Points expiry and buying basic points
 

Hi all, just want to sanity check something.

My quest to LTG got an unexpected boost by the 2x points offering. I’m very pleased to say I’m now at 46k points and just received the “Welcome to LTG” email from SAS, and I haven’t even done the return trip of my mileage run/vacation yet. By my calculations, I’ll be at just over 80k points in a couple of days, with my membership year (and current EBD status) set to expire on 31/1.

When I log into the SAS website, I suddenly see that about 90k points are set to expire on 31/1; I’ve never had points expire in the past (having always re-qualified for EBD), and I sort of assumed that my entire points balance would be given 5 years of life when my EBD membership expires, but apparently this is not the case.

Anyway, the FAQ says that there is a campaign until 31/1 where 1,000 basic points can be bought for 5,000 extra points. So to me it seems a no-brainer to spend 50,000 extra points to get to EBD and prevent 90,000 points from expiring. Am I missing something here?

I’ve never purchased basic points before, so not sure of the process. Can I select a tranche of my oldest points - the ones due to expire - for this?

Also, when I log into the EuroBonus Shop, I don’t see the option to buy basic points. The headline says “Transfer Extra points, or buy Extra points or the missing Basic points you need.”, but I only see options for buying extra points and transferring extra points. Has anyone bought basic points recently and can confirm that this should work? Will I need to call customer service?

Cheers.

You can buy at most 30k points, so the option only appears once you've collected at least 60k points (when renewing EBD. For EBG, you need to collect 30k and can buy the missing 15k).

I recently bought a handful of points to maintain Gold, and the process was quick and painless, as expected. You're looking in the right place -- but the option will only appear once you have 60k confirmed points. I understand that the bought points are backdated by 123 days, so you might be able to renew even if your flights credit late, but with the expiring points you may want to not tempt fate.

IIUC the system will always use your oldest points first for any purchase. Also, once you renew EBD, your points will not expire for another year.

You're spending 50k points to protect 40k from expiring and maintain EBD for another year. You could also spend the 90k on an award ticket instead. The points expire at the end of January, but the award ticket that you bought with the points can be for a later date this year. (And probably be changed flexibly.)
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That makes sense of course - thank you!

Another short idea: The 2X promotion is still on, you could book a short European Mileage run which could net you enough for EBD without having to spend points.

Also, in the past it was possible to buy status points, I believe it was 100 EUR per 1000 points, so that might also be worth a consideration, however, I'm not sure if that is still possible.

Good point. I’m not short on (extra) points so I’ll probably end up spending some of those, but it would be interesting to make the comparison. Do you have a good idea for a short mileage run netting 5k before 31/1, originating from LHR? My idea would be a couple of roundtrips to CPH/ARN/OSL but that’s a bit boring, and probably falls slightly short.

I would suggest you fly to any second-tier city in the Nordics e.g. LHR to Stavanger or Gothenberg, Trondheim, Lulea or whereever you like to go. On a SAS Plus Pro ticket you should be able to collect 2050 points for each leg, + 25% extra as Gold member you should make 5125 points per round-trip. Adding the promotion (x2 status points) makes 10250 points and you should maintain EDB. The return trip costs you around 400 € in the cheapest travel class (A).

Here is an example:
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https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...94b59eb2a5.png

This flight would yield 4500 miles, so 9000 in total with the 2X promotion.

Adding an additional connection could bring the total to 5250, so 10'500 with the 2X promotion, as seen below:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4d97822ead.png

just to clarify - how/where you can construct that itenerary, where u add that third city?

I'm using matrix.itasoftware.com, it allows you to search for flights very specifically and using some routings and faring codes. This is the query I used to find the flights posted above:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...230fee851f.png

Specifically I'm looking for flights from LHR to all the airports on the right, I'm searching the whole month starting today and want there to be 0 nights at my destination.
As for the routing, I want three SK flights or more (+) on the outbound and two (or more) on the return and I want the tickets to be booked in booking class "A".

This brings me an overview and a price for every day in the next 30 days, where the cheapest would be in the last few days of January:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ac4ed89918.png

Here is another example of the options I get when selecting the XX of January and it gives me all the options that fit my search criteria for that day:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e6803a37b7.png

And I chose this flight due to personal preference and the connection times: I included the faring infor as well in the screenshot.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7ba0d2a08b.png


This is basically a simple LHR-GOT round trip ticket routed via some stops. Should be possible to buy this ticket directly on SAS.com, or you can use google flights to replicate the routing and maybe it will forward you to SAS directly or some OTA. Using Matrix powertools you can also directly get yourself routed to some OTAs, the airline website or google flights, but this doesn't always work. I found that calling SAS often allows me to book these tickets when they are not able on sas.com.

This is super helpful, thank you!