SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) joined Skyteam and issued a challenge for the end of 2024. If you fly 15 Skyteam airlines, and credit the points to SAS, you will receive 1 million SAS miles. I decided to do this challenge to exercise my flying/planning chops. This would be the first time I’ve flown outside of North America for about 15 years. The 1 million mile bonus (worth maybe $8000-10k to me) meant the entire trip was essentially free or negative cost.

Some stats for the trip:

• 15 Days
• 24 Segments Flown
• 25 Airports Visited
• 17 Airlines Flown
• 30+ Airport Lounges Visited
• 27966 miles flown, 9546 miles in business class
• $2921, 75k Aeroplan Points, 40k AA Points Spent on Flights
• $316, 33k Hyatt Points, 10k Marriott Points Spent On Hotels
• $539 Spent on Misc (Food, Sightseeing, Ubers, Visas)
• Total Cost: $3776, 75k Aeroplan, 40k AA, 33k Hyatt, 10k Marriott Points

Some thoughts:

• I programmed too much time for layovers, especially in Europe. Since it was my first time flying internationally in 15 years, I didn’t know how efficient the transfer system was and added too much buffer time.
• I didn’t want to just fly, I wanted to spend some time at some of these cities, which increased the cost. I spent a day or two in Barcelona, Bucharest, Jakarta, and Seoul.
• I flew out of Incheon right as a huge snow storm hit. The flight was delayed 2 hours but I got lucky and many other flights were canceled that day.
• I got lucky and immigration at Fuzhou let me through on a temporary stay for transit, even though they didn’t have a 24 Transit Without Visa Policy. They were highly professional and let me through without an issue.
• I unfortunately got a terrible cold/cough/diarrhea/night sweats halfway through the trip.
• Best flight: Qatar first/business from Dubai to Doha to Jakarta.
• The daytime flight from TPE-SFO in United Polaris wasn’t worth the points. I was awake for all but 3 hours so the lie flat seat wasn’t worth the price premium.
• All but one of the flights was on time. The only issue with the flights was with Kenya Airways, which was canceled/rebooked, which cascaded to about $290 in fees.
• It’s been 7 days since the last leg and I’ve gotten 13/15 flights credited to SAS.

Overall it was a fun experience and I would do it again. I learned a lot about flying international and it made me more confident to book complicated trips in the future.