helosc

Forget my question about where to see booking classes...
I found the answer.
I did a dummy booking for next year in order to figure this out and the interesting part is that they are still showing the point earnings as it is now, not according to the new rules.

vd0t

Also shocked to see that SAS is treating the whole continent as one zone! I certainly hope this will bring prices lower.

KiwiRob

The new points don't make a lot of difference for me. I mostly fly from Molde to Russia, this is three flights, I currently earn 10,000 points with a Plus ticket, with the new points depending on booking class I will still get somewhere between 7500 & 10000 points per trip as an EBG. The redemption rates suck.

fassy

At least they haven't started with the ultra crappy 25% milage fares or minimum spend requirements.

There is room for more enhancements

FT Guest xyzpdq

So what about Optiontown? Those OptionTown to Plus has earned quite some points, now less so I would expect.

fassy

So far they booked into Y or Z.

So, for the European short haul it will be down from 2000 to 1500 points or on the longer routes like Spain down from 4000 to 1500.

For the IC routes it doesn't matter that much but still a couple of thousand points

FlyingMoose

They should have bumped the Diamond level requirements to 150.000 or 200.000 points in this new system and make it worth something.

I'm not exactly sure how earning even more points in C to the US and Asia is going to help, I can barely burn points due to no SK F and Star Alliance redemption being terrible. It will now take even less effort to renew Diamond. Maybe 2,5 trip to NRT from ARN in C?

Back to the old days of renewing 90% of EBG with a single C return trip to AKL.

Hannibal Lecter

Changes from January 1, 2015 in brief:
• Lower point earnings on the cheapest tickets in SAS Go and SAS Plus
• Europe will be 1 zone (not 3 as before)
• Higher point earnings in SAS Business to/from the US and Asia
• Lower point requirements for Gold status: 45 000 Basic points (previously 50 000) or 45 one-way trips* (previously 50)
• Lower point requirements for Diamond status: 90 000 Basic points (previously 100 000) or 90 one-way trips* (previously 100)

*Valid on SAS flights and selected destinations on Widerøe.


http://www.flysas.com/en/eurobonus/o...from-jan-2015/

alibi

I guess it was just a matter of time - people started to be happy with Eurobonus. I guess all my flights book into the lower booking classes, so this will cut my points earnings in half. Not nice...

Smokingbread

Thanks SAS! You're now even far away than the old crappy scheme!
Especially the downgrade of the Plus/Business Saver tickets is incredible!
A New York trip earn is currently 8000 points in Plus, but now NOT even the cheapest Business ticket gives the same amount (Z=>6000 points)... It doesn't make any sense!

So sorry SAS; You lost my loyalty after being Gold and Diamond for total 5 years... Your change impacted also AMEX and Optiontown!

Was considering to switch to the Elite amex card and pay extra for that...and now there is NO reason at all to use Optiontown if you're on a hunt for points...which at least was half of the justification for me to pay the high premium...

Definetely no reason for keeping my bookings with SAS any longer!
...You're clearly on the way to loosing your most valuable customer profiles, so good luck with attracting the leisure segment in competition with Norwegian!

livious

I think that this statement is the most honest. The program has been quite generous over the past few years, so some reductions in earning were due...if only because the other *A partners have already made the cuts. Even A3 revamped Miles&Bonus, so it was time to align with the rest of *A enhancements. I thought it would have been better to hold off for 9-12 more months and suck in a few more disgruntled A3 and LH flyers, but I assume they had their reasons to do this just before Christmas (and after confirming there would not be an Advent Calendar). SAS=grinch???

With that being said, some of the decisions are baffling. All European flights earning the same miles? Like LH, SAS is making life difficult for the short-haul frequent flier. I also don't understand their strategy for Go/Plus if you have different earnings based on booking class. Now they are back to the old earning system with horrible names for Economy and Economy Plus.

I should renew EBG next year, but will need to have my flight patterns change in the coming years to renew. Looks like I will be relying on CC spend to earn miles and continue to burn on C class awards. The lack of YQ on awards still makes this good value, if only because I can find award space for the direct flights to ORD and happen to have family there. It is otherwise tough to find attractive award tickets due to limited destinations and availability, so I can see where many will start to look to other programs.

I won't cry yet...at least until I see the Q1 promos. I think they owe us something nice to help us forget the upcoming cuts.

helosc

Don't forget that the leisure segment has also been hit hard, especially with the disappearance of Europe 1,2,3.
A trip from TLV to CPH now earns 2000 points in Go and 4000 points in PLUS.
It will earn only 500 points in Go (low booking class) and 1500 points in Plus (low booking class) from next year.
And the distinction between booking classes is just making the earnings system complicated - no way of choosing booking class on intra-European flights (at least not online) and I suspect that most tickets will be in the low booking classes. All mine booked for next year certainly is.

CPH-Flyer

I understand the need to adjust the earnings. 4000 points for an A class ticket to Spain (plus potential EBG bonus) was not sustainable. But what did they smoke before they came up with this solution??
It'll be interesting to see if we get hit by a devaluation on the partner earning as well. Though for Lufthansa Group it can hardly get more abysmal.

Time to stick to Oneworld for me....

helosc

A link to an article in a Norwegian newspaper
http://www.aftenposten.no/okonomi/Ku...t-7804249.html

In this, Knut Morten Johansen from SAS is quoted as saying :

' Den justering i bonusopptjening som nå har skjedd, berører bare enkelte prisklasser. De fleste reisende med SAS vil ikke berøres av justeringen, mener Johansen. '

My Translation :
The adjustments to the earnings of bonus points which has happened now, affect only a few/some booking classes. The majority of travellers with SAS are not going to be affected by the adjustments, Johansen says.

Concerning the question about whether flights already booked for next year will earn points according to the old or new chart :
A few people have asked this on SAS facebook and SAS has not answered them on facebook but privately.
So if anyone knows what their answer is, it would be nice to know.

Amexpat

Ditto on that. As EBG I was getting 10000 points for a round ticket to Spain for a plus ticket for around NOK 2000. That was too good to be true.

But with the changes they made, I'll start using DY more for intra Europe and Nordic flights. and will no longer pay extra to fly SK to Asia or the US.