a COMPLETE BEGINNER'S guide TO "FREE" TRavel

What is EuroBonus?

EuroBonus is the loyalty program of SAS (Scandinavian Airlines). You can earn EuroBonus points through credit card spend, flying on SAS and partner airlines, online shopping portals, hotels, rental cars, various subscriptions and other partners. EuroBonus has more than 5 million members, most of whom live in Scandinavia. Membership is free of charge and points accrued are valid for 5 years and can be used for booking flights on SAS and partner airlines. To join EuroBonus, visit the SAS website or click here.

SAS is currently a member of Star Alliance (26 airlines) but is expected to join SkyTeam (19 airlines) in late 2024, which will impact ways you can redeem and earn points on partner airlines in the future. EuroBonus points offer great value on award flights (flights booked with points) on SAS and Star Alliance partner airlines mainly due to co-branded credit card offerings in the form of discount vouchers. EuroBonus is currently one the most rewarding airline loyalty programs in the world thanks to its co-branded credit cards, affordable redemption rates, no fuel surcharges, and low fees.

Earning points through flying

The most obvious way to earn EuroBonus points is by flying on SAS and partner airlines. Always add your EuroBonus number to your flights on SAS and partner airlines. Unfortunately, point earning rates on affordable economy flights are minimal (a few hundred points per flight), while premium economy and business class flights offer much higher point earning rates (a few thousand points per flight) due to significantly higher ticket prices. You only earn points on regular revenue flights (flights booked with cash) and not on award flights (flights booked with points).

When booking SAS flights on the SAS website or app you will see how different booking classes have different point earning rates. When booking partner airline flights however, it is much harder to know how many points you will earn due to complex airline alliance tables and agreements. Generally speaking, for the average deal seeking traveler, earning points through flying is not the principal or best way to accrue points.

Earning points through credit cards

American Express and SEB Mastercard both offer SAS co-branded credit cards in Sweden allowing you to earn EuroBonus points on everyday spend. There are currently five different credit cards to choose from. Each card comes with different annual fees, point earning rates, and benefits. You earn EuroBonus points on every purchase you make with the card. This means that all points you earn from your spend on the card will go into your EuroBonus account at the end of each billing cycle.

American Express co-branded credit cards

American Express offers three SAS co-branded credit cards where you earn EuroBonus points on purchases. With the SAS Amex cards you have the opportunity to book an award flight (flights bookable with points) at 50% of the cost in points after reaching a certain spend requirement within a calendar year. When flying alone you pay half the cost in points and when flying two persons you only pay for the cost of one person. The Amex 50% discount voucher is often referred to as an Amex 241 voucher and is one of the most rewarding benefits of the EuroBonus program. Below you have an overview of the different SAS Amex cards available in Sweden.

SAS Amex Classic:

Fee: No annual fee

Earnings: 10 points per 100 SEK spent

Vouchers: 50% discount voucher valid on SAS flights within Europe booked with points after spending 100 000 SEK in a calendar year

Other Benefits: None
Click here to apply

SAS Amex Premium:

Fee: 1 200 SEK per year

Earnings: 15 points per 100 SEK spent

Vouchers: 50% discount voucher valid on SAS and Star Alliance flights booked with points after spending 150 000 SEK in a calendar year

Other Benefits: Travel insurance
Click here to apply

SAS Amex Elite:

Fee: 4 800 SEK per year

Earnings: 20 points per 100 SEK spent

Vouchers: 50% discount voucher valid on SAS and Star Alliance flights booked with points after spending 150 000 SEK in a calendar year. You earn another 50% discount voucher after spending 300 000 SEK in a calendar year

Other Benefits:20 000 SAS status points per year (automatic SAS Silver status), comprehensive travel insurance incl. rental car insurance
Click here to apply

SEB Mastercard co-branded credit cards

SEB Mastercard offers two SAS co-branded credit cards where you earn EuroBonus points on purchases. These cards are generally not as rewarding as the SAS Amex cards but complement the SAS Amex cards nicely to maximize point earnings when American Express is not accepted as a payment method, since Mastercard is accepted everywhere.

