sydunipete

I live in Australia, but for the last year or so I've been travelling extensively in Europe (it's a hard life). I'm based in Stockholm so I've experienced plenty of SAS flights, but LH has recently offered some pretty good fares so it was interesting to compare their product.

I'm *A Gold (TK) but on one route there was no viable *A option so I decided to give Ryan Air a shot (shudder).

All flights were taken in the first half of 2015.

My previous trip reports can be found here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-business.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...me-y-ba-j.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...tly-j-f-y.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-paradise.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-long-way.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...evitation.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...less-bird.html

Pangro

Shudder indeed... Will be interesting to see if you fly from Västerĺs or Skavsta.

sydunipete

I'm writing the rest of the report now. Bloody Internet Explorer crashed on me so I get to retype it.

BTW I've heard Ryan Air is planning to offer flights from ARN. Hooray!

sydunipete

SK689 ARN-LIN 737-800 LN-RRH

The morning of March 1st started with heavy frost and below zero temperatures (again). But I guess this is Sweden and it's still officially Winter.

The airport was busy this morning with long queues at kiosks and bag drops. I found out later it was the middle of Swedish school holidays. I’ve never seen Arlanda like this before, so I went to the Gold check-in desk and there were two people in front of me, both with problems, so it took a bit of time.

One of the best things about Sweden is DAIM chocolate bars. So I bought a bag of DAIM for my family it Italy (another slow queue). At least the express queue at security worked well so I was safely ensconced in the lounge about 30 minutes are arriving at the airport.

The breakfast selection at the SAS lounge is fairly basic but certainly enough to get you started for the day. Usually there is plenty of space in the lounge, but at peak periods it can briefly get quite full. WiFi is simple and works well. SAS advertises the logon details around the lounge rather than keeping them a closely held secret like some places.

At 10am more substantial food offerings were made available. Chicken and rice salad (pretty average) and mushroom soup (excellent) were added to the menu. You need to take care with the beer options. There is both alcohol free and normal beer available and in Sweden it can be very difficult to tell the difference between the two, especially if you leave your reading glasses by your seat.

At the gate passengers seems to be a 50/50 mix of Italian and Swedish (excuse me for the racial profiling here). The mix lead to some interesting variations if queuing practices no doubt frustrating and/or bewildering to both nationalities.

Boarding started a bit later than advertised at 10:55, doors closed at 11:12. Shortly after the Captain announced a delay in loading some heavy items. Push back was at 11:33.

At some remote corner of the airport the Captain parked the plane and announced gate personnel had observed some liquid on the top of the aircraft and engineers would be needed to check it out. Shortly after we were informed that engineers had determined that this aircraft has a black satellite received (rather than white) and this is what the gate personnel had observed.

A quick U-turn and the Captain announced we would fly at maximum possible speed to make up time. We taxied back past T5 at 11:54 and took off at 11:56.

There was lots of legroom in the exit row but the seat was really hard and I got a bad case of numb-bum. Surely all seats can’t be this hard. Maybe next time I cram my 192cm body into a smaller seat for a more comfortable ride.

DAIM was cheaper to buy onboard (60Kr or 2 bags for 99Kr) than at the airport “Duty Free” (65Kr).

Landed 14:20 and luggage arrived at a new record for Italy : 14:33.

The transfer from LIN into Milano Centrale was just outside arrivals (of this small airport). Just fight your way through the taxi touts and give the bus man 5 Euro and the 25 minute ride into town is yours.

SK682 FCO – CPH A321 OY-KBB

Prioritised check-in was available and lounge pass was issued in both our names. We saw another couple where the partner was turned away because their name wasn’t on the invitation. (How does online checkin work??)

The was an Italian beer I hadn’t seen before and it was good. The lounge itself was consistently quite crowded in the room near the entrance door, but further around to the left is another, nice room which was never as full.

Boarding time on our BP was shown as 11:20, but on another BP I saw 10:50. FIDS said 11:00. I won – it started at 11:20 and was complete by 11:37. The flight was full and push back was 11:45 and take off at 11:56.

