Barry’s SAS million point challenge – some reflection, some BA, then Airline 9, Saudia

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. Airline 3 was TAROM. Airline 4 was KLM. Airline 5 was SAS. Airline 6 was Virgin Atlantic. Airline 7 was Delta. Airline 8 was Aeromexico.

Today Barry starts the Asian leg of his trip, which unknown to him would soon take a messy turn. First he had to get through the Middle East though ….

Over to Barry ….

Sitting at home, just before the Asia leg

I have now completed two of my three journeys, covering eight SkyTeam airlines. Of these, six have credited to my SAS EuroBonus account. Two stubbornly won’t appear, no matter how many times I try on the SAS website – Delta and TAROM.

I have now given up my daily routine of attempting to use the missing points page, and have resorted to emailing SAS directly. Thankfully I kept copies of all my boarding passes, just in case, so have attached these too.

I had also been getting increasingly nervous about my Asia trip. Six flights back to back, all economy, no breaks in between.

I have therefore wimped out and used some Avios to get a Club World ticket to Jeddah from Heathrow. This replaces my first three flights hopscotching across from Stansted (Stansted to Istanbul on Pegasus, Istanbul to Riyadh on Pegasus, Riyadh to Jeddah on Saudia). I have another Saudia leg onwards from Jeddah so I will tick them off at that point. Again, it’s not the cheapest option but I feel better already so it was probably the right decision.

In order to minimise the chances of lost luggage, I have decided to pack light and just take a small carry-on case for the six day Asia trip. This has proved tricky though, as it is currently 32°c in Ho Chi Minh City during the day and – 7°c in Seoul overnight! I would describe my packing as a heady mixture of ‘hopeful and creative’ ….

Finally, I have given up trying to get my cheap transit visa for Saudi Arabia and have got a full year tourist visa instead. My transit application has sat on the portal for nearly two weeks with no updates or replies to enquiries. Oh, and South Korea has just declared martial law. So that should be fun. Wish me luck!

London to Jeddah, British Airways

No, British Airways is not in SkyTeam. This is my new positioning flight to start my Asia leg.

Having started this odyssey with the very first flight of the day out of Heathrow (for my trip to Paris), I am now on one of the very last flights of the day, to Jeddah.

I’m flying British Airways in Club World, using Avios, from Heathrow Terminal 5. Once I’ve made it through security I do my standard trick when flying Business and walk to the other end of the concourse to go to the Galleries South lounge instead of Galleries North. This tends to be quieter as its further from the business fast track security.

Even so, the lounge was VERY busy despite how late in the day it was. The two main business class lounges in Terminal 5 are fairly substantial and perfectly adequate in performance. The main plus for me is that if you ask the staff nicely, they will almost always find you a paper cup to take your coffee with you to the gate.

After a game of musical chairs on the plane, I finally ended up with the middle seat in the 2-3-2 configuration – which meant I could attempt to sleep undisturbed for as much of the flight as possible. Dinner was fillet of beef with potato gratin, and bread and butter pudding for dessert. Very nice indeed.

I used my nifty headphone adapter to get around the monumentally annoying BA offset double socket it insists on for some reason. These seats must be a particularly old set up, as I remember being on one of these at least a decade ago. The USB port was ultra slow and only moved my phone from 55% to 72% in over four hours!

The boxing saying goes that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. My plan was to sleep, but I was not so much punched in the face as suffered an assault to my ear drums. Without doubt the loudest, most out of control, kids I have ever encountered on a plane conspired to deprive me of the precious few hours I was counting on.

Literal screaming by the older ones was immediately followed by the crying of the babies they had just woken up. One even stood on the stool adjoining my foot stool and jumped up and down. I put in my ear plugs and popped the big BA over-the-ear headphones on too, alas to no avail. No sleep was possible. 

I wish I’d not bothered trying, and just watched The Empire Strikes Back all the way through for the hundredth time instead. Not the start I was hoping for, or indeed splashed all the Avios for …. 

Jeddah to Jakarta, Saudia

One of the reasons I swapped to the BA flight to Jeddah was to allow myself plenty of time to get through the ‘ultra strict’ Saudi customs and passport control. It wasn’t necessary.

A brief stroll through the terminal took me to the Saudia transfer desk. Although I had booked two completely separate flights, they were happy to print a boarding pass for me. A quick nip through security with no line meant I was in the departure hall within a few minutes of landing.

All the signs were in both Arabic and English. Everyone, without fail, spoke perfect English. Nobody checked my visa or even asked about it. Pre-flight panic for nothing!

I now had over three hours to kill, so I made my way to the lounge. And what a lounge. I could probably write a piece just on my visit there.

It was not perfect by any means – lacking the grand architecture of Paris; the quiet sophistication of Stockholm or Amsterdam; or even the baked goodies from Atlanta – but it felt special in a way that you want a visit to a lounge to be.

Robots meandered around collecting empties (see above!). A bank of iPads sat at a counter waiting to be used:

A machine stood ready to print out a short story of your life based on your inputs (AI?!). A patisserie served homemade cakes and chocolates. A barista made hot drinks, including one of the best cappuccinos I have ever had. One chef made fresh eggs and omelettes to order, while another made pizzas in a wood fired oven.

It felt more like a (small) Dubai hotel than an airport lounge. I would mark it down for the awful plastic cutlery, as well as the lack of showers and natural light (it was completely internal) but I am really picking at straws.

A quick nap in one of the slumber rooms (see below), followed by waffles for breakfast, and I was off to the gate with coffee in hand. There is a lot of building work going on, so large areas of the terminal were boarded off. However everything is clean and quiet and it all feels almost new.

A 2-2-2 seat arrangement in business class with big comfy looking chairs sent pangs of jealousy through me, as I pondered the next ten hours in economy in the middle seat of a middle row.

The plane was packed, so I had no chance of moving let alone getting a row to myself as I managed with Virgin Atlantic. I watched a film and picked at a barely edible breakfast offering, then slept as best I could for three or four hours. I then suffered through 2001: A Space Odyssey (massively overrated) and gave away the pizza slice we were given as a second meal.

I was in Jakarta, hungry and tired and a little grumpy. And it was all about to get really messy after I met Roy ….

Click here for the next article in this series.

The full itinerary

As a reminder, here is Barry’s full (original) 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) Heathrow to Jeddah (British Airways) – 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)