I picked up one of the $249 roundtrip fares that SAS offered a couple of weeks ago (see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/002025.html for details of the offer).

For the dates that I had free, GVA and MXP weren't available. Sigh - had to settle for BRU instead - fewer miles, but better Beer.

This was my first trip on Orbitz and I was annoyed that they decided to not issue E-tickets, and instead charged me $15 to FedEx me paper tickets. I prefer e-tickets because their is nothing to lose or keep track of.

2/22/02
SK 0938 SEA-CPH, Business Class
767-300

Left the house at 4:10 for SEA, after having had a pretty bad day. Got about 5 miles from the house when I realized I had left all my Hotel info and maps back at the house. Had to turn around and battle my way back through traffic to get back home and pick that stuff up. Lost 25-30 minutes as a result. Annoying and stressful, but not to big of an issue since I live fairly close to the airport. Finally got to the SAS check-in desk at 5:10, and 1:45 before my flight. Stepped into the business class check-in line and waited about 5 minutes for the agent to finish up with the customer in front of me. Agent issued my wife and I our boarding passes for our pre-assigned seats, 29E and 29F. When asked if there were any better seats available, the agent said she couldn't do anything for me because the flight was full, but that I should ask at the gate.

Since SAS departs from the South terminal, my UA PremierExec card was of no use for bypassing the security lines. I waited about 5 minutes to get to the front of the line and then had to have a secondary inspection, because I set the metal detector off (as always). Once done with that, I got ready to board the train to the Southern Satelite, but realized I had misplaced my paper ticket (I still had the boarding pass). After a couple minutes of panic, I found it and got on the train.

By this point I was not in a good mood because my day had been crappy. My wife told me to relax and optimistically said that the trip should be great, because I've gotten all of the bad stuff out of my system. We got off the train and headed into the SAS Business Lounge.

Having never flown SAS before (I fly almost exclusively UA), I was concerned about lounge access in SEA. The UA RCC is on the other side of the airport and totally impractical for use by an SAS passenger. I was glad that SAS did have their own lounge despite only having one flight a day out of SEA.

The lounge itself suffered from two problems:

1 - Not enough chairs. Pretty much every chair was taken, although a lot of people were being inconsiderate and keeping their carry on bags on a chair next to them.

2 - Too small. The chairs that they did have were basically right on top of each other. Sure, you could sit your butt down on the chair, but there was no where to put your legs.

I understand that SAS has to arrive at the South Satelite, like all other international flights, to clear customs and immigration. I wonder why they can't depart from the North Satelite, like UA does. It can't be that much of a pain to taxi the plane over to the other set of gates. And it would make for much more convenient connections. Ideally they would then share the SEA RCC (hopefully expanded a little to handle the increased volume) with UA for lounge access, and have all Star Alliance stuff in one spot in SEA.

Anyways, when we flashed our UA 1P / Star Gold cards to gain access to the lounge, I asked the agent their if any better seats were available. She took our boarding passes and said, "I'll see what I can do. Your status should help." Those were the first encouraging words I had heard all day.

Hung out in the lounge for a bit, got a couple drinks and a snack, and a made a couple of phone calls. After a halfhour, the agent came over, told us she had put us in an aisle and window, and handed us boarding passes for 17G and 17H. Looking at the boarding passes it dawned on me that she hadn't just merely put us in an aisle and window, but she had given us operational upgrades to Business class (my first op-upgrades ever). My day was suddenly getting better

We went up to the gate and waited to board. It was obviously going to be a full plane tonight. Once we were on board, we made our way to our seats which we both an exit row and the last row in the business cabin. Recline seemed to be a little limited compared to the other business seats, but we certainly weren't ones to complain.

Amenity kits and Sony Noise cancelling headphones had already been distributed to every seat. The amenity kits were pretty standard stuff, but included a nice little booklet explaining jetlag and how to combat it. Shortly after takeoff, the crew distributed Blankets and Menus. The Menus were much nice than the ones that UA hands out in C (if they even bother to hand them out at all now days). Multi-page book, full color, with write-ups on each of the wines and meal choices. My carryon was already stuffed to capacity so I didn't have an opportunity to save it (sorry to all of you who are interested in seeing what was served). In addition to the appetizer and the salad courses, there was a choice of four main courses and three desert courses. We both chose the veal, which was excellent, and the chocolate cake (which was pretty good). All of the courses were served seperately from the cart, and both the food and the service were great - much better than UA in Business Class.

