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Barry’s SAS million point challenge – Airline 3, TAROM

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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. Airline 2 was Air France. Today Barry takes the third of his 15 qualifying flights. Over to Barry ….

SAS million point challenge

Paris started so well. As I was transiting rather than Paris being my final destination, I got to avoid a monster queue for passport control. The route between Terminal 2E, where I landed, and 2F, where my next flight was going from, was well signposted. Just a 5 minute walk, in fact.

Then things began to turn. Already! Only my third airline and on home ground! I thought I’d be somewhere in Asia at least, by the time things started to unravel …. I couldn’t enter Terminal 2F as I had not collected a boarding pass from 2E. I retraced my steps and found a small Air France desk to check in. They duly checked me in for my next flight to Bucharest on TAROM, the national airline of Romania, and gave me my boarding pass.

However, unlike my first boarding pass of the day, it did not show my SkyTeam status or mention my frequent flyer number. The passenger at the desk next to me was having exactly the same issue. The check in staff were unsure of the code to add SAS EuroBonus to the ticket. They assured me that they had got there eventually, but after reprinting my boarding pass, it still had no status or number on it. 

Charle de Gualle airport

Begrudgingly, I headed off towards Terminal 2F again, this time to find the Air France lounge. When my boarding pass wouldn’t open the automatic gates, I began to get worried. I headed to the Air France customer service desk and explained the issue.

There is no TAROM desk in Paris, apparently, so everything is through Air France. After printing the boarding pass twice more, and referring to a supervisor who spoke perfect English, they explained that the number was on the system but wouldn’t verify. I asked them to take a photo of their screen for me, but apparently that wasn’t possible. They did turn the screen around so I could see that they had definitely put my EuroBonus number in, and it still had ‘unverified’ next to it.

Now I face a situation where I have no idea if this flight will ever make it to my account, and ultimately cost me the million points. Not ideal.

Air France lounge Paris

On a positive note, the Air France lounge was superb (image above). High ceilings, a curved glass wall looking over the runway, and all the amenities you could wish for – nap stations, showers, seats with working USB ports – the works.

I spent some time trying to figure out if it was worth changing my plans on the fly to be sure I ticked off TAROM, as it is a far more difficult to airline to do later than KLM or SAS which both have multiple options from the UK. At this point I was still undecided. I would try and talk to someone at TAROM when I landed …. 

The TAROM plane was again just slightly different from any other I’d been on. A much bigger business class seat in a 2/2 configuration at the front of the plane was vastly superior to the blocked out middle seat offering of BA, for sure.

All seats were leather, rather than fabric. And even a screen and USB for me back in economy! However, as once again neither of these were actually working, I was wondering why bother putting them there in the first place?! A pattern was emerging. 

I used this flight to finally finish reading ‘Catch 22’. The downside of reading on a Kindle is that you never know how big a book actually is. This one is a beast, and has taken me months of dipping in and out to get to this point. 

I had the window seat, and someone else had the aisle, with the dreaded middle seat being thankfully empty. Being a kind hearted kinda guy, I offered my ‘single serving friend’ a packaged biscuit I had pinched from the lounge. He thought about it for a few seconds before accepting.

A couple of minutes later he popped the biscuit onto the middle seat and nipped to the loo. Except, he didn’t come back. He had found an empty seat and pitched up there instead. There’s feedback for you! Anyway, I now had the row to myself so it was probably worth the ego bashing. Plus I got my biscuit back.

Upon landing, I went straight back to departures and headed for the TAROM booth. Thankfully the two ladies on hand were able to figure out what had happened with the guys at Air France check in, and assured me they had rectified the issue and added my EuroBonus number. They even printed it for me – happy days!

Three airlines down, 12 to go.

Barry Bucharest

A few thoughts on Bucharest

As I was staying here overnight, Bucharest deserves a quick mention.

To save a few quid, and in true ‘Race Across The World’ fashion, I got the train to the city. I walked the two miles south to the old town where my hotel was situated. This was not a well trodden tourist route, and I would suggest anyone else get a cab. However as my time here was so limited, I wanted to see a little of the city.

