ORD Finn

It is time for my first contribution to the trip reports forum... It became a bit lengthy... sorry. Here's the first part:

SAS Santa Trip to Madrid

Friday Jan 10, 2003

I guess I haven’t been a too bad boy since the SAS Santa delivered me a (paper) ticket ORD-CPH-MAD-CPH-ORD just before X-mas. So there I was at O'Hare airport terminal 5 on Jan 10th about 6pm holding the precious piece of paper. And there was a looooong line of apparently Indian people in front of me... I squeezed through them to the SAS check-in counter, where absolutely no-one was present. Due to certain logistical reasons I was delivered to the airport whole four hours before my flight, which is scheduled to depart at 10:15pm. I did recall that SK check-in opens about 3 hours before departure, but I just wanted to try my luck getting my boarding pass, which would be my ticket to SAS Business lounge past security. No such luck, so I proceeded to the food court, got a cup of coffee, and sat down to do some work. The food court area was bustling with people speaking in languages foreign to me -- just like background music allowing me to concentrate on reading a report.

A little past seven I walked back to the SAS counter, where 2 agents where now working and maybe a dozen people waiting in the economy class line. No one was waiting in the business class line, so I had to wait only for two minutes or so for an agent to waive me to step forward. The young lady checking me in was very friendly and soon printed my boarding passes and tagged my bag (she did not, however, attach a priority tag and I forgot to ask for it).

I then proceeded to the security check. It was a breeze, and I was on my way to the SK lounge, where I was welcomed in by a friendly attendant. When I was already on my way to the bar, she called me back and asked if it was a UA or LH card I had shown her. UA it was, which she carefully noted in her records. Now I was free to proceed to the fridge, where I found one of my favorite beers: Sam Adams Boston Lager. Yippeee!! So I sat down enjoying this great beer and some crisp bread with cheese. The lounge is rather smallish consisting of two rooms (a bar and a seating area). It did become full as the time for departure approached. The furniture is what Americans seem to call Ikea-style stuff (although I think it looks better than the cheap looking Ikea things). I noted that most of the flatware is actually Finnish, from Arabia's Teema series. Very famous designer stuff back in Finland indeed and stuff that my parents have their kitchen full of, so felt like at home. Well, at least after a couple of those lagers

I was sitting by one of the round tables and was soon joined by a Danish business man on the way home. He was dealing with the lounge attendant trying to get an upgrade to C with points. So I got an idea that maybe I should try to upgrade too, since I had some old Eurobonus points expiring soon. I inquired about it from the attendant, who informed me that an upgrade is possible with SK points, but not with UA miles (she did remember now what card I had shown her). I proceeded to dig out my SK card from somewhere while she checked if they had loaded enough C meals. They had. She told me it would 20,000 points for C seat, but then informed me that they have nice Economy Extra seats available too if I don’t care so much about the meal. It would be 10,000 points for Y+. I had eaten a big meal right before departing for the airport and still feeling full, so I decided to go with Y+. She took my boarding pass and told me that she’d have to make a call to Copenhagen and have the gate staff to print me a new BP. It would take some time and she told me go back to enjoy some more beer. She would bring the BP when it is ready. And sure enough, later she brought it with seat 14D printed on it. About 9:45pm she walked around the lounge telling that the CPH flight is ready for boarding. I followed the crowd to gate M15 (right next to the lounge) and onto the plane. Overall the boarding went very fluently and soon we were set to go.

Scandinavian SK944 Chicago (ORD) to Copenhagen (CPH)
Scheduled 10:15pm - 1:30pm (next day)
A340-300, seat 14D Economy Extra

The load on this flight seemed fairly good in C and Y. But there were only a couple of us in Y+. 14D is an aisle seat in the middle section of the first row of Y+, right behind the mini C cabin. It turned out that I had the whole middle section for myself and that no one was sitting behind me either. So I had lots of room to spread my stuff around. Armrests of the seat were not movable so I had to do with the space a single seat provided. This I found to be fairly good in legroom and width. I could comfortably straighten my legs by raising them against the bulkhead (I am not tall though, about 5'11"). The recline, however, is not much better than in Y, and the legrest is a joke -– I could not figure out any good use of it.

