SAS EuroBonus - SAS stops flying to HEL

As from the beginning of March SAS stops flying to HEL (http://yle.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/2012/02/sas_siirtaa_suomen-lentonsa_blue1n_hoidettavaksi_3240154.html). Blue1 will take care of the traffic between Finland and Scandinavia. Could that mean the end of SAS lounge in HEL?

As from the beginning of March SAS stops flying to HEL (http://yle.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/2012/02/sas_siirtaa_suomen-lentonsa_blue1n_hoidettavaksi_3240154.html). Blue1 will take care of the traffic between Finland and Scandinavia. Could that mean the end of SAS lounge in HEL?

I would guess that there the lounge stays, but might change owner/operator. There better be a *-lounge in Helsinki as I have just become *G :D

Why would they close the lounge? Call it a blue1 or StarAlliance lounge, but it´s not going away.

but it´s not going away.

One begins to wonder whether it's SAS that's ultimately going away

One begins to wonder whether it's SAS that's ultimately going away

Better use your points asap then.

It seems SK will continue operating CPH-TKU for a while even after February, but that will eventually change to a Cimber wetlease (still an SK flight, not KF).

Anyway this is kind of historical, has SK ever not operated to HEL before?

From passengers point of view I guess the biggest change is that there is no longer J class out of HEL.

I think it makes sense that SK stops flying CPH-HEL. Why should there be 2 airlines that belong to the smae company flying the same route?

I think it makes sense that SK stops flying CPH-HEL. Why should there be 2 airlines that belong to the smae company flying the same route?

I never fly with Blue1 or to Finland but out of interest, does this mean there will be only Finnish crews and no service in Scandinavian languages?

Is this a way reduce the need of expensive cabin personnel from Scandinavian countries?

The Finnish crew should be able to speak Swedish. I don´t think Blue1 is paying a lot less than SAS for their crew. Yes, it´s true that it´s a young airline with less historical baggage than SAS, less powerful unions etc, but it´s not like Finnish wages are that low.

As from the beginning of March SAS stops flying to HEL (http://yle.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/2012/02/sas_siirtaa_suomen-lentonsa_blue1n_hoidettavaksi_3240154.html). Blue1 will take care of the traffic between Finland and Scandinavia. Could that mean the end of SAS lounge in HEL?


Well, not completely. SK 1714 / 1715 will continue although (like CPH-TKU) switch to a CRJ 200 operated by Cimber.

Is this a way reduce the need of expensive cabin personnel from Scandinavian countries?

As said. There is virtually no difference with cabin personnel wages between Finland and Scandinavia. But there is lot of difference with Blue1 and SAS overhead costs as Blue1 is new generation airline.

IMO Blue1 do still offer better customer experience on board than it's mother SAS. There is still something left from it's early days spirit of a young challenger... allthough slowly they seem to be adopting the some bad habits of the mother.

And... yes. You can get still your sandwich ordered (and paid!) in Swedish :) It is just one hour flight so interaction with the FAs is minimal.

As said. There is virtually no difference with cabin personnel wages between Finland and Scandinavia. But there is lot of difference with Blue1 and SAS overhead costs as Blue1 is new generation airline.

IMO Blue1 do still offer better customer experience on board than it's mother SAS. There is still something left from it's early days spirit of a young challenger... allthough slowly they seem to be adopting the some bad habits of the mother.

And... yes. You can get still your sandwich ordered (and paid!) in Swedish :) It is just one hour flight so interaction with the FAs is minimal.

But no C class... and how is their Danish and Norwegian?

But no C class... and how is their Danish and Norwegian?
No C (on board, you can buy a business ticket, but all you get for that is the lounge, luggage quota and points) but there will be Blue1 Premium, which is pretty much equivalent to SAS Y (Economy Extra). On the other hand that is the way it already is on the intra Scandinavian routes (and KF has already been operating OSL alone for a while AFAIK, so same thing there). The good news is the Optiontown upgrades that are available on Blue1, if you are in M.

No Norwegian or Danish though, apart from what can be understood through Swedish (well, I guess there might be a KF attendant somewhere that speaks other Scandinavian languages, but a rarity for sure).

But no C class... and how is their Danish and Norwegian?

So how "One coffee please" or "It's 3 euros, thank you" are different in Danish and Norwegian from Swedish? :)

Haha, even "gratis" (free of charge) would be understood all around..

Actually, the biggest language problems between Danes, Swedes and Norwegians would be swedes having trouble understanding danish. You need to be tuned to danish intonation and diphtong, that can take a while.

I guess most CA speaks "scandinavian" or "svorsk" where you just remove/replace the words that are most odd for each language.

As I observe with my wife: once you have mastered the 17 cases of Finnish, anything else is a cakewalk. In one of my KF trips we ended up on a JG charter aircraft operated with Danish crew. Now that was fun to watch: German and Finnish customers dealing with English speaking Danes. ;)

So if my onboard shopping costs halv fems it's only 2,50?

Actually, the biggest language problems between Danes, Swedes and Norwegians would be swedes having trouble understanding danish. You need to be tuned to danish intonation and diphtong, that can take a while.

I would be more concerned about the mutual comprehensibility of Danish and Fenno-Swedish.

So if my onboard shopping costs halv fems it's only 2,50?

Well, most danes are aware that sweden use 10-base for counting, so they would try to say "90" in that case (or actually 9-10 "ni-tio"). But we should be happy that the onboard shopping will rarely end up in the decimals, "nie-førre-fem-og-halv-fems" takes a while to translate:D

"nie-førre-fem-og-halv-fems"
OMG! :D

Well at least that's slightly easier to grasp than "nie-halv-treds-fem-og-halv-fems"

Well at least that's slightly easier to grasp than "nie-halv-treds-fem-og-halv-fems"

What? Is the "nine plus two-and-a-half-times-twenty [unmentioned decimal point] five plus four-and-a-half-times-twenty" (which equals 59,95) not graspable :D:D

I think the danes designed the counting system just so the swedes would go "what?!?! You better take what ever amount of money you like off of my hands, because I have no idea what the price was!";)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk

What is the Blue1 Premium service on CPH-HEL around dinner time? Hot meal? or just sandwich. Free wine/beer?

What is the Blue1 Premium service on CPH-HEL around dinner time? Hot meal? or just sandwich. Free wine/beer?
Probably a sandwich or cold wrap or something like that. Free drinks, also spirits.

The previous post asking if you can use the SAS lounge when flying from HEL as *G on a Blue1 operated SAS flight to CPH was mysteriously removed??? The answer:
Of course you can.

Or they could just speak English as virtually all Swedish, Danish, Norwegian ánd Finnish people do. If your day gets ruined because you can't order your morning coffee from the stewardess in your own language you should probably not be flying altogether.

During the handful of departures with Blue1 on ARN-HEL they made announcements in English, Swedish and Finnish at least. By far the best thing is that they used a professional recording rather then a FA doing it, specifically since SAS FAs are notoriously bad at making in-flight announcements on the intercom.