Snowflake
 

I'm not at all familiar with this so-called low-cost part of SAS so my questions are rather basic.

I need to buy a one-way ticket later in May and had a look around and found most one-way tickets were ridiculously expensive.
However I did have a look at the Snowflake webpage and found a very good flight, the day I need to travel, and at a very reasonable price.
I have previously tried to avoid Snowflake but at this point it seems the wisest thing to do.

Questions:
*Are all my EBG benefits valid on Snowflake as well? Baggage, lounge access etc.
I will have a bit more than 20 kg of checked baggage so the baggage part is vital. Otherwise I'll consider buying another ticket to make sure the excess baggage is waived as per *G rule.

*Is it possible to interline checked baggage connecting to and from a Snowflake flight?
That means having two separate tickets but asking the check-in agent to check the baggage all the way to the final destination.
In my case it would be BMI and Snowflake.
Or is it strictly reclaim and recheck-in if you're connecting with separate tickets "à la Ryanair"?

*Are there any other differences between Snowflake and normal SAS economy regarding the travel experience on the ground and in the air that I ought to know?

Thanks!

I'm pretty sure you can use your normal *G benefits when flying Snowflake, at least you get the 25% point bonus. You'll just be placed way back in the plane. Interlining might be more difficult though, unless you get a friendly check-in agent.

I've never travelled on a Snowflake ticket myself, but they are very similar to an ordinary SK ticket... (Well, they are often more expensive even, so...)
No difference in any EBG benefits, and you will have the same online checkin possibilities (with exactly the same seats to choose from as regular Economy).
Regarding the bagage, the official line is that there is no interlining of bagage to/from snowflake flights. But I do think that it is still possible... Nowadays airlines seem much stricter on whether they allow throughcheck of bagage on separate tickets etc though. But between bmi and SK with a comfortable connection time, and as you're EBG I wouldn't be too worried, really! I don't know how the e-ticket confirmations look now with the new PDF system in place, but prior to that I know that they were identical to regular e-ticket confirmations in C/Y/M, so no way for the check-in agent to see that it is a snowflake ticket (except for fare basis). You can even printout a travel plan from regular SK website on a snowflake booking.

Is this from UK to Scandinavia? Remember that the regular SK return tickets are very nicely priced (mostly £89-99), bmi are now offering cheap tickets on their codeshares (since mid April) and BA has started one-ways on cheap tickets. So there are plenty of alternatives... But I think that you will have the same chances of through check with snowflake and regular SK economy. (Just forget to mention that it is snowflake)

Its the same as a regular SK flight, SK plane (chances are no snowflake livery, just a regular MD 80), SK crew, lounges etc, the food you can buy is actually better than regular SK!
The only thing is they show no mercy if you miss the flight and have to rebook.

Correct, same good old route that I've done a zillion times by now, or so it feels...
The only thing is that I only need a one-way ticket this time for various reasons which made it slightly more complicated.
Tried the SAS webpage and the cheapest one-way ticket the SAS booking engine could find was an unrestricted C-class ticket for about 500 quid which is absolutely insane for two hours in the air!!

I checked Snowflake and found some pretty good deals, I guess I can accept to get only 25% points for once, there is only one flight per day though offering Snowflake tickets.
The other idea was to fly BMI to e.g. AMS or BRU and then buy a snowflake ticket from there (hence the interlining question) which appeared to be a good deal as well and it offered a lot more options.
Then there is always the opportunity to buy a return ticket and not using the return leg or buying a ticket with open-return for future use.

Haven't made up my mind yet.
Just wanted to hear in the meantime if there were any significant differences between buying a pure SAS economy ticket (or a BMI codeshare ticket as I often do) and a Snowflake ticket and also if I'm eligible to all gold benefits with a Snowflake ticket.

The biggest difference is you cannot choose e-ticket for BD-coded SK flights.(ie. ARN-LHR, MAN-ARN)

If you go for the return ticket you don't have to use the return leg as pointed out and then claim the fees and taxes back on your unused segment. I was checking prices from oslo to manchester. The price was NOK2500, where 1400 was for the ticket and almost 1100 in fees and taxes.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Eric

Can you really claim back taxes if not using the last segment?
I've done so on completely unused tickets (quite often actually), but never dared doing so on tickets for uncompleted last segments... Then they should really claim that they will charge the difference between the one-way charge and the return ticket...

Well... Snowflake is really just a few different fare codes in economy class, so no difference in food or anything like that... On some of the destinations that are now SK instead of the previous (flopping) pure "Snowflake" which are longer, I believe they offer a bit wider selection of food (instead of just the booring sandwiches).
But regarding your last comment, I believe it still depends on if it's at the Scandinavian hubs or an "outside" airport. (I know of cases where EBG has helped sort out some initial "problems". :))

Yes, because the taxes are not actually a part of the flight. Because it includes arrival fees, etc... they are not actually entitled to it seeing you are not on the plane. I believe airport fees are calculated on touch-down, so to speak (i.e. the airline hasn't been charged for you because you weren't there).

Eric

If you claim the taxes back for the unused return, I think it is only fair that the airline charge you for a one-way ticket!
Anyway, if you are a student and are looking to fly one-way, then check out Jetweb.

Yes, you're right that SAS don't have to pay the charges... But my worry is that they would then be allowed to claim that you are not following the rules of the ticket and therefore claim back the difference between a one-way and return... But it might be a good idea to try it out once! I will do next time I don't use the return on a ticket and report back whether I'm successful! Thanks for bringing it up so I'll actually try it next time!

(Reason why I might be sceptical is actually because of EuroTunnel's practices where they have really cheap offers that are much much lower than one-ways. They will always charge your credit card for the difference between a full price one-way and the return offer if you don't use the return trip... :()

i can't remember correctly this but think there have been a few cases regarding situations where airlines tried to charge people for not using the return. The case is that, an airline also overbooks on purpose and you may actually be offloaded the plane if no-one volunteers. I'm not an expert on law so what will happens I'm not sure about, but 99% sure that you can easily claim fees and taxes back.

Eric

The SK youth fares were a wonderful deal back when I were allowed to fly them. Fairly cheap tickets with fare-notes that were closer to a fully-flexible full-fare economy than the tickets in the same category. Always available too. Don't know what status is regarding them now.