While none of the SAS EuroBonus Mastercards offer any 241 discount vouchers, the SAS World Mastercard Premium offers something called Fly Premium vouchers, which allow you to book unlimited SAS award flights (flights bookable with points) in SAS Plus (premium economy) and/or SAS Business, but only pay SAS go (standard economy) award prices. The Fly Premium voucher is a bit more complicated than the 241 voucher and consist of 4 different levels determined by the total number of EuroBonus points earned across a rolling 12 month period. You can find a more detailed explanation of the Fly Premium voucher in Swedish here. Below you have an overview of the different SAS EuroBonus Mastercards available in Swden.

SAS World Mastercard:

Fee: 258 SEK for the first year then 515 SEK per year

Earnings: 10-20 points per 100 SEK spent (15 points on foreign transactions, 20 points on purchases on the SAS website, and 10 points on all other purchases)

Voucher: No discount voucher

Other Benefits: Basic travel insurance

Click here to apply

SAS World Mastercard Premium:

Fee: 1 855 SEK per year

Earnings: 15-25 points per 100 SEK spent (20 points on foreign transactions, 25 points on purchases on the SAS website, and 15 points on all other purchases)

Voucher: Fly Premium voucher which enables you to book SAS award flights in premium cabins for the price of economy. Find out more here

Other Benefits. 3.75-6.25 SAS status points earned per 100 SEK spent, travel insurance
Click here to apply

You can cancel the SAS co-branded credit cards at any time and any prepaid annual fees will be refunded to you, prorated. Cash withdrawals and membership fees for the cards, as well as fees for late invoice payments do not generate EuroBonus points.

Credit card bonuses

One of the easiest ways to earn EuroBonus points quickly is through credit card bonuses in the form of welcome, upgrade, and referral bonuses when upgrading or applying for new SAS co-branded credit cards. The SAS World Mastercard and the SAS World Mastercard Premium both offer standard welcome bonuses for new applicants of 3 000 and 10 000 points respectively and do not offer any upgrade or referral bonuses.

The SAS Amex Premium and SAS Amex Elite both currently offer standard referral bonuses of 6 000 and 12 000 points respectively after meeting a spending requirement of 15 000 SEK or 20 000 SEK in 3 months. The referral bonuses are paid out to both the referred and the referring person and should reach both account holders within a few months after the spending requirement has been completed.

These referral offers have historically been higher at times but it seems that American Express have decreased these referral offers indefinitely to reduce costs and limit abuse and churning. American Express will also offer increased welcome and upgrade offers at times so do look out for these on the American Express website or app.

Jumping on these best available offers is the easiest way to earn a lot of EuroBonus points quicky. To support this content feel free to use my SAS Amex referral link and select the SAS Amex card of your choice on the bottom of the page under Explore other cards.

A word of caution

There is reason why credit cards sometimes have a bad reputation and credit card companies are willing to hand out lucrative bonuses and benefits. They make a lot of money from late payments, interest, and fees. Interest and fee payments can quickly wipe out the benefits gained from referral or welcome bonuses. The only way to come out ahead is to pay your credit card bills in full, every month. If you cannot do that, then I highly recommend against signing up for credit cards.

Earning points through shopping portals

Shopping portals are common among loyalty programs and offer members the opportunity to earn and redeem points through online shopping. The SAS EuroBonus Shop is an online store allowing you to spend EuroBonus points on thousands of items in a variety of categories. Spending your EuroBonus points this way however is not recommended as the redemption value is a fraction of what you get compared to using points on flights.

On the other hand, the SAS EuroBonus Shop also allows for opportunities to earn points through purchases. Many of the items available for purchase on the portal give you 1 point per 1 SEK spent, which can add up. Hence, it does not hurt browsing through this portal before buying new kitchen equipment or electronics for example or if you are planning a large purchase.

Through the SAS EuroBonus Shop you can also buy gift cards for some of the larger and more popular department stores like Åhlens, H&M, and Elgiganten etc, which increases the range of goods you can buy and ways you can earn EuroBonus points. When purchasing gift cards through the SAS EuroBonus Shop, you generally earn 50 points per 100 SEK.

If you need to buy a new TV at Elgiganten for 24 000 SEK for example, you can buy 6 gift cards of 5 000 SEK each via the SAS EuroBonus Shop and earn 12 000 points. If you pay for your gift cards with a SAS Amex Premium or SAS World Mastercard Premium (15 points per 100 SEK spend) you earn an additional 3 600 points. In total you have earned 15 600 points on one purchase, which is enough for a one way flight on SAS within Europe.

