oliver2002

The fact that alcohol continues to be atrociously expensive in the Nordics kills any curfew anyway The early curfew in England bought forth the binge drinking, so it obviously doesn't help. I recall Berlin being the most liberal city in Germany for having no curfew. Nowadays the restrictions are largely gone in Germany but no one really bothers to get a drink at 2:30am.

GUWonder

The large difference in the expense of drinking store-purchased liquor vs drinking bar-purchased liquor seems to be a substantial factor in drinking habits. Drinking lots of alcohol before going out to (or on the way to) party at bars or clubs seems to be more typical in Stockholm than NYC.

GUWonder

I am pretty sure I've seen drinks ordered at bars in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo even up to at least 2am on weekends. Can't say a 2-3am cut-off surprises me, even in parts of the US.

FlyerTalker01565

Alcohol is not that expensive in Denmark, especially not relative to the overall price level. It's largely a cultural thing, too - Danes don't trust the authorities to decide when or where they can and cannot drink (unless the authorities say "everywhere, all the time").

That's not entirely true, Oli. The world would be missing a whole subculture had Berlin not had its hyper-hedonistic club scene, which happens 24/7 pretty much. While it may not matter to most, the house/techno scene revolving around Tresor, E-werk, WMF, Berghain/Panorama Bar was world class and I'm sure other places have taken over in the 10s.

FlyingMoose

The average Swede stockpiles so much liquor at home, its really unseen anywhere else. Frequent trips to Ĺland, Denmark and Germany to avoid the Swedish taxes are very common, even done as tours. Not only does the system not work, the amount of Swedish money spend on foreign excise tax and VAT through liquor purchases is insane. The country and system would be better off if liquor pricing was normalised and returned to the free market. Not being able to buy liquor past 3PM on a Saturday or at all on Sunday means that people stockpile, and they will stockpile far more than they would consume in a normal system.

Its not so much about going to get a drink at 2:30am, its about not being thrown out at 2:30am. Often not because of curfews but because the places just close and don't care about the fact it is still filled with customers. This is madness everywhere else in the world. Especially when those customers are paying 100-150SEK per drink at least. You don't close a profitable revue generating venue because the bartender feels like he wants to go home. It is understandable that kitchens close at certain hours, but bars, really? Close when the last person goes home.

oliver2002

I didn't dispute that. Berlin is what it is. My point is that the rest of Germany now also doesn't have any curfew.

FT Guest xyzpdq

To change the topic.

Booked on CPH-MIA on a Monday - would like to change it to the day before.
Knew I had to go via OSL then, but OK.

BUT SK's schedule does not provide any flights from CPH on Sunday morning to catch the MIA flight from OSL (which is wide open). The opposite is true. IF the flight was to fly out of Copenhagen I could have left OSL that same morning and still catch the MIA flight.

I realize (and so does SAS) that early Sunday morning flights between the three capitals are not the most busy and profitable. But why the heck have an IC flight which you can not connect to from the largest airport in the region?

ksu

Because SAS isn't really a three-hub airline, it is a one-and-a-half-hub airline. Only CPH, and to a much lesser extent ARN, are treated as international hubs. OSL is an important hub for DOM NO flights, but the non-stop international flights from OSL are basically for passengers originating, or with final destination in Norway. The set-up for INT-INT connections at OSL has been rather rudimentary, and most SK INT non-stops at OSL has been duplicates of parallell flights from the hubs proper. The exceptions have mostly been typical leisure routes, typically to Spanish destinations. The MIA flight is mostly a leisure flight as well.

As early Sunday flights are virtually non-existent on SK there even aren't connecting flights from DOM NO origins to this flight on Sundays. Even passengers from the "Big 3" (SVG, BGO, TRD) have to overnight at OSL to catch this flight on Sundays (which probably also explains why the flight is wide open)

FT Guest xyzpdq

So SK has a 340 running OSL-MIA just to serve OSL?

Does not make sense at all - seems that the Sunday flight should move.

And there is no way I would leave my family one day earlier just for this. Then it is another carrier.

ksu

Well, the same plane serves MIA-OSL on Saturdays with connections to the rest of Norway. It could very well be that the load on that Saturday flight is so good that it compensates for the lack of connecting traffic on the Sunday OSL-MIA. This would be similar to seasonal differences in loads and prices on flights OSL-LPA vs. LPA-OSL.

There is a similar problem with the ARN-LAX flight. On Sundays there is no connection OSL-ARN into this flight (there is CPH-ARN, though). SAS' thinking is probably that as long as they can offer one-connection routings through EWR or other SK gateways, they won't lose that much traffic.

FlyingMoose

The ARN-LAX flight isn't suffering from load issues though, while I've never flown it on a Sunday, there is no lack of Norwegians on the days that I have.

I'm also pretty sure that numerous passengers will opt for an over-night at an airport if that means that they can avoid EWR and on their way to the West-Coast. Same day EU-US and East-West Coast flights aren't pleasant, even when flying Business.

FT Guest xyzpdq

Agree you have a point on the inbound load (that is also wide open - but who knows).
Connecting through IAD/EWR/ORD will not get me in before late evening/past midnight. Which causes a miss on the dinner appointment.
Oh well. Not the end of the world - but my point was that this multiple hub certainly has some challenges for passengers and SAS alike.

FlyerTalker01565

Yeah, did this once - never ever again. The hassle of EWR combined with usual American inefficiency meant arriving in LA completely exhausted. I'm pretty sure I would've been able to go out with a CPH-LHR-LAX itinerary instead, but CPH-EWR-LAX meant straight to bed.

fassy

I usually avoid connecting in the US as well but if you go without checked luggage and only have to connected to short domestic hop along the east coast a connection in EWR isn't that bad and from my experience (doing that multiple times a year for the last 5 years) has improved significantly. For a EU to Westcoast flight I would never change connect at the east cost or Chicago. The domestic US service is just too terrible for a flight over 2 hours...

Tango Alpha

That specific problem seems to be solved with S17. From March 26. there is a Sunday flight CPH-OSL at 8.10 (connecting time 0.40).

EDIT: That possibility is gone again with W17.