How Greg, Nick or Stephen can win Million Mile Madness

When SAS EuroBonus launched a promotion to earn one million miles by flying 15 different SkyTeam airlines by the end of 2024, it felt like it was calling out our name. Given Frequent Miler’s history of past challenges like 40K to Far Away, 3 Cards 3 Continents, and Flying by the Seat of our Points (among others), this SAS promotion is not just in our wheelhouse, it might as well be our wheelhouse. We knew it. Readers knew it.

Now it’s on like Donkey Kong.

Similar to our last challenge, Flying by the Seat of our Points, we have three team members travelling and competing for the glory that only a championship can bring (Greg, Nick and Stephen), while two of us are staying behind to hold the fort together and judge their every move (Carrie and Tim).

But how exactly will the judges determine a winner? Read on to find out.

Main Course

For this challenge, Greg, Stephen, and Nick will be competing against each other to design the itinerary with the most “SAS” possible AND that also meets the terms of the promotion to earn them a million miles.

What do we mean by the most “SAS”?

• Speed: Who completes the challenge the fastest from the moment their first flight departs to the moment it lands.
• Affordability: Who spends the least on flights, accommodations, visas, transfers, etc. Food and activities are not a part of the affordability score for this challenge.
• Style: Fast and cheap is good. Fast, cheap, and in style is better. Carrie and Tim will be judging each contestants trip for the level of “style” that they show us: comfort, creativity, fun, local experiences, enjoying airport lounges, etc. This is a completely subjective score (we welcome bribes, fellas) and will be the average of the West Virginian judge’s score (Carrie) and the Washingtonian judge’s score (Tim). We’ll reveal up-to-date style scores during each of our three live streams.

In addition to these three core categories, we’ve also added a fourth:

• Audience Winner: Given that our readers/listeners have been such a huge part of planning and executing these itineraries, we wanted to involve them in determining a champion as well. At the end of the challenge, we’ll be doing polls to ask folks who they think did the best job combining all three elements of Million Mile Madness. Their decision will hold the exact same weight as Carrie and Tim’s.

Each of the contestants will be placed 1-3 in each of these four categories and awarded the following points based on where they placed:

• 1st Place – 25
• 2nd Place – 20
• 3rd Place – 15

Because there’s four categories with a top score of 25 points each, the maximum score that one contestant can earn is 100 points. Conversely, if one of them finishes 3rd in all four categories, they’ll be wiping the egg off of their face just in time to see their score of 60 points.

Additional points opportunities

In addition to the primary tranche of 100 points, Carrie and Tim have been kind enough to add some more points-earning opportunities to help buttress up any lagging scores.

Extra Credit

I (Tim) did a brief stint teaching undergrad biology and chemistry in college. One constant the end of the quarter was that students who had been, um, “neglecting” their studies would come up to me after class asking about what they could do for extra credit. Carrie thought that it would be a good idea to avoid any awkward situations with the fellas and provide some bonus opportunities from the outset.

Each extra credit activity below is worth 2 points, requires video evidence and can be earned by each contestant for a maximum of 10 extra points per person:

• Head to the Hilton – We’re grateful to Hilton for giving us five free nights as part of the reader grand prize. So, if a contestant stays in at least one Hilton hotel, they get some love.
• Get your Local Lessons – Earned by filming themselves learning something about a place from a local (must be outside of the United States).
• Reinventing “Reyes Business Class” – In our “Flying by the Seat of our Points Challenge,” Nick trademarked “Reyes Business Class,” which meant flying in economy with a whole row to himself. There’s gonna be a lot of time spent in the back of the plane on this trip, so we want the contestants show us all a good hack to make economy class a little bit more comfortable.
• Show us your “Savoir Flare” – It’s up to the contestants to impress both judges with their know-how and creativity as they matriculate themselves around the world. If they show us something special, we’ll give them some tasty bonus points.
• Make friends with Fido – This challenge will undoubtedly be grueling. We want Greg, Nick and Stephen to take some time to decompress and relax…with a dog. Petting and playing encouraged.

“Best Of” Awards

On top of all of those extra credit opportunities, we’ll be passing out 10 “Best of” awards after the challenge during the final livestream. These are winner-take-all 2-pointers, and only one contestant can earn each one. We’ll nominate entries for the subjective ones and invite feedback from readers and listeners before we make our final call. Let us know who you think should win each one!