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SAS Online Shopping is another shopping portal where you earn EuroBonus points at numerous online stores. The number of points varies depending on which store you shop at, but usually you will earn between 10 and 75 points per 100 SEK spent.

To earn points here, log in to your EuroBonus account on the portal and select any online store of interest, make sure to accept cookies and not use any other links for the registration to go through, and you will be redirected directly to the store’s website. Make your purchase as usual and a confirmation email will be sent to you within a couple of days after the purchase stating that the points will be transferred to your EuroBonus account within 6-8 weeks.

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SAS EuroBonus Everyday is a consumer program making it possible to earn EuroBonus points on everyday purchases in physical stores, restaurants, as well as select online stores by connecting a payment card of your choice to your EuroBonus account. The payment card does not have to be a SAS co-branded credit card and can be any card, including a regular debit card.

Pay with your card as usual at checkout and a confirmation email will be sent to your within a couple of days. Again, the points for the purchase will be transferred to your EuroBonus account within 6-8 weeks. To ensure that the points are registered, you need to use the physical card when you make the purchase and not use Apple Pay or other mobile wallets.

It is possible to connect up to 8 payment cards to EuroBonus Everyday and the list of affiliated stores and restaurants can be found in the dedicated portal where you can also see the history of your recent purchases, as well as manage your connected payment cards.

Earning points on hotels and rental cars

SAS has dedicated hotel and car rental partner sites that work similarly to other travel search engines like Hotels.com and Rentalcars.com, etc. The sites are easily accessed through the SAS website, usually on the bottom of the homepage.

In partnership with Hotels.com, SAS allows you to search through hundreds of thousands properties globally and earn additional EuroBonus points on your hotel booking. The point earning rate is usually 20 points per 100 SEK spent and you can also “double dip” by paying for the stays with your SAS co-branded credit cards to maximize point earnings further.

SAS also has partnerships with the major rental car companies including Avis, Hertz, and SIXT, who offer a certain fixed amount of points per booking depending on the rental length etc. The car rental site through the SAS homepage can be a great option as they often offer discounted deals as well.

Earning points on subscriptions and other partners

The electricity provider Fortum offers a deal where you receive 10 000 EuroBonus points as a new customer for signing up to one of their plans, plus 250 points per month after that, resulting in a total of 13 000 EuroBonus points in a year.

Similarly, the home insurance provider, Hedvig offers 5 000 EuroBonus points for signing up with them, plus 100 points per month after that, resulting in a total of 6 200 EuroBonus points in a year.

There are many other subscriptions and services connected to EuroBonus offering similar deals on a regular or rotating basis, most of them can be found through the SAS Online Shopping portal. You can find all SAS partners and other point earning opportunities here.

Paying bills with your SAS co-branded credit card

Relying solely on credit card spend to earn EuroBonus points is a challenge and it can be difficult to earn enough points needed for that dream vacation. Even spend requirements for earning a credit card bonus or an Amex 241 voucher can be tricky for the average person.

Say an average person earning 40 000 SEK per month has a net salary of ca. 30 000 SEK. The everyday spend that person can put on credit cards for groceries, travel, dining, clothing etc., roughly amounts to ca 15 000 SEK per month and 180 000 SEK per year. This would result in 27 000 points and one Amex 241 voucher earned per year when using a SAS Amex Premium card diligently or 36 000 points and one Amex 241 voucher using a SAS Amex Elite.

For two people to fly on SAS Business to Asia or North America and back, 100 000 points and an Amex 241 voucher is required. In this example it would take roughly 3 years to accumulate the points needed for this aspirational redemption through credit card spend alone. This example does not take flying, shopping portals, point sharing groups, or credit card bonuses into consideration though, which should not be underestimated and overlooked. More on point sharing groups later.

To help with earning more points on your spend, it may be worth exploring if other expenses usually paid via bank transfers, such as rent or electricity bills, can be paid using credit cards. For a fixed fee between 1.9-2.5% (depending on the type of payment card), Betalo offers this solution and service.

