Originally Posted by
2l84t
Folks, SAS are quite a nice airline. But their EBB program has a condition that strikes me as a little unfair. In order to attain Silver or Gold level you need to earn your qualifying points (which differ by your country of residence) within a CALENDAR year based on the day you joined the program. Maybe this is commonoplace in their programs but it seems a bit cheap to me as it mitigates against people with irregular travel schedules
With SAS EB (same for all levels, not just EuroBonus Basic) you earn qualifying miles/segments during a 12 month period based on when you joined the program. Calendar year has nothing to do with it.
I don't however see how it mitigates against irregular travel? Irregular travel is by definition irregular, and therefore yes, the qualification period may affect whether or not you get status, but that may be to either direction.
If you flew a lot in late 2010 and then again in early 2011, having a qualifying period that is not a calendar year may help getting a (higher) status. If you fly a lot now, and again late 2011, it helps to have a qualifying period that is a calendar year. Or it may be the other way around, if you fly enough to qualify twice and therefore get a status for a longer term if the period breaks in between... it all depends.
The good thing with the EB system is that when you join, you immediately have a full year to qualify, whereas with a calendar year period, if you join say in September, chances are that those 3 first months easily go to waste.
Of course if you join EB in January, there's no difference.