dark_phoenix

Hi friends,

I am like 2500 points short of Diamond. So I was wondering what is the opinion of people who have Gold and Diamond (especially Diamond), of whether they consider it to be good enough to do a milage run for or whether it basically gives the same as gold and I am better off just being happy with what I have?

I searched the thread to see if this had been answered before and nothing obvious came to view. So if there another place I can look instead of wasting your time, I am happy to do it

Thanks for your insight

studentCPH

I would say it's very much worth it if you have some one to give the gold card away to, when you're that close. If you get the diamond status before your qualification period resets it's even 2 gold cards you can give away. If you don't have any one to give that away to (I'm sure you can find some one...), there's also the softlanding to gold if that has been implemented yet.
Depending on orign, if you're going to do the MR with SAS, consider an intra EU leg and upgrade with OT so you can get the points on one trip, I know it's not guaranteed to get the OT, but I have 3/3 success rate within EU, and there's others who have posted a 100% success rate with more flights.

Jespersm

Of course it's worth it: Within the very near future (probably one to two years) Diamond customers will get a free coke when travelling in SAS Go !!

dark_phoenix

Thanks for the tips studentCPH I don't actually have anyone to give a Gold Card away to, but I like the thought of having it just to have it. Besides, I have to think that sometime this year, in order to give Diamond any real meaning, they are going to have to take things away from Gold to compensate so better to be prepared

dark_phoenix

Jespersm...haha! I laughed at that one...shook my head...and then had to laugh again

I am not sold on EBD in it's present form, but as I said, I feel confident that SAS is always looking for a way to make cheapen the prorgamme. The best way to do that is to find ways to reduce the numbers of EBG people in their ranks, so maybe it makes sense to try for EBD...until OWA gains a real foothold in Northern Europe to force some competition (excluding the low-cost carriers), *A and their airlines are what we have to live with.

pobbop

LOL.

The only reason that might make it worthwhile is if you don't think you'll achieve Gold again in your next qualification period - after a year with Diamond, you should fall back to Gold status the following year. Apart from that, forget it.

fassy

For 2.500 I would go for it. You will always find someone who could use a gold card and perhaps they will do something about their new top tier in the next year.

Also the 30% discount on the Best Availability award tickets is kind of nice.

teom66

Having been Diamond since introduced - I would be in doubt.

As mentioned above - you might get a free Coke at some point in time

But really the benefit is giving away a Gold Card.


If there are SAS Eurobonus people here reading: what would be a benefit is complimentary time of-booking/time-of-checking upgrades like United does.

I just travelled from Chicago -> Stockholm with the family arrived this morning. With my wife as a Gold and me as a Diamond + 3.

The plane is not very full 165 passengers. 23 free seats on Eco+ and 11 seats free in Business.......In my opinion a good perk would be that they ugrades the 5 of us - just becuase of the Diamond status when they have free seats in the premium cabins anyway.

SAS view is this: They only upgrade the Diamonds/Golds if the eco is overbooked and they have to move someone anyway. So instead of using their premium seats they prefer to have them empty over filling them with comp upgrades from their "most valued customers".

Very strange in my opinon.

fassy

I disagree. Just giving away complimentary upgrades to Premium cabins if there is space will result in people not booking them anymore - just counting of getting upgraded anyway. Especially upgrading a group of 5 because one is Diamond? Come on? Seriously?

I do agree that EBDs should be first on the opup list if the flight is overbooked. Unfortunately they seem to put their most loyal customers on the "never give them an opup" list instead...

Couple of upgrade coupons would be nice as well but I don't think complimentary upgrades are justified, especially comparing to the low costs to achieve Diamond in the past.

teom66

I dont agree. Most people would not book business for family vacations anyway - and for business I would never rely on an upgrade. So its a way for the airline to appreciate its best customers.

Not utilizing the best seats on the plane is just stupid IMO.

klmml

+1, I don't think European airlines should go down the North American upgrade-everyone path. A limited number of upgrade vouchers could work though, perhaps similar to BA's GUF2s.

I would rather they focused on improving the ground experience, since anything SAS could do in the air (at least within Europe) would be cheap lipstick on a worn-out pig.

fassy

You would, I do it the other way around. Pay C for private travel and my company is cheap and pays Y. If corporate travel managers would find out that in a majority of cases a booked flight in Y would end up in C for free they would push more of the regular travelling crowed to the back of the bus much easier...

No, it is not stupid. It is keeping it valuable. Also upgrades don't come for free for the airline, you have to order more meals, etc...

UltraRant

Oooh... feel the burn!

You're right though. Apart from getting an empty goodie bag and making someone else happy with a gold card there's not much personal win in status. Only good thing is the supposed 'soft landing' to Gold after losing Diamond.

Anyone: please report your soft landing successes.

UltraRant

UA is actually giving their high tiers a standard upgrade to Extra class if available, and still Extra gets sold. As it is very difficult nowadays to get Diamond based on Go tickets I think the amount of upgrades might not be so big anyway. People who can stand 90 legs per year on SAS should get rewarded anyway.

I fully agree on Diamonds and what their place on the opup list should be. Also fully agree on the upgrade coupons.

fassy

They get Economy Plus plus seats for free which is considerable less than Economy Extra on SK. It is just a economy seat which a couple of extra inches leg room, not a different service class

I only believe it when I see it implemented. I bet there will be some whining here shortly when SK fails on that promise...