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

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).

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

• 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

• 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)

• 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:

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

• 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!) 

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

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:

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

• 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)