SAS EuroBonus Millionaire: Amazing promotion to get 1 million points (worth at least $10,000)

This is an absolutely incredible promotion that is so good it’s almost hard to believe. Getting 1 million airline points (worth at least ≈ $10,000) is something that’s usually reserved for giveaways, but this is a real promotion everyone can take advantage of. But not everyone will want to, even if it’s arguably the best promotion of this kind in literally decades.

The second I saw this promo, I was immediately obsessed. I’m extremely tempted to do it myself, as this is exactly the kind of deal I get excited about. It’s an unbelievably amazing bonus, a very complex logistical challenge, a lot of flying just for the sake of flying, and a wild once-in-a-lifetime experience. It seems custom-made for me. 

Maybe you’re an extreme maximizer and adventurer like I am?

Here are the details of the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion the whole worldwide travel rewards community is going crazy about.

Overview of the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion

All of the details are below, but as usual, I’ll start with this overview.

Here are the basics of the promotion:

• SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) has switched airline alliances
  • This promotion is to celebrate them joining SkyTeam
• You need to fly on SkyTeam airlines before December 31, 2024
  • You need to earn points on airlines, to be more specific
  • Or use some if you have EuroBonus points (you probably don’t)
• There are 3 bonus options:
  • 10,000 pts (≈ $100) if you fly on 5 different partners
  • 100,000 pts (≈ $1,000) if you fly on 10 different partners
  • 1,000,000 pts (≈ $10,000) if you fly on 15 different partners

Honestly, that’s not that demanding. At least for such a huge bonus, a bonus never seen since the early 2000s, the golden days of mileage runs (the art of flying just for the points you earn)!

It’s not easy by any means, of course (it’s for a MILLION points, after all). But it’s not completely out of reach at all either.

(The only thing remotely close that came up recently is the deal that got me 90,000 Avios points worth ≈ $1350 completely free with an Iberia flights promo a few years ago… but that one is for another story!)

Here are a few logistical details before I get into more analysis and tips for this promo:

• You need to register for the promo for free in the SAS app
  • As is almost always the case with promos
  • Do it right away if you’re even considering doing it
  • In case they close it to new sign-ups if it’s too popular
• The 15 specific airlines are not flexible (update: it’s been improved)
  • Even if there seems to be more than 15 options
  • You need a flight operated by each airline
• You need to earn SAS EuroBonus points with each airline
  • Make sure each ticket‘s booking class earns points
  • Or you can use SAS EuroBonus points instead; if you have any
• That means you need to pay for the flights in cash
  • You can at least use many points of the more simple type
• The crediting of points from the flights can be done in January
  • If points don’t post on time for flights in 2024
• You can only earn 1 bonus
  • In case you are one of those always trying to maximize 😉

It’s quite doable, but you need a bit of time. That’s the main constraint. You can make an epic round-the-world trip out of this, or even 2 or 3 separate trips if you can’t leave for a long time all at once.

It’s especially interesting if you wanted to travel this fall anyway (like me), as you would’ve already spent a bit on flights and hotels anyway. Now you’ll need to spend more, but you’ll get a huge bonus!

I estimate flight costs to be about $4,000 (I shared my own itinerary), so it’s certainly not for everyone. But you’ll get $10,000 worth of points for future travel in addition to an epic trip (or epic trips) out of it. If you use the points for business class, well this bonus can be worth $20,000 or even $30,000!!!

Finally, not all SkyTeam airlines are actually eligible for this promotion, and 2 of them are a bit risky.

Here are the 17 airlines you can choose to fly (but in fact, it’s really 15).

There’s an asterisk next to Aerolíneas Argentinas and Air Europa, as I initially recommended avoiding them to make sure the promotion works. I will explain below. That left just 15 others with no flexibility at all. But with an update by SAS, the other 2 will work too.

Don’t worry: you can avoid Africa and make a slightly shorter routing with our pro tip below. The same tip can allow you to include the Caribbean or Oceania if you’d rather visit those places on your epic millionaire itinerary.

You can find cheap flights on almost all of these airlines. It sure will make for a wild journey (or many wild journeys)!

Analysis of the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion

First, let’s start with the basics: the promotion is really only good if you maximize it at the highest bonus tier for 1 million points. 

It’s just not worth flying 5 airlines to get ≈$100 or 10 airlines to get ≈$1,000 due to the alliance’s geographic distribution (although the latter might make sense if you’re going to Asia anyway).

