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How to book Star Alliance business-class flights to Europe for 45,000 miles each way

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Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with the latest information.

As a European citizen with friends and family in the region, Europe is my go-to travel destination. To save on airfare, I’ve been earning Capital One miles and Citi ThankYou points, both of which can be transferred to Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles program.

This program offers an excellent award chart and fantastic deals on business-class flights from the U.S. to Europe, with one-way flights costing under 50,000 miles. It’s one of the best redemption deals available for traveling to Europe.

Why it’s special

Turkish Airlines business class on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Business class on board Turkish Airlines’  Boeing 787-9. (ZACH HONIG/THE POINTS GUY).

Turkish Airlines award tickets to Europe are an incredible value when you compare its pricing to other carriers. United MileagePlus charges 80,000 miles — at a minimum — for a one-way flight to Europe in business class. Nowadays, the carrier prices all award tickets dynamically and typically adds a surcharge for partner flights. You’ll now routinely find business saver tickets to Europe for over 100,000 United miles on Star Alliance partner airlines.

On the other hand, Air Canada Aeroplan charges based on the length of a flight. Flights from the East Coast start at 60,000 points but quickly rise when you book longer flights. Further, Avianca LifeMiles charges 63,000 LifeMiles for a one-way business class flight to Europe.

Turkish charges the same 45,000 miles on all flights to Europe, so all awards to the region are predictable and affordable.

TURKISHAIRLINES.COM

The upside to MileagePlus, Aeroplan and LifeMiles is that, unlike Turkish Miles&Smiles, they don’t add fuel surcharges to award tickets on carriers like Lufthansa and Swiss. You can avoid these surcharges by booking with a handful of Star Alliance partners that don’t add fuel surcharges. These include the following carriers that fly from the U.S. to Europe:

So if you’re booking with Turkish miles, stick to these airlines to get the best deals on your award tickets. You shouldn’t pay more than the taxes and fees the origin and destination countries levied. This includes the TSA security fee and landing taxes levied by some countries.

Related: 7 great airline mileage programs for booking Star Alliance awards

How to book this award

Turkish Airlines planes on the ground at IST airport
VAALAA/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

You can book most Star Alliance awards on the Turkish Airlines website; however, you’ll routinely find that Turkish Airlines’ website shows there’s no award space when, in actuality, there is. If this happens, consider calling Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles at 800-874-8875.

Here’s how to book Star Alliance award flights on Turkish Airlines’ website.

Step 1: Log in to your Turkish Airlines account

Head to the Turkish Airlines website and either sign-up or log in to your account. You can find these buttons at the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Logging into the Turkish Airlines website
TURKISHAIRLINES.COM

Step 2: Find the Star Alliance booking page

Now, you need to navigate to the Star Alliance booking page. Click your name at the upper right-hand corner of the screen and select “Miles Transactions” from the drop-down menu. Then, find the “Star Alliance award ticket” section and click “Book now.”

Turkish Airlines Miles Transactions page
TURKISHAIRLINES.COM

Step 3: Search for your flight

Enter your desired itinerary at the center of the screen and click the red arrow to start your search.

JFK to WAW search
TURKISHAIRLINES.COM

Step 4: Select your flight

Your search results will appear at the center of the screen. Click the “Business Class” button to only see business-class flights. Click on its price to see more details and then click the “Select this flight” button to start the booking process.

LOT Polish flight option
TURKISHAIRLINES.COM

Step 5: Confirm your flights and pay

You should now see a flight summary. If all looks good, enter your passenger information, and follow the on-screen prompts to book your ticket.

LOT Polish flight
TURKISHAIRLINES.COM

Related: The best websites to search for Star Alliance award availability

How to earn points for this award

While there are no Turkish-branded credit cards available in the United States, you can transfer rewards from three programs with transferable currencies directly to Miles&Smiles at a rate of 1:1:

The easiest way to earn Bilt points is by adding the Bilt Mastercard® (see rates and fees) to your wallet. As long as you make at least five purchases on the card per billing cycle, you’ll earn 1 point per dollar on rent (up to 100,000 points each calendar year) plus 3 points per dollar on dining and 2 points per dollar on travel.

Meanwhile, there are a number of cards that earn transferable Capital One miles, including:

Finally, here are some terrific options for earning Citi ThankYou points:

Related: Is Citi ThankYou Rewards the most underappreciated and misunderstood program?

Bottom line

This is one of the best sweet spots for booking business-class tickets to Europe: 45,000-mile flights with the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles program.

You’ll get the best deal when you book one of these tickets on a carrier that doesn’t add high fuel surcharges to their tickets. This includes major carriers like United, SAS and LOT Polish Airlines. You can leverage this to get an ultra-cheap business-class award ticket with little out-of-pocket expense.

Additional reporting by Ben Smithson.