Introduction to SAS & Eurobonus / Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

Scandinavian Airlines System (for short SAS, IATA code SK) is the flag carrier airline of Scandinavia. It's owned for 71% by private owners and 29% by the governments of Sweden (1/7th) and Denmark (1/7th). The government of Norway has recently sold its stake in SAS.

SAS mainly flies to destinations in Europe, particularly within Scandinavia, but also operates on a few long haul routes to Asia and the USA.

SAS is part of the StarAlliance network and has in addition codeshare operations with several airlines.

Fleet
The fleet of SAS consists of mainly short haul material, mainly A320neos, but also several variants of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families, although the latter are diminishing in number.

Bombardier CRJ regional jets and ATR turboprops are operated for SAS by the Irish airline Cityjet and Estonian airline XFly. A small fleet of Embraer 195 are operated by subsidiary SAS Link out of Copenhagen.

A fleet of A320neo aircraft is close to being fully delivered to Irish-registered subsidiary SAS Connect (formerly SAS Ireland).

For long haul operations, SAS uses the Airbus A330-300 and A350-900.

An up to date overview of the SAS fleet can be found here.

Hubs and Focus Cities
SAS has three hubs:
Copenhagen (CPH),
Stockholm (ARN) and
Oslo Gardermoen (OSL).

In addition,
Bergen (BGO),
Stavanger (SVG),
Trondheim (TRD) and
Gøteborg Landvetter (GOT)
have been defined as focus cities.

Service classes

Instead of the traditional Economy Class, Economy Extra Class and Business Class, SAS has made up its own service class system.

Short haul
On all short haul, SAS serves the following classes

• SAS Go is what should resemble regular economy. The following is included in SAS Go
  • 23 kg. luggage
  • on line check in and on site check in
  • Buy on board (coffee and tea are included in the ticket price)
  • seat selection (may come with additional costs)
• SAS Plus is a hybrid form of economy extra and business class and includes the following features
  • seating in the front of the plane
  • no guaranteed free middle seat
  • choice of food and beverages from the on board menu is included
  • priority check in counter usage
  • fast track security where applicable
  • priority luggage labels on your hold luggage
  • higher point earnings
  • lounge access where available
  • priority boarding where applied

Experience teaches that Plus, with the exception of full flex tickets, is not considered as a business class fare by any of the airline partners of SAS. As a result, if someone books a flight in SAS plus with a partner airline, the chance is quite big to end up in regular economy. The same goes for re-routings on partner airlines. This also may affect lounge access on Plus tickets: not all partner airlines may allow Plus ticket holders in their lounges.

Frequent Flyer Program / EuroBonus
SAS has its own frequent flier program called EuroBonus. It has been around since 1992. EuroBonus offers frequent fliers the possibilities to earn points. These points can be used to obtain status and /or to save for award travel or products from the gift shop.

After subscribing to EuroBonus, the qualification period starts running. This is an period of 12 months from the month of subscription to the end of the 12th month thereafter. This cycle repeats itself every year.

For example, if someone subscribes in October, his or her qualification period runs from October to September the next year (both inclusive).

Membership levels
EuroBonus offers five levels in its program:

• Basic is the standard entry level for everyone who subscribes to the program.
  • SAS | EuroBonus Member (EBB) [Experiences and Discussions]
• Silver is the level for everyone who has flown 10 one way flight segments or gathered 20.000 basic points within one qualification period on qualifying flights. This comes with the status Star Alliance Silver.
  • SAS | EuroBonus Silver (EBS) [Experiences and Discussions]
• Gold is the level for everyone flying 45 qualifying flight segments or gathering 45.000 basic points within one qualification period on qualifying flights
  • SAS | EuroBonus Gold (EBG) [Experiences and Discussions]
• Diamond is the highest tier available by basic point earnings or flight segments flown. 90 segments or 90.000 points in one qualification period are required.
  • SAS | EuroBonus Diamond (EBD) [Experiences and Discussions]
• Pandion is an invitation only level for the best customers of SAS. Not much is formally known about the requirements for achieving this level.
  • SAS | EuroBonus Pandion (EBP) [Experiences and Discussions]

• Lifetime Gold: While not in itself a separate status level, Gold status can be achieved for life by maintaining Gold status or higher for 10 consecutive years.
  • SAS | EuroBonus Lifetime Gold (EBG - LTG) [Experiences and Discussions]

Qualifying segments can be earned on all flights flown by

• SAS, with the exception of SAS flights with numbers ranging 3000 - 3999 and 6000 - 9999. More information can be found here
• Widerøe, with the exception of all flights within Norway that are carried out on PSO agreements. An overview of eligible routes can be found here.

For point earnings, please see below.

Point earnings
EuroBonus offers 2 kinds of points:

• Basic points
  These are points that count towards membership levels.
• Points for use (sometimes referred to as Extra points) These are the points that can be used for award travel and as a currency for buying products.

The validity of points varies and is based on the type of point and the membership level.

• Basic points are valid during one qualification period.
• Points for use (sometimes referred to as Extra points) are valid for 5 years for all memeber levels except Diamond and Pandion: those levels have no point validity. After losing Pandion or Diamond level benefits the counter for validity is reset to 5 years.

Basic points can be earned on all flights operated by

• SAS. All flights, with the exception of flights with number 3000 - 3999 and 6000 - 9999
• Widerøe. All flights, with the exception of PSO routes. An overview of eligible routes can be found here
• Atlantic Airways. Please note that no points are earned on flight numbers RC001-399 and RC1000-9999.
• StarAlliance partners. Point earnings is possible on all StarAlliance partners. Please note that not all booking classes may be eligible on all carriers. A detailed overview of earnings per airline can be found here.*

* Please note that only 'points for use' can be earned on AirBaltic and Ethiad Airways and only on selected routes.

Booking class
Critical for the determination of how many points will be earned is the booking class in which a flight is booked. A booking class is represented by a single character and can vary per flight segment in your booking.

A regular SAS booking via the SAS website doesn't explicitly state the booking class in the reservation, although it is possible to see in which class the booking will be done:

Step 1:
Select a suitable flight or routing and the available fares will show up. For flights fully operated by SK the booking site will show the points earned on the lower right side for each fare (1). Note that for Eurobonus Status members, the bonus % earned on flights is included in these calculations.



Step 2:
Click the (i) icon on the top of the fare (2). A popup will show up showing the fare rules. The letter is the booking class (3). In the case of more than one flight, the booking class for each flight is displayed in chronological order.



To check the booking classes later on, review the Electronic Itinerary SAS sent via mail:



Or check the booking classes directly under my bookings on the SAS website:




Star Alliance Benefits (for elites in other *A programs flying on SK)

Star Alliance Silver Benefits
You'll get nothing and like it?

Star Alliance Gold Benefits
Priority check-in: Yes
Fast-track security pass: Yes (for everyone on same itinerary; excludes SK-operated fast-track security)
Extra baggage allowance: Yes (HBO fares might be excluded)
Preferred seats: Yes
Lounge access: Yes (for traveler and one guest; SAS-operated or Star Alliance-affiliated lounges only)
Priority baggage handling: Yes
Priority standby: Yes
Priority boarding: Yes (for everyone on the same itinerary)