The old town is full of cobbled streets with bars and restaurants spilling out onto them. Definitely a place to return to one day with my wife. I found somewhere suitably touristy, and had a platter of local meats and sausages, with garlic cheese foccacia and a huge bowl of crisps. Drinks weren’t particularly cheap, but food was very reasonable.

Bucharest gelato

Afterwards, my single scoop of Italian gelato came in at just £2.03 – I try and get one of these anywhere I go, as it gives the best ‘apples-for-apples’ comparison of how cheap or expensive somewhere is. For reference, Bucharest is cheaper than Madrid. Which, oddly, is in turn cheaper than my home town of Eastbourne!

Then back to the hotel for an early night, as another early start tomorrow …. 

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)

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SkyTeam alliance partners

Comments (46)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Jetset Boyz says:
    5 Dec5 December 05:35

    “I couldn’t enter Terminal 2F as I had not collected a boarding pass from 2E”

    You always need an onward boarding pass to proceed if you’re connecting to another flight – at some point there’ll be gate that requires you to scan your boarding pass.

    So if you don’t have an onward boarding pass, printed or digital, and you’re at an airport that has a flight connections route (not all airports do) remember you need to be on the lookout for a ‘Flight connections’ or Flight transfers’ desk. They can issue your boarding pass.

    • Phillip says:
      5 Dec5 December 05:53

      Although true in most cases, not in all. Seoul ICN is one example where you can transit without a boarding pass (the gates accept your passport). Same with Kuala Lumpur (no gates) or when transferring between Schengen countries.

      • Jetset Boyz says:
        5 Dec5 December 06:06

        Yeah – it’s a rule of thumb. There will be an airport here & there that perhaps has a unique layout / segregated arrivals or maybe has newer biometric technology which doesn’t require a boarding pass.

  • Phillip says:
    5 Dec5 December 05:55

    Regarding Eurobonus membership on SkyTeam partners I thankfully discovered two things early on:

    For most Skyteam airlines, you can access the reservations via the SAS website and add your membership number that way.

    Or

    If you input it yourself, in order to pass verification, you need the number and the preceding letters. In Barry’s case, if you are gold, it’s EBG12345678 (the numbers being random). It then works a treat.

    • Fraser says:
      5 Dec5 December 08:57

      I tried this the other week at a KLM check in desk and it didn’t work. EBG is their identified (EuroBonus Gold) but the two letter frequent flyer code needed is SK.

      They seem quite poorly integrated at the moment, for seat selection, lounge access etc. especially if leveraging SAS status but crediting to another airline.

      • Phillip says:
        5 Dec5 December 13:37

        Yes, if doing it at a check in desk they also need to input the SK airline code. When booking on another airline’s website, and SAS is available on the FFP drop down menu, then you can just input EBG and it has accepted it in all cases that I tried.

        I agree on the integration but I was pleasantly surprised that I could access 85% of my partner bookings via the SAS website which then makes it easy to add your FFP.

  • Jingle says:
    5 Dec5 December 06:07

    Barry’s got me worried now. What is going to happen when he’s far from home and the same problem happens with say Xiamen or China Airlines? Will they have sufficient English or IT system connectivity to keep our man on track?
    It’s bad enough when Malaysian won’t allow a BA silver on a codeshare flight to pre book a seat before arriving at KUL. I now fear there are some very tricky moments ahead for our hero down route. We are comforted by his tenacious resilience but see Aeromexico not far away 😬. Go Barry.

    • Michael Jennings says:
      5 Dec5 December 09:47

      Indeed. Go Barry.

    • Nico says:
      5 Dec5 December 13:18

      Actually the chinese airlines check in staff understand very well the challenge and can enter a sk number in seconds

      • Phillip says:
        5 Dec5 December 13:39

        I second that for China Eastern at the airport. That said, completely clueless customer service when contacted in advance! As has been the case with Saudia as well, the first response was, they’re not a partner airline. At least the agents I dealt with anyway. I’m sure they will slowly learn.

    • Dubious says:
      6 Dec6 December 00:43

      You can always remove the numbers entirely and submit a retro-claim.

  • Matthew says:
    5 Dec5 December 07:34

    Nice sense of humour in the writing Barry, keep it up!

    • Barry says:
      5 Dec5 December 09:41

      thank you!!

