Incredible! Wake me up, I must be dreaming! Another crazy promotion that gives 1 million points!!! The Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge” gives you 1 million miles (value of≈ $12,000 to UNLIMITED)! As you probably guessed, you need to visit 6 continents. So it’s very cool, but it’s a bit more complex (and more expensive in terms of initial investment to get the million) than the SAS fall promo.
That SAS promo structure required me to “only” go around the world (3 continents) and also gave a million points. It was the best promotion of the decade. It was an exceptional adventure and a unique experience. And it gave me flights worth $80,000!!!
This week, JetBlue had just announced something similar to get 350,000 points without going too far, and in the article I told you it was “probably the best you’ll get this year.”
Well, it wasn’t after all! I honestly can’t get over it, but it’s so awesome that other airlines are giving such big bonuses!
Here are all the details of the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge” for 1 million miles.
What is the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
How to get 1 million points in one sentence: You need to take 6 Turkish Airlines flights (one that lands in each of the 6 continents) departing from (or transiting in) İstanbul (IST) before the 27th of October 2025!
Wow. Just wow.
Again! Now I have to decide whether to take on this challenge or the JetBlue challenge (or even both; YOLO).
Believe me: having 1 million points is phenomenal. My million SAS points are worth $80,000 (!!!) by extrapolating the value of my first redemption (which is a very typical redemption). Yes, I paid the guaranteed fixed price of 50,000 points for my June transatlantic flight in a luxurious lie-flat business class pod seat that was worth $4000+!
(Math: 1 million SAS points gives 20 flights that cost 50,000 points each, so it’s 20 multiplied by $4000: total value of $80,000. Wild!)
Turkish points (official name: Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles miles) are a bit different obviously, but I’ll get to that. What doesn’t change is that it’s an incredible promotion. But it really is harder. It can still be worth it!
As always, I have so much to say to help you. I’ll go by topic to keep this well-structured. I wanted to share this promotion with you quickly, but I’ll have a lot more content soon.
What exactly do I have to do for the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
Turkish Airlines saw its former partner SAS take us on an epic round-the-world trip to celebrate leaving Star Alliance and wondered what could be even more impressive than that? Visiting all 6 inhabited continents!!!
Türkiye’s flag-carrier airline is famously #1 in the world in terms of the number of countries served. Clearly, they want to reemphasize and highlight this even more with this promotion that’s very generous promotion… but that still requires you to make an effort!
Here are the basics of the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”:
- You need to visit the 6 continents
- The 6 served by Turkish Airlines
- You must do every flight departing from (or transiting in) İstanbul (IST)
- That’s the major caveat and logistical challenge
- Your 6 flights must be operated by Turkish Airlines (TK)
- No flights operated by partner airlines
- Even partner flight with a TK code are excluded
- You have 3 short flights and 3 very long flights
- Short: Africa, Asia, Europe
- Long: Oceania, North America, South America
- Each direction is considered separately
- Even if you buy roundtrips
- But you can also buy one-ways or multi-city tickets
- Only the arrival airport counts (in each direction)
- The departure airport does not count (transits either)
- Airports in Türkiye do NOT count (same for TRNC)
- It’s their home country, you’ll pass through there by default
- They’re not giving us that one for free!
- Fifth freedom flights are excluded
- You always have to pass through İstanbul
- They’ve thought their things through
So, Toronto-İstanbul-Rome one-way counts as just 1 continent (because you only have 1 arrival in Europe).
But Toronto-İstanbul-Rome roundtrip counts as 2 continents (because you have 1 arrival in Europe and then 1 arrival in North America).
I’ll give you a concrete example of an itinerary outline below.
What are the logistical details for the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
It’s pretty simple overall. At least in terms of rules… the part where you have to physically visit 6 continents and always circle back to Türkiye is far from simple, of course!!! Indeed, the above conditions do mean it’s really better to do this as a single trip!
That way, you’ll only need to buy 1 roundtrip flight between North America and İstanbul, where you need to be to do all the required flights. The challenge is still doable if your schedule doesn’t allow you to leave for long, but it’ll cost you more with the 2 extra transatlantic flights. In that case, the new JetBlue promo might be better (I’ll compare both in a dedicated separate post soon).
