Barry’s SAS million point challenge – Airline 2, Air France

Rob writes: In October, 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 – click here (paywall, or click here for a non-paywall version).

Barry is sharing his trip with HfP readers. Part 1 and Part 2 looked at ‘why’ and ‘how’ (click to read). Airline 1 was Air Europa. Today Barry takes the second of his 15 qualifying flights. Over to Barry ….

2.15am. I was going to set the alarm for 2.30am, but my wife checked the route to Heathrow for road closures, and sure enough the A23 was closed overnight. The alarm was set for 2.15am.

Even then I didn’t sleep much, panicking that I was going to oversleep and miss my first flight, which in turn would ruin everything. My fitbit gave me a sleep score of 25, which is by some distance the lowest I have ever scored. This was going to be a long day ….

Thankfully traffic was non-existent at that time of night, and I parked up at Terminal 4 in plenty of time. So early in fact that the airport was practically deserted – even duty free was closed! I chose the slow queue for check-in (obviously) but as the lounge didn’t even open until 5am I was in no hurry. The Air France desk updated my boarding pass to show my SAS EuroBonus membership, and with that, I was officially off and away!

I can’t remember ever flying from this terminal before, but it is essentially a long corridor that you enter laterally from security. You can either turn left or right. 

Air France uses the Plaza Premium lounge at Heathrow and an orderly queue had formed ready for a prompt 5am opening.

A slightly odd breakfast offering of roast potatoes and mixed vegetables was available, however not a slice of bacon to be seen anywhere! It was still pitch black outside, so I couldn’t say what the view was like, but I would rate this lounge above the Plaza Premium in Gatwick North for sure (this was the lounge we visited en-route to Barcelona to tick off Air Europa). I rustled up a sausage sandwich from the buffet before heading to the gate.

After years of flying predominantly British Airways or easyJet for short haul flights, I must have subconsciously decided that all short haul planes followed the same general format. However, Air France runs an A220 on this early morning flight.

I surprised to see that the plane was slightly narrower than the A320/A321’s that I had become so used to, and was set up in a 3+2 seating formation. Definitely a first for me!

The plane was equipped with USB ports, which again was a first for me on anything but long haul. However, they were either turned off, or I was unfortunate to have mine not working. Shame, as it’s a great idea. 

Other than that, the 6.20am flight was short and uneventful, in the air for barely an hour. I won’t thank the pilot for the particularly hard landing though. Maybe that’s standard of the very narrow bodied plane, but as I was trying to catch up on some of lost sleep it scared the living daylights out of me! We landed 40 minutes late due to a delay in taking off, but thankfully I had allowed plenty of time for my first transfer.

Bienvenue a Paris!

Two airlines down, 13 to go.

PS. As I mentioned in my introductory article, my poor planning meant that this flight was potentially unnecessary. When I booked my North America leg, after already booking the European bit, the cheapest way to get back home on Aeromexico was via Paris with a connection to Air France. I would have got my leg anyway. However, with TAROM no longer flying from the UK, the only way to get to Bucharest was via a connection somewhere in Europe.

Click here for the next article in this series.

The full itinerary

As a reminder, here is Barry’s full 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)

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.

---

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.