Eurobonus members: How many of each tier?
 

Hi everyone,

Just wondering; what's the break-down of EBS/EBG/EBD/EBP? I can't find much information about this, although I vaguely remember something about 2,700 EBPs once.

It'd be interesting to know as well what SAS is projecting after the 'enhancements' to Eurobonus in terms of decline of EBG/EBDs.

EBP is a special 'rank' with a fixed amount of members. Numbers I have seen so far range from 1000 to 2700, where I believe 1000 is more accurate. Wiki says 1500. I can imagine that also this number is being reevaluated every year.

For the rest, there's not much officially known about the number of elites. I guess that Gold has grown explosive over the last year as a lot of such card have been given away. Which may mean that also the number of Silver members may have exploded, as Golds are allowed to give away a Silver card.

SAS had a special in flight magazine about EuroBonus with the introduction of the Diamond level. They also have published some numbers in previous Scanoramas. If someone still has a copy of those, we might know more.

I think you'll find that information in the SAS annual report. In the 2013 report, the number of EBG were around 85000 and EBS around 130000. I suspect that those numbers may be bigger today.

Sadly this year it doesn't seem like they have included those numbers in the report. It only states how many members Eurobonus has in total.

I think with start of EB2.0 they said they expect 20.000 Diamond members. Given the amount of black bags tags I see around quite believable (still wonder why people actually use these cheap looking cards - show off?, then there are definitely nicer bag tags around...)

I think it's a bit more than 20.000. Given the amount of black cards I see around it must be a multitude of that.

I guess EBDs all fly a lot. Just some high level math.

Assumption (very rough, based on last year's earnings):
Average BPs per EBD: 125,000
Average BPs per km flown (for EBDs): 1.5 (CPH to LHR is 978km and gave 1,250/2,500 in Go/Plus; ARN to LHR is 1,460 and gives the same).

Total scheduled RPKs flown by 20,000 EBDs = (125k*20K)/1.5 = 1.7bn km

SAS total scheduled RPK is around 30bn, so with the above assumptions, you would see an average of 5.6% of passengers being EBD.

I would not be surprised if 20,000 EBDs were about right, although with more sitting in front of the plane than in the back.

ScandiGB

I've done significantly less flying with SAS last year than that, but almost all of it in front of the bus.

Most extraordinary experience was a flight from EWR to OSL last year where, and I'm not exaggerating, at least 60, maybe even 75% of the passengers were elites. That's not 'normal' for an airline. At least I couldn't complain about priority luggage not being on the belt first, as there wasn't much otherwise... ;)
I've been on many other flights were at least 25% was at least gold, by the way (priority boarding and back of the bus /shiny luggage tag / using shiny card to board). Also the lounges in OSL, ARN and CPH seem to have been significantly much fuller last year. Same goes for fast track, which is now often more congested than the regular line: all since we got EBD and free EBGs.

Anyway, shouldn't the big question be how much they'll have left at the end of the year? :)

Strongly agree that OSL is short on space, and indeed it would be nice to have more airside food options, too.

But the lounge fullness could also just be a function of the wider economy. AY's afternoon bank in HEL hasn't changed much in the past few years and yet their fancy new elite lounge in the non-Schengen area is sometimes now full and standing with a queue waiting to enter and enjoy a shot glass full of coleslaw or cucumber salad. Of course people complain about CX giving away OWS with a credit card (do they still do that?) but they've been doing that for far longer than these OW lounges have been rammed full.

This might go some way to explaining why SAS are comfortable with their recent severe devaluations of EB (that in addition to the general trend in the industry to more closely link revenue with status).

That's just like LHR where the "priority" lines take longer than the regular ones because the airports are terrible at scaling the number of priority lines as the load increases.

ARN does an "ok" job at that, they scale up and down depending on priority lane passengers. In CPH they made a separate priority area which can't be scaled, that is just bad by design. If you end up doing some halfassed 70% of the time it is better not to do it or not offer it at all. It is not a gesture, priority lanes are something that people account for in their travel scheduling.

No, this benefit was removed a year ago.

Yes, I think with the revised earnings on flights the proportions may change next year.

We can only hope. I don't understand how you can be an "elite" member with 45 dirt cheap commuter flights between AAL-CPH - or as a receiver of one of the two gold cards we can give away as EBD (will be qualifying shortly, well before my qual year ends - so I guess I can give a gold card away this year and next year, too).

Otherwise, if EBGs keep increasing, take perks away from EBGs who fly in Go.

I think giving away two Gold cards only works in the first year you will qualify for Diamond.

Since then you get a new status with new benefits. Not sure it will work when you requalify

I think you're right. It's still a hell of a lot of extra EBGs, now earning 25% more EB points. Even with the new earnings, 45.000 points really isn't any sort of barrier when you get the earnings bonus.

Also: Pandions can give away a Diamond card.* I wonder if they can give away EBG as well? I'm pretty sure SAS IT can't handle a differentiation in Diamond status (and they shouldn't, I guess - if an EBP perk is to give away EBD, then those getting EBD should get all the benefits).

I truly think they'll have to either make more cuts to EBGs soon - or vastly expand the lounges, fast track capacity, priority boarding lines (good thing they aren't enforced in Scandinavia anyway, huh?).


*I know this for a certain fact. I know some of thrive on questioning everything that doesn't come from users with 10,000 posts and a Swedish name, but you can believe this or not. It's still true.