It had to happen sooner or later – and now it has. SkyTeam member SAS has announced that it will raise the prices for award flights in its EuroBonus program.
One particularly popular sweet spot is affected: long-haul Business Class flights will soon cost 60,000 miles instead of 50,000 miles (plus taxes) per direction. Flights with partner airlines are also affected, with some percentage increases even higher. All changes apply to new bookings from December 1, 2025. Until then, you can still book tickets at the old rates – provided you can find availability.
What changes on December 1
You can find all updates on the SAS website under the award chart, where the new and old prices are shown side by side:
Here’s an overview of the key changes:
Award flights with SAS
For SAS-operated flights, there are only two changes: long-haul Premium Economy awards increase by 13%, and Business Class awards by 20%. The following prices apply one-way:
- Premium Economy to Asia / North America: 45,000 (was 40,000) points (+13%)
- Business Class to Asia / North America: 60,000 (was 50,000) points (+20%)
SAS only charges actual taxes and fees – no fuel surcharges. Depending on the route and cabin, surcharges range from about €6 to €100.
All other routes and cabins remain unchanged in December. However, SAS had already increased many short-haul prices in October when it rebranded SAS Plus to SAS Business within Europe. In exchange, passengers now enjoy perks like an empty middle seat.
Award flights with SkyTeam partners
The changes are much more extensive for partner-airline award flights. On the SAS site, you’ll find a large price matrix depending on the origin and destination regions. Below are some key changes to previously popular sweet spots.
Keep in mind that one-way tickets cost 60% of the round-trip rate, meaning you’ll “pay a penalty” for booking one-way.
From Europe (and vice versa), round-trip prices:
- Business Class within Europe: 40,000 (was 30,000) points (+33%)
- Business Class Europe → North America: 140,000 (was 130,000) points (+8%)
- Business Class Europe → Central America: 180,000 (was 147,500) points (+22%)
- Business Class Europe → South America: 190,000 (was 165,000) points (+15%)
- Business Class Europe → Middle East: 130,000 (was 105,000) points (+24%)
- Business Class Europe → Southern Africa: 180,000 (was 165,000) points (+9%)
- Business Class Europe → Southeast Asia: 190,000 (was 187,500) points (+1%)
- Business Class Europe → Rest of Asia: 180,000 (was 165,000) points (+9%)
- Business Class Europe → Pacific: 280,000 (was 275,000) points (+2%)
Other worldwide routes (round-trip):
- Business Class within North America: unchanged at 50,000 miles
- Business Class North America → South America: 100,000 (was 90,000) miles (+11%)
- Business Class within South America: 75,000 (was 50,000) miles
(Interestingly, First Class would now be cheaper than Business, if available.) - Business Class within Southeast Asia: unchanged at 50,000 miles
Conclusion
Until now, long-haul SAS award flights were known for low mileage costs but terrible availability, especially to Asia, where finding a Business Class seat is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Availability to North America is somewhat better, but not by much.
A 20% increase in Business Class award prices is annoying, but still acceptable. Few frequent flyer programs offer cheaper redemptions. For comparison, Flying Blue also charges 60,000 miles for a one-way Business Class ticket, but adds about €200 in fuel surcharges per direction. EuroBonus now matches the mileage price, but without those extra fees. On the other hand, SAS’s route network and award availability are much more limited. Could this be an early step toward merging Flying Blue and EuroBonus?
Personally, I don’t feel any urgency to redeem my remaining 800,000 EuroBonus points from the SkyTeam Challenge right away. In any case, it would be nearly impossible, as the most attractive routes (like Tokyo or San Francisco) usually only show last-minute availability.
Translated by Ditmar
Cover Picture: SAS Premium Economy on the A330 | Ditmar Lange