Now, 15 airlines all over the world is indeed a lot, but it’s actually not that bad. The biggest restriction and obstacle is the very short time frame, as you have under 3 months to accomplish this.

If you have a bit of time in November, you could realistically do this. I think I will.

You’ll get an incredible 1 million points! SAS EuroBonus points expire 4 years after being earned, so it’s not like most reward currencies that have no limit to use them at all. But that’s still a lot of time to use them on SAS or all the SkyTeam airlines. The program has great sweet spots, including for long-distance business class flights, and that’s one thing I want to do more of in the coming years.

If you can leave on a lengthy monthlong round-the-world trip, you can fly all 15 airlines relatively easily with our tips below and  my own itinerary as inspiration.

If you can’t leave for such a long time at once, this promotion can reasonably be unlocked with 2 or 3 trips, which is what I’ll have to do due to all my 4 existing trips from now to early December (that can’t be moved). I won’t even take into account the cost of hotel nights, as I needed to plan a big November trip anyway to get my nights for Marriott elite status (I haven’t traveled a lot this year).

Of course, there’s no way around it: there will be a lot of time in airports and airplanes if you want to achieve this. I happen to love that, especially with my unlimited free access to VIP airport lounges, thanks to my American Express Platinum Card. It has its best offer in years, until January 28.

But not everyone thinks this will be a fun enough story to tell to justify the effort. It’s really more about the journey and the thrill of the pursuit of this deal than it is about the destinations, as you’ll have very little time everywhere, obviously.

How to take advantage of the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion

I love planning trips, it’s the closest thing to actual travel so it’s the 2^nd-best thing to do after actually traveling. And I’ll remind you of the most basic thing, 1 of our 6 main tips to travel for less: the more you plan, the more you save.

This promotion is a great logistical challenge, for sure. At first I wanted to share a turnkey itinerary for you, but I don’t think it’s a good idea as you need to be somewhat experienced in searching and booking flights on your own for this trip to work, given the many risk factors.

Here’s the overview to minimize costs. The key is to try and make every single flight be on a different partner.

The high-level strategy is simple. 

There’s a (small) North American part, a European part, and an Asian part. You can string them all together if you want.

AeroMéxico pretty much has to be done in North America if you want to save money — they’re not necessarily known for cheap transatlantic or transpacific flights.

Delta can be on the way there or back, or a positioning flight to get to a U.S. airport at the beginning or end (probably the best), but it could also be your transpacific flight based on prices. Or even a transatlantic flight as it’s often the cheapest partner (as low as $273 from New York to Paris on November 5), but only if you do this in multiple trips (if you have just 1 transatlantic flight, it shouldn’t be Delta).

Then, you get to Europe ideally on Virgin Atlantic (as low as $250 from New York to London on November 5) because it’s the only partner with no short flights. Once you’re there, you fly all European airlines on short, cheap flights (as low as $100). That’s Air France, TAROM, and SAS (and KLM if you don’t want to do it in Southeast Asia).

If you want to do the Asia part at the same time, Saudia is the best to get there. Their Dammam-Jakarta flights are known for being cheap (as low as $244 on November 12). If not, China Eastern is also cheap for the intercontinental flight.

Finally, in Asia, you fly short, cheap flights (as low as $130) on all the Asian airlines (China Airlines, China Eastern, Xiamen Air, Vietnam Airlines, Korean Air, Garuda Indonesia) along with Kenya Airways and KLM. Then you return to North America on the cheapest partner (as low as $642 from Taipei to Los Angeles on November 26).

Kenya Airways and KLM in Asia? Yes, that’s the pro tip I mentioned earlier.

Using fifth freedom flights for the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion

A pro tip is knowing about fifth freedom flights. We’ve never covered these yet as they are a niche thing we AvGeeks (aviation geeks) love, but they aren’t often all that useful for most travelers.

Fifth freedom flights are when an airline operates a flight between 2 countries that aren’t its home country. They’re rather rare, but in this particular case, the Kenya Airways fifth freedom flight between Bangkok and Guangzhou (as low as $203) entirely avoids you a detour into Africa.

I’d recommend flying KLM in Asia too, as they have 2 interesting fifth freedom flights: Singapore-Bali and Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur. This is just to spend more time in Asia with a low cost of living instead of in super expensive Europe.

Another alternative I considered to make it more unique and fit my already full travel schedule is the Caribbean. 

