SAS Gold Priority Check-in Effectively Removed at ARN!
 

SAS has now elected to mix Star Alliance Gold priority check-in process together with bag drop-off for ANY passenger checking-in with the self service machines effectively removing Gold priority at ARN.

Check-in for SAS LAX flight Saturday September 9th was a zoo and a complete disaster. The normal 5 min check-in process in the Gold priority line now took 45 min with many frustrated Star Alliance Gold passengers.

Would be great to understand how this is viewed by the community.

//Lorito

If that is going to be a general state of affairs for SK, it will be a disaster for them. That will cost them a lot of customers. One important part of being status member is the no lines at check-in bit.
Will be interesting to hear if this is a one of due to weekend shortage of staff, or the shape of things to come. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt now, and doubt it is the latter.

I flew from ARN on Sunday evening (checked in at 19:00) and there were still the business class check in desks along near the fast track Security. The bag drop isn't needed.

I find it quickest to use the machines and self bag drop but otherwise use the business class desks which are also fine for Silver/Gold Eurobonus. Are they not accepting Star Golds?

Hmm, this would be a disaster if true! Waiting for confirmation.

They are.

I think it is a matter of clear demarcation. The baggage drop, Eurobonus Silver, *Gold and some other funky counters are all next to each other without a clear sign beyond the screens on top of each counter; and without clear barriers between them. I think it would be all solved if they would just make Gold counters extra specially visible, like Ethiopian or Lufthansa do at their hubs.

When I flew in July, I felt bad because it felt like I am jumping the queue with my *Gold status, while I noticed other status customers being confused and annoyed behind me.

If SAS IT would just get their sh*t together for once and would start issuing digital boarding cards for US flights, these desks would be unnecessary. SK is the only airline left in Europe who seems unable to issue BPs for US flights.

There is really no need to ever visit a desk at any airport.

Funny thing is that you can check-in online on the website and print a paper boarding pass for the US flights. They just don't provide mobile boarding passes...

In August at ARN I got there about 55 min before departure, connecting to US in CPH. Checking bag so had to wait in the manual check in line. Already checked-in online of course.

Only two long lines for business/ *G and very slow. In the end I had to ask the two people in front if they were in a hurry and jump ahead.

SAS has now (without any announcement) removed separate Star Gold check-in from the list of benefits given to EBG/EBDs, just listing business class check-in as the perk (i.e. the same as EBS).

Interesting. Many possible scenarios. My guess might be that in CPH/ARN/OSL the Gold counters becomes business, and the Plus/Business counters becomes Plus only.
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​​​In most out stations these coubters were one and the same. So whatever they cooked up it is going to be interesting to see what this actually means in CPH/OSL/ARN

I was at ARN yesterday, and there was a "snake line" to several desks intended for jointly business, plus, and gold.

The difference is that previously they had separate lines for each desk, and they had one or two desks allocated for gold and first, while there were three or four desks for business and plus. Now, all these have been joined together with a "snake line" in front. This is arguably an improvement, as you can't get stuck in line just because one passenger in front of you has some problem.

Of course, if you're flying within Europe, sometimes it will be much quicker to use the self-service bag drop counters, which are joint counters for all classes, where there are often no lines at all.

This doesn't as bad as I had expected. I agree - think it's an improvement overall.

Same thing at OSL now, all the desks bundled together with one snaking line. Seems to work fairly well.

I use this on 1% of departures, but I would be quite happy if there is a joint organized line across many desks. The past setup was a zoo, with unclear signs on entries to the lanes, at least at CPH. I wonder whether CPH is going to see the same change.