Friends,

Well, that was fast.

Just a couple of days ago, I wrote about Turkish Airlines’ million-mile giveaway—a bold, globe-spanning challenge that offered up to 1 million Miles&Smiles miles to travelers who completed six long-haul flights across six continents before the end of 2025.

I was also seriously considering going for it.

But as of this morning, Turkish Airlines has quietly redacted the original terms and appears to have closed the offer to anyone who had not bought or completed a qualifying flight by today (July 8, 2025), likely due to overwhelming interest.

This is a textbook example of both the power and fragility of a good promo. When the value is high and the structure is clear, people jump. Fast. And it’s not hard to see why: for the right traveler, this challenge offered the rare chance to earn what most of us might take decades to accrue—if not more.

But that’s also where the tension lies. Even the most generous airline loyalty program still operates within the hard limits of a marketing budget, and when a promo risks over-delivering, the plug can get pulled early. It’s not ideal, and it certainly doesn’t feel consumer-friendly, especially for those of us who were still weighing the offer in good faith.

Still, this is the loyalty game. The program always makes the rules—and reserves the right to change them at any time. Or put your account under a financial review (a little different, admittedly, but still).

So for now, I’m sitting this one out by default. But to those of you who did get in and are now mapping out your six-continent adventure: good luck and Godspeed. I’ll be cheering from the sidelines—and watching closely to see how Turkish handles the follow-through.

Fly well.

NEWS

American’s resumption of same day standby for all passengers is better than originally expected, as exclusively covered by Gary Leff.

United plans to resume Tel Aviv later this month.

Flight Attendants (I am for sure biased) make or break an airline’s product. This is a great story.

Turkish Airlines says “we done”.

DEALS

Every 3rd Night Free at the Conrad Tulum Riviera Maya — reply if interested.