How to book a flight using miles to Puerto Rico?

Airline miles are a great way to travel and save money for flights. Typically, flights form one of the biggest expenses of a trip and being able to save money on flights is a key strategy for a budget traveler. Most airlines have frequent flyer programs which help you earn miles each time you fly on them. Additionally, there are a lot of credit cards where every purchase earns you points or miles which can be transferred to airline partners. Some airlines like United airlines and American airlines among others have their own co-branded credit cards that directly help you earn their miles for every purchase you make with them.

I recently traveled to Puerto Rico and I believe I scored one of the cheapest deals using miles that one can when flying from mainland USA to Puerto Rico. I did it by transferring points to Turkish airlines and using Turkish miles to book a flight on their partner, United airlines. The one way cost in standard economy in miles was 7500 miles from Washington DC to Puerto Rico with a fee of only $5.60. I would give a step by step instruction on how to do this with Turkish airlines and some other airlines that you can use to find that great deal.

Why Turkish airlines?

Turkish airlines is a member of star alliance and partners with United airlines in the USA. For award flights (that is, flights using miles), Turkish has a standard rate where any domestic flight within the USA costs 7500 turkish miles in economy with a fee of $5.60. In comparison, United airlines has a dynamic award chart and the miles price of flights can vary wildly, just like flight prices in cash. Air Canada is also a star allaince member and offers US domestic flights for 12,500 miles through their Aeroplan frequent flyer program. It's another viable option if you can't transfer points to Turkish airlines. Note that even though you book via Turkish airlines, you would be still flying United airlines. 

How to find a 7500 mile flight on Turkish?

You first need to go to the United airlines website and select 'Book with miles'. Try to not login to your United airlines account (even if they ask you to) if you have a special status or premier account. Without being logged in, enter your trip details and you would find the flights shown with their cost in miles. If you find a price matching 7500 points or better, you can go ahead and book with United. But if not, look for fares that have a 'X' listed under them. These are called United saver fares. It's these saver fares that are available to book on partner airlines like Turkish airlines and Air Canada. Once you find a flight that works for you and has a 'X' listed on it, you can now move on to the Turkish airlines website. 

Booking award flight on United using Turkish airlines

At this point, either you should already have a frequent flyer account with Turkish airlines or set one up for free quickly. It's called a 'Miles and Smiles' account. Post the account set up, login to Miles and Smiles and click on the drop down menu on the button that has your name in the top right. Then hit, 'miles transactions'.  After that, you would find a box on the right that says 'Fly with star alliance members using miles'. Click the 'book now' button there and then enter your desired trip details.

Now here is where matters can get tricky. If your desired United flight is direct and was a saver ('X') fare, it should show up on the Turkish website. If your flight has some stopovers or connections, then it may not show up on the Turkish website. Sometimes, for random reasons, even direct flights don't show up. But don't worry. There is still a way to book it. You can either call their customer service number or email them to find the booking. Here are two links that show detailed example procedures to book by either calling or emailing.  

Transferring points to Turkish miles and smiles account

Once you have found the flight booking either on the Turkish website, or by talking to an agent on the phone/email, it's time to transfer your miles/points to Turkish miles and smiles account if you already don't have enough in your account. I use a Capital one Venture X card and its miles transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Turkish airlines instantly. I logged into my capital one venture X account and transferred miles via the travel section of the venture X account. The transfer was instant and I was able to luckily book my ticket on the Turkish website itself.  There are some other credit card programs/banks which transfer to Turkish airlines like the Citi thankyou points, Bilt mastercard reward points and Marriott Bonvoy points. 

And with that, just for 7500 miles and $5.6 one way, I was able to enjoy an amazing vacation in Puerto Rico!