Air France has flights between Guadeloupe and either Martinique (as low as $193) or even Montreal (as low as $268)! They’re not technically fifth freedom flights since that is France, but it’s the same principle since most will only think of mainland France for Air France. Virgin Atlantic has fifth freedom flights between Barbados and either Grenada (as low as $177) or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (as low as $202).

A bit more complicated than just doing those 2 in Europe, but it is a great alternative if you have time to make a whole other separate trip out of this. I know how many people love the Caribbean…

Finally, I also mentioned Oceania earlier. It’s really just if you badly want to go there, as it won’t save you money at all or make anything simpler. But China Airlines and China Eastern have fifth freedom flights between Auckland (New Zealand) and 3 cities in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane).

Value of SAS EuroBonus points

SAS EuroBonus points have always been extremely far from being on anyone’s radar. I have accounts with dozens of airline programs myself and I just created a SAS account yesterday for the first time.

This crazy promotion will certainly give them more exposure than they’ve ever had!

The bonus of 1 million points is worth a minimum of $10,000 (1¢/pt) and has a potential value of twice that or even more, as these are rewards of the more lucrative type, like most airline points. 

The price of flights in points is NOT tied to the price in cash, so the value can be literally unlimited.

There are plenty of sweet spots and SAS has absolutely no surcharges, just the standard taxes and fees and a €50 fee for partners. 

Here are a few examples of good redemptions for SAS EuroBonus points.

Flights from North America to anywhere in Asia, Oceania, and the Pacific are just 165,000 points roundtrip in business class on a partner like Korean Air (often costs $6,000+ in cash).

That’s something I aspire to get with my million points, as I love Asia, and the long flights are the most worth it to splurge on business class (I very much enjoyed my experiences). In economy, it’s a reasonable 90,000 points roundtrip.

Flights from North America to Europe on SAS directly are just 50,000 points one-way in business class and 30,000 points one-way in economy.

Finally, the SAS program’s regions are huge, opening up great opportunities like flying for just 30,000 one-way in business class or 15,000 points one-way in economy all the way from Japan to the Maldives or Central Asia, or from Morocco to the Seychelles or even the Middle East.

I’m likely soon going to have 1 million of these points, so you can rest assured I will create a lot more content about how to use them if you decide to go for it and get these points, too.

Sign up for our free newsletter to get all our content! In the meantime, you can obviously check out the SAS price charts for their own flights and for partner flights.

There are rumors of SAS eventually adopting Flying Blue points as their reward currency, potentially making the points worth even more. Of course, the opposite is always true and with such a sizeable amount, the risk is still a bit higher: there could also be a devaluation. But devaluations rarely involve huge percentages, so in my case, I’m definitely comfortable with the risk.

Having a whole million points means I’ll still have more than enough to make this worthwhile to me.

Best credit cards to pay for the flights

Since you can’t book these flights in points, choosing the right cards to use is almost as important as choosing the right cards to get, as always.

As with any expense, the best card to use is the one that earns you the most rewards:

• A card you are unlocking a huge welcome bonus on
• A card with a multiplier earn rate on the expense category if you aren’t
• A card with a good base earn rate at the very least

But as with any expense, you also need to take into consideration 3 things:

• If you want to use rewards for the expense
• If you want to have insurance coverage for the expense
• If you want to avoid foreign transaction fees for the expense

We have a ranking of the best welcome bonuses right now, as always. I’ll be able to unlock one more than the many I had planned this year thanks to this itinerary. 

As for the other variables, it would certainly be great to use up all the rewards of the more simple type that you have to lower the cost of all these flights. If you have Scene+ points, TD Rewards points, AIR MILES Miles, BMO Rewards points, MBNA Rewards points, etc.

You’ll obviously want to make sure you pay the rest with a credit card that has flight delay insurance in case of a delayed or canceled flight.

(Actually, flight disruptions are the biggest overall risk for my own potential itinerary, as there’s just so little buffer room possible with my limited time to do this. I’ll talk more about this in the post about the itineraries!)

Finally, you might want to consider foreign transaction fees (FX fees) as it’s always best to book all flights with airlines directly and not third-party sites (so many people still don’t know this so I repeat it, but if you’re even considering this promotion you’re probably enough of a pro to know that).

