Advice for possible switch in FF
 

Good day all.

I am currently a sophomore in college at the University of Wyoming and am considering doing a study abroad in Europe next year. It looks like I will be studying in either Sweden or Finland (most likely Sweden, and even more likely in Vaxjo, Sweden).

I was wondering if anyone can give me advice for FF programs in Star Alliance. I am currently an elite on United. If I fly on Scandinavian will I get EQMs for my UA account and does anyone think I should start an account with SAS? Also, can anyone tell me about Vaxjo? :D

I am looking at just staying with United and anytime I fly SAS I will enter my UA number. I will only be there for about 6 months, but if I like really like it then I might stay longer.

Just thinking and am asking for some different thinking.

I studied one year in Växjö three years ago and liked the city and surroundings a lot. It is very close to nature and I found the people to be very friendly. What I liked about the university was that it was very easy to get in touch with your teachers, and you often ran in to them off hours. The thing I missed the most was that since it is a pretty young university, it lacked the social life and traditions I like at older universities.

If you have any specific questions, I'll be glad to help either here or by PM!

PappaG I would have placed you at Lund caliber, not Vaxjo. :D

Besides the more modern campus, I can see why Lund is preferred. The construction zone that Vaxjo campus used to be three years ago seems to be mostly part of the recent past. But there's still building going on near where those offices are on the edge of the campus grounds (i.e., closest to where you start to head toward the path along the lake that leads from campus area toward Nettos on the way to Vaxjo Centrum).

I know Vaxjo a bit -- mostly from jogs/biking around the lake closest to town or watching people trying to play basketball on the campus basketball court (nearest the ICA found on the other side of the "underpass" from campus) or play tennis on the courts closest to the administrative building.

Vaxjo -- whether in town proper or way out at the campus area -- is a friendly place (even if not hopping). Besides the migration museum and the church right next to the rather scenic (small) lake in town center, there's not much to see in Vaxjo proper. Night life is certainly limited to a handful of places in town center or to the campus "bar" sort of on the hill overlooking the tennis courts.

If you are looking for amusement in Vaxjo and are going to be around the campus area and have flexibility in timing I recommend checking out the "initiation" into the various "nations" or other fraternity/sorority type groups they have when the school year starts. People dressed in colors with paint on their face and running around with capes in organized fashion provides cheap entertainment. Gnopps, perhaps you could elaborate upon how that works? :D

If you are interested in horseback riding, there's a stable right at the edge of Vaxjo campus (the far side of it vis-a-vis town center) -- near the tall orange smokestack-kind of structure -- that may still consider hiring out their horses.

You could consider flying into Vaxjo airport and take Flygbussen (bus) which even does drop-off/pick-up right at campus. It can be faster than taking the train from CPH and sometimes having to change at Almhult (or is it Alvesta???).

I looked and I don't think flying into Vaxjo is much cheaper than flying into Stockholm and then making my way to Vaxjo. So what I will most likely do is fly directly into Vaxjo from Stockholm on SAS.

Now the problem is travel within Europe: can I take a train from Vaxjo to Stockholm and then Stockholm to Munich/Berlin/Vienna/Zurich/etc...?

CPH is closer to Vaxjo than Stockholm. Taking the train from Vaxjo to Stockholm to continue on to trains to the places you mentioned doesn't gel well given the geography. From Vaxjo to those places, going via Stockholm serves no purpose if sticking to trains or even flying.

As GUWonder noted Vaxjo is closer to CPH than Stockholm. About 2.5 hours by train. But for travel within Europe, trains are going to be both slower and more expensive than flying.

There are lots of low cost flights out of MMX as well as CPH. You´ve got Ryan Air from MMX,and can get an idea about the options out of CPH here: (Air Berlin is not on the list, but they are going to start flying from CPH as well)

http://www.cph.dk/CPH/UK/MAIN/Before...ets/Europe.htm

And since I don't know anything about Vaxjo, I'm gonna give some advice on the FF part :p.

Stay with UA MP, and UA, LH or US metal, mostly because SK only gives 25% miles on their cheapest fares (incl. W class). This includes all *A FF programs.

To earn most miles, fly UA/LH through LHR, MUC, AMS, BRU, CDG, ZRH or FRA. Or you could fly through PHL and fly US Airways new route direct to Stockholm. As you probably know, you get UA MP elite bonus (125% for 2P) also on all US flights. You also get the elite bonus on LH transatlantic.

But as a MP member you know its important to fly UA metal because of Economy plus and lifetime miles if you plan to become a million miler! ;)

Have fun in Sweden

Beg your pardon? Since when?

It was announced sometime back and starts in June IIRC.

If using USAirways Dividend Miles program, some bonus miles too:

http://www.usairways.com/pro/specials/eur_intros.htm

I believe I was one of the first persons to present a USAirways-issued * Gold-equivalent card to access the SK London Lounge while flying coach. (The ground personnel were so fascinated by it. :D )

I guess the SK ARN Lounge staff will recognize the USAirways-issued * Gold equivalent card without making as much of a "scene" by the end of the summer. :D

It still beats me why US did not opt to fly ARN-CLT instead of going head on with CO, SK and (at least for now) MH to the New York (Philly) area. Also CLT is IMHO a much nicer gate point and airport.

Oh well.

DL is doing ATL from CPH soon, I'm curious to see how that route will be doing. PHL is not a bad connectiong point for US. Flight is short and you have many oportunities to connect to Florida and other parts of the US. You then avoid EWR which is the worst airport in NYC and connectiontimes at PHL are a lot shorter than EWR. I remember flying OSL-EWR-ORD many times on SK907 connectiontime was almost 2 hours. I rarely made it and had to wait forever on stand by :td: :td:

CLT acts as an O/D airport for customers from fewer metro areas than PHL. People from the NYC area and DC/Baltimore occassionally head up to PHL to fly overseas. I used to think it was wacko, but families in 6 states do -- rather routinely, although not popular -- drive/train to PHL and fly from there sometimes to save money. Harder to do that with CLT.

According to themselves, it is going really good. But you never know... See short article in danish:
http://www.takeoff.dk/news.cfm?nNews...0&nNewsId=7228

So now that we have a Swede directing a Norwegian to read Danish, perhaps an American can request a full translation? :D

Would a country sales manager ever say to in-country media that a new route is selling poorly? (I too am a bit hesitant to take sales people peddling their wares at face value.)

I think this route will do well seasonally, and I'm going to use it to get from CPH to EZE (and SCL if sent) via ATL.