      • JDB says:
        5 Dec5 December 09:50

        @Barry. Love the stories; thank you. Not sure about your ice cream price index though! We were in Bucharest last month and it was a big surprise just how expensive it was, especially food and drink. It’s not totally representative, but by our hotel there was a shop just selling (quite small) éclairs at £5 each. They were very good but that felt a bit London.

        Madrid and Spain generally restaurant prices a whole lot lower.

        • Londonsteve says:
          6 Dec6 December 14:58

          That very interesting to read, JDB. I’m experiencing similar rampant inflation in Budapest city centre with prices increasingly being adjusted to what a tourist’s wallet will stand or in line with prices in their home countries. These have nothing to do with the cost of local ingredients, rent or wages, although these have without doubt risen and sharply in some cases. A £5 eclair in Bucharest is just absurd and one to avoid on a point of principal.

          • Alex Sm says:
            21 Dec21 December 15:55

            Do you pre-trip research better and just don’t go to tourist traps in the touristy city centre. Bucharest is a hidden gem for those who are not lazy 🙂

  • GP says:
    5 Dec5 December 08:04

    An interesting way around the Avios devaluation carousel , for sure
    BA going to dynamic Avios redemption pricing- – might be announced as early as next month a bud in waterside says

    • Rob says:
      5 Dec5 December 08:06

      BA definitely wants it, IAGL does not.

      • Erico1875 says:
        5 Dec5 December 08:32

        I think if someone at BA sits back and looks at the carnage Virgins dynamic pricing has created, they would forget that idea

        • JDB says:
          5 Dec5 December 09:55

          Fingers crossed. IAG has created such a successful and profitable Avios universe (unlike Virgin) that one has to hope BA isn’t allowed to blow it up.

          It would be ironic if BA’s hoped for reservation/MMB IT improvements and new RM system simply facilitate a move to dynamic reward pricing (and charging for add-ons like hand luggage) rather than offering real benefits to customers.

        • Nick says:
          5 Dec5 December 13:04

          That doesn’t matter to BA, the only reason to avoid DP is if your major competitor doesn’t have it, as customers could walk. If you can implement it slightly less shoddingly then you’re winning – it’s a very low bar.

          At the same time though, remember that BA can use it as leverage – their revenue for redemptions comes from IAGL. If they don’t want the airline to do it, they can cough up. It’s not a fait accompli by any means.

          Sadly though, it is inevitable that there’ll be some kind of devaluation as a direct result of VS’s shenanigans, in one form or another. VS have basically said they don’t want UK loyalty customers any more – that creates a huge opening to screw your own customers, and when (thanks to City pressure) your primary focus is on short term shareholder satisfaction, you have to take it.

      • GP says:
        5 Dec5 December 13:11

        It’s happening.
        Announcement in the new year

  • chris w says:
    5 Dec5 December 09:19

    I foresee a lot of people not being awarded their million miles because their loyalty numbers were not added to their tickets correctly.

    I hope SAS have a team on standby ready to deal with all of the retro claims and complaints.

    • Rob says:
      5 Dec5 December 09:45

      In hand. I was with the SkyTeam UK PR head on Tuesday and I’ve been talking to SAS too. SkyTeam will keep SAS in line if necessary, since SkyTeam (whether they wanted it or not) is front and centre of this promotion.

      • MRG says:
        5 Dec5 December 11:04

        Rob – but all of your name dropping doesn’t translate into real world advice to your readers.

        HfP is clearly in the promotional puppet of SAS / SkyTeam on this one and NOT offering the practical direction its readers need to navigate this insanely risky promotion. Thus, for example what is somebody supposed to do when their EuroBonus membership isn’t accepted??? Why should any reader trust your claims of contacts and remedy???

        • Rob says:
          5 Dec5 December 11:24

          Nothing you can do, if the IT doesn’t let you retroclaim. You need to sit it out and see what they do in terms of dealing with queries.

          I’m simply saying that I don’t get the vibe from anyone that there is a deliberate plan here to screw people over and, knowing the people involved, I believe they will want to ensure everyone is OK.

          Now, of course, if it turns out that 1,000 people have done the challenge vs a budgeted 50 and SAS is unexpectedly on the hook for £10m-worth of miles and the Finance Director goes bonkers, fires the marketing team and starts going through every claim with a toothcomb to find a way of disallowing it, we’re down to press pressure – but hopefully it doesn’t come to that.