Foreign airlines won’t all offer the CAD option, of course. The best no-FX-fee card is the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card, but in certain instances I’ll pay with my Amex Platinum Card because I prefer paying the 2.5% FX fee to get $1000 instead of $500 for flight delays (but that’s my personal preference).

Points earning requirement for the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion

The promotion requires you to earn SAS EuroBonus points on each airline for you to get the bonus. 

That just means to be careful and check if every airline’s lowest-priced booking class actually earns points. While it’s rare, some booking classes earn zero points, so you’ll need to pay a bit more to make sure you qualify for the promotion.

For example, Delta’s Basic Economy fare class does not earn points. It’s clearly marked when you book.

But given the vital importance of each flight for the promotion, you should also double-check each one as you book!

The eligible booking classes are all listed on the SAS page for each partner, as they are always for all rewards programs. Normally, you shouldn’t care and just add your number, and worst case, it gives you nothing. But in this case, you really need to earn points from each airline to get the 1 million bonus.

Points crediting issue with the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion

In case you didn’t know, the whole concept of airline alliances is that you can earn points and use points on the alliance members’ flights.

So for example, you can always earn Aeroplan points with all flights operated by Star Alliance members (and other non-alliance partners). 

You do this by simply managing your reservation and adding the right rewards member account and number.

Now, the issue with SAS EuroBonus is that they just joined SkyTeam (hence the promo), and many airline partner websites aren’t updated yet. 

It’s not a problem, as you can definitely add your SAS EuroBonus member number to these flights manually, but you might have to do it at the physical check-in desk for many flights. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s an extra hassle. 

The real issue is related to the ONLY vital thing that isn’t yet in our infographic that summarizes the basics of travel rewards and that needs to be added there, since clearly so many people don’t know this: frontline employees are rarely knowledgeable.

It honestly shouldn’t be a problem, but the impact is huge if it is: if one of the airlines’ points don’t post, you lose the whole bonus. So make sure the employee at check-in adds your membership number, and you likely won’t need to do this, but ask for a supervisor if there’s any issue.

As with all flights, you can add the member number retroactively after the flight if there’s a problem (as long as you make sure there’s no other number from another airline).

But the only weird thing about this promotion was that they specified that this had to be done by December 20 for some reason. So at first I said I’d avoid flying past the 12^th, personally (because you need to wait 8 days after the flight to claim). 

However, now they’ve specified that the claim can be done in January.

Finally, this brings us to the issue with Aerolíneas Argentinas and Air Europa. Those 2 are the exceptions, as you cannot yet add your membership number. SAS says it will be ready “by the end of the year” for your points crediting for flights since September. Now that the claim deadline is no longer December 20^th… it shouldn’t be an issue. But if you want to be extra safe, the other 15 airlines where adding your SAS number already works are obviously risk-free on this aspect.

That’s why I avoided those 2 and will fly the other 15, personally. It’s a shame for Air Europa especially, as it’s clearly an option that’s more affordable and convenient than many others, but for me, it’s not worth the risk; I want my million!

Airlines not eligible for the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion

I listed the 15 airlines, but here’s more info on why there aren’t more options even if SkyTeam has more than 15 members.

ITA Airways, CZA, Aeroflot, and MEA (Middle East Airlines) are normally SkyTeam members, but they aren’t SAS partners yet, so they won’t count. ITA (Italy) is rumored to be leaving for Star Alliance, CZA (Czechia) is ceasing operations this month, Aeroflot (Russia) is suspended due to the invasion, and MEA (Lebanon), well, I’m not too sure (probably not a country most of you want to visit right now anyway).

Air Europa (Spain) and Aerolíneas Argentinas (Argentina) would count if you’d fly them by paying with SAS EuroBonus points, but you almost certainly don’t have any.

8 tips for the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion

You can read my concise post about the 8 very important tips to follow.

Basics of SAS

SAS is the flag carrier of the 3 Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden). 

It was a founding member of the Star Alliance airline alliance, but it has recently switched to SkyTeam — because SkyTeam members Air France and KLM bought a 20% stake in SAS.

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Summary

This incredible promotion allows you to accumulate 1 million SAS EuroBonus points as a bonus, giving you a value equivalent to $10,000! Of course, flying on 15 SkyTeam member airlines by December 31, 2024 isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it’s not impossible either… I’ll see if I can do it myself! Stay tuned if you’re interested.

What would you like to know about the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion? Tell us in the comments below.

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Featured image: New Taipei City, Taiwan (photo credit: Angela Lo)

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