Here are the logistics of the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”:
- The deadline to take the flights is October 27, 2025
- That gives you about 4 months from today
- Flights must be booked with cash
- Not with points
- You can’t use a promo code for a rebate either
- Flights must be booked directly on the Turkish website or app
- As you should (almost) always do with every airline
- Flights can be done in any order
- All that matters is that they’re done
- Bonus points will be deposited on November 15, 2025
- That’s very fast
- Bonus points will expire in 3 years
- There’s no time limit to redeem with most programs
- So you need to be sure you’ll travel a bit in those 3 years
- No registration required (that’s rare for a promotion)
- You just need to create a free Turkish account
- You absolutely must add your TK number to your reservations
- BEFORE the flight; retroactive claims are not permitted
- You can also add it easily when booking each flight
- You can read the official details if you want
- On the Turkish promotion page
There are thankfully no fare class exclusions, unlike the SAS promo and the new JetBlue promo.
You can therefore simply buy the cheapest Turkish Airlines flight every time. That said… even their cheapest are often not cheap.
How much does it cost to do the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
It depends on many factors, of course. Flights are the biggest expense. For that, as always, prices depend on how flexible you are about everything (dates, yes… but everything else too). The actual net cost of flights is drastically reduced if, like me, you were already planning a big trip (and hadn’t booked anything).
For all other expenses, it depends on whether you’re doing the trip as a mileage run (without visiting, just to earn the rewards). It’s definitely more enjoyable to take the opportunity to visit, though (and it doesn’t cost anything extra if you were already planning to travel). But if you want to keep it cheap, you can do so, by not staying anywhere for very long (go back with your million points).
Here are a few details about the cost of the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”:
- Turkish is a very well-rated airline (#7 in the world)
- So it’s on the more expensive side
- You need to do at least 12 total flights logistically
- Because you always have to circle back to İstanbul every time
- You could fly another airline for half the flights
- Those departing from each continent to İstanbul
- You only need 6 Turkish flights (1 that arrives in each continent)
- This might save you money (depends on the dates, destinations, etc.)
- You will have to do at least 6 very long and expensive flights
- So the initial investment is higher
- You’re prepaying for (many) future flights
- You can still make a surplus
- It’s very profitable if you redeem the points well
- From a purely financial standpoint, at least
- You could pay as low as $5000 net in flights
- Extremely preliminary estimate
- ≈ $6000 in flights
- Minus a minimum of ≈ $1000 in extra welcome bonuses unlocked
Obviously, I will create a turnkey itinerary for you very soon, as I did in the fall. Hopefully, I can bring the cost of flights down lower. As I said, I’ve still included a more general example below to help you visualize everything.
In the meantime, here below, I already start helping you decide if it’s worth doing this for you (since you now at least have a general idea of the most significant cost).
Here’s another basic reminder about promotions:
- These bonus points are in addition to your regular points
- As always
- In addition to the points with your credit card
- ≈ 28.3% if you’re savvy (by unlocking a huge bonus)
- In addition to the points with the Turkish program
- ≈ 2% (regular earn is not much, but it’s free)
Right now, there are so many incredible offers that give you lots of free travel, so don’t miss out if you’re due for a welcome bonus.
What do I get with the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
Now, the fun part of this journey: you’ll get 1 million Turkish Airlines miles.
That’s fantastic. Airline points are the best! For business class, of course. But they can be great for economy class as well.
Here are the basics of all good airline point currencies:
- They are rewards of the more lucrative type
- So it’s less simple
- They can be worth a lot more
- So you often need to be more flexible (on everything)
- They have an unlimited value
- The price in points is NOT tied to the price in cash
- The award charts set guaranteed fixed prices
- Regardless of the cash price
- The prices are limited, so the available seats are limited
- That’s how it is! And how it has to be!
- We’ll help you find seats
- Their value varies enormously
- Depending on how you redeem them
- Their value is higher for flights in premium cabins
- But they can also be great for economy class
- They can be redeemed on the entire airline alliance
- Partner airlines are the most important thing to know
If you know the basics of rewards, you know every reward currency is very different.
Overall, Turkish miles are not as valuable or easy to redeem as Aeroplan points, but they have their own great sweet spots (teaser below). And must I remind you that you’ll get a million of them?
How much are the miles from the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge” worth?
Before we give you the best redemptions and how the program works, let’s talk about value.
Here’s the conservative value of Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles miles:
- Business class
- ≈ 1.7¢/pt to ≈ 3.4¢/pt
- 1M pts ≈ $17,000 to ≈ $34,000
- Economy class
- ≈ 1.2¢/pt to ≈ 1.7¢/pt
- 1M pts ≈ $12,000 to ≈ $17,000
If you’re flexible on all the things I mentioned in Step 2 of our guide on how to travel in business class (positioning flights, booking date, flight date, etc.), there’s no doubt this is worth a lot of money!!!