Maybe a couple of minutes after the scheduled time we were pushed back from the gate and taxied to the runway. During the taxi the big LCD screen mounted on the bulkhead right in front of me started showing live feed from a camera in the nose of the plane. As it was dark all you could see was a series of runway lights, but still it was quite a cool and entertaining feature of this new SK plane. During the flight you could watch camera views (forwards and down) through the touch screen controlled IFE system. When we were in the air menu cards and simple amenity kits were distributed. And very soon after we leveled at our cruising altitude the meal service started (from me ). There was no drink service before the meal; the first drinks were served with the meal:

Appetizer: Feta-tomato salad
Main course: Chicken with roasted potatoes in mushroom sauce (no choice)
Dessert: something totally unmemorable

As for drink I opted for beer, which was Carlsberg as always, although the can was some special one, not the usual green Carlsberg can. Oh boy, did it taste like cat's pee or what after the delicious Sam Adams! Shame on you Danes. I thought you were serious brewing folks . And shame on the LSG Skychefs catering at ORD. The chicken was simply disgusting. Fortunately I was not hungry and thus skipped the main course altogether. The warm bread rolls were good though. Another round of drinks and coffee were soon served. Overall the service was very fast, but friendly, and an hour or so into the flight we were done with the meal and ready for some ZZZs, which was a splendid thing on this late night flight.

During the meal I watched XXX, which turned out to be a lousy and unentertaining movie. After that I tried to sleep for rest of the time, more and less successfully. Anyway I was in deep sleep and very disoriented when a FA woke me up with breakfast service. After a couple of minutes I figured out that I was on a plane and it time to eat again. Breakfast was the very standard SK one: a plate with ham, cheese and lettuce, warm bread rolls, OJ and coffee. After the breakfast we still had about an hour to CPH. It was fun to watch the landing into snowy Kastrup through the nose camera. Just a little before the scheduled time we parked at the gate (C30+something). Overall this A340 Y+ experience was a pleasant one, except for the food.

Saturday Jan 11, 2003

Copenhagen Kastrup international airport (CPH)

My seat was very close to the boarding door and I was among the very first off the plane. Passport check (entering the Schengen area) was a breeze: no line and they just swiped my passport through a reader. Kastrup seemed to be very quiet this Saturday afternoon. I proceeded to the SAS Scandinavian lounge (the upstairs one for *G members only), gave my boarding pass and UA card to the attendant. She looked at them carefully and said:
- You cannot use the lounge, sir, since you are on a Spanair flight.
- What? But, but...
- Spanair is not in the *A. You can only use the lounge when departing on a *A flight.
- But I am traveling on a SK ticket and JK is part of the SK group.
- Doesn't matter, sir.
- But I just came from ORD on SK.
- It doesn't matter where you arrived from. You can only use the lounge when departing on a *A flight.
- Okay, okay... fine then... (btw, the lounge looked almost empty)

Great. I had a 4 hour layover. What should I do now then? When walking out I did notice that the sign by the door does list Spanair as an eligible airline. Well, I didn’t feel like going back to any pointless arguing, so I decided to go to try my luck downstairs in the SAS Business lounge. There I was warmly welcomed in by an older lady working at the front desk. I helped myself to some snacks, checked my email, and took a seat near the fireplace. Pretty soon I fell asleep and snoozed away about two hours. The lounge was pretty empty, so hopefully my possible snoring did not bother anyone (don't remember myself ). Then it was almost time to go to gate A21, where JK102 to Madrid was supposed to leave from at 5:20pm. I stepped out of the lounge at 4:55pm and ran into a big Japanese tourist group. They seemed to be going to the right direction, so I joined the pack. And sure enough, they were heading to Madrid too. Their guide, a youngish Japanese woman, was standing by the gate. As I walked by her among her group I looked at her and smiled. She said 'hi' to me. I answered 'konnichiwa!', which really made her laugh. Is my Japanese that funny?

Jan 11, 2003
Spanair JK102 Copenhagen (CPH) to Madrid (MAD)
Scheduled 5:20pm - 8:40pm
A320, seat 21D Economy

Boarding was effortless, no hassle whatsoever. I had an aisle seat and it turned out that E and F next to me were empty. I started to feel unpopular but certainly enjoyed the space (it must have been the garlic I ate ). Due to the tourist group maybe close to half of the people on the plane were Japanese. There was no Japanese speaking crew though, but announcements were made in three languages: Spanish, English and Danish. I also counted that there were 6 FAs on this A320! Service was very fast and friendly indeed then. Also worth noting was how young (in their 20s I'd say) and good-looking the crew were. The plane looked like brand new too.

