Coffee along with a Snickers brought from the lounge.
Cruising nicely at 40 000 feet.
The flight passed by very uneventfully. I listened to some music through my excellent Bose® In-Ear® headphones, while flicking through the month’s issue of Scanorama. Very soon, our Swedish captain came over the PA announcing our descent into Oslo Gardemoen Airport.
Starting our descent over the western parts of Sweden.
Touchdown @ 15.30, with some nice condensation forming on the wing.
Parking up next to the competition.
I quickly grabbed my stuff from the overhead, and bid the friendly crew goodbye as I made my way into the terminal. The transfer process was by no means smooth, since we arrived at a domestic gate I was forced to take a de-tour along the whole international wing of the terminal and pass an additional security check, before I could access the regular airside area.
SAS Scandinavian Lounge Gardemoen
The lounge was easy to find, and I was promptly welcomed inside by a friendly young gentleman manning the desk. I requested to make a seat change which he kindly offered to help me with. Sadly however, since the flight was packed 24A was the only window seat remaining. Oh well at least better than 26A which sits right in-front of the galley.
Overview of the lounge.
The lounge was slightly smaller than the ARN Scandinavian Lounge, but it was brighter, cosier, and in much better condition. As I started to feel a bit hungry, I grabbed a seat by one of the marble tables in the food section. The food offerings today were sadly the same as in ARN and CPH, i.e dry cured ham with various types of leaves. Luckily some shrimps and aioli was available as well, along with freshly baked warm bread.
My light late lunch for today. I really like the trays!
Due to the delay, and long walk during transfer my time in the lounge was fairly short at just 40 minutes. I luckily able to still my hunger with the food, and enjoy a few glasses of Bailey’s before running off to Gate 38 where my flight to Stockholm would depart from.
SK890 Oslo Gardemoen – Stockholm Arlanda
Operating my flight today is yet another old friend (jesus this registration game can be annoying sometimes) LN-ROT, the plane that flew me all the way down to southern Turkey last summer. As expected, the gate was packed for this sold out flight, mostly with business travellers and leisure pax connecting from Iceland. The usual Scandinavian boarding scene took place, and everyone was boarded all at once. Luckily with the high amount of seasoned travellers, boarding process was very smooth.
At the door, I was greeted by a young hot blonde swedish girl, with a very expensive looking pair of Botox® lips. I soon found my seat 24A, one of my favourites on the MD-82.
Legroom was good.
The usual pre-departure routines soon took place after the doors had been closed. But strangely the familiar ”whoop-whoop” didn’t sound over the PA as it usually does on the MD’s during engine start. Performing the safety demo was the hot blondie, which had practically every man in the cabin, including myself focusing closely on the safety details... Allegedly. The show was soon over, and before we knew it our MD was rocketing up into the grey sky.
”Wheels-Up!” @ 17.18, just look at that climb!
Climbing nearly towards our cruising altitude.
The cabin crew soon rolled out the Cloud Shop trolley, and you guessed it, I settled for the free stuff. The blonde girl was sadly serving Economy Extra on this flight, which makes pretty big sense to me.
For a change I opted for tea.
The flight was uneventful, just like any other. Some more music was listened to on my iPhone, and, before I knew it we were already on descent. During our descent we passed by Uppsala F16 Airforce Base, before coming in to Arlanda from the north. Touchdown was smooth, and the aircraft parked at the notorious F pier at Arlanda. Disembarking the aircraft was quick and orderly. I did however have to listen to some overly jolly Swedish business types.
I was quickly in the F-Pier, where I spent some extra time airside since my Swebus to Västerås wasn’t due to depart in 90 minutes.
Leaving my lovely chariot at the gate.
This couch has certainly gotten some controversy lately.
Arlanda is very quiet at this hour, and soon I found myself on the Swebus back home to Västerås. Being extra productive on the ride, I began writing this report on my iPhone.
Conclusions
As always, SAS managed to impress this time. The crews were friendly and all aircraft except the B736 were clean. There’s really not much more to say about them, since I’ve flown the airline so many times in the past, and those experiences have been pretty much the same.
As for The Radisson Blu Gdansk, I was very pleased by the overall feeling of cleanliness, minimalism, and comfort.
For the future I will try and remain loyal to The Carlson | Rezidor Hotels Group with their consistently high standard, reasonable rates, and generous loyalty programme.
Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed my first report here on Flyertalk. Sure it ain't no Business or First Class report that we've gotten so used to seeing here, but don't worry I have some of those (by that I mean flights in Business, sadly not First) coming up in a few months.
Comments are always appreciated!
Best Regards
LH4116