There was a very nervous flyer in seat 1C and I presume was part of some program because crew took really good care of here and the Captain came out twice to have a little chat. Normal SAS service included tea, coffee, water or BOB. The Captain turned on the smooth landing function of the aircraft (for the nervous flyer I presume) and we barely felt the ground at 13:59. Gate at 14:11

SK1434 CPH – ARN 737-683 LN-RPG

We just had time to visit the lounge in between the last flight and this one. There was a very good thai flavoured soup, rice salad with strips of meat, chips, cookies and lots of bread choices. Beer and wine on-tap were the main let-downs. WiFi was pretty slow, but the lounge was quite busy at that time.

SAS is really great at sending out timely SMS messages as soon as there is a change to boarding time. This happened frequently over these two flights even when changes were just a few minutes.

Boarding started at 15:00 and the flight was nearly full. 2 people behind me both had seat 9C allocated and a spare seat was found for one of them. There was a pilot sitting in a seat next to us. The poor guy looked rather bored with it all.

The Captain advised us the APU wasn’t working so the left motor (I don’t think that’s the exact word he used) would start prior to push back and so it may be a little noisy.

Push back was at 15:20 and take off at 15:32. The 737 had much tighter legroom than the A320. Normal service was provided on this very short flight. Landed 16:28, Gate 16:31 and luggage was available at 16:57 (Milano LIN was quicker!)

sydunipete

LH2321 / SK3655 A320 D-AIZE

The flights were sold by Skiddoo with SK flight numbers but operated by LH. What a complicated world!

At Arlanda LH use the SK lounge so I won’t comment more upon it here. The flight was scheduled 07:50 – 10:00. Boarding was complete at 07:44. The plane had a modern looking interior with very slim seat backs and a magazine pocket high up giving you more knee room (or more seats in the plane). +1 for LH.

There were 3 rows of business class (Euro Business) with a real curtain, unlike SAS Plus. +1 for LH. Newspapers were available upon boarding. Push back at 07:47, take off at 07:58.

A snack was served (unlike SAS teat / coffee . water). That’s another +1 for LH. In this case it as a pain au chocolate loaded with preservatives. The use by date still had another 6 months remaining!

FA English was universally excellent and very proper and accent free. Surprisingly better than SAS.

Smooth landing at 09:53 then bus to G gates. -1 from LH. Arrived at terminal 10:09.

I always find the Senator lounges busy and today was no exception. We went to what looked like the quietest one and it was impossible to get 2 seats together. Food / drink offerings were average until 11am when the lunch options appeared. WiFi worked well. I have to say the Senator lounges are a -1 to LH.

LH1802 / SK3342 MUC – MAD A321 D-AIDF

Seat seats as the A320 with maybe more legroom. There were lots of newspapers in different languages and the extra leg-room seat was great. Exit rows were not available to be booked on-line (unlike SAS).

Flight scheduled for 11:55 – 14:35. Boarding was complete at 11:51, push back 11:53 and take off at 12:05 (but not before a passenger felt the need to stand up during taxi and retrieve something from the overhead locker.

A full hot meal was served. It wasn’t overly big but it was the best tasting free airline economy meal I’ve had in years. 3 rounds of drinks were offered! +2 for LH.

Landed at 14:22 then passengers started a round of applause. Madrid has a long taxi and again a person got out of their seat.

We arrived at gate T22 at 14:34 and the last bag arrived at 14:58 but one of ours failed to arrive. After years of talking about how good luggage handling is great at ARN we found out it didn’t even make the first flight. It was then rerouted ARN-CPH-FRA-MAD and would arrive in about an hour. -1 to SK.

We were advised just to sneak back in through the exit doors. I was surprised at this, but sure enough it was common practice. Even airport staff using their staff swipe card would allow people to tail gate into the arrivals (hence departure) section of the airport. This clearly makes a mockery of all that security when you arrive at the airport all through Europe! Minus about a million to MAD airport.

LH180 MAD-MUC A320 D-AIPE

There was a short queue at security except half-way through scanning a passenger’s bags the X-ray operator got up and walked away searching cupboards at each security point. I thought he was looking for something to help him complete a search (rubber gloves maybe?). But he was just looking for his bottle of water which he drank before walking off to find another operator to continue the scanning. A few bewildered passengers just stood there watching it all. The passenger who’s bags were halfway through the scanner was particular (not) amused.

