SAS Scandinavian Airlines
has disclosed that almost 1,000 members of its loyalty program, EuroBonus, have become millionaires after completing the carrier’s challenge of flying with 15 out of 17 SkyTeam alliance members, including newly minted 173 United States-based EuroBonus millionaires.
EuroBonus Millionaires
In a statement to Simple Flying, SAS has disclosed the geography of the new EuroBonus
millionaires who completed the challenge between October 2024 and December 2024.
The top three countries include the United States (173 millionaires), Japan (149), and South Korea (130), followed by China with 112 millionaires. No other country’s representatives reached more than 100 millionaires, including none in SAS’ core markets, namely Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, which now have 67, 50, and 22 new EuroBonus millionaires, respectively.
Photo: Omar F Martinez | Shutterstock
In other statistical tidbits that the airline shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, EuroBonus millionaires are from 33 different countries around the world, with every millionaire visiting China. On average, the challenge resulted in people visiting 17 countries, with SAS being the most popular airline.
42,718 people signed up for the challenge. Considering that 940 travelers became millionaires, the millionaire conversion rate was 2.2%. The oldest millionaire is 73, while the youngest is 4 years old.
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SAS reached the milestone months after successfully transitioning from the Star Alliance to SkyTeam, bringing a host of new destinations online.
Travel challenge
SAS announced the challenge in October 2024. Having recently joined SkyTeam after its switch from Star Alliance, the carrier remarked that its new friends at the alliance are great.
“But we do not want to take our word for it, we want you to find out for yourself! This fall, we are offering you a deal. The more exploring you do, the more EuroBonus points you get!”
The Scandinavian carrier split the rewards into three tiers, rewarding passengers for traveling with a certain number of airlines between October 8, 2024, and December 31, 2024.
-
Five different
SkyTeamAirlines – 10,000 EuroBonus points
- Ten different SkyTeam Airlines – 100,000 EuroBonus points
- 15 different SkyTeam Airlines – 1 million EuroBonus points
Photo: Phuong D. Nguyen | Shutterstock
At the time of the challenge, SkyTeam had 20 members. However, Aeroflot has been suspended temporarily since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, resulting in wide-ranging sanctions on the country aggressor, while Lebanon-based Middle East Airlines (MEA) had been caught in a crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah, resulting in travelers most likely avoiding travel via Lebanon. The two sides’ ceasefire agreement came into effect on November 27, 2024.
Furthermore, ITA Airways was still a full member of the alliance. On February 3, Lufthansa Group announced that following the acquisition of an initial 41% stake in the Italian carrier, ITA Airways has initiated the process to leave SkyTeam, which should conclude by April 30.
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Codeshare agreements
Since SAS joined SkyTeam in September 2024, the airline has been signing codeshare agreements with its alliance partners. The first one was with 
Delta Air Lines
, which was announced on September 23, 2024, offering more connectivity between North America and Scandinavia. JetBlue had tried to stop the Department of Transportation (DOT) from approving the codeshare deal.
Photo: Flypix | Shutterstock
Agreements with Virgin Atlantic and Air Europa followed, with a codeshare deal with Air France-KLM
being signed before SAS joined SkyTeam. The Franco-Dutch airline group has a non-controlling 19.9% stake in the Scandinavian airline.
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