EuroBonus award flights for Christmas and New Year

Christmas and New Year are the hardest time to find award seats: many people want the same days, and each flight has a limited number of award seats. It can still be done - with slightly flexible dates, several destinations in one search and an alert for seats that turn up later.

Christmas 2026 on the calendar

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are Thursdays; Epiphany (6 January 2027) is a Wednesday.
Most Nordic schools break up the week before Christmas and go back just after New Year or Epiphany - check your local dates.
The weekend before Christmas out and the weekend after New Year back are the days most people want.

How to find the seats

Search the whole holiday at once: first departure 15 December, a 2-week search window and trips of 7-21 nights covers departures up to 28 December and returns well into January.
Be flexible by a day or two. Flying on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day itself, or home on New Year's Day, is often easier than the weekends around them.
Search a whole region: "Southeast Asia" or "Caribbean" in Dotflight covers every airport in one scan, so you see where there are seats instead of guessing.
Search from all the Nordics: "Nordics" as the origin adds Copenhagen and Oslo, which sometimes have seats when Stockholm is full.
Mix cabins: if only premium or business is left one way, pick a different cabin out and back.
Book a round trip: at SAS a one-way costs 60% of the round-trip price.
An Amex 2-for-1 covers one booking of up to two travellers.

If it's full

Save the search as an alert. Dotflight checks again every 3, 6, 12 or 24 hours and tells you when a new date pair or a lower price appears - seats can come back when others cancel.
Found something? Book it straight away. SAS lets you cancel free within 24 hours, so there is time to decide.
Try the days between Christmas and New Year instead - the week after Christmas often has more seats.
More than two of you and no room for everyone? Search two at a time: there may be two seats on several flights.

Destinations that suit December

Thailand and Southeast Asia - warm, and the dry season.
The Caribbean - the dry season starts in December.
The Canary Islands - a shorter trip, and Christmas in the sun.
New York - Christmas shopping and New Year in the city.

How to search with Dotflight

Log in to EuroBonus on flysas.com or sas.se.
Press the Dotflight button at the bottom right.
From: Sweden (or Nordics). To: for example Southeast Asia.
First departure date 15 December, a 2-week search window, trips of 7-21 nights, then Start scan.
Nothing that fits? Press Create alert.

Add to Chrome - it's free

Works in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer.

More guides