Alfonso XIV

I've never flown into ARN before, and am thinking I might have to book a tight connection. Coming in from Chicago on SAS:

ORD-ARN arr. 7:45am (international terminal)
ARN-HMV dep. 9:00 am (on NextJet)

Is this connection possible? Will I have to change terminals? Will it be a wild dash? I'll NOT have checked baggage.

Apparently the PNRs can't be linked, so I don't think they'll protect my connection. Even so if I miss the 9:00 am NextJet flight, the next flight to Hemavan is at 18:45, and I've been told that in mid-June those flights are always full anyway.

Thanks for your counsel.

Vunder31

You'll arrive at terminal 5 and need to go to terminal 3 for your NextJet flight.
For a quick walker it will take 10-15 minutes to move between the terminals.
Assuming that you can make it through immigration quickly, you should be able to make it, but since the NextJet checkin closes at 8:30, it would only take a 15-20 minute delay of your ORD flight for you to miss the NextJet checkin cutoff time. If you miss the 9:00 flight, your ticket will be void and you'd have to buy a new ticket (if available).

I wouldn't recommend the connection.

jth

It's good that you dont have checked baggage. For reference to others, you will have to wait for your baggage in terminal 5 and carry it through customs yourself, which will add maybe 20-30 minutes. Baggage forwarding to domestic flights is only done if your connecting flight is an SK operated flight, at least this is the information i got on the ORD-ARD flight a few weeks ago.

You might not want to rely on this, but the ORD arrival quite reliable ,generally on time or even 10-20 minutes ahead of schedule which will help you. If they are less than 30 minutes late out of ORD, they usually pull in the delay.
The terminals are connected though skycity so it is an easy, albeit a somewhat longish.
Being a swedish citizen, i breeze through immigration so i am not sure what additional time to expect, but i never see any long lines there.
If your ORD flight is on time or early you will make it, but there is no room for delays...

RedChili

It's possible to walk from gate to gate in some 20 minutes, but disembarkation can take up to 10 minutes if you're in one of the last rows, and immigration can also take a while. Plus add some time for check-in and security control in terminal 3.

You can subtract around five minutes by taking a bus from terminal 5 to 2. When you exit from customs in terminal 5, go to the left, go through the revolving doors straight ahead, and jump on the first yellow transfer bus that comes along (10, 14 or 17). Press the button on bus stop number 10 to speed up the process. Any of them will take you to terminal 2, but if several buses come at the same time, bus number 10 is usually the quickest. You can then walk from terminal 2 to terminal 3 in 3 minutes.

jfidler

Last time I arrived from ORD (a few weeks ago), we had to all go through security screening because apparently arriving from the US means we didn't go through proper security procedures It was just 2 lines and if you're at the back of the plane, that means you'll have to wait behind a lot of people. It can take time, especially since everyone is a bit groggy after the overnight flight. At immigration, all the lines were "all passports" so if you get stuck behind a bunch of people who need stamps and to be scanned in the computer (like Americans), it can take a while also. It's going to be a tight connection.

RedChili

Jfidler, your experience is a very unusual one. I've been working at ARN for several years but I've never seen people having to go through security on arrival. When in transfer, all passengers arriving from outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland need to go through security, but I've never seen this on arrivals.

But one more fact which is worth noticing is that the ORD flight arrives at approximately the same time as the EWR flight on SAS, and both flights go through the same immigration checkpoint. So, if the EWR flight arrives 10 minutes before the ORD flight, you've got more than 500 people who need to go through immigration at the same time.

another_shot

To make T5 (gate) to T3 (check-in) in 10-15 min you have to run very fast. Anything less than 30 min incl border is optimistic (and no baggage!). I would say overall success chance is 50/50.

Alfonso XIV

Thank you all for the explaining the lay of the land at ARN. I'm thinking that the odds just aren't good enough to risk missing that NextJet flight.

Another option I've found is to arrive from LHR at 5:20pm, allowing me to connect to the evening NextJet flight at 6:45pm. Is this connection much more feasible, i.e. will I have to clear international customs, and is the terminal change as onerous?

On a side note, I'd really prefer to fly non-stop, ORD-ARN, and SK seems to be the only option. Has anyone had success using Optiontown to upgrade into Business on this route? Any idea of the cost, roundtrip?

Thanks,
Alfonso XIV

RedChili

The flights from LHR use the same terminal, and you need to go through the same immigration control. The only difference, in my opinion, is that LHR flights are notoriously delayed. I'd say that taking the ORD flight is perhaps less risky than taking the LHR flight.

SirRagnar

I've tried to upgrade with optiontown twice (one for me and one for a colleague). One of them was on CPH-EWR and one on PEK-CPH. Both of them went through and the price is around 500 euro to upgrade from economy to business and around 200 euro for economy to economy extra - this is for one way.

Alfonso XIV

Thanks to all. I decided that "connection stress" wasn't worth it, not just at ARN, but especially at LHR (looking at One World to get me to Sweden). Who the heck decided that a 1˝ international connection time is legal at LHR? I've never made a T5-T3 connection in that length of time.

So on SK, I booked ORD-CPH-ARN to arrive 3 hours before the NextJet departure from ARN to Hemavan.

Of course, I have to change planes in CPH, with only a 1 hour connection window, but since it's the same PNR all on SK, I assume not only is it do-able, but I'm protected.

Anyone have experience making that international to schengen transfer in Copenhagen?

RedChili

Well, the connection in Copenhagen is protected. If your flight into Copenhagen is delayed, they will automatically put you on the next flight to Stockholm with available seats. But that flight could very well be two or three hours after your original flight, which is not very helpful if you want to catch the flight from ARN to HMV.

Edited: Let me just add that it appears to me that you're flying on a Friday, and on a Friday afternoon most flights between CPH and ARN are fully booked. So a missed connection in CPH could very well mean having to enjoy the view of the Kastrup apron for a few hours on a sunny June afternoon.

SirRagnar

One hour should be plenty of time for that. Get yourself seated as far up in the bus as possible to get a little head start for the immigration line which you need to pass. When you are approaching immigration you need to turn right for the transit immigration (don't worry, there are plenty of signs).
I've taken that flight many times and only once was delayed due to t-storms over ORD. Often, it will actually land 5-30 minutes early.

Once outside immigration you are looking at a 5-10 min walk to the A or B concourse where the ARN flight will depart.
And as mentioned, you are protected and will be seated in the next available flight to ARN if it should be missed - and there are 12 daily SK flights to ARN from CPH.

Alfonso XIV

I've always been amazed and sometimes stunned at the depth of knowledge possessed by FTers, but I never realized that ESP was one of those skills.

RedChili, how did you know my CPH-ARN leg is on a Friday?

RedChili

Friday was the only day I found on the NextJet web site with both a morning and an evening departure on the ARN-HMV route.