As an example, if you spend an additional 100 000 SEK per year through credit cards on rent, housing association fees, and/or various bills using Betalo, you can earn an additional 15-20 000 points per year, at a cost of 20-30 cents per point depending on which credit card you use.

Whether it is economical or not is up to each individual. Personally, I think it is certainly worth it in order to reach spend requirements for credit card bonuses or Amex 241 vouchers with the intent of using your points on otherwise expensive business class flights. It can also be worth it for those chasing SAS status points through the SAS World Mastercard Premium, which offers 3.75-6.25 status points per 100 SEK spent.

Point Sharing groups

A EuroBonus Point Sharing group takes earning points to another level and makes it much easier to earn enough points needed for booking award flights. Essentially it allows up to 8 friends or family members to pool separate point balances together. All points earned individually are added to a joint account, whether they are earned through everyday purchases, flights, or hotel bookings etc.

You can only invite EuroBonus members to a Point Sharing group who are not already members of another Point Sharing group. The points in the group will be used according to their expiry date with the oldest points being used first regardless of who earned them. Any member of the group can use all points, but the group owner can revoke that right at any time.

To create a Point Sharing group, login to your EuroBonus account and go to the Point Sharing page and create your group by inviting people you want to be part of your group. Each person will then receive an invitation via email to approve their participation. Everyone’s points are then pooled together and can be used for booking award flights.

Keep in mind that any Amex 241 or Mastercard Fly Premium vouchers remain personal and are linked to a specific EuroBonus account. If a partner or friend has points that you want to use for an award flight booking together with a discount voucher, you will need a Point Sharing group to pool points together and the person with the discount voucher will then need to make the award flight booking through his or her account in order for the discount voucher to be applied. In other words, it is possible to use the group’s total points balance when using discount vouchers. Any Fly Premium level or status with SAS however will also remain personal and cannot be transferred to other members in the Point Sharing group.

When a Point Sharing group is cancelled, any remaining points earned individually will be returned to each member’s respective EuroBonus account. This means that some members may have had all their points used up jointly according to the expiry date without being able to make use of their points themselves. When joining a Point Sharing group your points are tied for 6 months.

Leveraging Point Sharing groups with credit card bonuses

One great hack with Point Sharing groups is to invite and encourage others to sign up for their own credit cards and pool everyone’s points together once all members have earned individual credit card bonuses on their cards.

As an example, say person A invites person B and C to a Point Sharing group in the beginning of the year after earning a credit card bonus of 6 000 points for opening a SAS Amex Premium as well as 10 000 points for opening a SAS Word Mastercard Premium. Person A then refers person B and C to a SAS Amex Premium card giving Person A an additional referral bonus of 12 000 points (2 x 6 000 points) resulting in person A having already earned 28 000 points (6 000 + 10 000 + 12 000 points).

Once person B and C both complete the spending requirement for the SAS Amex Premium referral bonus and open a SAS Word Mastercard Premium of their own, an additional 32 000 points (2 x 16 000 points) is added to the Point Sharing group, resulting in a total points balance of 60 000 points in just a few months’ time.

If person A then switches electricity provider to Fortum, generating an additional 13 000 points, and switches home insurance provider to Hedvig, generating another 6 200 points, person A now has access to 79 200 points.

Finally, by diligently spending 150 000 SEK on the SAS Amex Premium throughout the rest of the year in order to earn the Amex 241 voucher, person A will in less than one years’ time have access to a total of 101 700 points and one Amex 241 voucher. That is enough for a round trip flight in business class on SAS to Asia or North America for two people, which makes for an incredible redemption value considering that long-haul business class flights on SAS usually costs upwards of 25-40 000 SEK per person.

Moreover, the above example does not take into account the credit card spend of the other Point Sharing group members, nor the use of a SAS Amex Elite with higher point earning rates, shopping portals, and other point earning ways outlined earlier.

If just one of the other group members is also able to spend 150 000 SEK on a SAS Amex Premium before the end of year to earn another Amex 241 voucher, the group will have access to a joint total of 124 200 points and two Amex 241 vouchers in less than one year’s time. That is enough for a round trip in SAS Plus (premium economy) to Asia and North America for all 3 group members, which also makes for an excellent redemption and experience for all, as long-haul premium economy flights on SAS usually cost upwards of 10-20 000 SEK per person.

