SAS joins SkyTeam: What It Means for British Flyers
Flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Scandinavian Airlines or SAS, and my lesser favoured Nordic airline after Finnair has left Star Alliance for SkyTeam. Here’s what it mans for British travellers.
Air France KLM now own a chunk of SAS
After a few years of company restructuring, SAS unveiled that a consortium of organisations were taking over the embattled airline. These included Castlelake (investment firm), Lind Invest (family investment office), Danish Government and Air France KLM group. Air France KLM, who now own 19.9% of SAS, exercised this control by poaching the Scandi airline to its own SkyTeam alliance. SAS had been a founding member of the Star Alliance since 1997. Air France KLM will have the opportunity to purchase a majority of shares after a minimum of two years.
Air France KLM have close relations with Virgin Atlantic and Delta through their Transatlantic Joint Venture and mutual alliance membership.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members now have access to new benefits
Prior to 31st August, Flying Club members could earn Virgin Points on SAS flights - an arrangement that was very one sided (to the benefit of Virgin members) and had been in place for years. Beyond that, there were no other benefits to Virgin elite members. That’s now changed.
All members now earn both Virgin Points and Tier Points
With Virgin Flying Club Gold status, travellers on SAS will get:
Two extra check in bags up to 23kg each (but not on the cheapest SAS Go Light fares)
Priority check in (usually at the Business class queue)
Most importantly, Lounge access including the decent but middling SAS Lounge in Copenhagen (here)
Not earth shattering but it improves coverage of Europe for Virgin members - when taking into account the networks of Air France, KLM, SAS and Air Europa. This is a big improvement from where Virgin Atlantic flyers were five years ago with zero benefits on short haul flights.
Spending Virgin Points on SAS is OK value
While SAS doesn’t offer outsized value, such as with Japanese airline ANA, using Virgin Points on SAS can be a decent option for British travellers.
A SAS flight from London to Copenhagen is around six hundred miles, meaning Economy costs 7000 points plus taxes and fees (unknown price) one way. Meanwhile the headline Avios price with BA is 9,250 plus £0 in Economy one way off-peak. While I wouldn’t say either of them prices are great value, the Virgin Points price of SAS flights is around what you might expect - and could come in handy when cash fares are pricey.
One caveat, currently SAS flights are only bookable by phoning Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and not via the Virgin site. SAS EuroBonus members can already book Virgin Atlantic flights via the SAS flight.
Concluding thoughts
This is good news for Virgin members. More options for earning and spending points, with reasonable value, can only be a positive move for Flying Club members. It will be interesting to see how things develop over time with the possibility of SAS joining the Transatlantic Joint Venture - I’d sure love to try their Business Class in combination with one of the other airlines (Air France, KLM, Virgin or Delta).
For SAS members, its probably a slightly more bittersweet moment. Star Alliance is generally regarded as a better alliance with superior benefits and some better lounge options. It’s also currently unclear as to whether SAS may move from Terminal 2, the home of Star Alliance, to Terminal 3 or more likely Terminal 4, both which have SkyTeam presence.
