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Barry’s SAS million point challenge – the final reckoning!

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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 was also featured in the Financial Times – click here (paywall).

SAS million point challenge

Barry shared 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. Airline 15 was Kenya Airways. Airline 16 was China Eastern.

When we left Barry’s story three weeks ago he had finally made it home to the UK. With at least one flight stubbornly refusing to post to his SAS EuroBonus account, however, it wasn’t clear he would be getting the million points.

Let’s see what happened ….

I did it!

1 million points. These have been added to my EuroBonus account today [23rd January]. Now that I am officially a points millionaire, I can finalise the figures for my expedition. Here is everything ‘by the numbers’ ….

  • 22 – the number of flights I took in total
  • 19 – the number of different airlines I flew on
  • 16 – the number of different SkyTeam airlines I flew on (one more than necessary because I booked the wrong sort of Delta ticket ….)
  • 14 – the number of different SkyTeam airlines currently showing in my Eurobonus account
  • 2 – the number of different SkyTeam airlines I am still waiting for the points from
  • 5 – the number of long haul flights I took
  • 17 – the number of short haul flights I took
SAS million point challenge
The only plane friend I made, Amberly
  • 1 – business class flight taken (a positioning flight on BA)
  • 21 – economy class flights taken
  • 2 -upgrades to extra legroom seats free of charge
  • 1 – extra legroom seat, paid for
  • 21 – flights that landed on time or thereabouts
  • 1 – flight landed around an hour late
  • 18 – different airport lounges visited
SAS million point challenge
Seoul
  • 4 – lounges that were able to give me a takeaway coffee cup
  • 2 – lounge showers taken
  • £3,947 – total money spent on all flights, including ones I didn’t go on
  • £537 – spent on those tickets I didn’t use
  • £836 – spent on parking, hotels, visas, food, taxis etc
  • £4,784 – total financial outlay (although HfP has paid me for these articles)
SAS million point challenge
Ring pull cans still exist in Jakarta 
  • 22,968 – total SAS EuroBonus points earned from flights
  • 10,139 – total Avios earned from credit card spend and booking parking / hotels via Avios partners
  • 1,000,000 – SAS EuroBonus points earned for completing the challenge
  • 1,033,107 – total points earned 
  • £0.0046p – cost per point received (less than half a penny per point!) 

I met with the SAS team in London for a follow-up event last week – oversized cheque, confetti cannons, the works. We also did some filming for their social channels:

SAS million point challenge

According to SAS, here are some more numbers about the challenge:

  • 6-7 – their original guess of how many people would complete the challenge (!)
  • 600-700 – the actual number of people that completed the challenge (exact number TBC due to retroactive sector crediting) with the largest group coming from South Korea!
  • 30 – percentage of those that completed the challenge who were women
  • 4 – age of the youngest person to complete the challenge
  • 70’s – age of the oldest person to complete the challenge
SAS million point challenge
Vape lounge in Seoul Incheon 
  • 100 – percentage of people who completed the challenge who entered China at least once
  • 6 – the number of people that completed the challenge but DIDN’T go on SAS as one of their 15 SkyTeam airlines!

Having visited so many lounges and been on so many planes, here are my winners and losers from the trip:

Best airline – Korean Air

Best value for money airline – China Eastern

Worst airline – Kenya Airways

Worst value for money airline – Xiamen Airlines

Favourite flight – Virgin Atlantic, Heathrow to Atlanta 

Least favourite flight – British Airways, Heathrow to Jeddah (the one flight taken in business class!) 

SAS million point challenge
Sign asking not to steal toilet paper in Taipei 

Best lounge – a tie between China Eastern V01 in Shanghai SHA, Baiyunport in Guangzhou and Alfursan in Jeddah

Worst lounge – Tarom in Bucharest

Best lounge coffee – Alfursan in Jeddah

Worst lounge coffee – Plaza Premium in Taipei

Best lounge cutlery – Air France in Paris

Worst lounge cutlery – Alfursan in Jeddah

Best airport architecture – Paris CDG, it is simply beautiful

Best airport amenities – Singapore

SAS million point challenge
What’s the opposite of a 5-star hotel?

Quietest airport – Stockholm Arlanda

Noisiest airport – Bucharest 

Longest queue for immigration – Ho Chi Minh City

Shortest queue for immigration – Seoul Gimpo

Most security searches – Xiamen

Most immigration checks – Jakarta

Best transfer – Jeddah 

Worst transfer – Jakarta, closely followed by Xiamen 

Oddest sights in an airport – Seoul Incheon had a vape lounge and a roaming band wearing traditional Korean clothing including swords, while playing traditional Korean music:

SAS million point challenge

What did I learn or take away from the challenge ….?

