United award tickets for SAS nonstop flights from 6,000 miles

United Mileage Plus award tickets have some sweet spots with SAS Scandinavian Airlines for nonstop flights within and between Nordic countries starting at 6,000 miles. Flights between the capital cities Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm are generally available most days for 6,000 miles with low taxes from $18 to $24 depending on country of airport departure. 

SAS flights between the capital cities are frequent and inexpensive paid tickets, currently around $60 to $100 one way, so these awards are generally not as good a value for United miles as other award possibilities using United miles for SAS flights. 

Oslo, Norway – Stockholm, Sweden  6,000 miles + $17.80 one-way.

Stockholm, Sweden – Copenhagen, Denmark 6,000 United miles + $21.80 one-way.

Copenhagen, Denmark to Stockholm, Sweden 6K + $23.80 one-way.

United award flights with SAS to Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki, Finland is the airline hub for Finnair. United award travel from Stockholm to Helsinki is only 6,000 miles for some nonstop SAS flights. But the price rises to 15,000 miles if you depart from Copenhagen or Oslo for Helsinki with a one-stop through Stockholm.

An alternative ticketing strategy is fly from CPH or OSL to Stockholm ARN for 6,000 miles, then fly from ARN to Helsinki for 6,000 miles.

Copenhagen, Denmark to Helsinki, Finland 15,000 miles + $31.80 one-way and requires overnight in Stockholm.

The issue is the SAS flight generally available for award travel to Helsinki this summer departs Stockholm at 7:55am, so it is not possible to fly from Copenhagen or Oslo and connect to the Helsinki award flight on the same day. Rather than arriving in Stockholm after midnight on July 26, you can fly two separate award tickets CPH-ARN and ARN-HEL to have a full day and night in Stockholm before the morning ARN-HEL award flight.

Copenhagen – Stockholm July 26 for 6,000 miles + $23.80 one-way.

Stockholm, Sweden – Helsinki, Finland July 27 for 6,000 miles + $21.80 one-way.

In this case, two Mileage Plus awards cost 12,000 miles total for Copenhagen to Stockholm on July 26 and Stockholm to Helsinki on July 27 and an extra $13.20 in taxes, but saves 3,000 miles. This itinerary allows a full day in Stockholm. Since an overnight in Stockholm is necessary anyway on the single award for Copenhagen to Helsinki, two awards for fewer miles looks like the better deal.

Copenhagen to Faroe Islands 8,800 miles + $23.80 one-way.

Faroe Islands is a remote destination in the North Atlantic that can be quite expensive to travel to from most places. Faroe Islands is also an autonomous territory of Denmark.

For comparison, the flight cost from London to Faroe Islands is around $250 to $300 to fly KLM or SAS. 

There are nonstop SAS flights within Norway that can be expensive like Oslo to Longyearbyen or Kirkenes, two destinations north of the Arctic Circle.

Oslo, Norway to Kirkenes, Norway 8,800 miles + $19.80 one way.

At $158 to purchase this flight, an award ticket is getting $15.68 redemption value per 1,000 miles. That is a reasonable redemption value for economy class with a convenient nonstop flight.

There are other good value awards with United miles for SAS tickets like Oslo to Rome and Copenhagen to Geneva.

Oslo, Norway to Rome, Italy 12.5K + $17.80 one-way.

Oslo to Rome ticket retails for $240.

A United award ticket for 12,500 miles saves $220 for $17.60 per 1,000 miles redemption value.

Copenhagen to Geneva, Switzerland 8,800 miles + $23.80 one way.

Google Flights shows Swiss Air at $199 for a one-stop via Zurich and this SAS nonstop flight for $203. A United award ticket saves $180 giving a redemption value at $20.45 per 1,000 miles.

There is good value to be found with United award tickets for SAS flights. Last week I looked at trip routings around Norway to take Kelley and me to three or four cities for 55,000 United miles. There are all kinds of possibilities with 6,000 mile nonstop flights between places like Bergen, Bodo, Trondheim and Tromso. 

My travel plans for our autumn 2023 trip keep changing, however, redeeming 55,000 miles United miles for travel within Europe is integral to each of the trip itineraries I have researched. At this time my favored trip itinerary is using United miles for travel between Oslo and Zagreb, Croatia with visits to Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and perhaps Montenegro.