Air France took a 20% ownership stake in Scandinavian Airlines. SAS moved from Star Alliance to SkyTeam last month. Now they want their customers to get to know their SkyTeam partner airlines – fly them instead of Star Alliance carriers like Lufthansa and United.

They’re offering up to 1 million bonus miles to customers who travel by the end of the year on different SkyTeam carriers:

• 5 airlines = 10,000 bonus points
  
• 10 airlines = 100,000 bonus points
  
• 15 airlines = 1 million bonus points

So earn the bonus, you can buy paid tickets but SAS EuroBonus redemption tickets also count. While you have until December 31 to fly, you need to claim retro credit on any flights that don’t post to your SAS account automatically by December 20, 2024 which is a bit weird. I’d be sure to try to complete this by mid-December.

Note that if you book codeshare flights, it is the operating carrier that counts. You can’t pick up partners just by booking their codeshares, e.g. book several Delta flights through different SkyTeam partners. Miles will post in January 2025.

Here are the 17 airlines that qualify towards the promotion: SAS; Aerolineas Argentinas; Aeromexico; Air Europa; Air France; China Airlines; China Eastern; Delta; Garuda Indonesia; Kenya Airways; KLM; Korean Air; Saudia; TAROM; Vietnam Airlines; Virgin Atlantic; Xiamen Airlines

So how much would it cost to do this? Miles Earn and Burn says,

I believe it’s possible to do this at an approximate cost of $75 per ticket if you’re very flexible and able to sandwich it in-between other flights you’ve already got on the books, putting the lower minimum cost at approximately $1,125. If you’re less flexible or don’t have additional travel that you can piggyback on, you’re probably looking at $5,000 in tickets to pull this off.

The real cost here, of course, is the time. My former award booking partner Steve Belkin suggests,

Match up people that want the million miles but don’t have the time or inclination to do all that flying with people who have the time and interest to travel the world for free airfare.

…Instead of compressing the trip into a few days like the mileage hounds are trying to do, let it be a more leisurely itinerary that would appeal to a regular vacation seeker. Brand it and turn it into a competition for ‘travelers’ to submitted they should be chosen. The labor pool comes to you!!!!!!

You…open the SAS accounts under the traveler names of course. But all other info inviting password is yours. And they sign off that you control their accounts.

The trick since you’re putting out the money for the flights is picking people who will complete the tasks.

So is it worth it? Here’s a good overview of the SAS EuroBonus value proposition.

• There are no fuel surcharges on SAS redemptions, uncommon for a European carrier.
  
• And there are real sweet spots in their award chart, although some awards that are just too expensive
  
• Bear in mind that this is SkyTeam, which is generally not as attractive as Star or even oneworld – both the airlines themselves overall, and the products.
  
• Most long haul destinations are 50,000 miles each way in business class.
  
• If you can find availability, Delta’s domestic premium cabin is 30,000 miles each way (not including Hawaii)
  
• You can also fly 30,000 miles each way in business class between India, South Korea, Japan, China and the Maldives – so for instance Taipei – Seoul – Almaty. That’s pretty good.

On the other hand, miles expire after four years and there’s a 50 euro partner booking fee. Air Europa, Vietnam Airlines, and China Airlines all cost double the points listed on their award chart which basically excludes them from any reasonable redemption. And partner one-way redemptions cost 60% of roundtrip rather than half.

You aren’t going to be able to book SAS saver awards during the Christmas/New Year’s period or during the summer. However, East Coast – Europe on SAS is reasonably available outside this period and with a good price (50,000 in business).

Flying other airlines though is tough. You won’t find a lot of saver space on Delta, and Air France KLM’s best award availability is limited for redemption using their own currency. You can basically assume that for transpacific flying that Korean is your only real option.

When working on your own strategy for this challenge, don’t forget fifth freedom routes. You don’t have to fly Virgin Atlantic across the Atlantic, for instance. You can do that with another SkyTeam airline, and hop on a short Virgin flight in the Caribbean like Barbados to St. Vincent or Granada. Other carriers have similar unexpected short (and usually inexpensive) options too – such as KLM’s Singapore – Bali and Kuala Lumpur – Jakarta.