littlevoices

Hi,

I'm sure lots of people must have done this before... so I was wondering if you had any advice for me around getting to CPH in December for a Z2 positioning. I've booked an F Z2-Z8 routing and was nicely happy to have saved quite a lot of cash/miles, and most happy to have saved on the UK APD (dislike of the airline tax and Gordon Brown..), so thanks for the advice on that one.
I saved: 10,000 miles, £140 cash and £200 APD on my one-way booking (+ some taxes)

My redemption starts on Saturday with an 8am flight out of CPH, so I'll be flying LON-CPH on Friday evening after work. I'm returning via another European city so will only need a one-way flight. So, what is the consensus on the board for how is best to get to CPH?

My thoughts are;
Award Business 1-way to LHR-CPH
Total Cost: 9000 miles, £105 Cash, ~£100 Tax
Positives

• Start out a first class trip in at least some style
• Lounge access
• Better luggage allowance
• Free evening meal on the flight
• Better service
• Better chance they'll be willing to check my bag through onto the next days flight

Negatives

• I'm BD*G so will get the lounge access and a better luggage allowance anyway
• Doubt that SAS business service is up to much anyway on a 2hour flight
• Don't earn any miles
• Almost wipes out the saving on miles/cash (and still paying APD)

One-way SAS economy sale fare, LHR-CPH
Total Cost: £116 (Current Sale on a 0.25x miles fare at £58 pp with a fare of £14+taxes)
Positives:

• Pretty cheap
• Earn a measly few miles (400 miles for me as I'll be past 55k miles, 200 for my wife)
• I'm BD*G so will get the lounge access anyway, plus more luggage and can take nibbles from lounge onto the plane

Negatives:

• My only experience of SAS economy wasn't that pleasant
• Lower luggage allowance
• No food/drink on the flight
• Crammed into economy seats without my BD*G seat block

Are there any other ways or thoughts people might have to enhance this list?
I discounted any hope of a business class sale as I'm travelling on a Friday night so doubt there will be cheap flights available then. I also checked out EasyJet, but, at £52 for an about equivalent flight it really wouldn't be worthwhile.

If it was you, which one of the options would you go for? My temptation is to go for the C+M business, mainly as I'm not sure how long diamond club will be around and with the current Hilton triple points promo the miles cost is wiped out by one week in a hotel. But, I still think that its better value than the Miles only option.

Thanks for any views,

Raffles

Have you checked BA? They offer sensible one-way fares (usually) although you won't get lounge access of course. You will get food and booze, though, and T5 is not a bad experience these days.

Have you looked as SAS from London City? 10.10 or 18.15 departures. Depending on where you work it may be convenient - I took this when I last did an ex-CPH.

HIDDY

I'd go for the SAS economy fare.

BHDBOY

Second that. It's only a 2 hour flight, you can have a few beverages in the lounge anyway to numb the pain of whY. Extra dosh you save will go towards hotel expenses.

However looking to get shot of your miles is a perfectly valid reason to go for option 1.

dodgeflyer

Have you checked out the new EZY flight from LGW to CPH. Also, Norwegian fly this route which is often half price of SAS.

If you are going M on SAS, you may as well do DY or EZY. You can always buy lounge access at LGW.

ajamieson

Go for the economy sale fare, seems very low to me and as you say you'll get the benefit of the lounge and you might be lucky with seating thanks to your gold card.

stargold

I flew Cimber Air (Sterling) for £50 on LGW-CPH as my positioning flight... This was just as well, since I live 30 minutes away from LGW but 1h30m away from LHR.

Experience was fine - to be perfectly frank, on a 1h30m flight there's not too much that could go wrong except for delays and cancellations. On-time flight was my only real expectation and it was fine in that regard.

Avenarius

That's the first time I had heard of Cimber, but I have to go to CPH in June, and they have return flights for £57, which seems impossibly cheap. Wikipedia tells me they're a partner of SK and LH, and a Star Alliance partner; I don't suppose that means lounge access at CPH on the return, does it?

stargold

I suppose you could always try, but I have a feeling that any lounge access on QI may only apply on codeshare flights with SK. The LGW flights are stand-alone QI so don't count on lounge access.

Also, the legroom was very tight - the tightest I've experienced, in fact. If the flight was any longer than the LGW-CPH sector then it could have been pretty painful.

Avenarius

Hmm, you're not really selling it. Was it CRJ? That would be the final straw.

stargold

No, it was a nice new B737-700. I suspect that if you check in early then you should be able to grab one of the emergency exit seats which should have decent legroom, but I didn't manage to get one myself.



And the SK C seat on the MD82:



At the end of the day, it's less than 2 hours in that seat and I paid much, much less than other possible flights that day, so I had very low expectations (which were met - on-time arrival!)

littlevoices

Economy all the way I guess it is then, just have to hope that my reservations get ticketed... otherwise might be redundant... but thats for another thread!

OttoMH

Buy an economy fare.. the flight is only 1h30? and the SAS business offering is pretty rubbish. The LHR SAS lounge is quite nice and you can drink to your hearts content in there.

littlevoices

Indeed, award tickets ticketed last night, so, I purchased the dirt cheap fare for my wife and I - total cost was as indicated, £58 per passenger. I'll get to try out SAS business class on my first flight CPH-ZRH the next morning anyway... but as then its First Class Lounge & F flight don't think I'll be too disappointed if its rubbish - will be interesting to try anyway.

Now, just to find the hotel (won't update that here in this thread as its a different conversation and nowhere near as urgent. I was looking at hotels near the airport (we arrive at ~midnight and fly out the next morning)... its a shame the Hilton actually at the airport I was considering appears to be fully booked (more likely to be not available yet I guess) and a 5* hotel... think we need to find somewhere a bit cheaper for a 6 hour sleep rather than spending a lot of award points for just a few short hours.

quitecontrary

I have been following this thread as I have also today made a Z2-Z8 redemption from CPH (will post details in the relevant thread) I will probably also go for a SK booking in Y - don't want to spoil myself for the lounge in ZRH.

I assume that as it will all be *Alliance we can check our bags in at LHR and not see them again until we get off at the other end - our flights are all on the same day. My question is would we get lounge access at LHR (I am only a blue+ - must update my profile ) by virtue of the fact we are travelling on in C/F? I have believe this is possible with BA - not sure of *Alliance rules.