The meal was chicken with potatoes again. Surprise. No alternative was offered. I still didn't have much of an appetite and concentrated on bread rolls and Campari with OJ. Drink carts came around a couple of times. Other entertainment consisted of music channels and flightshow on the screens. They also played music through loudspeakers during boarding and taxi. The flight was really pretty uneventful. We left on time and arrived at the gate at Barajas about 20 min before schedule.

[This message has been edited by ORD Finn (edited 01-22-2003).]

ORD Finn

Madrid, Jan 11-16, 2003

Barajas terminal 1 was totally deserted when we arrived. Walk to the baggage claim wasn't too long. My bag was among the first ones on the belt (it was not priority tagged) and soon I was walking towards terminal 3 and the subway station. It was quite a long hike, but worth it since the subway (or Metro) is a really good way to get anywhere in the city. The new line from Barajas to Nuevos Ministerios was now operating. Nuevos Ministerios station has also airline check-in available. The trains are new and clean, and have good facilities and information systems. The design is open through the whole module and doors are wide. Station platforms have screens counting down the time to the next train (which I always found to be no more than 2 minutes) and big flat screen TVs showing commercials, weather info etc. Best part of the metro is the price: 1.10 euro per ride (no extra rip-off on the airport line, like in some cities). You get a substantial discount by buying a 10 ride ticket (price escapes my mind, but it was in the 7-8 euro ballpark). Also some special Madrid cards for tourists including unlimited rides and museum entrances are available for various periods of time.

I had booked a room for 50 euros per night at Tryp Hotel Rex on Gran Via through www.solmelia.com -- a good place to look for special offers in Spain. It is a three star place, and overall I found it to an adequate place to get rest with a great central location. If you want luxury or want to work in your room, you'd better look elsewhere. Anyway, the entrance to this hotel is very unassuming: only a glass door to a flight of stairs. The lobby is actually below the street level. I made it to the hotel around 9:20pm. A friendly young man checked me in. I was given a double room on the ninth (top) floor. The room was smallish as rooms in Europe tend to be. My window was facing a very small space between two buildings. No view then. There were no windows in the wall of the other building so privacy and quietness were guaranteed. Light coming in was good though the room being on the top floor. I think the rooms facing Gran Via, one of the busiest streets in town, might be quite noisy. That seems to be how the Spanish like it though . Bathroom was quite interestingly set out. To get to the bathtub/shower you had to pretty much jump over the toilet. There is a restaurant with views to Gran Via. I only had breakfast there once. The buffet was fairly good (11 euros). Many of the room rates include it, but not this special I had. Other mornings I decided to try the various cafes close by for breakfast: you can get e.g. a big and tasty Spanish omelet and coffee usually for 2 euros or so.

There was also an interesting note on my desk which read something like: "I am Maria, your chambermaid. I am in your total disposal during your stay for whatever you might need." IF I had a dirtier imagination... Well, I was also approached by a professional lady on the street one morning around 10am offering her services. 10am!! Gosh, those ladies work a long day. Anyway, I did not feel the need for those kinds of services and declined. Besides prostitutes, the favorite sin in Spain seems to be smoking. Locals do it everywhere: in a department store, in an airport terminal... you name it.

My favorite sin in Madrid was to see some really great art. The three big museums, Prado, Reina-Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza, are all fabulous and there are lots of less known galleries too. The big three are located close to each other, but I would not recommend visiting more than one of them a day. There is a lot to see. I visited Prado on Sunday morning and was delightfully surprised when they told me that the ticket is free on Sundays. Also since I went there shortly after opening, there were no crowds. Just me and some Japanese women. Maybe they were lost on their way to a Prada store? (Sorry, I had to ) Prado focuses on older Spanish and Flemish painting (Goya, Velasquez, Rubens etc.), whereas Reina-Sofia has a great collection of modern art (19th century and later), the highlight being Picasso's Guernica. Thyssen-Bornemisza has... well, everything from 14th century religious art to Dalis.

My second pleasure was just to walk around the city in its different and distinctive neighborhoods. I shot several rolls of slides and even one roll of B&W. I just wonder when I have time to go to the darkroom... Eating is great fun and Madrid offers a lot. All the different regional cuisines are well represented. Everywhere I went to the food was good and reasonably priced (or actually cheap compared to the US). I did not bother to look up any restaurants based on reviews, but just walked around and popped in if the place looked good. I don't even remember half of the names of the places I ate in. I think I won't bother with any reviews, since you don't need them anyway. Bars are great fun too: beer, tapas and Spanish chicas -- do you need to know more? (I am not going to tell you anyway ).