Status points, Basic points, and Extra points

To make the SAS loyalty program slightly more complex, the EuroBonus program has three different types of points that you can accrue through most means outlined earlier, each with a different purpose and distinction. The three types of points are Basic points, Status points, and Extra points. You can find a brief overview of the different point types here.

Basic points

Basic points are points you earn through flying on regular revenue flights (flights booked with cash) on SAS and partner airlines. You can redeem Basic points on award flights (flights booked with points). The amount of Basic points earned through flying depends on the booking class and route flown. Basic points are not earned through credit cards spend, shopping portals, subscriptions, and non-airline partners. Basic points also count towards your status level with SAS as well as your Fly Premium level, which is a discount voucher offered through the SAS Word Mastercard Premium credit card.

Status points

Status points only count towards your status level with SAS and cannot be used for anything else, including booking award flights. Status points are solely earned through select credit cards including the SAS World Mastercard Premium, which offers 3.75-6.25 Status points per 100 SEK spent, and the SAS Amex Elite, which offers 20 000 Status points annually.

Extra points

While Status points and Basic points combine to count towards your status level with SAS, Extra points combine with Basic points to be used for redemptions. Extra points are the points you earn from credit card spend, shopping portals, subscriptions, and non-airline partners. Extra points can only be used for redemptions, including award flight bookings, SAS lounge access and cabin class upgrades, as well as purchasing items onboard SAS flights or in the SAS EuroBonus Shop (not recommended). Extra points do not count towards your status level with SAS.

Earning status with SAS

Both Basic points and Status points count towards your status level with SAS and will help you reach a higher status level (Silver, Gold and Diamond). To reach a higher status level with SAS you need to fly a certain amount or earn a certain number of Basic points or Status points during your 12-month qualification period, which resets annually the month you joined EuroBonus. Find out more about the different SAS status levels, benefits, and qualification requirements here.

Reaching higher status levels with SAS is made easier through the SAS World Mastercard Premium and the SAS Amex Elite credit cards. Owning the latter card grants you automatic SAS Silver status without any spend required through an annual hand out of 20 000 status points. You then need to spend an additional 666 667 SEK during your qualification period (less depending on the amount of foreign transactions and purchases made on the SAS website) on the SAS World Mastercard Premium to earn SAS Gold status without even setting foot on a plane.

Alternatively, you can book a couple of long-haul regular revenue trips in SAS Plus (with earning rates of ca 8 000 – 13 000 Basic points each, depending on the destination and booking class) to reach SAS Gold status without any credit card spend at all, or of course combine spend on the SAS World Mastercard Premium with a few short-haul regular revenue trips in SAS Plus (with earning rates of ca 3 000 – 4 000 Basic points each, depending on the destination and booking class).

SAS Gold status is highly coveted due to perks such as lounge access, security fast track access, priority boarding, free seat selection, and extra luggage allowances when flying on SAS and partner airlines through Star Alliance wide status recognition. At the moment SAS Gold corresponds to Star Alliance Gold. It remains to be seen what exact impact SAS joining SkyTeam will have on its status being recognized when flying on SkyTeam partners.

Redeeming points on SAS flights

The useability of EuroBonus points and the Amex 241 and Mastercard Fly Premium vouchers are always subject to award flight availability (flights bookable with points) which is often limited and does require some planning and flexibility, especially during holidays, peak travel periods, on long-haul and premium cabin flights, as well as to popular travel destinations.

On the SAS website and app you can search for award flights by selecting to Pay with points and looking out for the golden SAS Bonus symbol in the results. See below example.

When searching for flights bookable with points on the SAS website or app you will also see dynamically priced options without the golden SAS Bonus symbol at significantly higher prices. These are regular revenue flights (flights booked with cash) but with the option of using points to pay for the flights at a higher cash equivalent price. You can also combine points and cash on revenue flights.

Regular revenue flights are often very expensive to pay for using points and hence offer poor redemption value. However, as they (unlike award flights) also earn you Basic points and are dynamically priced in accordance to market ticket prices, there will be times when revenue flights are affordable and offer decent value for redeeming points, usually on off-peak premium cabin flights.

SAS also offers a low-fare calendar tool where you can search for flights bookable with points across an entire month at a time, making it easy to find award flights. Unfortunately, the tool does not allow you to sort by cabin class.