The VIP lounge was good. It was spacious with plenty to eat and drink. There was a login provided to the airport free WiFi which overcame the 30 minute time limit for the general public. TV dinners were available for reheating in the microwave) operated by staff.

The lounge dragon required to site my Gold Card. This is twice now I’ve been asked for it at contract lounges in Europe (despite the details being shown on the BP). So I now carry it with me. Yet another piece of plastic in my wallet!

Boarding started late at 11:45 and a change of aircraft type saw my extra leg-room seat turn into a normal one, 3 rows from the back and surrounded by babies and toddlers. I can’t take a point off LH for this … can I?

Doors closed 11:57 and take off delayed because one runway was closed. Take off at 12:17. The Captain announced good tailwinds and predicted maybe an on-time arrival.

A delicious hot chick lunch was served, beer sizes were big and a second round of drinks was offered. All excellent compared with SAS.
We landed in light rain at 14:41 and arrived gate G20 at 14:47.

LH2418 MUC-ARN A321 D-AIDC
Boarding commenced at 15:20 from just about the most distant gate from where our incoming flight landed. We made it without a problem, but there was no time for the lounge. Our bags made it too. +1 LH.

Boarding was complete at 15:34, push back 15:36 and take off 15:49.

A very tasty chicken and feta cheese sandwich was provided with drinks.

Good tailwinds and we landed at 17:31. Gate 17:35. Luggage at 17:50 and we caught the shuttle bus to the Birkenstock long-term carpark where we arrived at 18:10.

sydunipete

FR5318 SCQ-MAD 737-Next Gen EI-DYK

There weren’t a lot of options to get away from Santiago de Compostela. Last time I took Aer Lingus to Dublin, but this time Ryan Air provided the best option for a late evening flight back to MAD then the previously reported LH flight MAD-MUC-ARN.

The timing of the flight wasn’t the greatest 22:25 – 23:40 but it would have to do.

I booked the airport transfer from the Ryan Air website included in all those upselling ads they bombard you with. It turns out the transfer was cheaper to buy onboard than from the website and it was a hassle having to print the transfer “boarding pass”. I’ll file that one away for future reference Mr Ryan Air.

We arrived at the small airport about 2 ˝ hours prior to departure and the Ryan Air check-in was open as they had a number of flights departing. There was a very short queue at security – which is always the case when you have plenty of time.

There was a small duty free shop with the normal selection. I found a powerpoint under an “in-floor” outlet and maximised my use of the 30 minutes (only) free WiFi. For the technically minded it must have been MAC based rather than cookie based so I couldn’t find an easy way around it with my iPhone. Come-on guys, what’s wrong with offering a decent amount of time?

This was the last flight of the day so they repurposed the non-schengen gate for this flight – I presme because it had more room. Boarding commenced as the inbound flight arrived (it was early). So boarding passengers were queuing in one jetway before the deplaning passengers even started to disembark. But it was less cattle-like than my EasyJet experience a few years earlier from Bordeaux.

Boarding was via the tarmac and was complete at 22:15 and doors closed at 22:10. Taxi started at 22:29. The rather bright canary yellow and blue interior was looking somewhat dated and tired. But it would have been worse if the advertising panels had been full.

Upon boarding a FA greeted me, noting my height said he would move me to a seat with more leg room when boarding was complete. Wow! That’s good service : I’ve never heard that before (except at check-in). But I never saw him again – so any extra service points were deducted again.
The safety card was a sticker on the back of the seat back in front and the in-flight magazine was distributed to those who requested it.

It was a short flight so there was just a very quick trolley run, with very few buyers then time for descent into MAD.

We landed at 23:18 to a small round of applause and an on-time fanfare was played over the PA during the long taxi. During the flight there were no announcements from the flight deck.

We arrived at the gate at 23:33 and luggage arrived at 23:41. I guess we might have been the last flight here too and the baggage handlers wanted to go home. Regardless +1 to Ryan Air.

sydunipete

So how do I feel about the two *A airlines?

Of course fares and timetable convenience have a lot to do with it, but the LH aircraft and in-flight meal offerings are much appreciated.