SAS Eurobonus will raise award prices by as much as 33%

Last year, SAS Eurobonus ran a promotion to celebrate the carrier hopping the fence from Star Alliance to SkyTeam. The promo gave folks the opportunity to earn 1,000,000 points by flying 15 different SkyTeam carriers (then crediting those flights to SAS) and minted over 900 new Eurobonus millionaires.

Evidently, the drastic rise of the nouveau Eurobonus riche gave SAS the perfect opportunity to take a long look at its award chart. Your Mileage May Vary recently had the prescience to check out SAS’s Swedish-language website and discovered that an award chart devaluation is coming in a couple of weeks, with transatlantic business class awards increasing in price by 20%.

The News

• As of December 1st, SAS Eurobonus will be raising many of its award prices for both SAS and partner flights.
• For flights on SAS metal, the awards between Europe and Asia/North America are seeing the following changes (prices shown are one-way):
  • Economy – 30,000 -> 30,000 (no increase)
  • Premium Economy – 40,000 -> 45,000 (12.5% increase)
  • Business Class – 50,000 -> 60,000 (20% increase)
• For partner flights, the most notable increases are (prices shown are business class round-trip):
  • Europe to North America – 130,000 -> 140,000 (7.7% increase)
  • Europe to Southern Africa – 165,000 -> 180,000 (9.1% increase)
  • Europe to East/South Asia – 165,000 -> 180,000 (9.1% increase)
  • Europe to South America – 165,000 -> 190,000 (15.2% increase)
  • Europe to Central America – 147,500 -> 180,000 (22% increase)
  • Europe to North Africa – 105,000 -> 130,000 (23.8% increase)
  • Intra-Europe – 60,000 -> 80,000 (9.1% increase)

Quick Thoughts

SAS Eurobonus has been something of an undiscovered country for many people who are into points and miles. That changed somewhat during last year’s promotion, which was so enticing that the FM Team felt compelled to design an impromptu challenge to see who could complete it the fastest, cheapest, and most stylishly (Greg won).

For North Americans, the most enticing aspect of SAS’s award chart was the 50k one-way awards to Europe, oddly priced only 20k above economy and 10k above Premium Economy. Our good friend Stephen Pepper, newly relocated across the Atlantic, was thrilled to have enough points to book 20 one-way business class tickets for him and his wife back and forth to the States. Unfortunately, the math is about to get a little trickier.

SAS deserves some credit for giving advance notice, so that customers have an opportunity to book flights at the current rates, although they also get a demerit for only posting that info in Swedish (impressive work by Your Mileage May Vary). A 10k increase on SAS transatlantic business class flights isn’t the end of the world, especially with the relatively moderate surcharges that the airline adds. Still, we hate to see prices go up; it’s always a bummer.

If you’re reading this and are one of those 900+ new Eurobonusillionaires, my condolences…you’ve got 17 days to book some flights!

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