It’s not easy to find a travel experience that compares to the excitement and feeling of travel discovery you once felt as a child.
Maybe that’s why in under a day, over 6,000 people took a leap of faith and registered for a chance to hop on a flight to a destination unknown.
And yes, even after take-off, they still didn’t know where they were going. Fortunately, the pilots did.
‘They had me at “join us to an unknown destination”‘, shared Louise Hörnberg, an enthusiastic traveller on the trip, a brilliantly creative stunt from SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) that turned out to be so much more than ‘just’ a flight.
The experience culminated in a multi-night stay and some memorable activities.
SAS ‘Destination Unknown’
Over 6,000 people signed up for airline SAS’s ‘Destination Unknown’ offer, where members of its ‘EuroBonus’ loyalty program could land a trip for 30,000 points. The catch? The destination was a secret. Above is the April 5 mystery flight under way
For this ‘Destination Unknown’ adventure, SAS offered members of its free-to-join ‘EuroBonus’ loyalty program a chance to land a trip for 30,000 points. The catch? Passengers knew when they were going, but not where.
Not the CEO knew.
Those who snared a place on the flight had the opportunity to add a multi-night hotel stay at a specially negotiated rate – trusting that the airline didn’t book them a shabby hotel – and arrived to find out that the airline had many surprises in store, with their entire holiday taken care of.
The Destination Unknown flight, which took off from Copenhagen on April 5, did not have a set destination even two hours after take-off. At just 30,000 points for a round-trip, it’s probably the points deal of the year.
Truly unknown
The Destination Unknown flight, which took off from Copenhagen, did not have a set destination even two hours after take-off
On the day of travel, passengers and crew other than pilots had no idea where they were going. All pre-flight correspondence involved tricky technical work to ensure the airline’s mobile app and all other customer touch points were specially coded to give away nothing.
All usual data sources that would give away where a plane was going were disabled.
Speaking exclusively to SAS CEO Anko van der Werff, it became clear that surprise, mystery and delight really was the name of the game.
No detail went unturned.
All boarding passes were marked with XXX, instead of the usual letter codes for a destination, and flight plans were redacted from briefings.
‘Be alive, be innovative and push boundaries,’ is the message van der Werff is putting out to SAS and its customers.
Greece is the word
The destination turned out to be Athens. Above – travellers on the Destination Unknown trip enjoying a rooftop drink
Hours into the trip, those lucky enough to be onboard discovered they were headed for Athens. The airline had pre-negotiated special rates at a hotel in advance but did not tell the lucky souls where.
Once in Athens, SAS, as part of the deal, laid on complimentary rooftop cocktail parties, farm-to-fork dining at the traditional Margi Farm outside the capital, a trip to the thermal baths of Lake Vouliagmeni and VIP tours of the Acropolis.
After speaking exclusively to guests from the trip, it’s clear that the venture created unlikely bonds between guests, whose ages ranged from 19 to 81.
The only people on the trip who knew the destination were, luckily, the pilots
Hörnberg said: ‘I am not only a very curious person, but I also really like spontaneous adventures, and being offered the possibility to join a trip organized by people within travel with other frequent travellers could not be better. I was confident that they would wow me and create an experience that would be a memory for life. They had me at “join us to an unknown destination”.’
Would she do it again?
‘Definitely yes,’ she said. ‘The whole trip was such a unique experience, SAS really managed to amaze me throughout the weekend. Its attention to detail, the locations that it picked and ability to create a great community amongst all the travellers was amazing. I did not expect that I would leave this experience with so many new friends and connections.’
Gilbert is a frequent flier and Founder of travel site godsavethepoints.com. He can be found tweeting at @godsavethepoint.
