SAS and EuroBonus present all the key points of the three new major offerings launched today. SAS / Eurobonus media kit EuroBonus, your way SAS stands for Service And Simplicity – it’s as simple as that! We want to provide our customers with the best service and the simplest travel solutions. And in today’s competitive market, flexibility is what the customers really want. That is why we are now introducing a number of initiatives to our loyalty program EuroBonus to provide our members with better service and even more simplicity. EuroBonus is now making it even easier for customers to use their points. Last year, we launched the EuroBonus Shop to much success. It made it possible for our members to spend their points on a wide range of goods, not just travel-related products as before. Today we are taking EuroBonus even a step further, or actually three steps further by introducing three new services: one way tickets for points; buy- ing flights using both cash and points; and the possibility to buy an award seat on any flight at any time. SAS’ EuroBonus program has simply never been better or more flexible for members. As of today, mem- bers can simply book any flight as they would book their regular flight and pay with points, or combined points and money, even one way. So let us introduce EuroBonus by SAS, now the world’s best and most flexible frequent flyer program! For more information, please visit our website: www.sas.dk/eurobonus www.sas.no/eurobonus www.sas.se/eurobonus www.flysas.com/eurobonus SAS is one of the first airlines in the world to offer its One way award trips frequent flier members the possibility to buy one-way tickets using their points on all routes. • The price for a standard one-way award flight is approximately 60% of the standard return award flight fee. • One ways award flights are available on all SAS Group flights and routes, including Blue1 and Widerøe. • This allows members with less points to pay for one way with EuroBonus points and one way with money. It is now possible for EuroBonus members to use their points on any seat on any flight with SAS, Blue1 and All seats available Widerøe. for points • Up until now only a limited number of seats on each flight have been available for award booking. • The previous limited number are now available for the a set fare of EuroBonus points. • All other seats will become available at a points fare calculated depending on demand and availability. • All seats are also available for one way awards. Combine points Members will now be able to combine points with cash if with cash they wish to pay for a flight with SAS, Blue1 and Widerøe. • It is now possible for members who do not have enough points for a return (or one way) award flight to top up their payment with money. • A minimum of 6000 points is required to combine with money. Meet the woman behind EuroBonus: Mette Østergaard An interview with SAS’ head of EuroBonus. SAS is now allowing customers to pay for regular tickets, both one ways and return, using points or money or a combination of points and money. Why is SAS launching this now? Customers want flexibility, and we know this from our close customer focus. We regularly monitor customer satisfaction and gauge their preferences. Today’s mantra is flexibility because flexibility entails freedom. We are there- fore making it easier for our members to buy all flights for points. What is the best new thing for EuroBonus members from this initiative? I think that depends on which member you ask, which is why this so great. Some travellers may be most happy about the one way option while other members are thrilled about now being able to book whatever flight they might want and pay for it using points. Just as the ordinary ticket price varies from flight to flight, so will the number of points needed vary from flight to flight. There are two things that personally excite me about this initiative. Firstly, EuroBonus points are now effectively turned into a payment unit like any other currency that members can use at their discretion. And secondly, mem- bers are now relieved from previous limitations in finding available EuroBonus award flights. Now they simply book their EuroBonus flights as they book their regular flights and they pay their tickets with either points or money or a combination based on SAS’ conversion rate between points and money. What are SAS’ expectations from the new offerings? Loyalty is created when members use their points. We are now making it very easy for members to use their points on flights, in the web shop, EuroBonus Shop, and with our 60+ partners. We therefore expect our loyal customers to become even more loyal as they gain strong benefits of being loyal SAS customers. After this, what is next for EuroBonus? We have over time built very strong loyalty and communication competencies within EuroBonus. We have therefore started offering a wide range of loyalty and communication related services to other consumer-oriented business- es. These businesses want to be our partners because of our competencies and services and they also see clear benefits from our large number of members with substantial collective purchasing power. Getting more partners will enable us to offer our members even more ways they can earn and use points. This will not only further stimulate demand for EuroBonus points from our existing members, it will also attract frequent buyers to EuroBonus as new members – frequent buyers that are earning points as loyal customers of other busi- nesses. And this in turn will enable EuroBonus to attract even more partners and offer even more ways of earning and using points to its members. It’s a positive spiral we have started. How does this make EuroBonus stand out from competitors’ frequent flyer programs? EuroBonus is no longer “only” a frequent flyer program, which is what most airlines offer. We are increasingly be- coming a coalition program, with many partners offering a wealth of products and services to the members of the program. SAS is our biggest partner but we are increasingly partnering up with other businesses such as retail- ers, credit card issuers and other B2C businesses wanting loyal customers, thereby providing clear benefits to all members of EuroBonus and thus also to partners. Why should everybody be member of EuroBonus? EuroBonus points can not only be earned on air tickets, they can also be earned on for instance day-to-day shop- ping of groceries at no additional cost. These points can then be exchanged for air tickets and other goods and services. There are only benefits and no downside in being a EuroBonus member! What the members think: Roland Loefler LMM - Loefler Management & Media AB, strategic adviser to leaders and organisations in Sweden and across Europe. Roland has been a EuroBonus member since January 1993 and currently holds 950,000 EuroBonus points in his account. “Before I was a EuroBonus member I was one of the first customers who got to trial self-booking via PC (SMART). I feel like such an experienced SAS traveller I should be put on display at the National Museum,” says Roland. What do you use your EuroBonus membership for? I primarily use it for trips with the family, but also it makes my business travelling more efficient. And these new and extended services are an improved offering that I really welcome. What do the new EuroBonus offerings mean to you? I can spend my points to a wider extend for trips with the family. If you travel a lot with work like I do, it is great that all the travelling can benefit the whole family in the end. Will these new changes make you a more loyal SAS and Star Alliance customer? No, but that is only because I already appreciate SAS as it is now. Within Star Alliance I have enjoyed travelling with “Stars”, but also experienced the opposite. But SAS has seldom let me down. These changes, however, is to me proof that EuroBonus has a will and a mission to really make it easy for custom- ers to travel with them. That also reflects my experience with SAS, and the positive response I am met with when I want to book something or have an opinion about the service. What do you consider the best aspects with today’s EuroBonus? That it is easy to book (i.e. get a seat when I want to travel), to change a booking and just travel with SAS with the benefits of my EuroBonus membership, such as the Fast Track. Jani Ekonoja Entrepreneur and owner of JKE Consulting, which focuses on analytical CRM. Jani has been a EuroBonus member since the early 1990s. What do you use your EuroBonus membership for? I register all my flights, but I also have a SAS Mastercard that I use frequently. I guess 80% of all my spending is through that card. What do the new EuroBonus offerings mean to you? It means that I get much more opportunities to spend my points. I travel on quite short notice, and then it is often not possible to book an award flight, What more would you like EuroBonus to offer? More partners. It would be great to get supermarket chains like Coop/ICA as Eu- roBonus members, so I would get points on both my shopping, on top of what my SAS Mastercard gives me.