ORD Finn

Jan 16, 2003
Spanair JK101 Madrid (MAD) to Copenhagen (CPH)
Scheduled 11:05am – 2:15pm
A320, seat 19C Economy

It was time for me to leave the beautiful Madrid. I left my hotel a little past 8am. And after two very crowded subway rides and some hiking I was by the Spanair check-in counter in terminal 1. It wasn't even 9am yet. And there was no line so a minute later I had my boarding passes. There didn't seem to be anything interesting in the landside, so I proceeded to security, which was quite a joke actually. The guys manning the checkpoint seemed to be more interested in chatting with each other than checking me out. I pretty much just walked through not even having my BP checked. I also noticed that I had a huge load of coins in my pockets, but the metal detector stayed silent (was it even on, I wonder?). I proceeded to an attractive looking Café de Colombia coffee house to have some breakfast. A baguette, real squeezed OJ, and some great tasting coffee put me down for about 7 euros. Then I went on to shop for some Gran Reserva wines (good deals for 10 euros a bottle). I totally forgot to find out if Spanair was offering a lounge for *Gs.

Time went by quite fast at Barajas. Shortly before 11:00am our plane was ready for boarding, which again was performed very efficiently and maybe in about 10 minutes we were set to go. The load was maybe 50% on this flight and again the seats next to me were empty. We sat at the gate waiting for something, don't know what, for a while. Push-back was about 11:20am, and after a relatively short taxi we took off. The day was absolutely beautiful and clear. While climbing we got to enjoy great views of some snowy mountain peaks. Drink service followed shortly after leveling off. And about one hour after take off a meal of potatoes in meat sauce was offered. The meal was pretty good. More drinks were offered with the meal. After serving me beer (Cruzcampo) the very friendly (and handsome I could add for the female audience) male FA suggested that I take something for the coffee too. I decided to go with Bailey's with ice.

Over France somewhere around Bordeaux we encountered quite heavy turbulence and pressure changes. It was like a little rollercoaster ride for a while raising some roars and smiles out of the passengers. Then just over Denmark the captain announced that CPH is experiencing heavy traffic and very windy conditions. We would be in a waiting pattern for a while, expecting to land at 2:45pm or half an hour late. So we did a circle over Jylland -- got nice views at least since the sky was clear and we had already dropped below 15,000ft. Then we flew over Roskilde passing Copenhagen from the south side, took a little tour over the southern tip of Sweden, and headed over the water into Kastrup. Approach was a bit shaky due to the winds, but we did land safely and soon parked at gate A20. It was already past 3:00pm once I was off the plane, and it was quite a hike to gate C40, where an A340 bound for Chicago was waiting for me, scheduled to leave at 3:40pm. Monitors already showed its status as 'boarding'. No lounge adventure this time then.

(Report from the last leg CPH-ORD in SK C class coming soon, once I get the menu scanned and so.)

[This message has been edited by ORD Finn (edited 01-23-2003).]

Tim2008

Great report,thanks! The parts about JK were very interesting as I will fly them in a couple of weeks...

Tim

Sherman

Funny trip report. And encouraging to hear about your good experience with Spainair whom I believed SAS bought the majority share in.

kempis

Great report! Looking forward for the last part.

SAS ows about 75% of Spanair.

ORD Finn

Thanks for your kind words. It was a fun trip indeed. I found Spanair to be very good, totally at par with SK's service. Actually, I think most of their service routines have been directly copied from SK's manuals. I'd take a Spanair flight over e.g. Iberia anytime.

ORD Finn

I hiked through (this time rather busy) terminals towards the end of the C concourse where SK flights to Seattle and Chicago were boarding. There was also a third A340 nearby, bound for Tokyo. I proceeded to the service desk to ask if they could find a better seat for me as a *G member (had 38F preassigned, I think), hoping for a complimentary upgrade. No such luck. I was told that upgrade is possible only for points. I hadn't tried SK's C class on these new Airbusses yet, so I decided to give it a go and upgrade for 20,000 Eurobonus points. This time another guy (EB gold) came by fishing for a comp upgrade. I guess he was thinking that we would be flying an old 767 with two C cabins since he asked if he could get a seat in the second cabin. He was told that SK's firm policy is now that upgrades will only be given for points.