• Best hotel – We don’t care what it cost. Who rested their weary bones in the poshest, blingiest overnight digs?
• Best flight – Most of this challenge will be spent in economy class on cheap qualifying airfares. That said, there will undoubtedly be some lie-flat seats and champagne as well. Who flew the “flyest” flight?
• Best local food experience – This isn’t a pleasure cruise, but there’s a reason that we all travel, right? Who made our mouths water (or our stomachs turn) with some fun, local noshing?
• Best video update – It’s a priority for our contestants to keep the judges and readers in the know on the blog and on Instagram. Whose video made us laugh, gasp or cry the most?
• Best selfie with a Frequent Miler hat on – We want to see branding in the wild. Extra credit possible if you’re not the only one wearing an FM hat.
• Best airport activity – There’s more than lounges and airplanes at the airport. These days, some of them are more like shopping malls and health spas with all sort of interesting things to see and do. Who had the best, most creative airport activity during their travels?
• Cheapest flight – There will be, at minimum, 45 different flights during this challenge. Who managed to pinch pennies the most for a single leg?
• Least distance traveled – We love efficiency here at Frequent Miler. Who was able to successfully complete the challenge and return home while travelling the shortest distance?
• Most cities visited outside of airports – Who was able to leave the airport and actually travel into town the most often?
• Most nights in a non-airplane bed – We’re rewarding speed and affordability for this challenge, both of which are the enemies of multiple hotel stays. That said, we’re also big fans of not having to sleep sitting up in an economy seat. Whoever got the most nights of sound, motionless shut-eye earns two points.

Personal Missions

Personal growth is important. Carrie and Tim wanted to give each contestant an opportunity to talk through their strengths and then get a chance to put those mad skills into mad action.

During our last, pre-challenge Ask Us Anything, we invited each of them to tell us about one aspect of their trip that they were confident would leave the other two trailing in their wake – some might call it “trash talk.” We then turned that confidence into personal missions specific to each person that, if completed, will give them an extra three points:

• Greg – The OG (Original Greg) Frequent Miler is very, very, very confident in the speed part of his SAS. He thinks that he’s going to be the fastest person to complete all 15 qualifying carriers.
• Stephen – Sultan Pepper is also very, very, very confident in how fast he can make his sandals move. He thinks that he’s going to finish his entire trip a full 48 hours faster than both Nick AND Greg.
• Nick – This fedora-wearing, sleep-avoiding, extra monitor-toting dynamo is very confident in his ability to see the world and put on a good show. Nick thinks that he’s going to win the audience choice category AND visit more cities than either Greg or Stephen.

Tell us the Story

It’s hard to overemphasize exactly how exhausted we can get during these challenges…and normally we’re flying primarily in lie-flat business class seats. This time, Greg, Nick and Stephen are going to be doing most of the grunt work in economy, so fatigue will undoubtedly be an issue.

That said, there’s work to be done. The only way readers, listeners and judges can stay up-to-date on their adventures is if they tell us…or show us! This time around, it’s expected that each contestant will give us video AND journal updates daily. This is no small feat, and if they can manage it during the whole trip, there’s riches in store. If they fall asleep at the keyboard, the results could be disastrous:

• Perfect (don’t miss a single update) – +5 points.
• Only miss one update – We forgive you.
• Miss 2 updates – 5% reduction in total score.
• Miss 3 updates – 7% reduction in total score.
• Miss 4 updates – 10% reduction in total score.
• Miss 5 or more updates – Automatic 3rd place finish.

We’re not messing around here fellas. Eat your vegetables and do your homework.

Final Thoughts

There it is. The path to victory laid bare for each of our enterprising, on-the-ball contestants. After a couple of weeks spending night and day poring over airline schedules and fare code charts, it’s time to travel and each one of them is on the move.

Who will emerge victorious? Who can say. But we can’t wait to watch the story.

Follow along on the blog and/or on Instagram and tune into our first live check-in with Greg, Nick and Stephen this Sunday at 6pm Eastern, when we’ll add up the scores so far and find out who’s taken the early lead.

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