Bonus Points
There are many reasons to start to collect bonus points. Even if you don’t travel a lot you can get extra offers and sometimes be upgraded to business class without any extra charge. There are several of bonus points programs, like Star alliance & Flying blue etcetera. Some programs are better than the others but which one that suits you most depends a lot on which city that you live in.
Star Alliance:
As for me who live in Gothenburg I collect mostly SAS-points. In general SAS bonus program is pretty bad but it sometimes comes with some nice offers. To get enough bonus points you probably have to make a trip outside Europe because the trips inside Europe don’t give many points. However collect as many points as possible, you never know. As for SAS you get about 5000 points for one trip to USA and need about 12 000 points for a trip anywhere in Scandinavia + Estonia & Latvia. However each month there are 50% discounts for special routes which mean that you might just need 6000 points. But don’t be fooled, you still need to pay the taxes and service charges for the bonus trip. So don’t use the points for a route where Ryanair or another low fare airline also is flying. The good thing is that you can cancel the booking trip the day before departure and get all the points back, if you cancel 2 weeks before it will not cost you anything. Be aware that the bonus programs usually include several of airline companies. The point you have collected at one place is then also valid at the partners. As for Star Alliance you can see all the special offers here, while if you check SAS own webpage, http://www.sas.se, you only find the offers flown by SAS.
When booking it’s sometimes lack of spots for the Eurobonus seats. Therefore book in advance and use the free re-booking opportunity. However if the flights are all sold out, book the flight which is closest to your disire. Then you can call SAS Medlemsservice, 
0770-727 727
(from abroad +46-8-797 4000). Mon-Fri 08.00 – 17.00. Ask them if they can rebook your flight to something more convenient. Suggest the flights number of better connections. If they say no, ask the same question via their email-support. Doing it this way you will not have pay any extra service costs. Spend 15 minutes of doing this before the trip and you will save hours during the trip, don’t just accept that you should sleep at the airport! In case you have to sleep at Arlanda, there are rooms available at http://www.restandfly.se/
Gain points:
Buying some points are almost never worth it, but it’s possible to gain points in a lot of other ways. Usually the bonus programs also include other type companies like car rentals, hotels or credit cards. Starting with car rentals I would suggest that you really consider to use a rental car instead of an own car in case you live in the city and have close to the work/school. It’s more environmental friendly, no need for expensive car parking slots, no road tolls fee, or need to spend time to find cheap car insurance/reparations/winter tires. A weekend cost just like 400 sek. Also if you rented a car 3 times during a year you will become a gold member that means that you will get some extra discounts and good conditions in case you would scratch the car!
It’s also possible to gain points by staying at hotels or by getting a credit card connected to the bonus program. Usually they really want you to get this kind of credit cards so wait to get one until some offer giving you 5000 points in case you join. Those kinds of deals are coming about each second year and are totally free the first year as well, so you can always cancel them after a half a year if the contract doesn’t say something else. Usually those credit cards also have really good travel insurances. Connecting a credit card will also give you points for everything you buy. When shopping food it’s possible to at the same time withdraw some extra money which will then also give you bonus points. Willy’s & Coop allow you to withdraw 500 sek while Hemköp and ICA only allow 300 sek each time. 
Special holidays:
Try to get enough bonus points for specially holidays. With enough points I mean even numbers, like 20 000. The bonus points are registered in the end of the month after you shopped so one idea is to get enough points for Valentine’s Day is the let the girl friend borrow the credit card during the madness end-of-the-year sales. However that can at the same time be very dangerous. April 2006 I went to Iceland, with Iceland air or Iceland express. One of them then had a 2 for 1 offer if you booked at the ticket at Valentine’s Day. During 2008 Star Alliance had an offer to go back between Copenhagen and Seattle for 20 000 points, the taxes were just 350 sek. However the offer was released on the date and booking had to be done the same date as well as during some given time period (April month in the Seattle case). So either you have to be very flexible or have checked up the available dates in advance. If you are student & single this is a bit easier.
Friends:
The best way to find cheap offers is to have friends that also like to backpack or be part of international associations like BEST. They have their own mailing list and a very good knowledge about the different type of offers. It’s also possible to buy a bonus trip for a friend. If you need to buy a last minute ticket this can be very expensive and therefore a bonus flight can be very advantageously. So if you hang out with other frequently travelers you can also help each other. Karma, do good things and good things will happen. Like my trip to Seattle, I didn’t have enough bonus points myself so my dad (who also really like to travel and be part of internationally involvement) gave me some bonus points as a birthday present.
