Our EuroBonus Guide – 19 Facts & Tricks about SAS’ Loyalty Program

EuroBonus is the frequent traveler program of multinational Scandinavian carrier SAS. It is famous for being one of the easiest ways to claim the coveted Star Alliance Gold tier – by accumulating as little as 45,000 Basic Points (tier miles) within 12 months. Even in discounted booking classes, that generate none to little mileage with other airlines’ programs, you can receive plenty of Basic Points.

Every frequent flyer program is unique, and it always pays off to know its advantages and disadvantages. So we present you with 19 useful little facts about SAS EuroBonus:

Extra Points & Basic Points = Reward- & Tier Miles

Instead of miles EuroBonus uses the term Points. Similar to other frequent flyer programs there are two types of miles points: Extra Points, which are reward miles and Basic Points, which are tier miles. You can earn both by flying, but extra points can additionally be earned with hotels, rental cars, certain goods, credit cards, etc… as well. Basic Points can only be used to earn a specific tier and are devalued in a much shorter time. Extra Points can be used to redeem reward flights or upgrades.

• Reward Miles = Extra Points
• Tier Miles = Basic Points

Extra Points Expire After Five Years

Extra Points (Reward Miles) remain valid for five years – and therefore last much longer than in other frequent flyer programs. If you reach the top tier Diamond, they don’t expire at all. This barrier on the other hand is higher than usual.

Qualifying Period Instead of Calendar Year

Every frequent flyer program has a distinct time frame within which you have earn a certain amount of miles (or points) to reach a tier level. In contrast to other programs like Miles&More, EuroBonus does not use a calendar year (January 1 – December 31). Every member has an individual qualifying period. It begins on the first day of the month you signed up (e.g. February 1) and ends 12 months later (in this case: January 31 of the following year).

This qualifying period cannot be restarted or altered. It is set as soon as you sign up for EuroBonus.

Hint #1: If you already have a EuroBonus Account, but are discontent with the qualifying period, you can delete your account and sign up again, even using the same email address. If you do this, already earned points will of course vanquish.

Higher Earning Opportunities in Lower Booking Classes

The main reasoning behind frequent flyer programs is increasing customer loyalty. Because of SAS’ Star Alliance membership and codeshare programs, SAS EuroBonus gets even more interesting.

Most frequent flyer programs discipline their members to buy more expensive tickets by barring discounted booking classes from earning miles or just crediting a fraction of the travel distance.

EuroBonus goes a different way. Many cheap booking classes grant a lot of miles. For example, Singapore Airlines booking classes K, N, Q, V, usually only grants miles in their own program, KrisFlyer. EuroBonus is the only other program where flights in this booking class are credited. Further examples are:

• Lufthansa / SWISS
  • Economy K, L, T: 25% (identical to Miles&More)
  • Business Class P: 100% (identical to Miles&More)
• Singapore Airlines
  • Economy K, N, Q, V: 50% (identical to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer)
• Thai Airways
  • Business Class Z: 150% (125% at Thai Royal Orchid Plus, 150% at Miles&More…)
  • Business Class C, D, J 200%

At the same time, SAS isn’t exactly generous regarding its own discounted flights! Any long haul destination with departure from Scandinavia (USA, China, Hong Kong, Tokyo) grants measly 200-240 points when selecting SAS Go Light (booking classes K, L, T).

Hint #2: You can credit flights booked on SAS Go Light on other frequent flyer programs. These grant up to 100% of the travel distance!

Looking up Your Booking Class on SAS’ Website

While it can be a troubling endeavor with other airlines, it is easy to retrieve your booking class on flysas.com. All you need to do is selecting your desired connection and specific flight. The pop-up window will give you information like the fares’ name (SAS Go Light) and the corresponding booking class.

Credit Flights Retroactively

EuroBonus allows you to retroactively credit flights up to 6 months after completing them. This is only limited by the condition that you didn’t already credit them on a different frequent flyer program. You have to wait at least a week to credit your flight retroactively. The corresponding credit is usually completed instantly – you don’t have to wait days or even weeks and constantly check your account. If you can’t retrieve your ticket number, you need to contact ebretro@sas.se.

An exception applies to new members, which can credit flights up to 30 days before their sign-up date.

Hint #3: You can “extend” your first qualifying period by signing up a month after the first flights you wish to credit (ideal is signing up on the first of any month) and credit them retroactively.

Example: You’ve completed several flights in January. If you sign up to EuroBonus in the same month, your qualifying period starts on January 1 and ends on December 31. If you sign up on February 1, your qualifying period ends a month later, on January 31 the following year. You can still credit your flights from January retroactively. They will still be counted to your current qualifying period.

You can even do both hint #1 and #3 if you’ve already signed up to EuroBonus, but haven’t credited any flights yet.

EuroBonus Rounds Up

EuroBonus is generally very generous when it comes to crediting. Instead of crediting the exact number of points, EuroBonus will always round up to the next hundred. Instead of 5,840 points for a flight from Zurich to San Francisco you’ll receive 5,900.

