I'm flying LHR-CPH-BKK on SK next month in Business Class.

1. As I am connecting from one 'non-schengen' flight to another, will I need to clear passport control at CPH.

2. Do all 'non-schengen' flights leave from the same area at CPH?

3. Is there a SAS lounge in this transit area, or will I need to clear passport control to access the lounge?

thanks in advance,
AJ

1. No
2. Yes
3. The lounges are in the Schengen area, but passport control is usually quick.

1) Yes. Flights from LHR arrives at pier A.
2) No. Flights to Asia and US departs from pier C, flights to UK from pier A.
3) You have to clear passport control at pier A. Usually less than 10 min. From the lounge you can see the passport control at pier C and adjust your departure from the lounge according to the amount of pax waiting.

Okay, so some conflicting answers above to questions!!

Anyways here goes question 4 now:

4. If "Flights to Asia and US departs from pier C, flights to UK from pier A"

Then is it possible to connect between these two non schengen areas, without clearing passport control, say thru some walkway/bridge/shuttle etc (like one would do at FRA between non-sch gates A & B.)

Reason I'm asking this is, becuase on the way back I have a Thai friend coming back with me to the UK. And unless one can connect like we do at say FRA, then he would need to apply for a Schengen visa...

5. Also is there any website to check which gate number is allocated to which flight at CPH airport. I did check the airport website http://www.cph.dk/CPH/UK/ but this only gave arrival/departure details and not gate numbers.

thanks,
AJ



[This message has been edited by AJLondon (edited Feb 18, 2004).]

Duplicate Post.

[This message has been edited by AJLondon (edited Feb 18, 2004).]

OK. SAS flight from Heathrow generally arrive in Concourse A these days, though it is by no means guaranteed. Concourses A and D feature separate passport control areas - I certainly don't know of any connecting tunnel between the two - they are at completely differnet ends of the airport so I would be amazed if there were.

I would guess that, in the case of your friend, SAS or the airport authority should be able to lay on some transport to get you over to Concourses C and D (which share the same "non-Schengen" area), or else get the immigration people to escort you from one zone to the other. I can't believe this doesn't happen fairly regularly, and CPH are generally very well organised.

Call SAS in London and ask for a note to be made in the PNR or a request to be put through.

Some SAS flights do continue to arrive at and depart from Concourse D, in which case your problem would go away. When they do and don't seems pretty random though I would hope that their Flight Ops people would be able to tell you which gate was scheduled for use on the day in question.

The lounge (and most of the shops and restuarants) are located in the Schengen zone. It is a VERY nice lounge and as a SEN you get to use the Scandinavian Lounge upstairs - knocks the socks off the LH lounges at FRA (or indeed the LH lounges almost anywhere!).

I still think the answers are:

1. No. Unless you have a passport or visa that allows you into Schengen, you won't be allowed into Schengen. All Schengen countries have to be able to separate Schengen and non-Schengen zones in their airports and allow transit non-Schengen to non-Schengen. I don't know exactly how they do this at CPH (maybe a bus transfer?), but they have to be able to do it.

2. Yes. All non-Schengen flights leave from the non-Schengen area. (Ok - that can be physically at different gates, but still it's the non-Schengen area).

3. The SAS and I think all other lounges are in the Schengen area, but passport control is usually quick if you qualify for Schengen entry.

Re: question 4, I think that without a Schengen visa your friend will be transported/escorted within the non-Schengen area so using the lounges will not be possible.

As someone who regularly flies in to CPH on SK from DUB - another non-Schengen city - I can say that we are regularly dumped in both Zones A and C - so passport control will depend on where you are dumped.

The evening connection to the BKK flight usually puts you right beside your connection.

Connections to SEA are a bit hit and miss - on a 50 minute connection, landed 20 mins late, I was dumped at a remote stand, bussed to Area A, and was then refused any help to get to area C. Screamed blue bloody murder when I found my flight had closed, but not departed - so they re-opened security at the gate for me. I was ready to slaughter all and sundry!

