Disgrace at ARN??
 

Today when dropping my father and his wife off for the SK903 I watched how SK manage to make sure that it will be nothing more than a one time test of paid J away from Continental.

There was a good discount J fare so I recommended my father to try SK mostly because of the better seat. Outbound on the 904 4 hrs delayed (ok, mechanicals can happen) but the real ugly side was shown this morning with nobody monitoring the line, and a whopping 2 check in counters for EBG / Business / Y+. Paying 15000SEK for a business class ticket on any airline, one should not have 40 minutes standing in line to check in and be met by what seemed understaffed personel and lack of regard for the situation.

Not sure if this is status for SK at ARN, I've for the past many years been taking my own paid J travel to BA/AY. Sorry for the rant but I felt like sharing and seeing if this was a one off occasion.

I fly Y when I have to pay myself and therefore CO to get the miles when flying to ARN. When someone else is paying me for flying C i don't mind flying SK.

SK has a C product thay is pretty decent (C on CO on 752:s to ARN is just a notch better than domestic F).

The SK business class and Star Gold check-in are too often abysmally slow compared to what other airlines offer at ARN.

In-flight is ok with SK, but on the ground SK is a disappointment.

ARN was a mess earlier in the morning too, due to problems with the baggage converyors. I had a 7:05 flight and arrived to long lines due to the check-in and baggage drops being understaffed. The baggage problems are no reason to be understaffed, but everything seemed to be a bit off in the arrivals hall.

Otherwise your experience fits what I have experienced with SK in the past (at least at ARN). We stopped flying the service to ORD because of delays/cancellations and numerous problems with the ground staff. With that being said, they were nice enough to give me an op up this time, which was great considering I had no time for breakfast due to the delays^.

ARN is op-up heaven for *S and *G in summer when the two flight are oversold. ARN checkin for *G is always staffed with competent senior people and I never had more than 1-2 pax in front of me... the morning is hell, especially when the US flights depart, but still you can prepare. Nowadays all the CI counters in T5 N are staffed, even though pax are urged to use the machines.

Glad to hear that my experience is not the norm, as I never managed an op up in my years being *S. However, my op up came this time with no status as a M&M member. Maybe it was my friendly disposition;).

Can't comment on the staff, but the business class counter was swamped when I was there on Saturday...including those "almost" late arrivals for Y that tried their luck anyhow (they were sent to the correct line).

However, I can comment that the baggage drop staff for economy class was more rude that I have ever seen. The agent insisted speaking Swedish to me when it was clear I did not understand: "If you have a Swedish passport you therefore must speak Swedish". Then he continued to talk in Swedish to me, which is odd as speaking English is definitely not a problem in general.

My comment that one must not be born or raised in Sweden to carry a passport was met with this look :rolleyes:. Fortunately I had my US passport with to convince him to speak English, although I managed to remembered a nice (albiet rude) phrase in Swedish to satisfy him before leaving:D.

Worth pointing out that CO is in the process of decking out their fleet with flatbeds; just about 30% of their 752s have it installed according to their site.

Source

That Saturday was an absolute mess at Arlanda. ALL the baggage conveyor belts in the departure hall were out of order! There were huge delays and total chaos all over the place. Flights couldn't take off on time, which meant that gates were blocked and some arriving flights couldn't dock at their gates. The SAS flight arriving from ORD spent one hour waiting on the taxi way for a gate due to this problem.

The funny thing with your post is that a passenger who normally flies SK, but who on this specific day chose to fly CO, may very well have exactly the same reaction as you, but with opposite airlines: "I'll never fly CO again! Their check-in is a big mess. I'll stick with SK."

That's why I asked if it was a one off. However, my guess is somebody on Business class that morning on CO did not wait 45 minutes in line to check in, but rather was checked in swiftly and waited out the delays in the lounge (a far more preferable situation). 2 checkin desks for EBG/Siver/J/Y+ with 2 330s leaving within 25 minutes of each other seems like a stretch IMHO.... I mean this is a SK base. BTW, the Business Class bagdrop line was chaos, but this is explained by your comments about the baggage belt I would assume.

Side note, I was unable to check in earlier this year at the kiosks for a USA flight as I have to use my US passport info. Is it not possible to check in with a US passport at the kiosk, or was it that some on the reservation were not US passport holders?

Hi,

been a while since I posted something here but things don't change too much...however i often noticed in the morning rush (i.e. loads of *G) that people would rather wait in line at the *G line than use the normal dropbag/checkin counters - even if the latters are staffed and there is no one in line there...

It probably has to do with status ("I'm *G, I am allowed to use the special *G line to check in") or I just don't get it.

This is just a general observation made times and times again...

I suppose its the few places at SK where *G is recognised and it matters :p:D

Am I missing something- or is there not online checkin? I do agree lines at ARN can be very long.

Pretty much the same behaviour i have noticed in the security check, sometimes the *G/business fasttrack line is longer than the normal :p

I have been on quite a few morning flights out of ARN over the last three weeks and lines for regular security has been about 300 persons at least (typical vacation crowd). With the line for SK Fast Track empty and super quick.
The *G check in desk (not the ones used for the US flights) have however been over crowded.

Oliver2020 is right - that's because *G check-in in ARN is one of the rare opportunities to get any use of your EBG, so people trying to enjoy it, even if it takes longer :D

I'm usually flying out of ARN in the afternoon and at that time there are never more than 1-2 people in *G queue.