Gifting Gold and Silver

The Diamond tier is worth even more than the Gold status and can be reached with 90.000 Basic Points or 90 SAS flights. Once you’ve reached it, you can gift one Gold status to a friend or relative, and then another Silver status. If you requalify for the Diamond status, you have to gift the status once again.

Gold members can gift a Silver status.

Lifetime Star Alliance Gold

If you’ve qualified for the Gold status 10 times (10 full years of holding the Gold status), you get the Lifetime Gold status and will no longer have to worry about requalifying.

According to Flysmart24.no, the first Lifetime Gold status cards have been sent to members in March 2018.

Of course, SAS and EuroBonus will have to continue to exist in 10 years for you to get this lifetime status. Nevertheless, this is a good motivation for continuing to earn miles at EuroBonus.

Sadly, a gifted Gold status does not count for the required 10 years. You’ll have to earn that status yourself. For a part of the points needed for this status, however, there is an option to earn them for which you won’t need to fly:

You Can Buy Status Points

If the earnt Basic Points do not suffice to reach your status, you can buy up to 5,000 Basic Points for the Silver status, and up to 15,000 Basic Points for the Gold status. In theory, to reach the 45,000 points for Gold, you only need to fly for 25,000 miles.

A mileage run, however, should be cheaper than buying the points. You’ll have to pay €100 for 1,000 Basic Points. You can also convert 10,000 points into 1,000 Basic Points. However, you have to be a member for at least one year to purchase points.

Crediting Etihad Flights at EuroBonus

Etihad Airways is one of SAS’ partner airlines. Etihad is not a member of any alliance, and thus there are relatively few programs, that allow you to credit Etihad flights. EuroBonus is one of them. On flights between Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam, Athens, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, London-Heathrow, Milan, Rome, and Zurich, you can earn from 25% up to 400% of the distance as points.

Sadly, you can only earn Points, but not Basic Points (status miles). Redeeming points is also possible. Spending 70,000 Points + €156 for a roundtrip from Europe to Abu Dhabi, however, is not very lucrative.

Transferring Amex Membership Rewards Points to EuroBonus

With an American Express credit card, you can earn points with their bonus program Membership Rewards. These points can be transferred to EuroBonus and many other frequent flyer programs at a 5:4 ratio (e.g. 15,000 points = 12.000 Points).

If you apply for the American Express Gold Card, you’ll receive 15,000 Membership Rewards points as a welcome bonus, if you spend at least €1,000 during the first three months with your card.

Modifying and Cancelling Award Flights Free of Charge

You can modify or cancel award flights, up to 24 hours before the trip, free of charge. The trip begins with the first segment of the award flights. Your points, however, should not have expired yet, i.e. if you earnt those points over 5 years ago and redeemed them for this award flight, you will not get them back.

Point Sharing: Earning Together with Family and Friends

Similar to Miles&More’s Mileage Pooling, you can also share your points with friends or relatives at EuroBonus with Point Sharing. Practically, you can earn Points together with up to 6 other people. They do not need to be related to you at all.

Reaching the Status via Segments

Sadly, SAS has drastically decreased the number of points credited for SAS flights. The possibility to get the needed segments with SAS or Widerøe flights has, however, remained. For the EuroBonus Gold status (= Star Alliance Gold), you’ll need 45 segments. Sadly, those flights really have to be SAS & Widerøe flights, and not flights with other Star Alliance partner airlines.

If you often fly SAS, it could be worth it, to add an additional segment to your trip for a small surcharge. As SAS has various hubs in all of Scandinavia, this tends to be possible on almost every route.

The route from Frankfurt to Bergen, for instance, can be bought with a layover in Oslo for €98:

For only €18 more, you can add an additional layover in Stockholm and thus earn another segment:

If you have two layovers on both the outbound and inbound flights, you would only need 8 roundtrips to Scandinavia per year for the Gold status.

Enjoying Status Benefits on Widerøe Flights

The Norwegian regional Airline Widerøe and SAS still have a close partnership, even if Widerøe is no longer owned by SAS. EuroBonus remains as Widerøe’s frequent flyer program, and thus you can not only earn Points & segments on Widerøe flights but also enjoy status benefits. And as Widerøe isn’t a Star Alliance member, you’ll only be able to enjoy those benefits with a EuroBonus status.

3 Additional Months of Validity

If you do not manage to requalify for your status in your qualification period, you’ll still continue to enjoy all your status benefits for another three months. In other words, your status is valid for three months beyond your qualification period.

Find Award Tickets More Quickly and Easily

Swedish website Awardhacks.se allows you to search for SAS long haul award flights easily. The site scrapes data directly from SAS’ website and allows you to apply filters to quicken your research. The detailed offer on SAS’ website and booking possibilities are just one click away. If you’re willing to register, you can also set customized notifications.

You can also check SAS award availability for other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs like Miles&More.

Child Friendly

EuroBonus is a very child friendly frequent flyer program. Children younger than two years fly free on your lap on award tickets (even taxes & surcharges don’t apply). Kids between two and eleven years only pay 50% of the adult mileage price + full taxes and surcharges.

Do you Know any More Hints?

Do you have additional hints for EuroBonus? Then please leave a comment!