Is Scandinavian Airlines Part of Star Alliance?

Scandinavian Airlines is the founding member of the Star Alliance. Scandinavian Airlines or SAS Airlines which is a flag carrier of 3 countries, including Denmark, Norway, and Sweden was founded on 1st August 1946. SAS Connect and SAS Link are subsidiary airlines of SAS. Both operate under the branding of SAS. Airlines are headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and is a child company of SAS Group.

SAS Airlines is a safe airline according to the world’s aviation governing bodies. Scandinavian Airlines runs its Alliance program for frequent flyers, named as EuroBonus. Some of the focus cities for SAS Airlines are:

• Bergen
• Goteborg
• Stavanger
• Tromso
• Trondheim

In this article, we will take a deep dive into the answers to some of the most asked queries like, Is Scandinavian Airlines part of Star Alliance, what list of airlines is in it, and how it works?

Star Alliance Overview

Star Alliance is one of the world’s largest airline alliances with 26 member airlines. All 26 member airlines of Star Alliance operate a fleet of approximately 5,033 aircraft with more than 19,000 daily departures to 1,290 airports in 195 countries. The Alliance offers many rewards programs to their passengers which also include priority boarding and upgrades facilities.

Founding Members of Star Alliance

Initially, 5 airlines joined hands on 3 continents to increase the reach of their airlines and have a global reach. These airlines are: 

• Air Canada
• Lufthansa
• Scandinavian Airlines
• Thai Airways
• United Airlines

List of Star Alliance Airlines

These alliances form a global network between airlines which helps them to get access to most of the destinations. Similarly, as SAS Airlines is a founding member of the star alliance, it can take you almost anywhere in the world. Here is a list of these 26 airlines in the network: 

1. Aegean Airlines
2. Air Canada
3. Air China
4. Air India
5. Air New Zealand
6. ANA
7. Asiana Airlines
8. Australian Airlines
9. Avianca
10. Brussels Airlines
11. Copa Airlines
12. Croatia Airlines
13. EgyptAir
14. Ethiopian Airlines
15. EVA Air
16. LOT Polish Airlines
17. Lufthansa
18. Scandinavian Airlines
19. Shenzhen Airlines
20. Singapore Airlines
21. South African Airways
22. Swiss
23. TAP Air Portugal
24. Thai Airways International
25. Turkish Airlines
26. United Airlines

What is EuroBonus?

EuroBonus is a well-known loyalty program introduced by Scandinavian Airlines in 1992. Passengers can take all the benefits of EuroBonus with 26 Airlines. Also, there were some of the airline partners as well which was joined the program but some of them ended the partnership. These were

• Wideroe
• Air Greenland (Partnership ended 1 January 2010)
• AirBaltic (Ended 25 March 2017)
• Atlantic Airways (Ended 25 March 2017)

Membership Levels

Currently, EuroBonus has 5 types of membership levels available. These membership levels are

• Member
• Silver
• Gold
• Diamond
• Pandion

Member Level

The \”Member\” level is the first and initial level of EuroBonus membership. There are no extra requirements for this level and is obtained with a simple registration.

Silver Level

The “Silver” level is the next level just after registration. This can be achieved by earning 20,000 basic points or by completing 10 qualifying flights in a year. A “Silver” level allows gives the benefit of business class check-in and extra baggage allowance on some of the flights for a limited period.

Gold Level

EuroBonus members can reach the \”Gold\” level as soon as they earn 45,000 basic points or 45 qualifying flights. With this, members receive unlimited benefits for Access to SAS and Star Alliance lounges when traveling on a star alliance ticket, priority check-in, extra luggage check-in allowance for some tickets, and 25% bonus point earnings on flights. This is a Star Alliance Gold Card.

Diamond 

One can reach the \”Diamond\” level when 90 qualifying flights or 90,000 basic points are earned. This membership gives exceptionally amazing benefits like free drinks on flights, higher priority on standby, giving away a gold card facility to a friend, and a number of free upgrades per year.

How Does it work?

These Basic points earning process is easy. You can earn these points by flying with Scandinavian Airlines, Wideroe, or Star Alliance. SAS gives the facility to earn basic points through its extensive partner network of hotels, shopping, rental cars, and more. Customers have to use partner credit cards for shopping to earn extra basic points.

What is Airline Alliance?

Airline Alliance is a type of arrangement in the aviation industry between two or more airlines having cooperation on a significant level. Alliances usually provide marketing branding to make travel much easier and smooth for passengers. These marketing tactics make them attract more and more customers towards them.

Star Alliance generated the highest total scheduled traffic in RPK/RPM which can also be written as Revenue Passenger Kilometers/Revenue Passenger Miles. Star Alliance was at 23% of total scheduled traffic, SkyTeam was at 20.4% and Oneworld was at 17.8%. 38.8% for the rest of the alliances. 

According to a 2019 survey, Star Alliance was the top leading airline alliance which carried 762 million passengers, ahead of SkyTeam at number 2 with 630 million passengers and Oneworld at 3 with 535 million passengers.

Conclusion

Scandinavian Airlines is one of the founding members of the Star Alliance. Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways, and United Airlines are the 5 initial members who founded the Star Alliance. Today, the total no. of 26 Airlines is working with Star Alliance to reach globally. SAS provides a loyalty program to their customers called EuroBonus. This article covers all the required information, including, Scandinavian Airlines Overview, Star Alliance, EuroBonus, and their membership levels. Before traveling in the future, travelers can refer to this article to deeply understand Is Scandinavian Airlines is part of Star Alliance or not, Star Alliance Airlines list, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)