Bankruptcy Risk: – Use your bonus points now

Have you collected Eurobonus points with the airline SAS or other companies in the Star Alliance system? So you should pay attention now.

Both SAS management itself and outside experts believe that there is a real risk that SAS may go bankrupt if negative development continues.

in In an effort to save the airline, SAS has drawn up a contingency planAbout SEK 20 billion in various types of loans and lease agreements is converted into equity capital.

But what does that mean for you who have bonus points or so-called vouchers and Eurobonus in SAS?

Until the fall of 2020, Eurobonus was an integral part of SAS, but has now been separated into a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS called SAS EuroBonus AB.

What is its value?

How much is a euro bonus point really worth? It depends on when and what you are using it for. The price of airline tickets goes up and down, both when paying with money and with reward points.

The cheapest airline ticket from Oslo to Trondheim in October costs an additional 6000 points plus 217 kroner in taxes and fees. The same price in cash is 800 kroner for a ticket in the same price range.

So you should check the price with points and money to see what pays the most.

Assume that 1 point equals 7 ounces. If you get 10 øre or more per point, that’s a good deal. If you get 5 øre or less, it’s an expensive ticket to pay with points.

What should you do now?

It is important to have ice when it comes to the financial future of SAS. A lot is happening here, but I think it’s very unlikely the company will go bankrupt, says Senior Legal Counsel, Thomas Iverson at the Consumer Council.

SAS has put in place a plan for more operations, and we should expect a lot more to happen in the coming weeks and months. If the financial problems become quite acute, SAS is likely to begin the process of restructuring.

We saw this in the Norwegian competitor last year, and then the bonus points survived the restructuring. Bonus points are frozen during the rebuilding period and then have a limited value.

Bankruptcy is another thing, however, and in the event of bankruptcy, bonus points will be lost. The same applies to prepaid tickets and vouchers.

Warning: It may be a complete stop in air traffic

Use a credit card

In any case, these points can only be used on SAS flights, and if the SAS is no longer operating, the points cannot be achieved.

– If you have prepaid a ticket, and an airline goes bankrupt, then you can claim a refund from the card issuer if you paid by credit card. The same also applies to certain conditions of Visa or Mastercard debit cards.

Then we guarantee a refund of the purchase price, but you can’t claim compensation for losses as a result of not being able to use pre-ordered services at the destination, Iversen says.

This includes hotels and car rentals.

Travel insurance does not cover losses arising from bankruptcy.

Bonus points are sometimes of limited duration, but I find that people are good at using them. Thomas Iverson concludes that if you haven’t booked your summer vacation today, you should see if you have any points to use.

Sissel (76) rages against SAS

You can use your reward points to purchase travel for yourself or others. You can also use the points to buy flights from other companies in the Star Alliance partnership.

Shop for points

If you don’t want to go out and travel, but buy different types of items, you can shop for points and money through the Eurobonus store or pay for hotel accommodations. The point price can seem many times too high. But if SAS goes bankrupt, it was better to trade commodities for your points rather than lose them.