Award flights on SAS, though limited in availability, are fixed in price and offer great redemption rates, especially when combined with the Amex 241 or Mastercard Fly Premium vouchers. See below fixed price chart for one-way award flights on SAS. Return flights are priced at double the points and children aged 2 to 11 fly for 50% of the cost in points. Infants under 2 years old can be added free of charge by calling SAS customer service at +4687974040.

SAS releases award flight availability (also referred to as award space) 11 months in advance. Specifically, at midnight local time 330 days prior to the day of departure from the departing airport. For flights within Europe, SAS will release more award space 300 days in advance. After that award space on both long- and short-haul flights is released sporadically, usually more so closer towards departure around 60, 30 and/or fewer days in advance.

Award flights on SAS can be changed or cancelled up to 24 hours before departure for a fee of 250 SEK per person for flights within Europe and 750 SEK for flights to Asia and North America. You can use the Amex 241 and Mastercard Fly Premium vouchers on all SAS award flights, however, you cannot combine the two different vouchers on the same booking. You can use multiple Amex 241 vouchers on the same booking when flying multiple people by calling SAS customer service at +4687974040. The Mastercard Fly Premium voucher is unlimited and automatically applies to everyone included in your booking.

Finding long-haul SAS award flights, particularly in premium cabins, can be challenging due to limited availability and high demand. Often it requires planning in advance and grabbing seats exactly 330 days prior to departure when the award space is released. Awardhacks is a free online tool which fetches long-haul SAS award flight availability from the SAS website and presents it in a helpful and searchable way. It also allows you to set email alerts for specific routes and dates, making it a lot easier for you to find and book highly coveted SAS Business and SAS Plus (premium economy) flights to popular destinations.

Redeeming points on SAS upgrades

EuroBonus points can also be used for upgrades to premium cabins when flying SAS, whether on a revenue or award flight. This gives you another opportunity to fly in SAS Plus or SAS Business if you could not find any award availability or if you did not have enough points at the time of booking. Depending on the availability in the premium cabins prior to departure, you will have the opportunity on the SAS website or app to place bids in the form of cash or points for a chance to be upgraded to SAS Plus or SAS Business.

The minimum bid in points for upgrades on SAS long-haul flights are usually as follows:

SAS Go to SAS Plus: 15 000 points
SAS Plus to SAS Business: 25 000 points
SAS Go to SAS Business: 40 000 points

If you have Gold or Diamond status with SAS, your bid is automatically strengthened by 20% and 30% respectively without having to pay for the bid increase. A notification of an accepted upgrade bid will be sent within 48 hours of departure. When bidding on upgrades, I recommend bidding the bare minimum or just slightly higher, as based on my experience, higher bids do not improve your chances much. Find out more about the SAS upgrade-bid feature here.

If your upgrade bid is unsuccessful or you decide to upgrade on an even shorter notice, you can also pay for upgrades at the airport. To check if an upgrade is available on your flight, speak to someone at the check-in counters or at the gate.

The cost in points for upgrades on SAS long-haul flights at the airport are usually as follows:

SAS Go to SAS Plus: 25 000 points
SAS Plus to SAS Business: 35 000 points
SAS Go to SAS Business: 50 000 points

Note that the minimum bid and price in points for upgrades at the airport may vary slightly depending on the route and availability at the time.

Redeeming points on Star Alliance flights

One of the most rewarding aspects of the EuroBonus program is the ability to redeem points on partner airlines. This enables your points to literally take you almost anywhere in the world thanks to global airline alliances. SAS is currently a member of Star Alliance, which is the biggest airline alliance in the world with 26 member airlines serving more than 1 317 airports in 195 countries on more than 19 000 daily departures.

Just like when redeeming points on SAS flights, the useability of EuroBonus points for booking flights on partner airlines is also subject to award space, which again is limited and requires advance planning and flexibility. Keep in mind that for point redemptions on partner airlines, you are not only competing with other EuroBonus members for award space, but also with members of other airline loyalty programs. That said, the vast number of routes and departures available through partner airlines generally makes finding award space and travelling on points to most destinations fairly easy.

To book and search for Star Alliance award flights on partner airlines, visit the Star Alliance search tool available on the SAS website. See below example.

