Barry’s SAS million point challenge – a diversion to add Airline 15 (Kenya Airways)
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Rob writes: In October, SAS announced the million points challenge – here’s our article. If you could fly 15 of the SkyTeam alliance carriers by the end of 2024, you would receive 1 million bonus SAS EuroBonus points.
It was not a competition – everyone who hit the target would 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 also featured in the Financial Times today.
Barry is sharing his trip with HfP readers. Part 1 and Part 2 looked at ‘why’ and ‘how’ (click to read). Airline 1 was Air Europa. Airline 2 was Air France. Airline 3 was TAROM. Airline 4 was KLM. Airline 5 was SAS. Airline 6 was Virgin Atlantic. Airline 7 was Delta. Airline 8 was Aeromexico. Airline 9 was Saudia. Airline 10 was Garuda Indonesia. Airline 11 was Vietnam Airlines. Airline 12 was China Airlines. Airline 13 was Xiamen Airlines. Airline 14 was Korean Air.
We rejoin Barry in Guangzhou. To make up for earlier errors buying non-qualifying tickets, he is now desperately rearranging his trip to include the obscure Kenya Airways ‘fifth freedom’ flight from Guangzhou to Bangkok.
This wasn’t part of the original plan but it is the only way he can make up for having his Delta Air Lines ticket disqualified for being too cheap and still hit 15 SkyTeam airlines.
Over to Barry ….
Guangzhou to Bangkok, Kenya Airways
Three Chinese airports, and a third different experience. This time I followed the ‘transfer / 24 hour visa free’ sign that I was turned away from in Xiamen, for a straightforward transfer as good as any that I’d had elsewhere. There was also just the one bag and passport check!
The lounge in Guangzhou was excellent, as good as Shanghai. However the biggest shock was that it was a generic ‘Baiyunport’ lounge, rather than airline branded, accepting all and sundry.
If you are ever in Guangzhou airport, it is definitely worth a visit. Porcelain tiled floors and dark wood acoustic wall panelling were paired with natural stone counters for the multitude of buffet food offerings. With staff serving at the bar / coffee / dessert area, as well as a ‘made to order’ noodle bar, this all felt very classy indeed.
I went for the Hong Kong style noodles with fish balls. There was lots of space and seating options, but I need to give it a slight mark down for limited places to charge devices in the dining area, and for not being able to find a lid for my takeaway coffee!
One thing all of the Chinese airports definitely have in common is no free WiFi. Well, a least not one that gets you onto virtually any Western website except Sky Sports, apparently. I was able to get on there to see the football scores, but there was no way to message my family to let them know I was OK. Hey ho.
Let’s talk about my last minute booking on Kenya Airways
Yesterday, when I was sat at the gate in Shanghai, I had to make a decision about this Kenya Airways flight today from Guangzhou to Bangkok. I had been incredibly lucky that virtually the only SkyTeam airline I had not flown – and would have struggled to use given it is the only African carrier – ran a ‘fifth freedom’ service in Asia.
I had to be on it in order to catch my (new) flight home on China Eastern. I also had to get a ticket type that would earn points if I wanted to complete the challenge, now that I’d been told my Delta flight wouldn’t count for being too cheap.
As it stood, there were no ‘point earning code’ flights available in economy as confirmed by the Expedia website. I could play it safe and buy a business class ticket for about £500 or I could take a risk and buy an Economy Flex ticket from Kenya Airways directly. However there was no way to know what fare code this ticket would generate. The information is simply not in the public domain.
I took the risk and bought the Economy Flex ticket. Even after buying the ticket, Kenya Airways does not show the fare code on your confirmation. It wasn’t until the lady printed me a boarding pass in Guangzhou that I knew what code I had.
However, with no internet access, I will have no way of checking it against the qualifying list on the SAS website until I land in Bangkok just before midnight tonight!
As this is a single leg of a route that goes from Guangzhou to Nairobi, the white guys travelling on their own in the queue stand out like sore thumbs. Besides myself, there are at least nine others on this flight doing the SAS challenge. Denmark, France, China and the US are all represented.
Only one female, the rest are males. One couple, one pair of friends, and the rest are solo travellers. All are in their 20’s, with only two of us fortysomethings. It’s a big plane, so there are probably more on here too at a guess.
I feel slightly proud to have been roughing it in economy with the young ‘uns. The other guy my age is a ‘Million Miler’ with Delta and is doing the whole thing in Business and First Class, although I don’t understand how he can justify the cost against the miles. Perhaps he is simply hoping to break even and have a fun time in the process.
Everyone I have spoken to knows about the fare code thing. One of the French guys told me that he booked the last two ‘E’ coded seats for this flight, so Kenya Airways would have to start selling different codes that might work. He then cancelled the two ‘E’ coded seats for a refund once he got the ticket sub-class he wanted.
This really is a challenge set up for the travel influencer / AV geek. I was clearly way out of my depth going for this as a lay person ….
Four of the challengers were sat in a row so agreed to pose for a photo. However, two of them asked for their face to be omitted from any blog post, as their boss thinks they are somewhere else!!!
The aircraft is a fairly tatty Boeing 787, with a 3-3-3 configuration in economy. I have to physically hold the headphone jack in place to not lose sound on the seatback entertainment.
The food was a sorry looking roll that I didn’t eat. But there’s plenty more room than the last plane, a working screen and nobody next to me in the middle seat – so I watch a film and wait to see if my Economy Flex code gamble has paid off ….
Fifteen SkyTeam airlines down, but frustratingly – due to the Delta Air Lines error – one still to go.
Click here to read the final part of this story.
The full itinerary
As a reminder, here is Barry’s original itinerary together with the changes made along the way:
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) Heathrow to Jeddah (British Airways) – 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) Seoul to Guangzhou (China Southern) – Guangzhou to Bangkok (Kenya Airways) – Bangkok to Shanghai (China Eastern) – Shanghai to Gatwick (China Eastern)
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