How can I redeem the bonus miles from the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
Turkish Airlines is part of the Star Alliance.
It’s the biggest airline alliance, and also the best for point redemptions. It’s the one that makes it the easiest to find available seats (which is the key; especially for business class). But Turkish miles are a bit peculiar…
Here are the available airlines with Turkish miles:
- Turkish Airlines
- Fliest to Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver
- And many US cities, too
- All 24 other Star Alliance airlines
- Including Air Canada
Yes, you can redeem your Turkish Airlines miles on Air Canada (seats available in points, as always with partnerships)! But as always, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. It always depends! Such a simple concept, really: just always do the math! Sometimes, it’ll even cost fewer Turkish miles than Aeroplan points for the same Air Canada flight. Examples to come.
Turkish miles effectively have access to fewer partner seats (because of a flaw that I’ll explain in a second), but this is partially offset by having access to more seats on Turkish Airlines flights. I tried Turkish business class on the 787 using my Aeroplan points, and it’s great (on the 777, the seats aren’t quite as good).
Redeeming Turkish miles on Turkish is actually often great (unlike Aeroplan points on Air Canada). You can even find more available seats, at a higher price, when the cheaper seats at the guaranteed fixed price are sold out. That can be decent, even if it’s more points.
That’s great because Türkiye is one of my favorite countries out of the 70+ I’ve visited (I’ve been 5 times). And it’s the perfect place to position yourself for cheap flights to other destinations I love.
I’ll give you many more examples very soon to help you decide if you want to plan this trip.
I had never really looked at the details of this program, because it’s not among the 7 airline point currencies easily accessible to Canadian travelers. But I will dive deeper to decide for myself (and help you).
Here are a few redemption examples for Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles miles (all one-way, as always):
- Turkish Airlines: İstanbul–Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver)
- Economy: 40,000 points
- Business: 65,000 points
- Turkish Airlines: Canada–South Asia or Central Asia
- Economy: 60,000 points
- Business: 100,000 points
- Air Canada: ALL domestic routes in Canada
- Economy: 10,000 points
- Business: 15,000 points
- ANA: New York–Tokyo
- Business (The Room): 67,500 points
- EVA Air/ANA: ALL East and Southeast Asian routes
- Economy: 25,000 points
- Business: 35,000 points
- Air New Zealand: ALL Oceania to Oceania routes (including Tahiti)
- Economy: 15,000 points
- Business: 25,000 points
- United: ALL domestic routes in the US (including Hawaii and Alaska)
- Economy: 10,000 points
- Business: 15,000 points
- Every Star Alliance member: ALL their domestic routes
- Economy: 10,000 points
- Business: 15,000 points
Now, here are the 2 reasons why the Turkish Airlines rewards program is somewhat peculiar.
Logistically, most flights on partner airlines can only be redeemed by phone. That really sucks; there’s no sugarcoating it.
It is 1 million points, though… At least you can do the research for availability online (on the United website), but you can’t always make the reservation. Fortunately, redemptions for Turkish Airlines flights work fine online.
The other downside I just teased is that on some airlines and some flights, fuel surcharges are passed along (unlike with Aeroplan). So that makes some redemptions very unattractive (well, some don’t mind paying a bit more as it’s still much cheaper than paying for business class seats in cash).
Still, with Star Alliance being the biggest alliance, many good options remain with no surcharges (or low surcharges). But it’s good for you to know that not all seats available from partners are useful in practice, even if they are available.
Is it worth doing the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
Like literally everything in the world of travel, it depends! Every traveler is different.
Here’s what should determine your decision:
- Are you able/willing to take the required flights?
- And at what price could you do it?
- Will you redeem the bonus points well?
- And how much value would you get?
Are you able/willing to take the required flights?
Visiting 6 continents is pretty intense. It’s a minimum of 12 flights, including 6 very long ones.
Maybe you don’t have the time (or even the desire; apparently not everyone loves flying all the time like I do).
I think it’s amazing because I’d get to visit places (I’ve never even been anywhere in Oceania), but if you’re doing it as a mileage run, it’s definitely pretty painful in economy class.
How much would the trip cost?
Depending on the choices you make, your cost will obviously vary a lot (as always).
If it ends up costing you $10,000, it’s definitely not as worth it as it is at a cost of $5,000!
I know I can do it at a very low price, but you should also check that before deciding.
Will you redeem the bonus points well?