          • Nico says:
            5 Dec5 December 13:22

            Your last question is the interesting one as it feels like 1000 people may not be too far off the mark

          • HampshireHog says:
            5 Dec5 December 19:36

            Hoover here we come!

          • MRG says:
            5 Dec5 December 21:44

            Nothing you can do?!

            Is there not an option to contact SAS customer service and seek to remedy? Some are reporting (elsewhere) trying retroclaims with / without middle names – are you not in a position to advise on such? Others report the retro claim will work one day and not another – surely that argues to try multiple times and not “sit it out”. Can you not ask these basic questions of your name dropped contacts?

            Your confident position within this articles/comments that “nothing to worry about because I know the head of this and that” has new dissolved into that it’s all “based on a vibe”.

            You have given your readers the impression that you can use your contacts to help them fix any issues. Not you’re only saying you’ll “press pressure” in the event that there is mass rejection. So it just ain’t the cosy relationship that you love to project?

            Maybe you should clarify exactly what your readers can expect from HfP?

            Meanwhile basic questions (which presumably your SAS airline contacts could very easily resolve) remain unanswered – for example is the reward cumulative – you gain for each stage attained thus scooping more than 1 million in bonus points?

            And surely the real issue shouldn’t be whether or not somebody has met the criteria (those that do should be rewarded and those that haven’t should not be rewarded), but rather these issues arising out of the airline’s failure to integrate its systems / problems inputting EB numbers, etc., that are undermining those that are meeting the criteria.

          • Rob says:
            6 Dec6 December 08:28

            There are about 15 readers, max, from our 700,000 monthly site visitors doing this. We’re not wasting editorial space on the details especially as Flyertalk has dedicated threads on this. If there are ongoing issues in January then we’ll cover it, but the only people we will personally help are those who volunteered to do The Times article on our behalf.

          • Phillip says:
            6 Dec6 December 18:09

            @MRG

            My experience on this has been simple. Yes, the online tool doesn’t work. That didn’t worry me at all. My next point of action was to contact the SAS Eurobonus Gold e-mail. There are also contact details for non-Gold members. I provided them with the details of my missing flights as per the online form, this was acknowledged within 24 hours and it was confirmed to me that they are now with the “retro” team. As is standard, I was also told that it will take 10-12 weeks for the flights to be credited. No different to what other airlines offer (other than a functional tool, in most cases).

            What Rob is saying, is that at the end of the day, the processes in place don’t change just because of the Millionaire challenge. My expectation is that SAS is taking all this into consideration and will act responsibly and honour their promises taking all the issues into account rather than using the issues as reasons to deny the end goal. If for whatever reason these processes fail, then hopefully certain contacts will prove helpful.

        • Erico1875 says:
          5 Dec5 December 11:27

          Because nearly every reader of HFP has benefited massively from this site.
          I would think Rob and HFP carry more influence than you give credit for

          • Nico says:
            5 Dec5 December 13:20

            It is a pain to get all flights to credit and retro claim not working, but why would SAS risk a PR disaster by not awarding points to winners? They are surely working to improve their systems/connectivity and a huge backlog of claims.

          • John says:
            5 Dec5 December 20:23

            How many people are realistically going to stop flying with SAS just because some people end up getting wrongfully denied the million points?

          • Rob says:
            5 Dec5 December 20:41

            SkyTeam doesn’t want bad PR in the press. The newspapers that wrote about it originally will happily run a follow up.

        • Phillip says:
          5 Dec5 December 13:43

          Having nearly come to the end of the challenge, my experience has been that I’ve been able to add my FFP to all partners, mostly in advance and on 2 occasions only at the airport. That’s one side of the coin. The other is which will credit automatically and which will require retrospective claims. So far my automatic success rate is about 60% and I’m about to file my first missing claim.

  • Nick says:
    5 Dec5 December 12:20

    @Barry, why didn’t you just get the airport bus? It costs 50p, runs express, and stops right outside the old town…

  • Christine Taylor says:
    8 Dec8 December 13:47

    Enjoyed reading about your travels to date and look forward to the next installment Barry. I remember Bucharest being a very interesting city and well worth a visit. And the gelato is great and very cheap!

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