Prior to dinner the crew came by were personal 8mm video players and a library of movies to pick from. Before they hand the video player to you, the plug it in and verify that its functioning. Since I was seated in the last seat in Business Class, I got the last video player - but unfortunately it was broken. The Flight Attendant came back a few moments later. Apparently the FA working the other aisle had a couple extras, so I was all set up to watch "All the President's Men". I would rate SAS's entertainment in Business slightly better than United's because they still have noise cancelling headphones (However, I opted not to use them because my Sony NC-20s worked much better), but SAS's audio programming is weaker.

The seat, didn't match UAs. The seat width seemed better than UA's (I can't stand on the UA's 767 seat width in premium cabins) , which was a pleasant surprise, but the pitch or recline just didn't compare. One odd thing was that my wife managed to sleep on this red-eye (which she never manages to do because she can't get comfortable), and I couldn't (and I usually manage to). Quite odd, and neither of us could come up with an explanation. I settled in for a second movie instead and watched Bridget Jones's Diary.

The flight was pretty uneventful. At one point, I got up to take a stroll around the plane. I found only one empty seat on the whole plane, so it was definitely quite a full load. Our arrival into CPH was bumpy due to stormy weather but on time.

Once in CPH we began the long trek down to the SAS Scandanavian Lounge and waited for our next flight. The lounge was quite nice, with a fairly good selection of drinks and snacks.

2/23/02
SK 593 CPH-BRU, Economy Class
MD-80 Series

Near as I can tell, our flight was departing from Sweden. At least the walk from the SAS lounge felt to the gate made it feel like it was that far. The CPH airport, well nice, could really use some moving walkways. But I imagine that they won't ever put them in, because they want you to have to walk past all of the stores.

Our seats for this flight were way in row 31 behind the bulkhead. I usually don't care for bulkhead because of the limited foot room. Flight was quick, with a snack and beverage service. No inflight entertainment available.

We spent Saturday and Sunday nights at the Four Points Sheraton in Brussels, using 5000 StarPoints to pay for the stay. The property was a good value for the amount of points we spent. Went to the attached Swiss restaurant one night for Raclette (yum! - although not as good as we had in Chambery, France). They put Godiva chocolates on our pillows each night, which I thought odd for a Four Points. But if there is anywhere in the world that they would do that at a Four Points, I guess Belgium is the place.

Monday morning we caught the train to Brugges and spent Monday and Tuesday nights out there. Beautiful town, a lot of fun to explore. Definately more interesting than Brussels.

Wednesday morning we took the train from Brugges to the Brussels airport. Once at the airport we checked in at the counter that was shared by SK/LH/OS, and made our way out to the SAS lounge. The SAS lounge in BRU is a small, temporary facility. As such they only allow SAS Business passengers and SAS EuroBonus Gold members to use it. They told us that we had to use the LH lounge instead, which was upstairs from SAS's lounge. The LH lounge was ok, but could really use a better snack selection.


2/27/02
SK 594 BRU-CPH, Economy Class
737NG

As I was boarding the flight, I bumped into the rack of newspapers that they had setup at the doorway, scattering them all over the entrance to the plane. As I bent down to help pick them up, the strap on my carry on broke. The strap broke because it was heavily loaded with lots of beer and chocolate. Fortunately it fell only six inches or so, and nothing was damaged. Also fortunate was that they didn't notice this and make me check the bag (because although its size was fine, it was way over the weight restrictions). They said they'd take care of the newspapers, and sent me on my way to my seat, which I struggled to with the heavy bag.

This was my first flight on a 737 Next Generation. They didn't say which one it was, but I'm fairly certain that it had to be a 737-600, given its shortness. It appeared that the seats had laptop power connectors in them which surprised me. But no inflight entertainment available.

2/27/02
SK 937 CPH-SEA, Economy Class
767-300

Unfortunately this flight was no-where close to sold out, and was configured with two economy cabins and one business cabin (the SEA-CPH flight had two business, one economy), so no shot at an operational upgrade today, but they did move us to better seats, from something like 148AB to 15AB, which I much appreciated because my arm was very sore from lugging the beer around. The flight was quite late leaving CPH, Probably 30-50 minutes.

The bulkhead seats in front of us 14AB were unoccupied, and I jumped into them as soon as the seat belt sign went off. These bulkhead seats were quite good, lots of leg room, and a substantially cut-out that gives you plenty of room for your feet. The bulkhead on the other side did not look as good. The center three seats in the last row of the first economy cabin (row 17CDE, I think) didn't appear to have much recline, but they had acres of leg room (more that our Business class seats on SEA-CPH did).

