Archive for September, 2024

As announced, SAS is now fully integrated into SkyTeam, but some particularities are worth noting around its airline partner network.

First, the airline has kept one Star member in its EuroBonus program, Singapore Airlines. All other partners have left.

Within SkyTeam, not yet all members are represented. ITA and MEA are currently still missing, while Czech Airlines will obviously not join anymore at all as it will go out of business next month. It can though be expected that the first two will start a partnership on their turn in the near future. The focus of the SAS management was simply to ensure to get the more important partners on board on time.

But a bit surprising (and actually unheard of in any alliance) is the decision by SAS to apply a specific award pricing on three partners: Redemptions on Air Europa, China Airlines and Vietnam Airlines are still based on the new standard award table – but a surcharge of 100% applies to them.

For the time being, the standard SkyTeam elite benefits don’t yet apply to three other partners, Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeroméxico and MEA.

While logically and morally never really justified, many airlines used some spikes in fuel prices some years ago to introduce fuel surcharges on award tickets. And since then, they have only known one way: up. Even if, as right now, fuel prices are on the fall, hardly anybody adjusts these co-payments, which make award travel sometimes simply not attractive anymore. And since these costs are far more opaque than the award levels themselves, there is a lot of abuse here.

As example, Qatar Airways has just silently doubled those surcharges for award travel for its Privilege Club members – before reverting the change amidst the harsh reaction by bloggers. So, there are not (yet) in the club of programs where one has to pay 1,000 USD and more for a long-haul roundtrip in Business Class – in addition to the mileage price, which is often on the rise as well.

The conclusion of this is simply that it is no longer enough to be go for low award levels; one also needs to check these surcharges. And there are still some good examples out there, such as North American programs, where these surcharges are considerably lower or even not applied at all, partially even not on their European or Asian partners, which are known for the most abusive practices in that area.

The takeover of Hawaiian Airlines by Alaska Airlines has now been fully approved and will take place.

While both brands will be retained, both airlines will actually merge under one single operating certificate. In terms of loyalty, you should expect that over time Hawaiian Miles will be merged into Alaska’s Mileage Plan.

Both programs are rather attractive by US standards, so there is not a worst case scenario you might need to fear. But as always, there will be details to be watched out. With Alaska being a oneworld member (though very flexible when it comes to its own airline partner network) and Hawaiian now being a designated member in the alliance, it seems to be obvious, for instance, that some of Hawaiian’s airline partners, like Virgin Atlantic, will be lost.

But in an immediate first step, we will certainly see a simple FFP partnership between Alaska and Hawaiian to start with, increasing dramatically the award opportunities for Mileage Plan members to Hawaii!

Have you ever fancied about using your miles for a cheap award flight on an Airbus 380, even if it is in Economy Class only?

If you are an ANA Mileage Club member and have 17,500 miles, you can do so by booking your roundtrip award flight on ANA between Tokyo and Honolulu by September 30, for a travel date between January 14 and February 28, 2025.

It might not be your most comfortable 7-hour flight ever, but certainly an unforgettable experience in the nicest livery of any Airbus 380 aircraft in service, on one of the Flying Honu planes!

Scandinaiva might be one of the hotspots for loyalty right now.

SAS is now in SkyTeam, while Norwegian and Strawberry Hotels will launch their merged program in November. Not much is yet known about the program, other than that a common currency, called “Spenn” (a Scandinavian expression for bucks), will be introduced. Awaiting that launch, Norwegian is currently running a status match campaign for SAS tier members.

Another major hospitality player in the region, Scandic Hotels, has just completed the relaunch of its program Scandic Friends. This mid-sized program now features an industry record of seven membership levels, going all the way from a “New friend” to a “Best friend” status.