‘I’m doing the SAS million points challenge – here’s how’ (Part 2)

Rob writes: Last month, SAS announced the million points challenge – here’s our article. If you can fly 15 of the SkyTeam alliance carriers by the end of 2024, you will receive 1 million bonus SAS EuroBonus points.

It’s not a competition – everyone who hits the target will get the points.

A number of HfP readers took up the challenge. One of them was Barry Collins, who you may have seen discussing the challenge in The Times last week – click here (paywall, or click here for a non-paywall version).

Barry is sharing his trip with HfP readers. This is Part 2, looking at ‘how’. Click here to read Part 1, looking at ‘why’. Over to Barry ….

How did I book my SAS million points challenge flights?

I knew the rules from SAS (click here) – and I had my own personal set of rules as set out by my wife – so I could get down to brass tacks and start booking.

After watching many episodes of the BBC’s ‘Race Across The World‘, I always think the ones who travel overnight will win, as they are the ones that keep moving rather than staying put. This meant that my original plan was to go as hard and fast as possible, keeping moving, and spending as little time in one place as I could.

This idea quickly went out of the window when we decided to go to Spain during half term with our 7 year old. This let me tick off one airline along the way – in this case Air Europa out of Madrid – which made the main European leg easier.

I also decided that I would try and get an overnight stay wherever possible in countries I hadn’t visited before. It was dipping my toe in, to see if we should all come back another time as a family.

Because of this (and other mistakes I made along the way) I know the trip could have been done cheaper. That said, I thought it was important to balance getting some experiences along the way with completing the challenge and getting the points. 

I had decided to break the flights up into three legs, based around the home bases of the airlines.

The European leg

Europe, being closest and cheapest, was first to be booked.

A 48 hour trip over one weekend would suit just fine for the four remaining European airlines – TAROM, Air France, KLM and competition sponsor SAS.

As the only ‘home base’ I had never visited was Romania (home of TAROM), I would spend the night in Bucharest. The route fell into place pretty quickly once I had decided on that.

I booked each of these flights individually which was my first mistake. I figured out when arranging the American leg that I should have booked connecting flights covering multiple airlines, but it simply didn’t occur to me. 

The North American leg

North America was fairly simple to plan with only three airlines to consider – Virgin Atlantic, Delta and Aeromexico.

As I had visited the USA and Mexico a number of times, I decided to go full ‘night bus’ with this route. My plan was to travel non stop for about 36 hours over one weekend. This also meant I could be home in time to see Rag n Bone Man in concert on the Sunday as we’d had tickets booked for months! 

My second mistake was planning and booking the European and North American legs completely separately from one another. As it turned out it was cheaper to fly home from Mexico City via Paris with a short Air France connection than it was to fly direct – meaning I could have dropped the Air France flight from my European trip.

The Asian leg 

Asia was FAR trickier.

I am not a professional traveller so it took a while to figure out a route that would allow me to stop off along the way whilst not doubling back on myself multiple times or spending far more than I needed to.

After about three days of searching flight map sites, along with Kayak and Skyscanner, I finally had a route I was comfortable with. 

This fell apart on the very first flight I tried to book (on trip.com) as the price doubled on the payment screen! All of the comparison sites prices then updated accordingly, and it threw me off completely.

I had already committed to the first eight flights across Europe and America so there was no turning back. I adjusted my route on the fly (if you’ll excuse the pun) and ended up losing an overnight stay somewhere I hadn’t been before whilst adding three extra flights to my route – albeit at a lower overall price. Not ideal.

My suggestion to anyone looking at numerous flights in the way I did for this booking – use a travel agent! And if not, use a VPN and private browsing. 

My final itinerary

Trip 1 – Gatwick to Barcelona (easyjet), Madrid to Gatwick (Air Europa) booked as part of a family holiday

Trip 2 – Heathrow to Paris (Air France) – Paris to Bucharest (TAROM) – Bucharest to Amsterdam (KLM) – Amsterdam to Stockholm (SAS) – Stockholm to Heathrow (SAS) 

Trip 3 – Heathrow to Atlanta (Virgin Atlantic) – Atlanta to Mexico City (Delta) – Mexico City to Paris (Aeromexico) – Paris to Heathrow (Air France) 

Trip 4 – Stansted to Istanbul (Pegasus) – Istanbul to Riyadh (Pegasus) – Riyadh to Jeddah (Saudia) – Jeddah to Jakarta (Saudia) – Jakarta to Singapore (Garuda) – Singapore to Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) – Ho Chi Minh to Taipei (China Airlines) – Taipei to Xiamen (Xiamen Airlines) – Xiamen to Shanghai (Xiamen Airlines) – Shanghai to Seoul (Korean) – Seoul to Shanghai (China Eastern) – Shanghai to Gatwick (China Eastern)

The total cost for the flights was around £3,200 which – aside from the fun of planning and undertaking the challenge itself – is an excellent deal for the 1 million EuroBonus points plus the standard miles earned. Assuming all goes to plan, that is.

Click here for the next article in this series, as Barry starts the challenge.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.