  • Don’t be afraid of going somewhere that requires a transfer. I have avoided these like the plague since having kids, but in reality it wasn’t a drama at the airports that were properly set up for it.
  • Have a shower in the lounge on a layover if you have time. It’s a game changer!
  • Whisper it quietly, but long haul economy isn’t that bad. It’s really not. I have only travelled business / First / Upper since 2015 so I had a somewhat fuzzy view of long haul economy but it was based on slightly distorted memories. Accept it is a means to an end, and get on with it!
  • Aircraft food is better in Asia, probably because rice and noodle dishes are more suitable for reheating 
  • Food in economy is mostly pretty poor though. Eat in the airport if you can. Always take snacks
SAS million point challenge
Flame cooking in Taipei 
  • Airline status is only really important if you are flying economy. When flying business, you get all the benefits anyway, so why do people get so hung up on it? I found it incredibly valuable travelling on my £100-£200 economy tickets – not queuing, access to Sky Priority lanes and of course lounge access. On my one positioning flight with British Airways in business, where I have no status, I had all that too! 
  • Whilst every short haul plane was similar to the others, none were the same. With so few variables to distinguish between carriers, I am amazed nobody has figured out that all you need to be the best is a padded leather (or imitation leather) seat with adjustable headrest, a working fast charge USB/USB-C port, somewhere to put your phone and offer a bottle of water. For 1-3 hours, that is all you really need.
  • For long haul (economy) just add in a decent seat back entertainment system and a way to use your own headphones (cable or bluetooth), and some basic WiFi capable of email / messaging / checking football scores!
  • The best adventures are probably harder to get to, but that is what makes them so much fun – so get out there and start exploring!

Thank you for all your kind words and support throughout the challenge. Now I need to start booking some SkyTeam redemption flights for my family!

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)

Category

SkyTeam alliance partners

Comments (137)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • CJD says:
    26 Jan26 January 07:27

    “Whisper it quietly, but long haul economy isn’t that bad.”

    I’m surprised Rob’s allowed that to stay in the final article.

    Really enjoyable series amongst the plethora of re-hashed content recently.

    • John says:
      26 Jan26 January 07:44

      Completely agree. Last year did Australia to UK and back twice, more or less identical trips (different stopovers in Asia/Middle East but both trips had 8 flights).

      One trip was in business and one in economy – equally knackered after both. Obviously the business seats were more comfortable, but being in my late 30s I can still recover from the economy seat easily – the problem is that I am not productive for 2 weeks after the trip and going in business didn’t make much difference.

      At least both trips cost roughly the same if valuing an avios at the nectar rate.

    • Ken says:
      26 Jan26 January 11:44

      I’ve done plenty of Y including Australia on my own with young kids.
      It depends on a host of things.
      If you are 6’4 and stocky it’s going to be more unpleasant than if you are slim and 5’8.
      If you have health issues or back problems, economy can be a trial.
      If you can like me sleep on the proverbial rope then the time flies.
      I’ve always found jet lag is down to lack of sleep, lack of exercise plus alcohol consumption.
      The older I get the less I can tolerate alcohol the next day.

      You also have more of a chance of getting a difficult neighbour (size, snoring , whatever).

      I can do a lot of things I value much more for a £2k difference.

  • AmandaB says:
    26 Jan26 January 07:37

    I absolutely loved reading about Barry and his challenge. Thank you for including him.
    Barry – you missed a stat – ICE CREAM PRICES!

  • Sylvias says:
    26 Jan26 January 07:41

    Amazing endurance, Barry. Thanks for detailing it all.
    I do think you should write an update, maybe in 6 months, about how easy you found it to actually use the miles. I am finding it very difficult so far this year to find reward seats anywhere I want to go with any of my loyalty schemes, so I do hope it was all worth it and you have some enjoyable trips with your family.

    • Anouj says:
      26 Jan26 January 09:51

      If you have avios then redeem on finnair, very low taxes and very high availability just check everyday and multiple seats always pop up

    • Stian says:
      26 Jan26 January 10:35

      I second that, Sylvias!
      Barry, I’ve really enjoyed your articles, and would love to hear how you use the million miles. EuroBonus miles used to be notoriously difficult to use, and I’d live to hear that it’s improved. With the latest BA changes, I’m mulling over a switch to SAS and SkyTeam…

    • Throwawayname says:
      26 Jan26 January 10:50

      There are airlines and routes in both big alliances which have amazing availability. I’m already planning trips to Africa and the Middle East with my SAS points and it’s looking pretty good, although sometimes you need to make do with a suboptimal routing (e.g. there’s no availability for CAI-CDG-XXX and you have to go CAI-OTP-CDG-XXX) or a slightly different date.

      I would be less confident about redemptions on oneworld as it’s got fewer members, although there are still interesting value/availability sweet spots for using Avios etc (e.g. Iberia to BOG, Rwandair within Africa).

      • Phillip says:
        26 Jan26 January 14:04

        It also uses married segment availability. You might not find AMS-MEX but you can find LCY-AMS-MEX.

  • Andy S says:
    26 Jan26 January 07:42

    Well done Barry, so pleased the miles credited after all you’ve been through. Really enjoyed your humour throughout the articles.

    Interesting your comment on status after all the fuss recently about BA’s latest downgrades.

    They sit you together anyway, all club suites are now similar and the below average North and South Lounges at T5 are hardly worth that effort.

