While having to fly 36.000 miles to acquire Gold status is lots less than with other airlines, it still means you have to fly a lot. Luckily for us the amount of tier miles you will earn is related to the booking class you fly in. Some booking classes will earn your more miles than other ones, and there is one especially sweet spot: SAS Scandinavian Airlines.
When you book a flight on SAS Scandinavian Airlines in economy your flights will earn you 100% of the flown miles towards elite status. The real sweet spot with SAS is that booking a flight in Premium Economy (shows as Economy in the table below) earns you a whopping 200%.
A single return flight from let’s say Copenhagen to Los Angeles in premium economy class will give you just south of 23.000 miles, meaning over 60% of the miles needed to achieve Gold status. Another thing to mention from the earning table below is that a single flight in premium economy always give you a minimum amount of 1.200 miles. So even a short distance flight between Oslo and Copenhagen already give you 2.400 miles for a return flight. When we add a transit in for example Stockholm we could even double the amount of miles giving you 4.800 miles.
SAS is known for having a few very good deals yearly on premium economy. The Copenhagen to Los Angeles flight for example can often be obtained for as little as 750 euro.