SAS, UNITED and HILTON USA
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Dear Readers
I just had to write down some of my experiences from a business trip I needed to do to the US with some focus on Hilton properties in the New York and Washington D.C area. There is another trip planed in April and I try to pick some more Hiltons in the areas then so standby for more.
In addition had a United $200 voucher from a full flight last year that I volunteered not go on. It expired on the 14th and I wanted to use that. In other words as the plan for the visit took place I realized that if carefully planned there would be a god chance to book and visit some Hiltons and add property scrutinizing to the report.
Already the day before and even before I could check in on my flight the Hilton App signaled that the first stop on the trip was open for check in (Double Tree by Hilton Sterling) and digital key offered. I must say that looking at the floor map the elevator position was not marked and as I want to have a room far away from them it was a hit and miss thing picking a room with my preferences.
My first flight was SK027 ARN-CPH connecting me with the SK925 to IAD. In the SAS Gold Lounge at ARN I had to do some changes with my original AVIS booking. I was pleasantly surprised as my quite cheap week with a Premium class G was proportionally prized down from a week at 2200SEK to 1700SEK if picked upon Monday instead. Change was made on phone with a Nordic representative. Well done Avis!
SK027 ARN CPH left gate at 10:02 (SDT 10:00). Today is was an A320 (must have been the new Neo) that had the honor to take us to Denmark. At CPH my plan was to get to the SAS Lounge ASAP after landing to get a Tuborg and a “Lille”. Fairly heavy load in the cabin with ok flying conditions. Little bit late but the flight was granted fast access to the runway and at 10:06 we were airborne after a rolling takeoff. We took a direct course towards CPH at 36,000 feet with clear and sunny weather. Funny that the United flight EWR-IAD some days later only got to 18,000 feet.
Safety onboard card looked brand new and USB – indicating a new A320neo?
Yes got to be 320neo
Menu1
Menu2
Menu3
Inflight magazine
Midway Stockholm Copenhagen at 36,000 feet. Nice flying conditions!
Hupp! At the gate and ready to go. I am a tall person and so was the person behind me apparently.
Happy and relaxing in my seat I took a first glance at my BP. What? I could not find SK925 on the BP! I can understand that I could not get the boarding card via the SAS app 22 hours before as I needed to scan the passport before it could be issued. But I did just that at ARN and got the BP. Obviously I should have looked at the BP as it was printed but my brain probably did not work. Relax, better leave it to the CPH lounge crew to fix it (they have helped me many times).
We landed 11:10 and boarding for the SK925 was announced to start at 11:35. My experience is that this is not so strict rather if followed you end up sitting behind the extra passport outstation for quite some time with limited space. C20 was the gate to keep eyes on as I took off to the SAS Gold Lounge. I entered at 11:25 and asked about my missing flight and the answer was that I had been upgraded to SAS Plus! That was happy news. Got my new boarding pass.
Lounge breaking news! The Gammel Dansk bottle (40% herb liquor that works well with beer far better than Jägermeister if you ask me) was emptied and that the Tuborg Beer bottles was gone and replaced with Carlsberg on tap.
However no time for tears or to wait to get it replaced; two glasses of beer and instead picked some Calvados (Yes I have passed the age of 45 so I now say I like this Spanish “cognac”).
Do not know what brand the Calvados was.
I left the lounge 11:45 and joined the Passport Que. The manual Passport checkpoint has now changed to a kiosk for EU citizens and they work fine but the que and the time spent there felt as long as before.
SK925 CPH WAS SDT 12:20 ADT 12:42. As I entered the area behind the extra passport/boarding card checkpoint at C20 the boarding was announced and I ended up first in line and was the first person entering the plane.
The SAS Plus cabin was about 1/3 full and I must say I like the seat; soft and very comfortable.
The whole row was free for the entire flight.
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Mandatory seat picture 25H.
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Comfort was on the mind of the constructors as you can almost see. There is an exclusive feeling in the fabric used.
Bottle of water and the infotainment screen.
Earplugs, toothpaste and a shoe bag. The bag is very useful for dirty clothes.
Ok I am on the right plane!
The drink tray is a bit small in my opinion and would I use it to put a drink there in the air and under turbulence? Njäa...I am not so sure.
In the air the service starts with a drink round and as champagne was not available I asked for some sparkling wine and a gin tonic. I did not recognize the brand of the tonic and it was a bit blunt.
The tonic was blunt, nuts excellent and the sparkling wine as you can see sparkling wine and not champagne based on the size of the bubbles.
There was a delay before lunch was served and on the return of the service cart I feelt a need to try is tomato juice tastes better in the air than on the ground. Yes, indeed (perhaps the Sky vodka helped).
For the main lunch I picked the chicken and I liked it very much; moist and tender, potato cake with it also fine, the salad was superb and let the cabin crew pick the red wine; the Montenero Zinfandel from Puglia matched perfect. Well done SAS! After the meal I asked for some more wine and so I tried the other choice; another Italian red wine and a cognac but it did not work as a sipping wine for me.
The lunch starter with the wine and a cake in the background.
Chicken with potato cake. Very tender and moist!
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Tried the Pietro di Campo but I do not know. Was it the air or the temperature or..well Barbera grape usually is one of my favorites. Cheese ok.
The classic Moyet. Has been with SAS for many years. I did not have it and saved it for later.
The Entertainment system worked excellent the whole flight. I was able to get some two hours sleep at the seat approx. 120 degree maximum recline angle. I was much undisturbed as I had no one in front or in the back or next to me. After the sleep I ordered a Mikkeller beer is the best beer in the world in the air!!!
The best beer in the air!!!
The pre arrival snack was very impressive and filling (very similar to what you get in business at this stage) and I picked the Italian wine that worked better here.
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A superb pre-arrival meal!
The water SAS uses water from Denmark (Brande, Jylland) is very tasty and works in the air. Someone described it as “wet” and well I was not dry anyway
About to land. Looks more like April than January to me
A detail of the famous passenger transport vehicles at Dulles.
The immigrations process is now little digitalized with kiosks taking the fingerprint and photo. The officer then receives a note from you and askes some basic questions. Done.
Double Tree by Hilton Sterling Dulles Airport has a shuttle that had just left and was not expected back for the next 40 min due to some technical issue (checked that at the Info desk) so I took a taxi. 12 min later and $23 I arrived at the hotel.
As I had the digital key I could have taken the elevator directly to the HHonors level on the 5th floor but I was not sure. Asked for a keycard just in case and the receptionist gave me the cookie as well and I was on my way. I do not have a US mobile and with at this time no wifi it took some time to get logged in on the wifi and to get the digital key card. On average it took some 45-60 sec every time pressing on the digital key to open the door! Apart from that delay this is a very ok system.
HHonors floor welcome sign!
Across the two elevators at 5th floor. Spartan but slick.
Double Tree by Hilton Sterling Dulles Airport. Room1
Sweet memory lingers. DT still have CE compared to the Hilton that now have TR. You know what – it works!
Clean and fresh bathroom. Its mirrors throughout the whole room.
If the carpet in the corridor was in bad condition the room was the opposite; very clean and in mint condition! Minutes after my arrival my colleges arrived and we spent the Friday evening at the hotel bar/restaurant. I had a Belgian White beer with an orange peace (?) and as it will turn out something we are betting back to later in the trip. After this we split and I was more a sleep than awake. ZZZZZ
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