours.
And if I remember correctly, you should get an email notifying you when that is complete.
I have 45,000 miles in my Miles & Smiles account. How do I actually book my business class ticket?
Log into your Turkish Airlines account
and click this link that says “Reward ticket. Buy a ticket with Miles.”
Before you actually transfer your miles from Capital One,
I highly recommend you search here on Turkish Airlines and make sure
there's award ticket availability for the route and date of your choice.
No one wants to get stuck with a pile of points they can't use.
So I'm going to show you how to search for availability now.
Enter your origin. That's probably going to need to be a big international airport
if it's in the U.S. Your destination. And then choose a date to start your search.
If you're booking a one-way ticket, be sure to select that.
Then click the button labeled “Cabin” and Select “Business Class” and submit your search.
If there are award tickets available on the day you selected,
you'll see those options listed here and you can click each one for more information.
In past searches, I’ve run into two potential problems.
If your search doesn't come up with any results,
this means at the very least, that your route isn't available on a day you selected.
I feel like this isn't the most user-friendly platform. If this happens to you,
you're going to have to do some extra legwork on your own.
Try clicking over to the day before or after and see if any availability shows.
If you try a week's worth of days and find nothing, there's a good chance that either
the route doesn't exist or there just isn't any business class availability.
And this brings up the second potential problem.
Turkish Airlines only opens up a handful of award tickets per flight,
and once that allotment is gone, you're either going to have to pay a lot more than you expect
or there won't be any tickets available.
Because of this, it's always best to book award tickets on
Turkish Airlines as far in advance as possible.
Flights can usually be booked starting about 11 months in advance.
I found availability and transferred my points. Now what?
It's time to book! Click “Select this flight,” go through the normal booking process,
and you're done.
But wait. I know what you're thinking.
You said you were going to show me how to book Turkish Airlines business class
for free. What's that extra charge all about?
Well, airlines separate taxes and fees from the cost of the normal flight,
and your award ticket won't cover those.
So usually you're going to be left with about $170 to $250 to cover on your own.
I mean, $200 for a flight that normally costs about $4,000
is a steal. But don't worry I've got a plan for that $200 for you too.
If you used the Capital One Venture Rewards card during this process, you ended up with
at least 66,000 miles from the sign up bonus and the spending you needed to earn it.
You transferred 45,000 miles, leaving you with at least 21,000.
So when it comes time to book your award ticket on Turkish Airlines,
pay the additional fees with your Venture card. Here's why.
Your Venture miles can also be used to reimburse yourself for a recent travel purchase.
And since the fee for a flight is considered a travel purchase,
you'll see it here when it posts to your account.
I don't have a recent travel purchase to show you on my account,
but you can reimburse any of those charged to your account for the previous 90 days.
You simply select the charge and click to reimburse it. And just like that,
you've bought Turkish Airlines business class for completely free.
If traveling Europe on a budget is a topic you'd like to explore more, we made this video for you.
In it, we share how we spent one year traveling to
20 different European countries for less than $1,000 a month
without hitchhiking, staying in hostels or spending all of our time in super cheap countries.
So if you enjoyed today's video, be sure to check that one out too. And we'll see you there!