Barry’s SAS million point challenge – Airline 1, Air Europa

Rob writes: Last month, SAS announced the million points challenge – here’s our article. If you can fly 15 of the SkyTeam alliance carriers by the end of 2024, you will receive 1 million bonus SAS EuroBonus points.

It’s not a competition – everyone who hits the target will get the points.

A number of HfP readers took up the challenge. One of them was Barry Collins, who you may have seen discussing the challenge in The Times – click here (paywall, or click here for a non-paywall version).

Barry is sharing his trip with HfP readers. Part 1 and Part 2 looked at ‘why’ and ‘how’ (click to read). Today Barry takes the first of his 15 qualifying flights. Over to Barry ….

As far as races go, my own personal race around the world got off to a pretty sedate start.

As it was half term, we decided to take the 7 year old for a city break in Spain as a family and cross the first airline – Air Europa – off my list en-route. This is definitely not the quickest or cheapest way to complete the challenge!

An early morning easyJet flight to Barcelona was followed by a short time ride up to Girona, where we were spending the night. I had bid and won on the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Champions League Avios auction (HfP covered these here) and had VIP tickets to the match that evening vs Slovan Bratislava. The match was great, as was the hospitality – and we even won the signed match ball at the UEFA tent! Very happy 7yr old indeed!

We had explained to him that the trips I would be doing were very similar to the BBC’s Race Across The World, just with planes. When we were booking this trip, we decided to take the train from Girona to Madrid so he could experience a tiny slice of the adventure for himself. Spanish high speed trains are a long way off from an overnight bus in Vietnam. Fast, clean, reliable – they are a long way off public transport in the UK, if truth be told …. 

Madrid is a lovely place for a city break. Flat and walkable, with plenty of transport options and things to do for the whole family, and still warm enough for shorts in late October. We spent three nights – which seemed about right – and in amongst wandering around the city eating tapas and churros, we visited the planetarium, the zoo, the botanical gardens and an interactive gallery called Ikono.

Price wise, Madrid is not too bad as far as capital cities go, and certainly cheaper than London.

The flight home on Air Europa from Madrid was pretty unspectacular. We stopped into the VIP Sala lounge at the airport, which seemed to be the only one there? It was huge, but very busy. And if I’m being critical was pretty basic, with most of the food options being pre-packed sandwiches ….

The only memorable thing about the plane was the drop-down TV screens from the ceiling, at about every 3rd or 4th seat. I tried to explain to the 7 year old about how we all used to have to watch the same film at the same time on planes when I was his age. He just stared at me blankly. I’m so old.

This was, of course, the easiest part of the challenge. It was, literally, a holiday. From now on I would be knocking off at least one airline per day, and often two.

One airline down, 14 to go.

To be continued ….

The full itinerary

As a reminder, here is Barry’s full itinerary:

Trip 1 – Gatwick to Barcelona (easyjet), Madrid to Gatwick (Air Europa) booked as part of a family holiday

Trip 2 – Heathrow to Paris (Air France) – Paris to Bucharest (TAROM) – Bucharest to Amsterdam (KLM) – Amsterdam to Stockholm (SAS) – Stockholm to Heathrow (SAS) 

Trip 3 – Heathrow to Atlanta (Virgin Atlantic) – Atlanta to Mexico City (Delta) – Mexico City to Paris (Aeromexico) – Paris to Heathrow (Air France) 

Trip 4 – Stansted to Istanbul (Pegasus) – Istanbul to Riyadh (Pegasus) – Riyadh to Jeddah (Saudia) – Jeddah to Jakarta (Saudia) – Jakarta to Singapore (Garuda) – Singapore to Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) – Ho Chi Minh to Taipei (China Airlines) – Taipei to Xiamen (Xiamen Airlines) – Xiamen to Shanghai (Xiamen Airlines) – Shanghai to Seoul (Korean) – Seoul to Shanghai (China Eastern) – Shanghai to Gatwick (China Eastern)

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How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (December 2024)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.

You can apply here.

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.