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Last month I wrote an article about how it is possible to get free breakfast at Premier Inn hotels by buying shares in Whitbread, the parent company. Star Alliance member SAS is now running a variation on the same theme – offering elite status and other perks to loyalty programme members who purchase shares.
“You will receive the SAS Friends & Family campaigns with heavily discounted prices on selected domestic and international tickets.
You can also receive EuroBonus Gold status if you have 100 000 – 1 million shares by November 30. Read more about the benefits of being a EuroBonus Gold member.
If you have more than 1 million shares by November 30 you will receive EuroBonus Diamond status. Read more about the benefits of being a EuroBonus Diamond member.”
EuroBonus Gold is equivalent to Star Alliance Gold, so would get you lounge access, priority check in, additional luggage allowance, etc, when flying with partner airlines. Unless you spend a lot of time flying with SAS, the advantages of hitting Diamond aren’t significant, so we’ll concentrate on Gold here.
At current prices, 100,000 shares would set you back about £21,000. Obviously that’s a lot of money, and I’m not sure airline stocks would be something most people would feel very secure holding at the moment. In addition, I’m pretty sure you have to be resident in Norway, Sweden or Denmark to participate.
But, it did get me thinking…
Would elite status tempt you to buy shares in an airline?
Say, for example, that IAG offered British Airways Executive Club elite status through a similar initiative. In ‘normal’ times I could actually see it being quite popular.
Years ago, BA used to offer shareholders a 10% discount (on even very modest holdings), and I know people who were certainly very happy to take advantage of that.
At what sort of amounts would you set the thresholds? ~£30,000 for Silver, ~£100,000 for Gold, ~£1 million for Gold Guest List?
British Airways’ Concorde Room at Terminal 5, London Heathrow on 07 November 2017
(Picture by Nick Morrish/British Airways)
£21K in airline shares?
For that I’d want them to name one of their planes after me 🙂
Haha – very fair in the current climate. In more normal times though, I think it’d be popular for airlines like BA/IAG.
If you bought the shares in more normal times, such as back in 2017, you’d be paying a lot more to get the 100,000 required for Star Alliance Gold. In November 2017 100,000 SAS shares would have cost you £63,662 so the current price of £21,000 is a relative “bargain”. That’s not a recommendation to buy, just something to consider.
Very true. I still can’t say I’m tempted by airline stocks at current prices though – even with elite status thrown in 😉 .