Have you collected Eurobonus points with the airline SAS or other companies in the Star Alliance system? Then you should pay close attention now.
Because after the SAS strike became a fact on Monday afternoon, it has boiled over on EuroBonus’ websites. For a while, the traffic was so heavy that the website crashed.
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But what does it mean for you who have bonus points or so-called vouchers and EuroBonus in SAS?
Here are some answers to some of the questions you may be wondering right now?
Until the autumn of 2020, EuroBonus was an integral part of SAS, but has now been separated into a subsidiary that is wholly owned by SAS and is called SAS EuroBonus AB.
What are they worth?
How much is a euro bonus point really worth?
It depends on when and what you use it for. The price of airline tickets goes up and down, both when you pay with money and with bonus points.
The cheapest flight ticket from Oslo to Trondheim in October cost before the strike was in fact 6000 bonus points plus 217 kroner in taxes and fees. The same price in cash is 800 kroner for a ticket in the same price range.
– All of Texas
You must therefore check the price in both points and money to see what pays off the most for you.
Assume that one point is worth 7 øre. If you get 10 øre or more per point, it is a good deal. If you get 5 øre or less, it is an expensive ticket to pay in points.
SMART: It can be smart to empty part of the Eurobonus account if you want to be sure that the points will not be lost.
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What should you do now?
– It is important to have ice in your stomach when it comes to SAS’s financial future. There is a lot going on here, but I think it is unlikely that the company will go bankrupt, says senior legal adviser, Thomas Iversen in the Consumer Council.
– SAS has made a plan for further operations, and we must expect a lot to happen in the weeks and months ahead. If the financial problems become completely acute, then in my view it is more likely that SAS will start a restructuring process.
We saw this in the competitor Norwegian last year, and then the bonus points survived the restructuring. The bonus points were frozen during the reconstruction period and received a limited value afterwards.
Bankruptcy is something else, however, and in the event of bankruptcy, the bonus points will be lost. The same applies to prepaid tickets and vouchers.
This is the shortcut
Use the credit card
In any case, these points can only be used on SAS’s flights, and if SAS no longer operates, the points cannot be realized.
– If you have prepaid a ticket, and an airline goes bankrupt, then you can demand a refund from the card issuer if you have paid by credit card. The same applies to certain terms for debit cards from Visa or MasterCard.
Then you are guaranteed a refund of the purchase price, but you can not claim compensation for losses as a result of you not being able to use pre-ordered services at the destination, says Iversen.
This includes hotels and rental cars.
Nor does travel insurance cover losses due to bankruptcy.
– Bonus points sometimes have a limited duration, but I find that people are good at using them. If you have not yet booked today’s summer holiday, you should see if you have any points that can be used, concludes Thomas Iversen.
– Do not cancel
You can use the bonus points to buy travel for yourself or for others. You can also use the points to buy flights from other companies in Star Alliance collaboration.
Shop for points
If you do not want to go out and fly, but rather buy different types of items, you can shop for points and money through the Eurobonus store or pay for hotel stays.
The point price can seem very high many times. But if SAS goes bankrupt, it would have been better to buy goods for your points than to lose them.
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