It’s clear that the points are wonderful for people who want to travel in business class and are flexible (on everything… not just dates). And for those who are flexible even for economy class. But for others…
If the only trips you take are direct flights to the Caribbean, you’re definitely going to have a hard time redeeming the points well.
I know I’ll be flexible to redeem the points well, but if you’re one of the many people who don’t want to be flexible about anything, I’d make sure it’s still worth it.
How much value would you get with the bonus points?
To tie it all together, as with everything in the world of travel rewards, it’s so important to take the time to do the math.
You look at both sides of the equation: how much it will cost and how much it will earn you. Then you make a decision.
I’m used to always calculating everything, but it’s extremely clear that many people need to develop this habit. It’s really important!
What is the best itinerary for the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
I spent many hours putting together the best itinerary for the fall. I’ll do the same for this challenge. Stay tuned (or sign up for our travel rewards newsletter; join 100,000+ savvy travelers who receive our content).
In the meantime, I want to at least show you a quick example of the logistics, without any optimization at all. These are just the flights themselves, not the plane tickets. Just the outline of the itinerary to give you an idea, without any other considerations.
Here’s this random example (the flights that must be on Turkish Airlines are in bold):
- Toronto-İstanbul-Athens
- Continent 1 (Europe)
- Athens-İstanbul-Sydney
- Continent 2 (Oceania)
- Sydney-İstanbul-Cairo
- Continent 3 (Africa)
- Cairo-İstanbul-Dubai
- Continent 4 (Asia)
- Dubai-İstanbul-São Paulo
- Continent 5 (South America)
- São Paulo-İstanbul-Toronto
- Continent 6 (North America)
Obviously, the key will be to put the continents in the order that gives you the lowest price and, above all, to find the specific destinations that are the cheapest on each continent.
I really love this kind of puzzle! I was pretty proud of my fall itinerary; I’ll aim to do even better for you here.
With Turkish Airlines’ huge route network, it seems very open-ended and overwhelming, but in reality, that’s not quite the case.
The thing is, for North America, you’ll probably want to go to the Turkish destinations closest to you. For South America, there are only a few cities. For Oceania, there are only 2 Australian cities. Those are the 3 continents that are very far away from İstanbul.
For the other 3 continents, that’s where there are more choices, but as a general rule, the shortest flights will be the cheapest. So that narrows it down a bit.
To be continued!
Beware, by the way: the Caucasus countries, often considered part of Asia, are classified as part of Europe by Turkish Airlines. There really aren’t any other issues apart from that.
How can you make the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge” even more enjoyable?
If you take on the challenge, you’ll be spending a lot of time in airports, so you should really take advantage of the new record-high deal on Canada’s best premium card: the Amex Platinum Card.
You’ll get unlimited free access to the world’s largest network of VIP airport lounges. A “record-high” deal means it’s the highest bonus ever seen on this card!
I obviously appreciated this benefit when I did my 1 million point round-the-world trip, with 22 flights in 24 days. I visited over 20 lounges, all for free, even if all my flights were in economy class!
Also, the included lounge at the İstanbul airport (IST) is one of my favorites in the world, and you’ll be going through there a few times.
You can get a free neck and back massage, delicious and free Turkish dishes made to order at the chef station, a nice shower or nap room, and of course, all the other normal lounge amenities (like free unlimited alcohol, which is popular with many).
Is Flytrippers going to do the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge”?
I’m tempted. Are you surprised?
I just already have sooooo many points from the huge offers of the last few years, the bill payment services, the SAS millionaire challenge, and the fact that I travel less (“only” about 10 times a year now😅)! First world problems, I know.
It’s hard to resist, because I had (once again) procrastinated booking my big trip for the 2nd half of the year. So I could do the challenge relatively easily.
Like last year, I was already going to travel, so I would have already spent a certain amount (in cash or in points) on flights, hotels, and the rest. That means in terms of net cost, it wouldn’t be that much more for me to go get another million points.
I’ll think about it and definitely let you know through all the upcoming content on these 2 amazing promotions. If I do this, I’d love to coordinate to meet up with fellow travelers along the way.
As for Flytrippers’ other co-founder Kevin, it’s quite funny. I used to love planning ahead, and he would book flights the week before. Now I book very last minute… and as for him, with his new girlfriend, his next 12 months of travel are all booked (he’s a digital nomad). So I don’t think it’s doable for him.
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Summary
Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge” is an amazing promotion that gives you 1 million miles! Stay tuned for more about this.
What would you like to know about the Turkish Airlines “6 Continents Challenge” promotion for 1 million miles? Tell us in the comments below.
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