CPH-Flyer

Normally the long haul outstations open for check in 2.5 hours before the flight. If you have a lot of time to spare, it might be better if AS can check your luggage through.

vanillabean

DW just got off the phone with AS, and it turns out the two airlines have an agreement for just that (for more than two hours between flights). I would never have guessed it given SK is not an AS partner, so a pleasant surprise!

vanillabean

So let’s say I check in online for the SAS flight and that SFO checks in my bag all the way to CPH. At LAX, I exit the Alaska terminal, and I enter security for the International terminal, heading straight for the comfortable lounge before boarding at the SAS gate.

But while SAS participates in TSA-Pre, I don’t remember seeing anywhere to enter my GE number on the SAS website when logged in. And maybe there are other reasons as well that I have to check in at the SAS counter?

GUWonder

When I fly MSP or DCA to ORD on a UA flight ticket of its own to connect to a separately ticketed SK flight for ORD-ARN/CPH, if I can get an SK boarding pass for ORD-ARN/CPH from online checkin, then I don’t need to deal with the SK check-in counter at ORD. Then at ORD, I can use either the airside transfer bus to avoid the TSA rescreening hassle or I can do the landslide shuffle that comes with the additional TSA screening hassle.

If you have checked baggage and are on separate tickets for the AS flight and for the SK flight, you will have to claim the bags and deal with the SAS check-in desk for those bags to make the SK flight .... if/when AS doesn’t tag the bags to Scandinavia. If AS tags the bags all the way to Scandinavia, you may want to ask the SK gate staff or check-in staff to make sure your bag is being loaded onto the SK flight and do so by presenting your AS bag tag to SK gate and/or check-in staff.

SAS does have a field for entering KTN into the booking to ramp up the chances of getting a PreCheck boarding pass. My last SK ORD-Scandinavian flight was done using online check-in and came with PreCheck. I had entered my Global Entry number into my SK booking — and in the app at least, I can do this after choosing to edit traveler information for the passport info, and then updating the optional information fields that include KTN as one of the two optional fields.

fassy

Yepp, the KTN field can be entered in the SK booking. Had my GE number in there for the last couple of trips but never got TSA-pre on the boarding pass ex-Scandinavia. Last time in ORD, as I had a lot of time, I went over land-side to the UA counters and printed a new BP for the UA flights which came with TSA-pre out of the machine... so it must be attached to the booking but SK just doesn't bother printing it on the SK boarding passes.

GUWonder

I have the following in my hand: at least four SK boarding passes for ORD-CPH flights this month where I’ve got PreCheck on them. But these are SK boarding passes I got from doing self check-in from
my own electronic devices. I had some paper SK boarding passes pushed out by SK check-in staff where my boarding passes have PeCheck on them too. And this includes CPH-ORD and CPH-IAD flights this month where PreCheck is on the boarding passes SK printed out for me in CPH.

fassy

That's why I said "never works ex-Scandinavia". Works very well ex-US.

I often do CPH/ARN-EWR/ORD-wherever_on_UA and they for sure put all on one BP, but never TSA-pre. Why not? I have no idea, probably since they argue TSA-pre has no benefit on Scandinavia... and it is absurd to think you would need it in US for the next connection, right...

GUWonder

I have TSA PreCheck printed on some of my CPH-IAD and CPH-ORD boarding passes. I think I also may have had it in recent months for an OSL-EWR flight.

The onward domestic US flights on UA come with PreCheck for me, but those are usually separate tickets for me and/or I use UA to give me the UA flight boarding passes to get PreCheck there.

fassy

Was on MMX-ARN-ORD-SAT last month and got a single SK boading pass in MMX all the way through. No TSA-pre.

Arrived in ORD, I went to a UA machine and just had the boarding pass for ORD-SAT printed and it came out of the machine with TSA-pre.

JR67

Just out of curiosity - why do you need to fly intercontinental 4 times in a month. I am not in the least an environmentalist (two gas guzzlers and EBD) but I am curious what job you have that prompts this kind of travel. There is a health and longevity cost to you for this kind of travel....

GUWonder

What would you say if I said that a majority of my TATL SK flights this month didn’t have income-generating work as their primary purpose and that I am possibly going to do another personal TATL SK flight (or two, depending on my weekend plans and what goes on Sunday and Monday) before the month is over? For me, there really is no perfect replacement for face time and going to where that takes place. And this would be the case for my personal life too.

I understand that this kind of travel can take a toll on a flyer, but I also understand there can be a toll on a person for not doing this kind of travel. At some point when I feel the travel costs me more than it benefits me, there will be further adjustments again .... just like SK adjusts its services based on what it thinks benefits it. Did SK change LAX service to CPH because of the environment being more of a Swedish concern than a Danish one? Then I should thank the Danes and the Danes who became Swedes in Skåne, since SAS’s TATL network out of CPH has made travel a lot easier for me than it used to be.

I consider flying SAS to be sort of like using the Skånetrafiken buses, except that: Skånetrafiken doesn’t charge for internet and transporting everything and the kitchen sink (unless it’s a bicycle) even on the cheapest tickets I can use; that SAS vehicles don’t all stick to the ground; that even the cheapest SAS tickets include some food and drink for trips; and that I can sleep on SAS planes.

FlyingMoose

There is no shortage of people with this kind of travel requirements in their day jobs. I've had years with 5-6 TAs a month. There are many occasions where I had to have a handful of meetings in person (with no alternative) that required less than 10-12 hours on the ground. In the interest of jetlag and time away, it is often easier to just do overnight trips, even if they have 8-10 hour flights in each direction.

JR67

I have done that kind of travel on occasion, but am happy that it is not every month, or even every year! My record to EBD was just over 6 weeks, but I much prefer sliding in at 51 weeks with the last points. :-)

SK2751

This is my standard practice (slide in at 51 weeks), adjusting frequency and fare buckets as low as possible, along some Pareto front. But the COVID story is putting this strategy in danger, so I am now resorting to get-it-done ASAP strategy, just to reduce risks. Basically all my SK flights with PLUSGRADE.