We wrote last week about SAS Eurobonus policies in regards to the coronavirus (read more here) and what I thought to be an incomplete response from the airline.
While other programs have extended member tiers and points/miles expiry, SAS was not doing any of that based on the information on their website.
You can access SAS Eurobonus page for Covid-19 response here.
When we published the piece last week, we hadn’t received a response from the SAS spokesperson. We got it late last week.
I wanted to probe about miles expiry, what was going on with not allowing new Star Alliance award bookings and tier extensions.
Here’s the statement that we received from the SAS spokesperson:
The corona outbreak has developed fast and globally, with a severe impact on both SAS and the airline industry.
SAS EuroBonus are of course following the development of the current situation closely. We are at the moment evaluating the situation as we learn more about how the it’s affecting our members, aiming to find solutions that suit our members. We understand that this can be frustrating, but want to emphasize that we are doing our utmost to find the best way forward.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances, SAS will not extend the validity of points that either has expired or will expire in near future. Regarding status levels, we recommend members that are immediately affected by cancellations to contact us directly.
Here’s our previous piece about the SAS Eurobonus coronavirus response:
SAS Eurobonus Coronavirus Update: No Miles Expiry Extension & Star Alliance Award Suspension
Conclusion
I find it very unfortunate that SAS is not extending Eurobonus miles or points as they call them, due to the Covid-19 pandemic especially when they have prevented members from using them for Star Alliance awards.
SAS also needs to come up with a coherent status extension policy, like many other airlines have already done. I don’t think that SAS has, at the end, any other option than to extend their member tiers by 12 months due to how this coronavirus has and continues to affected travel.
