GUWonder

So which two or three Swedish bank cards are people on this forum getting/using to provide the best value for use for purchases inside Sweden and for a lot of purchases or ATM use outside of Sweden?

Fredrik74

Since it's an oligopoly I'm not convinced it matters which of the major banks I use.

For most purchases I would use my co-branded cards from SAS/SEB Kort. For someone who isn't Gold or Diamond this may not be perfect value due to the high(er) annual fee. I rarely use ATMs, especially abroad, so shouldn't answer that but when did lack of experience/knowledge ever stop anyone.

Until last year ICA Banken was the best for cash withdrawals but they changed the t&c of their cards so that's no longer true( I think). ICA Banken has the additional advantage of being tied to a major supermarket chain. The same is true of the Med Mera-card.

GUWonder

ICA bank card being scrapped (by the customers) is the reason I was prompted to ask this question. The ICA bank card "manufacturing spend" was ridiculously easy due to cash withdrawals counting when done in conjunction with grocery store purchases at non-ICA stores. But indeed even that has been shut off by ICA.

I was told that as a replacement they should consider the Preem (gas rebate?) card for Swedish retail transactions (i.e. not ATM transactions) and the Coop card for non-Swedish, non-ATM transactions.

CPH-Flyer

JAL does for sure. I would say AA does as well, but then again suddenly I am not sure.

GUWonder

I use the FlightBoard app. In the app, I select the destination airport and then hit the tab for arrivals at the entered airport. Sorting by airline or flight origin is possible to find out the arrival flight status info without having to deal with date selections.

GUWonder

Insanely long security lines at CPH today. The line to get to the main screening checkpoint goes all the way back to the SAS check-in area.

The supposed excuse for this line being so much worse today than at comparable times in prior years: unusually high passenger numbers today. But that doesn't explain it all. The delays are largely due to changes at the screening checkpoint, including those related to the use of the strip search machines.

helosc

I thought the holiday rush would be over by now. I'd better be prepared for my early Monday morning flight.
I was in the airport (CPH) on Friday 15. of this month at about 6.30 am and I have never seen anything like it.
Tons of people milling about in the main area.
The queue for SAS bagage drop (not elite) was way down to terminal 2.
And the queue for the normal security-check went all the way back to the escalators where they had put up separators so the queue could go forwards snakewise/zigzag.
I was very, very happy with my Gold card - I would never have made my flight otherwise.

A small question : If I fly CPH-ARN-SVO (Moscow), am I allowed to buy my duty-free in CPH or do I have to wait until ARN?
I am staying airside in ARN.

GUWonder

The insanely long security lines at CPH were there even beyond 2pm today. Even as I got expedited security screening, it took me a good 25 minutes to get by. Others took as long as double that at the same time.

I was this close to buying an SAS ticket just to use SASplus security line instead.

FlyingMoose

That would have put you on a 100% packed airplane because of SAS's absurd 18th century industrial holiday practices where routes are operating at a fraction of their original capacity. Only because SAS isn't managing their staff vacation schedule like a professional company.

I'm never buying SAS intra-EU again during July, that's a fact.

klmml

+1 - but for a different reason.

I flew from Finland to western Norway on a weekday in July. Only routes were through both ARN and OSL, with tight connections. Missed the connection at ARN, couldn't be rebooked until I got to OSL. Last flight of the day out of OSL was overbooked by 6 with 3 more on waitlist (on a 736!). Don't they realise that holidaymakers tend to show up for their flights? Thus it was a night in the OSL Radisson Blu for me... and a crack-of-dawn start because the only flight with availability that day was first thing. The other flights that day were all overbooked (but SAS still had open Y fare buckets...).

Not to mention the customer service at OSL was terrible (the lounge angel at ARN was lovely though, and tried to move heaven and earth to get me to my destination).

I'm really glad I won't be flying with SK on these silly intra-Nordic routes for much longer. Timekeeping and schedules this spring-summer have been a joke.

CPH-Flyer

If the current schedule runs at 100% load factor, there is reason to suspect that the normal schedule would run below profitable levels. (let's for the sake of the argument for a while ignore that the whole airline is often running below that point) Apart from the staff vacation point, there is also need for capacity adjustments.

Which if they took a page out of the books of the likes of AA and Delta, would mean 100% packed planes would become the norm on most routes. That's how they should make money....

FlyingMoose

They are cutting business routes in favour of leisure routes. Brining business routes which apparently do not have less traffic to totally filled planes while operating a schedule that does not work for business travellers. Operating only single flights to certain destinations where there are normally multiple is what is causing this nonsense combined with the outdated vacation practices. It feels like SAS is acting to much on assumptions instead of facts when it comes to their summer schedule.

That's fine but then they need to improve their Plus product or reintroduce intra-Nordic/EU Business, specifically middle-seat blocking isn't working at the moment with vacation loads and that is what's killing my appetite to fly SK.

Its one thing that the food is inedible, then the seat is terrible and the same as in coach with no additional leg room. So with a fully packed cabin and 6 people on each row in Plus you end up with the equivalent of a coach ticket for 5x the money. Its a poor product to begin with and only useful because it is often the fastest route, making it impossible to relax and work on-board is the quickest way to make folks look for alternatives.

I'd love to see them take another page out of the AA and Delta books and install a proper intra-EU Business cabin.

Fredrik74

What's this? I don't understand what you're referring to?

CPH-Flyer

If summer traffic has not died down on the business routes this year, then that would be somewhat of a novelty, and I would forgive SK for being caught out by a significant shift in trend. The "outdated vacation practice" applies to a lot of companies apart from SK, the passengers by and large have them as well.

GUWonder

Airport security at CPH today was a breeze compared to yesterday.

I'm really curious how many people missed their flight at CPH yesterday because of the airport security line being so very long.