Okay further update.

SK has just messed up my schedule. Was originally booked with a nice connection:
Depart BKK 0020 - Arrive CPH 0630
Depart CPH 0845 - Arrive LHR 0945

Now there has been a "unforseen schedule change" (no reason given) which means the LHR flight now leaves as:
Depart CPH 1005 - Arrive LHR 1105
and giving me 3.5 wait at CPH and I had already arranged a meeting in LHR at 1130. I can't believe that the first SK flight on the day (Apr 6th) is leaving at 1005. But it is true according to the new timetable.

Now: Do I have any case in complaining about this "unforseen schedule change" affecting my travel plans. My ticket is a discounted business (D) class i.e. valid SK only. And what are they supposed to do in such a case?

Also as explained in the above posts, due to my Thai friend accompanying me, he will not be able to clear schengen passport controls, so we'll both be stuck in the non-schengen transit area (zone A i guess?) and unable to use the lovely Scandinavian lounge.

So is there much to do in terms of shops etc in that zone. also are there any restaurants, internet cafes etc in that section.

cheers
AJ

No there is hardly anthing at all on the non-Schengen side. I think there is one cafe type place -- that's about it and a small duty free. I am talking about the C/D concourse. I haven't been to the A concourse since Schengen was implemented.

Do they have a transit visa?

That timetable is odd... normally there is a very early flight to LHR just after 7 am.

I suspect that the reason is that they are using the plane that arrives from LHR around 9:30. (Departs LHR at 06:50. Maybe they are going to be short of aircraft due to maintenance?)

Flights from LHR arriving in A was news to me.

Surely they still depart from C/D? I remember flying twice from the upstairs D gates (101 etc.) to LHR last year.

I've flown LHR-CPH-BKK several times in the last six months. On all occasions all flights have operated to and from the C area, I thought it was just typical SAS efficiency but reading above, maybe I've just been lucky.

Is getting a Schengen visa such a problem for a Thai person? The Scandinavian lounge is worth a bit of hassle if you are going to be there for 3.5 hours. My memory is that there is nothing except a couple of snack and magazine outlets beyond passport control in area C.

On the outbound, did you take the 1700 flight (SK 506)out of LHR or the 1815 one (SK 1516) to connect to the BKK flight?

Just noticed that on 6-7APR SK501/502 are cancelled for some reason, and presents the above mentioned problems for AJLondon.
The problem could very well be as suggested by gnaget here, or it could be associated with Easter...

I think that you should be able to get some alternative means of transportation to London to get there in time for your meeting! The problem is that there are no real alternatives for you. BA has a flight that leaves at 07:05, but that will be very difficult to reach unfortunately (and they usually operate from the A-pier).
The next flight then is the SK flight at 10:05... (Interesting to see that bmi are still selling tickets for the SK507 flight at 08:45 that doesn't exist any longer..! )

But give SAS a call and see what they say...

I did just call SAS, and they were darned obnoxious about it. According to the agent AND his supervisor:

QUOTE "SAS reserves the right to change any flight schedules as it wishes, without providing any reason whatsoever. We, SAS, are not obliged to do anything additional for the customer in case of such an eventuality. Also SAS cannot guarantee that the current schedule will be the final schedule and it may change anytime in the future." UNQUOTE

Bl00dy marvellous customer service, don't you think. I was even willing to come back a day early on the 5th to attend my meeting. However, it is a discounted business (D) ticket booked thru expedia. So SAS tell me that they are unwilling to make any changes and I should speak to Expedia. Expedia says that the schedule change is not their problem and if I want to change the ticket, they would "happily" consider it for a change fee of �50 and 'of course' if D class was not available in their allocation, then I would also have to pay the supplement of only about �2000 to change it to a C class fare . Any grievances they say must be addressed to SAS. SAS say that my contract is not with them but with the travel agent, and any issues must be taken up with the travel agent...