With hardly any advance notice and without any official communication about it, Turkish Airlines will increase award levels in its Miles&Smiles program as of tomorrow, both on its own flights and on partner airlines. Not only is the increase rather unbelievable in most cases, but moreover, awards will now be priced on a sector basis. As a rough guideline, the former roundtrip award levels are now one-way award levels – even the Turkish Lira devaluates less… So while you pay today 75,000 miles for a roundtrip in Economy Class from Western Europe to Australia on Thai Airways, you will be charged tomorrow for the same flight 100,000 miles for the first flight to Bangkok and 170,000 miles for the flight from Bangkok to Australia. 270,000 miles vs. 75,000 miles. Definitely a strategy not every customer is likely to understand or support. The picture only looks a bit better – but far from acceptable – on Turkish Airlines direct flights. For instance, a Business Class roundtrip between Istanbul and North America increases “only” from 90,000 miles to 130,000 miles. The current promotion for double miles in Economy Class and triple miles in Business Class (bookings by March 24, travel by August 11) is only a very temporary relief in that situation…

It has probably already happened to all of us that we booked a non-refundable hotel stay and had to change our plans. Money lost and no miles credited as we didn’t actually stay at the hotel. Flying Blue is finally putting an end to that double punishment: When you now book a non-refundable stay over the Flying Blue hotel platform, you will be credited with your miles within four days of booking – even if ultimately you won’t realise your stay. Money lost will still applies in such cases, but at least sweetened by some miles credited.

Flying Blue is though currenty deserving your attention not only for hotel bookings, but also for car rentals: Renting a car from partner Enterprise by March 31 lets you earn double miles, what means 8 miles per EUR spent. Assuming a redemption value of 1 Euro cent per mile as minimum, you quickly understand the return of that promotion – which even increases if you manage to use your miles to get a better value out of them. If you have though already switched your SkyTeam program to Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club, you can benefit of a similarly rewarding deal with Hertz: Booking by February 29 for rentals until May 31 lets you earn 10 miles per GBP spent.

Many major programs operate a secret tier level above the published ones – but keeping them really secret nowadays is certainly more difficult than 15 or 20 years ago. That’s why Air France KLM has chosen to make the “Ultimate” level in its Flying Blue program fully transparent, by publishing qualification criteria and benefits. To qualify, you require 900 status points solely on Air France and KLM flights per year. This corresponds, for instance, to 30 Business Class segments on long-haul flights between 3,500 and 5,000 miles or 450 domestic flights in Economy Class. The additional benefits are though not so impressive that you may want to make the stretch from the 300 points (on any SkyTeam carrier) required for the Platinum status: They consist notably of four one-cabin upgrade vouchers, lounge access for up to eight companions and the ability to gift Platinum status to somebody else.

If you are already ready for some beach holidays before May 20, IHG Hotes’ program IHG One Rewards has a rather compelling offer: For every four nights spent at participating all-inclusive Iberostar beach resorts, you are rewarded by 40,000 points. You can earn this bonus twice for a maximum of 80,000 points. If you are happy to use these points at mid-scale IHG properties such as Holiday Inns, this should give you easily four free nights, at least outside of the most expensive destinations. But with the dynamic award pricing IHG One Rewards applies, those 80,000 points can even take you further though if you use them in a smart manner, letting you literally earn bonus holidays with your main holidays.