I mostly fly on BA, and just recently got gold status. SAS were offering a status match to tempt people in as they were leaving Star Alliance and becoming members of Sky Team. As a result I needed to take five flights to confirm that status. Rather than book the cheapest possible set of flights, I took this as an opportunity to visit a couple of places. This time, Prague.
I'm also seeing if train travel to the airport will work for me.
So Friday at 06:00 it's time to set off. I was planning to walk to the station, but it was cold dark and wet, so I got a �6 taxi ride instead.
Then the train from Stoke to Manchester Airport via Picadilly.
The train journey was fine, not long to wait for a train. But it probably took me 2.5hrs door to door when it's just under 60 minutes in a taxi. I saved �80 going there and back by train but I'm not sure it's a saving I would repeat all the time.
The walk from the train station to T1 was fine and due to my newly minted SAS status I could use the fast track and there weren't many people ahead of me, no secondary, nice staff, no dramas to get through. But SAS don't get lounge access at T1 and I wasn't going to pay for it (knowing those lounges well already). So I breakfasted at Giraffe. First time not in a lounge in a very long time but I survived it.

Reading the novel Goulash, set in Prague, to go along with the trip. It's light, easy to read and has references to things I would see and hear on the trip, so it served it's purpose, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone to read just for the sake of it.

MAN-CPH left on time with the SAS phone app giving accurate gate information and other miracles I am unused to as a BA customer.

I knew I would have a long layover in CPH, but knew I definitely *would* have access to the lounge there.

On arrival, you need to go through passport control unless you are departing on a non-schengen flight. So I entered Denmark and headed for the lounge. The Gold lounge is basically just the upstairs part of a joint lounge with the normal business lounge. Not much to choose between them I feel. You get entry directly with your boarding pass scanned at electronic gates, so no need to interact with the gaurdians.

There was a small area with spirits, but wine was available at several location around the lounge and a premium cafe for those who prefer coffee to booze. The food offering changes twice while I was there, with these red hot dogs making an appearance and very popular.




Another interesting feature of the lounge was these netted off loungers, so you could have a bit of privacy.

Then I spotted something disturbing on the screen...

This did me no favours and resulted in the gate coming up on screen twice to different places which I ended up walking to.
CPH is a bigger airport than it seems. I am pretty certain I have seen all of it now.
Giving up and returning to the lounge I discovered that the flight had had a medical emergency and returned to base, and then had to get its original passengers to where they were going before getting to CPH and picking up passengers for PRG. Ah well, someone is definitely having a worse day than me.
Arrived about 2.5 hours late into Prague and although I had intentions of getting public transport to the hotel, in the end I just opted for the taxi.

The Hotel Elite was very centrally located, and had a great breakfast buffet and omlette station. But it was chosen for price and location not for luxury. I appear to be in the loft, but on floor 2 which you have to take the lift up to floor 3 to find...

Next morning I did a 6 hour walking tour and boat trip. So that's the main sights ticked off.

Just finished in time to get freshened up and walk to the ballet in the State Opera.
Coppelia. It was very well done.
The theatre is a good scale and very lavishly decorated. And the price of drinks and snacks was pretty reasonable (when compared to London).

I did book a restaurant for dinner after the show, but I think I would have done better to get some sandwiches from the corner shop, so it won't get a review here.

Next morning was a relatively early checkout and walk to the National Museum which is near the Opera house and the main train station.

Quite a fun general purpose museum and great views from the cuppola at the top.

From there, just a relatively short walk to the train station and the airport express bus which was very convenient and cheap.

Not sure how many status pax they get at PRG. The fast lane was utterly deserted, I had to disturb the gaurdians from their important phone browsing to get in. Literally no-one else there the whole way from entry to exit of security. But the main security didn't look too bad either, so probably no real need for fast track. But if you've got it, why not use it?

No lounge for SAS in Prague, but I paid for entry to the Erste lounge anyway and it was a busy contract lounge that nobody would really miss. But it did keep me out of the main terminal until ready to board.

At least one person on FT would be happy with the provided reading material...

On arriving back to CPH en-route to MAN it was a very short connection, so I asked the Cabin crew if they had any advice.
They said it will be fine, just go through passport control and you should make it in no time.
Another one of my fellow passengers was in the same boat, so we jogged off the plane to passport control, through there and up the escalators and along to get to the gate. Then another passport and ticket check before going downstairs to the gate.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the cabin crew from my previous flight emerging the other side of a glass barrier.
We had docked at D1 on arrival and the departure gate was D101 which is actually the non-schengen version of the same gate, back on to the same plane I had just left (but with a new flight and cabin crew).

After a lovely couple of days weather in Prague, of course the weather in Manchester was cold and rain.
The reverse train journey was unpleasant. There had been some sort of football match, so when I eventually got to Picadilly I had a train packed with football fans standing through the carriage as there were no seats left. One carriage was so overloaded that the train manager announced we would have to reduce speed for safety reasons. But eventually got home in time to roll into bed ready for my usual 05:20 start today.
Hope you enjoyed this rather mundane trip report
4 flights down, next trip to CPH on its own to pick up the final two for SAS qualification.

Glad you got to enjoy the National Theatre. It just dawned on me that I've never been when I stopped visiting Prague.

The National Theatre is down by the river. The State Opera is a different venue. There is also Rudolfinum concert hall, the New Stage and lots of other large venues all within walking distance of each other, so you need to carefully check your tickets to know where you're going

Nice trip! I quite liked PRG the one time I have been there. Feel free to DM me if you need any tips for your CPH trip

Thanks for this report, I was happy to read it.