It's probably less a million mile seduction, more the AvGeek joy of a challenge satisfied by a some intense hours on the internet. I'm guessing vanishingly few of the planned itineraries will get ticketed and flown. Infinitely more armchair/desk trips will be planned than travelled. And, after all, the glittering prize isn't a million dollars, but miles in what is, for most of us, the most awkward of alliances.


$3,000 seems to be the magic number, but i see little attempt to account for either non-ticketing costs (positioning, hotels, visas, time), or the very high risk of failure en route unless time and hotel costs are increased significantly.

As you suggest, a successful itinerary would really need to mitigate risk: one disconnect, even on a single (protected) ticket, could send failure rippling through a tightly scheduled trip. One way to reduce risk is to introduce comfortable time buffers between flight - which boosts costs (hotels) or discomfort (sleeping at airports).

So it boils down to a fun exercise in scheduling, but a hopelessly unattractive risk-reward undertaking if carried beyond the planning stage. But clearly a smart move by SAS in generating some marketing noise.