The meal service was good, but the food was so-so. I realize that they are a Scandanavian airline and expect the food to reflect this, but for North American flights they need to have meal choices that will appeal to customers on both sides of the Atlantic. The main course was fine, but I really question the decision to have pickled herring and egg as the only appetizer.

The inflight entertainment was no match for UA. UA has in seat video on internatinonal 767s and 777s and better audio selection. But I didn't mind too much as I slept for some of the flight.

As for seat comfort, it was quite good for economy. Seemed darn near to UA's E+ (or a long, long way from UA's E-).

We arrived in SEA early and cleared immigration quickly. Howevere customs was frustrating. All of the initial bags out were SAS crew bags. Only after those were done did passenger bags start coming out. I think it should be the other way around. After all, where are the crew going except to their hotel? But the paying passengers are often going to meetings or what not. My bag was one of the last ones out of the chute, prompting me to look at my Star Alliance Baggage tag and mumble, "Priority my *ss." Usually I've had good luck with priority tags, but not today.

Proceeded to wait in the customs line which had grown quite long by this point. Once I cleared customs, I had to wait for ever to re-clear security, even though I wasn't making a connection and just wanted out of the airport. When will SEA get a real international arrivals facility when non-connecting passengers can just get dumped into the non-secure area of the main terminal, like every other decent airport does. I was selected for a secondary bag screening, and they tore completely through my bag twice, running through the Xray twice and the explosives wipe test twice. Quite frustrating given that I just wanted to leave the airport. Next time I arrive Internationally at Seatac, if they ask me to do a secondary security inspection, I'm tempted to refuse and ask to be escorted out of the terminal to the non-secure area.

Overall, I was pretty happy with my flights on SAS, and will probably consider them in the future for my flights to Europe. The only downside is that I get fewer miles with them as it is a much more direct route than flying UA via ORD or IAD as I usually do, and I don't get my 100% bonus miles that I would on UA. But because it is more direct, it makes for a quicker trip, and gives me the opportunity of a late afternoon / evening departure out of SEA, which UA does not.

Good trip report. Love Brugges! How could anyone not love it?

"and I don't get my 100% bonus miles that I would on UA. But because it is more "

You don't receive the 100% bonus on other Star Alliance carriers? that alone would turn me away right there. FYI, you do on AA and Oneworld. How could you not?

Sad about having to do security when you arrive. then to double check you.

Thanks for all the info. Have wondered about SAS. When I cashed in my UA miles, I looked at SAS and LH. I chose LH cause they had First and it is a 744. Congrats on the op upgrade, you scored.

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Michael
AA PLT,1 MLN Miles+
Hilton Gold
Sheraton Gold
Marriot Silver

Amazing how some things make you forget about all the cr*p you've just gone through during the day. Congrats on the operational upgrades.

Thanks for the trip report.

Thanks for a great trip report! Great luck getting that op-upgrade on the outbound -- that had to turn your day around!

I've taken the SEA-CPH route on SAS a couple times and that will probably be the last. My experiences were awful and involved cramped seating, drunk neighbors, cold crew members, poor entertainment, and strange meal choices (and I'm Scandinavian!). <sigh>

Nevertheless, perhaps they've improved somewhat since I last got on an SAS flight (about 1-2 years ago).

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"What do you mean you didn't get miles for that?!"

Yes, this is easily the dumbest thing happening at an otherwise pretty efficient airport. Last time I cleared immigration and customs in SEA it took me 15 minutes to get through the security re-screen. They need to fix this.

This was just brought up within the last week in the Airports SEA forum. It seems security rescreen has only been there for 2 years (Ihad just assumed it had to be since pre-flight security was required).

For what it's worth, the Pittsburgh terminal which is some 14 years old now was built in the same manner - international arrivals exit into the airside. SEA and PIT are the only 2 airports I'm aware of with this feature.

Everyone in * has their own way of doing it. On UA the only way you get it on non-UA metal is if you are flying a UA code share on LH.

I know that AA does offer it, but they have the whole problem of not getting anything at all on BA trans-atlantic, which is even worse than what UA offers with *.

[This message has been edited by SEA-Flyer (edited 03-01-2002).]

Great report, thanks!

I am heading out to GVA next week on the same promo, but may not be able to make the trip because of work constraints.

But as a 1P, I now have my hopes up for an op-upgrade.

Good report. FYI, you could take UA to ORD and then connect to a SK flight going to CPH for the extra miles.

CLE is the same. All passengers exit international arrivals in the middle of the A concourse and have to be rescreened.

Interesting report!

MCO international arrivals is the same way as well...

nice report !!

Add CVG to the list of airports where everyone must clear security after customs and immigration.