After I got my new C class boarding pass (with 7B, was told 7A would be empty) I proceeded through the passport check and walked straight onboard.

Jan 16, 2003
Scandinavian SK943 Copenhagen (CPH) to Chicago (ORD)
Scheduled 3:40pm - 5:50pm
A340-300, seat 7B Business

Row 7 is the last row of the first C cabin, and 7B is the closest seat to the snack bar area. So if you are planning to get some ZZZs, do not take this seat since there might be a lot of noise caused by FAs working in the galley behind and passengers mingling by the snack bar. This was not a concern for me, however, since I did not want to sleep on this daytime flight and since the load in C was light. I heard an FA saying there were only 19 pax in C. Everyone who wanted got an empty seat next to them, even though the mini C cabin (rows 8-9) was closed altogether. This time I really liked my seat location: I could make many trips to the snack bar, magazine shelf and bathroom without bothering anyone else. And the empty seats next to me and in front of me were a great thing. Talking about the C class bathroom: it was quite nice with the blue and light wood design, two windows and big mirrors. Temple Spa toiletries and cotton towels were available.

The seat itself is fairly comfortable to sit. For sleeping the recline and pitch are not good enough, nowhere near UA's reconfigured C class, for instance. Also if you are tall, a plastic shoe box prevents you putting your feet under the seat in front of you. I also prefer UA's mechanical seat controls over SK's electric ones (they are so slow and noisy). IFE system is good with a big touch screen monitor. It is the same as in Y, except for the bigger screen. No on-demand videos or such offered. This time I tried playing the Chess game offered a little bit, but got bored in a couple of minutes since the system was functioning slow and the computer opponent way too easy to beat (chess is not my hobby by any means, btw).

Pre-flight drinks were offered when we were waiting for push-back. Once the FA got to my seat she had only OJ and water left on her tray. She offered to get me champagne, and soon I had a glass of the bubbly stuff. The champagne was 1995 Henriot Millesime Brut, and actually pretty good. The captain apologized for a short delay caused by a testing of an engine that had had an oil pump change. Around 3:55pm we started moving towards the runway. No waiting in line whatsoever, and soon we were in the air. The engines were making a very disturbing ringing noise during the take off. I've never heard that before, and I was speculating in my mind if we will have to turn back. But soon the noise went away.

In flight service started with hot towels, amenity kits (eyeshades, socks, earplugs, Temple Spa cosmetics, toothbrush etc.), menus and wine lists (printed below) being distributed. Then pretzels and drinks, followed by olives served in a nice ceramic cup. I had more champagne and shiraz. Menu and wine list have very nice modern design with colorful cover art (seagull eggs and wine bottles from above). Here is the text from them:

Menu
-----------------------------------------

Before dinner
A snack with your drink?

Light and quick
Order a cold Quick Meal with your drink and we will serve you as soon as possible.

The big deal
Our menu for this flight offers these choices

Mixed salad

First course
Duck liver terrine with red onion marmalade

Main course
Pork tenderloin and potatoes with goat's cheese served with apple, zucchini and sherry sauce
Or
Lightly salted cod with parsley potatoes, spinach and bouillabaisse sauce
Or
Danish style minced beef steak with boiled potatoes, onions and brown sauce
Or
Chard with Roqueford cheese and mushroom sauce (vegetarian)

A cheesy or sweet finish
Your selection of dessert from the trolley (at least some chocolate cake, fruit cocktail, cheese and crackers were available)

Make yourself at home
Feel free to stroll over and help yourself to cold drinks, fruit or snacks at the buffet area any time between the meals. (Airbus 340 also offers espresso and cappuccino.)

Before landing

Main course
Open sandwiches of shrimps and liver pate

Coffee or tea

Wine list
-----------------------------------------

Bitters
Campari
Gammel Dansk

Spirits
Aquavit
Absolut Vodka
Greenall's Original Gin
Bacardi

Whiskies
Ballantine's Gold Seal 12 Year Old Scotch
Jack Daniels Tennesee Whiskey
Selected Single Malt

Beers
A selection of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish beers

Champagne
1995 Henriot Brut Millesime, Reims, France

White wines
2001 Sauvignon Blanc, Wairau River, Malborough, New Zealand
2001 Chardonnay, Ferngrove Vineyards, Frankland River, Western Australia