In the results you will find flights bookable with points in different cabin classes, pending availability, and when selecting a flight you can apply an Amex 241 voucher to reduce the price in points by half at check-out. You cannot book premium economy flights nor use a Mastercard Fly Premium voucher on partner airlines as these are only applicable for SAS flights. If you wish to use multiple Amex 241 vouchers in the same booking, you need to call SAS customer service at +4687974040.

Just like on SAS, award flights on partner airlines are fixed in price thus also offering excellent redemption rates, especially when combined with an Amex 241 voucher. See below fixed price chart for round-trip award flights from Europe on partner airlines. One-way flights are priced at 60% of the cost in points. More price charts, including flights originating elsewhere, can be found here.

As you can see, award flights on partners are more expensive than award flights on SAS. A round-trip flight in business class to Bangkok, for example, costs 165 000 points on partner airlines versus 100 000 points on SAS. Similarly, the price for business class to North America is 130 000 points on partners versus 100 000 points on SAS. While infants under the age of 2 also fly for free on partners, there is no discount for children aged 2 to 11 on partner award bookings. That said, flying on partner airlines allows for much more award space and endless more destinations.

Below are some Star Alliance sweet-spots with the best redemption value for round-trip flights on partner airlines from Europe bookable with points. Remember that you can fly two for the price of one with an Amex 241 voucher.

Costa Rica in business class for 130 000 points
Panama in business class for 130 000 points
Seychelles in business class for 105 000 points
Zanzibar in business class for 105 000 points
Mexico in business class for 130 000 points
Alaska in business class for 130 000 points

Finding award flights on partner airlines

Finding award flights on partner airlines bookable with points can be a challenge as award space is limited and released conservatively by most airlines (as the case with SAS). Although the Star Alliance search tool on the SAS website is useful and satisfies most needs, it does have limitations which may prevent you from finding or booking your desired trip. These limitations include:

The page is not functioning or results cannot be loaded
Multiple Amex 241 vouchers cannot be applied to one booking
It may not show available award flights with long layovers or connections overnight
It may not show available award flights due to unusual routings
It may show non-available award flights due to old search results

To get around some of these limitations and complete your booking, you may need call SAS customer service. Moreover, to avoid overlooking available award space and increase your chances of finding award space on routes you are interested in, you should try searching leg-by-leg through large airport hubs rather than searching the entire journey end-to-end at once.

For example, say you are interested in flying from Stockholm to Buenos Aires in business class. Searching this route end-to-end at once using the award search tool will not generate any results.

If you instead search Stockholm to Madrid, followed by Madrid to Bogota, followed by Bogota to Buenos Aires, all separately, the search tool will generate the following results in business class.

Too book the trip simply call SAS customer service at +4687974040 and ask them to put together the trip, one flight at a time. They will recalculate the points according to the fixed zonal cost (60% of 165 000 points = 99 000 points for a one-way flight from Europe to South America) and apply any Amex 241 voucher, if applicable. Keep in mind that on both SAS and partner award bookings, you cannot have a connection or layover of more than 24 hours in one transit destination.

Knowing which major airport hubs to search through is tricky and depends on the route and destination in mind and partner airlines serving them. One great tool to help with this is FlightConnections, which tells you which destinations are served by which airlines. Although you need to upgrade to a paid version to filter by airline alliances (which is extremely helpful), you can also google which airlines are part of Star Alliance and use FlightConnections to search by destination and partner airline to narrow down your search to relevant airport hubs.

Generally, for Star Alliance partners, you want to search via Copenhagen, Brussel, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, London, Madrid, and Istanbul, when connecting through Europe. When connecting through North America, search via Chicago, Newark, Toronto, and San Francisco. Through Central and South America, search via Bogota and Panama City, and through Africa, search via Addis Ababa. Finally, when connecting through Asia and beyond, search via, Istanbul, Bangkok, Taipei, and Tokyo.

When SAS leaves Star Alliance to join SkyTeam in late 2024, key hubs will primarily change to Amsterdam, Paris, Atlanta, and Seoul.

Taxes and fees

When using points to pay for award flights you always need pay some form of taxes and fees at the time of booking, regardless of the airline loyalty program and point currency you are using. Essentially, the cost of a flight ticket consist of five components including, base price, booking and service fees, fuel surcharges, aviation taxes, and airport fees.

