Barry’s SAS million point challenge – Airline 14 (Korean Air) and a China Southern add-on

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. Airline 9 was Saudia. Airline 10 was Garuda Indonesia. Airline 11 was Vietnam Airlines. Airline 12 was China Airlines. Airline 13 was Xiamen Airlines.

We rejoin Barry in Shanghai. To make up for earlier errors buying non-qualifying tickets, he had to buy a 2nd Xiamen Airlines ticket for the same flight to Shanghai to ensure it was in a qualifying class.

He is now desperately rearranging his trip to include the Kenya Airways ‘fifth freedom’ flight from Guangzhou to Bangkok. This wasn’t part of the original plan but it is the only way he can make up for having his Delta Air Lines ticket disqualified for being too cheap and still hit 15 SkyTeam airlines.

Over to Barry ….

Shanghai to Seoul, Korean Air

Shanghai Airport turned out to be (nearly) everything that Xiamen wasn’t. Quiet, relaxed, and it even had working air conditioning. My bags and passport were only checked once, instead of four times. Something I haven’t seen elsewhere, but both Chinese airports had you funnel through a temperature monitor, which I guess is leftover from covid?

With a choice of two lounges available (better than Ho Chi Minh’s zero), my check in lady recommended the China Eastern one. On the basis she had given me an extra legroom seat (two out of two, China!) I followed her advice. And she was right, it was a cracker.

It was a huge lounge, separated into distinct bar, lounge, work and eating areas. It had by far the best choice of food and drinks I have seen at any lounge on my travels, and charging points pretty much at every seat too.

I almost wished I had a little longer to linger there, but with a short transfer I decided not to have to run to the gate as I did at Xiamen. At that point I didn’t know there was no more security to go through.

I used the time at the gate to turn the roaming on my phone on (same as Xiamen – no free WiFi to be had) to make a decision about the Kenya Airways flight, that one way or another I needed to get on the following day. You’ll find out about my decision in the next article ….

The Korean Airways narrowbody plane had the extra large 2-2 seats in business, and standard 3-3 in economy. These were along the lines of the KLM style seats though, with adjustable headrest, phone holder, and working plug socket and USB port. It was only missing the fancy cup holder for a full house!

With an extra legroom window seat, and nobody next to me in the middle, I slept the whole way and missed whatever food offering there was. The stewardess left me a nice note saying I could contact them for service, but I only noticed it as we landed.

I am now as far from home as I will get on my travels, just shy of 9000km and nine time zones away from Eastbourne.

Seoul

Gimpong airport arrivals felt similar to a small UK airport. Maybe Stansted? I cleared passport control quickly and headed out to find my way to the city and my hotel. 

I appreciated the colour coded walkways that meant I didn’t have to keep looking once I had figured out it was the blue line to get me to Seoul station. The Koreans brought me straight back to earth with a bump by making me find a cash point, as no card payments are possible on the underground. It felt so antiquated and at odds with a country so clearly technically advanced. Very strange.

The train was clean and quiet with multiple LED screens playing bright coloured adverts on a loop in every carriage. Less than half an hour later I was in the city centre.

The tube is on basement level B7, so I begrudgingly gave up on my promise to myself to not take any escalators or moving walkways on any of my trips to counteract all the sitting I have been doing. Seoul station is HUGE. It takes me nearly ten minutes of walking to get out of my correct numbered exit (which is by far a better system than naming them as we do on the tube!). 

On the way out of the station, I stopped by Baskin Robins to check out their prices. No way was I buying ice-cream at this time of night, and while the Italians will curse me for daring to compare it to gelato, it was the best I could do in a pinch. I worked it out at just over £2 for a single scoop, which makes Seoul very reasonable indeed.

And it is COLD. I don’t want to over egg it, and maybe being in Vietnam just 48hrs previously is clouding my judgment. But wow, it is absolutely freezing here! My phone says -4° and I absolutely believe it. A brisk 20 minutes walk to my hotel certainly blows away the cobwebs.

Despite being after 11pm by the time I arrive, this is my first time in Korea so I am anxious to experience at least a tiny portion of Seoul. One street away from my hotel are four or five of Seoul’s ubiquitous late night chicken restaurants.

Approaching midnight on a Monday, each one is still packed with locals. I spend an hour savouring delicious braised chicken served on a camping stove directly on the table, with k-pop and Christmas songs playing on the stereo, sitting next to a tiny dog. Surreal stuff!

With no early flight, I manage to get one final good night’s sleep in a real bed. I feel almost human when I wake up, and ready for one final push to complete the challenge and make it home. 

Seoul to Guangzhou, China Southern (non-SkyTeam)

The walk back to Seoul station took far less time in daylight. It is still freezing though. Temperatures may get above zero later, but not yet!

I grab a coffee and head down seven flights to find the Incheon Express. Again, cash only for a ticket. No stops, allocated seats and a stewardess giving out free bottles of water felt good value for the ~£9 fare to cover the 25 or so miles west to Seoul’s main airport. TV screens show news reports of the recent political unrest, as well as the highlights from the Spurs vs Chelsea game at the weekend.

If Gimpo airport was Stansted, then Incheon is Heathrow. It still felt quite familiar in terms of set up, just on a much larger scale.

As this was a – slightly unplanned – trip on a non-SkyTeam airline, I had no status and therefore had to queue to check in, as this wasn’t available on the China Southern website for some reason. With no lounge access, I also had to pay for food at an airport for the first time too.

A portion of freshly fried katsu pork perhaps wasn’t the most authentic choice I could have gone for, but this late in the game I was playing it safe! The terminal felt like a shopping mall in places. It also had a k-culture museum and the only ‘vape lounge’ I saw on any of my travels. 

A large queue had formed at the gate by the time I arrived, with nearly every passenger holding a large gold and red (shopping?) bag in addition to their carry on or handbag. It was going to be carnage for the overhead bins, so I joined the queue and hoped for the best.

I overtook a few old ladies between the gate and the plane, and secured my case up top. The stewardesses were working hard to accommodate all these extra bags, and used additional storage units about a third of the way up the plane to find a home for them all. Clearly, this was not their first rodeo.

The toilets were situated next to the storage units instead of up front, and there was just a solitary 2-2 business class row – so definitely a unique layout on this plane. 

I could be wrong, but the legroom on offer felt a little less than I’d been given by everyone else over the past few days. If the short haul airlines on the trip had been mostly BA-style so far, this was definitely Ryanair by comparison.

China Southern then gave me not one but two things I thought were long gone from planes – pop down screens where we all watched the same film at the same time (I wish my 7 year old was here to witness this) and a snack offering of nuts. Clearly no fear anyone will die of anaphylaxis in the Far East?! 

I made friends with my neighbours for the first time on any of my flights, as Amberly (3 years old, from Jakarta) wanted to practice her English on me by counting to 10.

Clearly my ‘headphones in, please don’t talk me to me’ vibe does not work on toddlers! Amberly and her mum spoke great English, and were travelling back to Indonesia from Seoul. This was Amberly’s first trip abroad and first time on a plane. She is currently learning two languages, but will speak five like her mum when she goes to school. Wow!

A food service quickly followed on from the snack with a passable seafood and rice. Amberly went to sleep and I popped my headphones back in to relax and watch a film. 

Fourteen SkyTeam airlines down, but one (well, now two) to go.

Click here to read the next part of this story.

The full itinerary

As a reminder, here is Barry’s original itinerary together with the changes made along the way:

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) Seoul to Guangzhou (China Southern) – Guangzhou to Bangkok (Kenya Airways) – Bangkok to Shanghai (China Eastern) – Shanghai to Gatwick (China Eastern)