Reminder – I need 29XP to qualify Platinum Status with Flying Blue. I need to do this by May 2026 Its complicated because Anth needs 28XP to get to Gold. So how to get it as efficiently as possible?

I booked a trip to Mallorca for March again. Just a few days but it was a great way to officially say goodbye to winter last year and we were both glad to do that again. The Trip was booked just before the end of November 2026 (I think there was still some “Black Friday” discount on the hotel)

I found this surprisingly low fare just poking around on the SAS site. For some reason this particular week it gave some really low fares in Business class. Oh I also paid from the Polish version of the SAS website, so the price is in PLN (zloty) – So total flight is £185 each for 30XP £6.16/XP (€7.03/XP). Anything under £8.71/XP is a win as thats the pure SAF price of XP so I use it for my indicator of value. SAS are a SkyTeam partner so flight XP is calculated just like AF or KLM using this table.

It’s only 2 flight segments and we have to get to Palma de Mallorca but given I already wanted to spend a few days there it wasn’t a deal breaker and Jet2 fly there from BHX . So step 2 book the Jet 2 flight

Thats for 2 of us and I haven’t included this in the cost as we were travelling for a few days holiday but If you want to do that (its what a pure XP run would do I guess when calculating €/XP) its 66.60 each so total is £(185+60.60) = £245.60 or €281 which gives £8.18£/XP or 0.096€/XP which is still below SAF price so this really was a great deal.

—–Update—–

Due to a medical emergency requiring some surgery which has not yet taken place 14 days before the trip some/all of it might have to be cancelled. Fortunately American Express Platinum Travel Insurance will cover the costs as I booked everything through the card this time and intend to do so for all future trips.

This has some benefits that might work for you I now love the insurance but you need to look into it yourself. I wont try to sell you it but you might get a decent bonus if you use my referral link when you do. So here it is. Only use it if you consider yourself a friend. I consider you a friend if you’ve read all the way down to here!
https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/platinum-credit?ref=nICHOH4cXf&CPID=999999554

The bonus for you for sign up is something like 55k points which is great for the UK but pathetic for USA where credit card companies take a much bigger cut in fees and can afford to be much more generous tempting you to use their card.

If you want a post on this topic please let me know as I now have a decent strategy for AMEX after cocking it up when I took out the card and got ZERO bonus. TLDR apply for Gold (free in first year) you should get something like 25k sign up bonus then after 6 months minimum contact them to ask about changing to Platinum. Ask about the bonus and get confirmation of the offer BEFORE you sign up. Or just go straight to the Platinum?