SAS EuroBonus “Millionaire” Statistics: Fascinating & Surprising

In 2024, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) transitioned from Star Alliance to SkyTeam. To celebrate this, the airline ran one of the most interesting promotions we’ve seen from an airline loyalty program in years. The company has now shared some statistics about participation in this promotion, and there are some details I’m shocked by.

Basics of SAS’ EuroBonus million points SkyTeam promotion

To celebrate joining the SkyTeam alliance, SAS’ EuroBonus frequent flyer program offered a very cool promotion, giving members an incentive to fly on SkyTeam partner airlines. With this promotion, the more SkyTeam airlines members flew, the more bonus points they could earn. For travel between October 8 and December 31, 2024:

• You could earn 10,000 SAS EuroBonus bonus points for flying five SkyTeam airlines
• You could earn 100,000 SAS EuroBonus bonus points for flying 10 SkyTeam airlines
• You could earn 1,000,000 SAS EuroBonus bonus points for flying 15 SkyTeam airlines

So by flying 15 different SkyTeam airlines, you could become a EuroBonus “millionaire.” I could be wrong, but I have to imagine that when the airline launched the promotion, it expected that maybe a handful of people would take advantage of the offer, and that more than anything, it would generate some media buzz. However, that’s not how the promotion turned out…

SAS’ EuroBonus million points promotion in numbers

LoyaltyLobby shares some statistics that the airline provided him about the EuroBonus million points promotion, now that it has concluded. So, how many people took advantage of this, where were they from, etc.? This is some incredible data:

• 42,718 people registered for the promotion, and 6,886 (16%) of those people enrolled in the EuroBonus program after the campaign started
• 900+ people successfully completed the promotion, and earned one million points; of those 900+ people, 722 (78%) enrolled in the program after the campaign started
• 70% of the people who completed the challenge were male, while 30% were female
• Most people were 30-39 years old, though the average age was 40 years old
• The oldest person to complete the challenge was 73, and 12 people under the age of 18 completed the promotion, with the youngest person being four years old (and from Japan)
• Of those who completed the promotion, 77% had no EuroBonus status, 8% had EuroBonus Silver status, 12% had EuroBonus Gold status, and 2% had EuroBonus Diamond status
• The newest member who completed the promotion only enrolled in the EuroBonus program on December 16, 2024, while the longest standing member enrolled in the EuroBonus program on May 5, 1992
• 85% of those who completed the promotion enrolled in the EuroBonus program in the past two years
• The average person who completed the challenge visited four continents, 17 countries, and 23 airports, during the promotion period
• All people who completed the promotion visited China at least once
• 92% of flights completed for the promotion were in economy
• Nine people visited six continents, while 22% of people visited at least five continents

So, where were the people who completed the challenge from, primarily? Here are the top five countries, based on the addresses listed in their accounts:

• 276 people (30%) were from South Korea
• 129 people (14%) were from the United States
• 111 people (12%) were from Japan
• 83 people (9%) were from China
• 54 people (6%) were from North Korea

Reflecting on the amazing SAS EuroBonus promotion

First and foremost, huge kudos to SAS for offering such a fun promotion, and for actually fully honoring it, and for not cutting off registration early. I have to imagine that participation in this promotion ended up being way higher than expected, and this is a not-insignificant expense for the airline.

Members ended up earning at least 900 million points with this promotion. If you were to value those at one cent each, that would be like nine million dollars. Admittedly the carrier’s cost for those miles is probably a bit lower, but still, this cost at least a few million bucks to offer.

Here’s what stands out to me most about the statistics:

• How did 54 North Koreans participate in the promotion?!?Are these South Koreans who accidentally put the wrong address, foreign diplomats (or something) in North Korea, or what?
• It’s pretty incredible that someone registered for SAS EuroBonus on December 16, 2024, and completed the promotion, given that travel had to be completed by December 31, 2024
• It’s interesting how this promotion was so popular with people who weren’t otherwise engaged in the program, and with people who don’t even live in SAS’ core markets; Sweden had only the sixth highest number of participants, while Norway had the eighth highest number of participants
• For South Korea and Japan, I’m curious if there was one person who was planning trips for a bunch of people, or if nearly everyone completed the offer independently

In retrospect, I can’t help but wonder if SAS EuroBonus executives would offer this promotion again, or if they learned some lessons and wouldn’t. On the one hand, it generated a lot of publicity, which is great. On the other hand, will this actually lead to an increase in long term business?

The way I see it, SAS EuroBonus just isn’t a very compelling frequent flyer program, so even for those who earn a million points, I can’t imagine they’ll necessarily be that much more engaged in the program, aside from redemptions.

This promotion did get a lot of press, so does that get the airline anything? I’m not sure, especially since the promotion was all about flying SkyTeam partners anyway. Perhaps the goal was in part to get those who are loyal to other SkyTeam airlines to be aware that SAS has now joined the alliance?

Bottom line

The SAS EuroBonus million points promotion is now over, and the program has revealed some details about participation in the program. 900+ people successfully completed the promotion, and perhaps most interesting of all is that 54 North Koreans reportedly participated.

Kudos to SAS for offering this promotion, and for even sharing statistics about participation!

What do you make of these SAS EuroBonus million points promotion statistics?