peocro

Just received my Pandion card. My "regular" qualification period is Feb-Jan, but the Pandion qualifying is the calendar year, with the usual 3 months grace. As far as qualification criteria, I have no clue, but since I am in my 5th Pandion year I must have done something right...

UltraRant

First of all, congrats on reaching Pandion again.

However, as you may understand, it's extremely tempting to do some vivisection on you now. Or on your flying behavior, I mean. We might actually get some more insight in how Pandion is being allocated. Just to find out more about that 'something right' you've done.

Let's start with a simple question: would that be ok for you?

peocro

sure! However I am not quite comfortable with the vivisection thing...maybe a beer or two can help to dull the pain...

UltraRant

Thank you so much. I hope that at some point one or more Pandions will join here. More data makes analysis easier.
If vivisection on your flying behavior becomes too painful, I can offer a good Scandinavian hjemmebrent for the status to ease its pain.

Anyway, for starters:

One hypothesis here is that long term loyalty may contribute to reaching status. We know that you've been Pandion for the last 5 years. How long have you been flying SAS as EuroBonus-member? And how many years of those have you had Gold status before you got Pandion?

Another hypothesis involves flights taken. 'Flying more than the crew' is one hint dropped by SAS. A logical next question would be: how much did you fly in the last years by SAS? Most long haul or short haul? And in which booking or seating classes? (Go, Plus, Business.... or even Eco, Eco Extra, Business)?

Just for completeness sake: did you ever book with subsidiaries, like Widerøe, Estonian or did you ever get upgraded via OptionTown? Did you book directly with SAS or via TA's?

Also the hypothesis that it's just money based goes around. Now I have spent over 250.000SEK last year on travels with SK and its subsidiaries, some here have spent 500.000SEK and haven't made it. As a gross total, how much have you spent last year and the years before, on average per year?

Finally, although everyone agrees or assumes it should be irrelevant for getting EBP status: how many EB points did you accumulate last year and the years before?

FlyingMoose

I didn't get any mail from SAS, guess I didn't qualify.

If that is true this would be the part that killed my chances, especially if SK8000/SK8001 do not count.

I only fly C long haul and Plus intra-Europe so that would have worked in favour.

I'm in year 8 of consecutive EBG, probably many more frequent flyers from ARN that have more years.

2013 was just south of 300k so perhaps another contributor.

That last one would just be nonsense or lack rational thinking. So in SK's case that could very well be the case and very disappointing. I would have had a way higher spend with them if I would have had CPH as a homebase, simply because there would have been considerably less reason to use the competition.

peocro

let's see:
- I became EB member when i moved to Sweden in 2003, and I became gold in few months
- I fly for business and to visit my daughter that lives in another country. On average every year 12-20 flights across the Atlantic in C, 30-40 in EU in Extra (generally), now in Go. 6-10 times to TLV when they started the route. Some leisure transatlantic flights in Y
- no idea about the spend
- on average 200-400K points in total, with also cards and other things, so I donth know the actual breakdown
- I moved to Switzerland last year, so I was very surprised to get confirmed as Pandion since now I am ccumulating as well M&M points on LX

not a clear picture I am afraid

ScandiGB

I am fairly sure this is it in your case. I have always understood quite clearly that it had to be SK metal. It seems uncertain how they count airlines that use Eurobonus as their own frequent flier programme (e.g. Estonian Air), but that is another matter.

ScandiGB

UltraRant

This absolutely helps quite a bit.

A careful first analysis:
We now know that you are indeed a long time Gold for SAS.
We also know that your spending must be a six digit number, most likely at least 500.000 SEK in the last few years, as you do spend a lot of money on long haul C fares. They don't come cheap. It also seems confirmed that Pandion is something measured over a longer period of time, as you have moved a share of your flights to LX and credit to M&M in the last year. We also see that point earnings are not of any issue: 200k to 400k including credit card is not 'special'. I'm in the same range and I spent less. And, in addition, you don't fly more than the average SAS-employee, so time spent on board or amount of legs most likely isn't an issue. This actually is also confirmed by what Pandion1Haliaetus posted earlier: he also almost exclusively flies C on long haul, but not many legs per year. Unless you mean return trips with possible stopovers with the above instead of individual legs, of course...

I thank you very much for your help. It'd be great if a few more Pandion could step forward and indicate a bit... Ans everyone is free to shoot at the analysis above, of course.

The codeshare flight with SQ was actually advertised as a SAS flight for a few months last year. They even put it on sale with the other long haul flights... Not sure what the status of that flight would be. I share your thoughts on OV.

FlyingMoose

About half my spend with SK is on that route. Perhaps my chances take a turn for the better once I can fly ARN-HKG-SIN instead as the timing is much better.

ScandiGB

Can you provide a bit of information about your flying? How much is actually on SK metal?

For my part I flew more than 90 intra Europe segments (85% Scandinavia-LHR) all in C and more than 90% on SK metal. I did not make Pandion.

ScandiGB

FlyerTalker01565

I learned this week that I have a co-worker who made Pandion. Travel in long-haul C almost exclusively - throw in the odd 6-8 trips to LHR in Plus (full flex, probably) - but not that much overall. 8-10 US trips in C a year. So just high value and she's been doing it for a while (about 6 six years with that flying pattern). She's in a sort of MD role at our firm (not my boss, though), so maybe her name is "behind" some more flying as well - don't know if that matters.

UltraRant

So far actually 'quite some legs on long haul C' and 'have been doing so for a few years' seem to be the common denominators.

@ScandiGB: for how long have you had that flight pattern?

ScandiGB

Since mid 2013.

First time I made Gold was in 2004. I then maintained that until 2006. I lost it and got it back in 2009 when I flew weekly with SAS group airlines (but not much SAS itself) in Economy Extra. Total of c. 175,000 points per year. Never made more than Gold.

In 2011 that stopped and I got back to Silver until fall of 2013 when I made Gold then Diamond on the back of the pattern described above.

So never less than Silver, but current pattern only for just below 2 years (2014 being only full calendar year).

ScandiGB

ScandiGB

CPH - EWR return on short notice typically costs around DKK 32,000 in C

CPH - LHR return on short notice is typically around DKK 4-6000 in C

My question is whether there is an explicit requirement to fly long haul (why would someone based outside Scandinavia do that?) or whether it is simply that a few long haul flights actually just generates a lot of revenue for the airline.

ScandiGB

UltraRant

That is an excellent question. The easiest answer would come from a Pandion who almost exclusively flies short haul.

I actually do know someone who has done this and got Pandion. But this was years ago, so I'm not sure if it still counts (which is also why I don't take this data into the current research). The man got relocated from OSL to (HEL or ARN, not sure) and refused to move. So he commuted every day. I think he still holds the record of most legs flown with SAS, with well over 400 in a calendar year. Not surprisingly, after just over a year he got a new job.