Red wines
1999 La Chapelle de Romanin, Les Baux-de-Provence, France
2001 Shiraz, Wirrega Vineyards, Heartland Wines, Limestone Coast, South Australia

Dessert wine
1997 Chateau Placey, Sauternes, France

Port
Cockburn's Late Bottled Vintage

Digestif
Gammel Dansk

Cognac & Liqueurs
Moyet XO Borderies
Calvados Daron
Drambuie
Cointreau
Baileys Irish Cream

First a little bit about the presentation of the meal, which I think SK should improve. The most annoying thing is that lots of things come on the tray wrapped in plastic. Presentation would be a lot better if FAs removed the wrappings in the galley. Another thing is the el cheapo white plastic cutlery. It could be upgraded to a better kind of plastic at least, if not to metal.

The food itself turned out to be good. The duck liver terrine was tasty and the red onion marmalade just delicious with it. The main course was presented from a cart. Real restaurant feeling was a bit lost by that, but it was nice to see all the dishes before selecting. I chose the pork tenderloin, which was good but a bit too dry. The sauce and other things with it were delicious. I had more shiraz with the main course. The wine tasted good as well (not too fruity, even though it was rather young). Desert was presented from a cart also. I had cheese with some veggies and crackers. The FA made the portion specifically to my request. A glass of port with the cheese was a great finish to a nice dinner.

The service was absolutely fantastic. The crew was extremely friendly and really seemed to be enjoying their job. I guess this was a bit easier flight for them due to the low load, but in any case they had the time and willingness to change a couple nice words with everyone. And just a look was enough call them. Since I was awake for the whole flight I was regularly asked if I wanted anything to drink or eat, and invited to take a look at the snack bar offerings. One nice thing was the espresso machine they had there. For once I got some good coffee on a plane. I also liked the stainless steel espresso cups they had.

About an hour and half before landing another meal was served. The open sandwiches were pretty good, especially the liver one. Shrimps were tasted a bit too much like frozen food (which they were, of course). Some more coffee and OJ, and I was set to arrive in Chicago after a really pampering flight.

During the approach we got a spectacular view of the Windy City skyline by night. Landing was soft, but after rolling on the runway for a while we suddenly braked really hard. A bit later the captain apologized for it saying that he was suddenly ordered to leave the runway immediately. We parked at gate M15. Good, since it is not too far from the immigration. INS check was a breeze, but then for some reason I had to wait quite long (about 30 min) for my bag to show up on the belt.

Thanks for reading this long story! (Especially since my writing skills in English aren’t that great.) Since this thing became so lengthy, let me provide you with a brief summary:

SK Y+ bulkhead: good legroom and seat width, poor food this time
SK C: seating comfort good but considerably worse than e.g. UA, great food, and fantastic service
JK Y: standard Y comfort, great service, average food
Madrid: love it!!!

[This message has been edited by ORD Finn (edited 01-23-2003).]

mpc1

Great Report, Thanks for posting it

mpc1

ORD Finn

Two additional things I forgot earlier: SK C had good Sennheiser NR headphones (THE brand for headphones if yoy ask me), and when I left I didn't get a wine/champagne bottle but I did get one of those stainless steel salt and pepper things I complemented their nice design to an FA, and she gave me one as a souvenier.

One week to go to my next SK adventure (no fear, it is going to be a boring business trip, so I don't think I will bother with a report... )

Sherman

ORD FINN, again thanks for the report.

Did you upgrade with certificates or did they pull the points electronically from your EB account?

The plastic wrapping in SK C class is totally unacceptable. It reminds me of a summer camp picnic trip and it ruins the entire presentation of very nice meal. The SK glassware is probably the most expensive in the sky (I believe a Royal Copenhagen plate that is used easily retails for 40 USD). Why then the plastic wrapping?????

ORD Finn

Sherman, I did not have vouchers -- they pulled the points directly from my EB account. At CPH the guy did it directly on his computer (and gave me receipt to sign), but at ORD the lounge attendant had to call CPH to have them to do it.

Yes, I also think that SK has some of the nicest glassware and flatware in the skies (and in their lounges too). I like the fact that they use relatively modern style stuff. I really do not understand what is up with the plastic wrappings. Scandinavian high hygiene? They do offer you a knife and fork at McDonalds in Sweden, and people actually use them .

Also the cheap white plastic "silverware" presented in a plastic wrapping was totally out of style. These are little details, but come on SK, you can take care of them.