When booking a regular revenue ticket with cash, all of these components are included in determining the ticket cash price.

For award bookings with points however, the base price is waived, and you are left with only having to pay booking and service fees, aviation taxes, airport fees, and in some cases, fuel surcharges.

Unlike many other airline loyalty programs, SAS and EuroBonus have thankfully decided not to pass on fuel surcharges to its members when booking award flights through the EuroBonus program, which is great considering the fact that fuel surcharges can be very high, up to several thousands of SEK per person.

For award flights on SAS, you only need to pay aviation taxes and airport fees, in addition to points, when booking online. Award flights on SAS can be changed or cancelled up to 24 hours before departure for a fixed service fee of 250 SEK per person for flights within Europe and 750 SEK for flights to Asia and North America. All points, aviation taxes, and airport fees paid at the time of booking are otherwise fully refunded.

For award flights on partner airlines, you need to pay aviation taxes and airport fees, as well as a fixed booking fee of 450 SEK per person, in addition to points, when booking online. Award flights on partner airlines can also be changed or cancelled up to 24 hours before departure, with all points, taxes, and fees paid at the time of booking refunded in full, apart from the fixed booking fee of 450 SEK per person.

For award bookings on both SAS and partner airlines made over the phone with SAS customer service (due to adding infants or multiple Amex 241 vouchers for example), an additional service fee of 150 SEK per person is charged. Note that for partner airline bookings, this fee can be waived in case the Star Alliance online search tool is not working or able to route your desired trip due to the limitations outlined earlier.

The total amount of taxes and fees for award flights on both SAS and partner airlines generally fall somewhere between 500 and 1 500 SEK per person on short-haul flights, and 1 000 and 3 000 SEK per person on long-haul flights, depending on the airline, destination, and transit airports in question.

Getting the most out of your points

In terms of redemption value, it is the base price of a flight ticket which determines how much value you get out of your points, as it is the component of the ticket price that is considered free when booking award flights. Discounted airfares in economy class tend to have a very low base price, with the majority of the ticket price consisting of taxes and fees. This is why redeeming points for business class travel usually offers the highest redemption value for EuroBonus points while redeeming points on short economy class flights, with many budget options available, is generally less optimal.

That said, economy class flights to expensive long-haul destinations such as the Seychelles, Maldives, Hawaii, Australia, and New Zeeland, or expensive short-haul destinations during peak travel periods, for example, usually have a very high base price. Hence, redeeming points on economy class flights can certainly offer great redemption value on occasion compared to buying regular revenue tickets for a lot of cash.

If you do not have enough points to book your desired trip, you can always buy EuroBonus points for 20 cents per point (200 SEK per 1 000 points) through the SAS EuroBonus Shop. You can purchase up to 60 000 points at a time. Buying points needed for a specific trip in mind can often be more economical than booking revenue flights with cash, assuming there is award availability for the flights you are looking to book.

There is no such thing as free travel

Just like there is no such thing as a free lunch, there is no such thing as free travel either. As outlined in this guide, travelling using EuroBonus points is not entirely hassle-free and does require some organization, patience, and flexibility, as well as paying for credit cards, taxes and fees, and allocating your everyday spend strategically.

Personally, I pay almost 7 000 SEK annually in credit card fees and around 3 000 SEK annually on Betalo fees (in order to pay bills with credit cards to maximize spend and the number of points and discount vouchers earned), as well as around 12 000 SEK on taxes and fees on multiple award flights every year, totaling around 22 000 SEK per year, which is not a small number.

At the same time, thanks to EuroBonus, SAS co-branded credit cards, and the methods outlined in this guide, I will have, over the course of one year, traveled in business or premium economy class to the Philippines, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, Munich, Toronto, Vietnam, Maldives, and Costa Rica, all using points and without spending more than 22 000 SEK in total. This is something my travel companions and I would never have be able to do and experience if it was not for EuroBonus, as the total cost of these flights in cash amount to more than 300 000 SEK.

Obviously this travel behavior is extreme and not for everyone, especially someone who is just getting started with earning EuroBonus points. Nevertheless, I hope this example and guide will encourage and enable others to embark on their own “free” luxury travel using the amazing benefits available to everyone through the SAS EuroBonus loyalty program.