The biggest problem is lounge access at outstations. It appears the SW they use doesn't recognise the status and it's basically down to whether the lounge dragon manually accepts your membership. It doesn't help that in maybe 50% of cases, my paper boarding pass doesn't show STE+ status (even though it does correctly show SkyPriority).

Bags (and free standard seats) are indeed recognised just fine and are a major benefit compared to LHG.

Yes! My boarding pass clearly stated it. And yes I SHOULD have but that is the whole issue. It seems there is still great lack of misunderstanding or misinformation on SAS� involvement w/ST �still 4 months later. While I expect the �teething issues� as View mentioned, how long is acceptable for a pax traveling expecting to utilize the benefits they have so many times before on same itinerary & now becomes a problem.

I was denied priority checkin, luggage allowance at delta PHX & lounge access at delta LAX. Rep that called supervisor (to check on SAS� status) was at LAX & she had my boarding pass (reflecting ST elite) in hand & I also showed her my EB card that also clearly shows skyteam elite on it but she still just reiterated SAS was not a part of ST�as View mentioned better experience there I guess it�s random hit or miss but really that should not ever be the case. Other response I referred to was obtained via direct email correspondence w/delta (initiated via their website) Hope this answered all of your questions posed. Appreciate the responses� Just hope things improve soon!

Sorry to change topic, but I have been struggling to use up my final 2-4-1 and points as I start to transition away from SAS/SkyTeam and back to *A. I have complained in other threads about the lack of business class awards, but wanted to hear others experience about whether this is truly a Sky Team deficiency or classics SAS IT problem.

I have been looking at flights to various Africa airports and found absolutely no availability in business class. Kenya Airways only flies to a few cities in Europe (London, Paris, Amsterdam and Rome), any connection with them would realistically be CPH-CDG/AMS-NBO-###. When I search for CPH-###, I can find tickets but only in economy. However, when I search for AMS/CDG(-NBO)-### I can sometimes find business class award tickets. Is this lack of availability simply a mistake with SAS IT as they don't offer business class in Europe and the system is not showing mixed bookings due to the SAS segment only being in Plus? If so, any availability will rely on AFKL having business class seats available in Europe as much as the long haul segment. Quite frustrating if this is the case.

Edit: It seems to be that SAS's website is somewhat of the problem. My wife and I just made the same search and she could find business class while mine showed only economy. Once I closed down my browser and re-opened it I could get the same results. Nevertheless the availability of business class is scarce.

I flew in early November on ITA Airways in C (MUC-FCO-JED-FCO-MUC)
I got EBG Status through the status match with my LH-Senator Status in August.
During booking on ITA Website I could not add my EBG number.
After booking I added my ITA booking in the SAS App and added my EBG number in the booking.
Afterwards the EBG number was in the booking also on the ITA website.

In ITA Business Class you usually have to pay for seat reservation.
Still after adding my EBG number i couldn’t choose seats free of charge. I then called ITA but they couldn’t help.
After writing two e-Mails to the ITA customer service I finally got the seats free of charge because of the ST elite plus.

The EBG-Status was also printed on the BP and also ELP. Which I assume stand for ST elite plus
I did not get any points but I knew this because on SAS Website ITA is not listed for earning points.

Lounge was possible at all airports but I don’t know if it had worked in Y.

In a few days I will fly with KL in light fare within Europe. I could select seats free of charge after booking for me and my family and in the KLM app I see that I got one additional check-in bag for free.

ITA and SK are not partners (due to ITA leaving the ST "soon"). As such, no status recognition or benefits of any kind.

But they did recognize my EBG-Status in November (at least for seat reservation)
ITA charges for seat reservation also in C.
As I wrote I got the seat reservation free of charge after 2 emails. In which I told them free seat reservation is a ST elite plus benefit.
Here is my BP from November.
At least on paper they do recognize the status.

And yet ITA is officially a member of Skyteam. But they were never fully integrated, and now no one cares as they eventually will leave again. I wonder if SK will ever get fully integrated.....

IMO SK integration is fairly complete. I was pretty pessimistic on it prior to the challenge, but from what I've seen now, everything works (save occasional lounge dragon who is not up to date on the changes). Now if they only fixed their mileage crediting.

And mileage credit is not part of the integration?

An update from my side - I was denied access on my EBG STE+ in the International lounge in HAN on Tuesday 24th. They said they don't accept SAS STE+

So I then took out my ITA STE+ card (I gave them the option of Kenyan or ITA, and they chose ITA) and they accepted that no problem and I had access. I don't get why VN doesn't accept EBG for lounge access. Is it still to be integrated, or is not going to be integrated at all?

Not really, at least to me.
It's internal to SK (also, in my personal experience all flights credited, and didn't take too much of an effort, although, granted, I may have been lucky).
I expect whatever issues remain to be solved sometime in the next several months.

What I care about more atm. is the external benefits - lounge access and extra checked bags primarily.

As it seems, to me anyway, it will not be something one can really determine or count on, regardless of all else. Really has me reconsidering where to even attribute my main mileage accrual & leaves me feeling pretty discouraged with the whole ST switch. What once was to me a valuable benefit, LT*G via SAS, feels a bit worthless..at least to me & at present.

I certainly realize others have reported quite different & more positive experiences & I am at least glad to know it exists �just wondering though if it will ever be something, a typical EB member seeking to utilize their earned benefits (if there even is such a thing) can confidently count on, regardless of location, individual working, &/or at any given time. I realize my cynicism, wholly & just based, on my own personal experiences thus far.

Well it is, and it isn't. Internal that is. As it also goes the other way. A friend of mine tried to retro claim an SK flight on Delta recently.the reply was "We are always sorry to disappoint our loyal customers, but Scandinavian Airlines is not eligible for Sky Miles accrual". Not the specific flight, but the airline.
It is one of my gripes, why go live as a member if the alliance can't be bothered doing its homework? Because it is probably only a limited number of passengers that will have issues, and they are hopefully hub captive?

If integration was even remotely complete, lounge dragons wouldn't need to be up on the changes, because computer would "say yes". The fact that they need to manually override denied entry (which they may or may not be willing to do) suggests that there are either IT issues, or lack of contracts to allow lounge access.

Either way, as a SAS STE+ you're far from guaranteed to receive alliance benefits when flying other airlines, which is why I'm avoiding ST on flights where those benefits matter to me.

Nice - I hope it wasn't important, or worked out with creditting... And that just mad me realize the KQ status was downgraded to gold... Might be useful for seat selection on AF/KL flights 72h before departure(?), if one dares...

Out of curiousity, which airline did you fly? I had no issues with the VN lounge in HAN flying both MU and VN.