    Flying back from Sydney tomorrow (yes rare Club booking all the way) with very few Avios left and am looking forward to being unchained from BA/AVIOS. They are so ordinary now after their Covid quality staff cull. If you get even average service it’s a surprise. So many minor issues on outbound. Ordered Hindu meal as I like spicy food. Had beef curry in lounge and guess what beef curry to Singapore and Beef curry to Sydney. Can’t someone join the f**king dots. Some woeful burnt desserts still served instead of being thrown straight in the bin. Crew bumping you out the way like you’re an inconvenience, missing drinks, snail like meal service, no drinks before meal, no top ups during the meal. It’s the blind leading the blind now yet BA are the ones that can’t see. What moron signed off on the brunch fiasco and who was it blowing smoke up their arse saying oh sir, sir what a fantastic idea.like a school swat

    • JDB says:
      26 Jan26 January 08:04

      Not sure BA can be expected to adjust the food on the aircraft in line with what you chose to eat in the lounge and unfortunately any special meal you order will be very limited in options so people commonly report getting the same each time.

      All the other things you report about BA long haul club sound eerily familiar.

      The good news is that McKinsey and a few other consultants have moved on from BA to advise the government. Sunday Times reports £1bn spent on consultants since July…

      • Andy s says:
        26 Jan26 January 09:12

        I agree what I eat in the lounge is my choice but my point was how difficult is it, to change the option on the second leg as many people carry on through to Sydney. Just shows BA’s shortsightedness. They could have saved overpriced consultants and asked Joe Public their first hand experience then actually listen and acted on it.

      • Kevin86 says:
        26 Jan26 January 09:18

        Er I think you’ve spectacularly missed the point regarding the beef. It’s not that he got the same as he had in his lounge but that Hindus don’t eat beef.

        • Andy s says:
          26 Jan26 January 10:21

          Good point, didn’t think that one through did I.🤪
          Either way it was a beef/lamb curry 3 meals running. Won’t be doing that again

        • Ken says:
          26 Jan26 January 11:51

          He was forced to choose Beef curry in the lounge ?

          I thought the complaint was that it was the same dish on connected flights.

          BA say Hindu meals don’t contain beef.

  • daveinitalia says:
    26 Jan26 January 07:58

    Perhaps BA should run a promotion like this to take people’s minds off the upcoming enhancements.
    I’ve enjoyed reading the series. I have to keep reminding myself that longhaul economy is doable, I tend to travel in business even in short haul and dread the thought of economy but on the odd occasion I’ve flown it it’s been ok.

    I would disagree with this though “Airline status is only really important if you are flying economy”, at least on BA. If you’re flying a route without F the only way to access first wing security is to have gold or above and you need GGL to access the Concorde Room, both make a big difference to the experience if you’re going through Heathrow many times a month. Thanks to BA seat selection charges even silver has some use when flying business.

    Other airlines status is less useful in business, for example VS has no F so you get all the good stuff on an upper class ticket. Is BA pretty much the exception here?

    • L Allen says:
      26 Jan26 January 09:37

      I think the point about chasing status but flying in J or F is slightly off. You have to fly in those cabins to get the status as it’s so much harder to achieve on a Y ticket. Once you have the status, the improved level of customer service, and other benefits, means you’re more likely to fly in a forward cabin to retain it. You won’t easily get or retain status by only flying in Y. If your travel is always in J or F then, I agree, there’s no point in chasing status but unless you’re always on a low cost redemption ticket, you’ll get it anyway.

    • Michael says:
      26 Jan26 January 10:08

      BA is an outlier, where they have pared back the product so much that status does make a big difference even in Business. Status covers seat selection, allows a better selection of seats on check in, neighbour seat blocking, puts you higher up the pecking order for the limited meal selections, gets you priority for customer service and rebooking in IRROPs. The first wing at heathrow is an exception and most airports dont have such a facility at scale (and the Gold lounge is not much better to other airlines’ regular lounge offerings).

      Also oneWorld is different to the other alliances by having a first-equivalent status tier (emerald). The original idea behind Star Alliance gold was to give business class benefits to economy passengers. The US-based carriers have subverted that with status inflation, selling status and their emphasis on upgrades to “First Class” domestically.

      Across the rest of the world, status passengers tend to be treated well but not so much with hard benefits in business class and to the detriment of regular passengers as on BA.

    • Throwawayname says:
      26 Jan26 January 11:17

      I think that the issue is that the first wing and gold lounges at LHR only improve the passenger experience because the BA business class ground product is so lousy. Even if the Lufthansa/LX business/SEN hub lounges are uninspiring spaces and the food can be a bit underwhelming, they are invariably tidier, cleaner and calmer than the BA facilities at LHR, and priority check-in/security/baggage allowance work consistently.

  • Mark says:
    26 Jan26 January 08:08

    So 100x more people completed the challenge than had been expected.

    What are the odds now on a SAS devaluation in the coming months!

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    26 Jan26 January 08:17

    “4 – age of the youngest person to complete the challenge”

    What sort of person puts a four year child through this sort of trip?

  • Thomas Atkins says:
    26 Jan26 January 08:22

    Congrats; so pleased for you (and props to your wife and family for their support!). One thing you forgot in your review – What was the Best ice cream you tasted and where? 🤗

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