There's not so much to tell about the planning of this trip, since I wasn't that involved. My mother took care of the deciding of flights and the booking process, probably because if I would have chosen we would probably have flown a more ”exotic” carrier, while she just wants to get there as fast as possible. So she made a booking with SK with the routing ARN-EWR-OSL-ARN. The reason for traveling via OSL on the way back was due to the fall break from school during the time of our travel, and the cheapest economy tickets to ARN was all out, so it was cheaper to travel via OSL. I don't complain, as the departure from EWR was later for the OSL flight, meaning more time in New York, and I never mind an extra segment. Our dates for this trip was from 29th of October, with return on the 3rd of November. All legs were booked in Economy Class.
Our booked routing:
I did one thing in the planning of this trip though, I introduced Optiontown to my mother. For those of you who don't know about Optiontown, it's a webpage that cooperates with some airlines allowing upgrades to higher classes for a lot less money than buying the ticket in the higher class when booking, although an upgrade is not guaranteed, it's the airlines decision if you will be upgraded or not. If you do not get upgraded, you get back the money invested, except for a small administrative fee. Basically, it allows the airlines to sell a few more economy seats, while still earning money on those who get upgraded rather than giving away free op-ups.
We decided to try our luck with an upgrade for the two longhaul flights in our itinerary (SK don't offer optiontown upgrades on shorthaul anyway).
Despite our “boring” chose of airline (I don't mind flying SK, just that I have flown them plenty of times before, and no one minds flying a new airline, right?), it was a rather nice routing for me, as it would be my first flights on the A330 and first time at EWR.
The plan was that all four of us in my family (me, my parents and my sister) were to go on this trip, but due to my sister starting a new job, she was unable to come with us. So we ended up being only three for this trip.
A few days before our departure we got an e-mail saying that we had not been upgraded on our ARN-EWR flight. The upgrade decision were still pending on the return flight though.
October 29
We arrived by car to a parking facility called Benstocken, located in the forest surrounding ARN about two hours before departure. A few minutes of waiting for the transfer bus to the terminals and we arrived at ARN terminal 5 after a short busride.
We went to a self service check in desk in the newer of two departure halls in Terminal 5.
The queue for bagdrop was awful as we arrived!
As we entered our details in the self service kiosk had a message saying “Your flight is overbooked, we are looking for passengers willing to travel with a different itinerary. Please contact a SAS representative for more information”.
As we had nothing planned in NY on the day of our arrival, we decided to ask what they had on offer.
They offered a routing with LH via MUC, with arrival in the late afternoon, and 600 EUR in travel vouchers. We decided to accept this offer.
The SK representative went away for a min to take care of our rebooking, but she quickly got back, telling us that the MUC flight had been fully booked aswell, and that we would have to take the SK flight anyway.
Not that I really mind, although those 600EUR travel vouchers wouldn't have been too bad!
Anyway, she printed our boarding passes for the SK flight and advised us to the bagdrop for bagtags, instead of the usual printing of bagtags at the self service kiosks.
Luckily, the queues for the bagdrop was not as bad now as when we arrived, it actually went rather fast, as they had plenty of lines open, and after about five minutes we had left our bags and we headed towards security.
Queuing in the, now much shorter, queue.
Only a few people ahead of us and we were through in a couple of minutes. Departure was a little less than an hour away and we decided to head straight to the gate.
So through the tax free store after security and towards the passport control, which did not have any queue.
Tax free store:
F-pier:
Old part of terminal 5:
Certain parts of ARN seems to be deserted at all times:
Once through passport control, we were at the non-schengen part of the F-pier at ARN. This pier is in a smart layout, all gates can be used for both Schengen flights and to those outside of it. Downstairs is for departures inside Schengen, and upstairs is non-Schengen.
Some construction works going on right after passport control:
While walking to our gate we passed the gate where the flight to ORD would depart from, and I noticed that their flight were to be operated by the SK A330 with Star Alliance livery, SE-REF. Too bad, as it would have been my preferred bird over the Atlantic ocean today.
I couldn't take a decent photo of the bird tho, since the gates holding pen were in the way, and the window has blinds, making photographing difficult even if standing next to the window.
The gate for SK's flight to ORD:
We went to our gate, showed our boarding passes, and we were let into the gates holding pen.
SK903
ARN-EWR
Airbus A330-300
OY-KBN “Eystein Viking”
Quite a lot of people in the holding pen, and it was obvious that the flight would indeed be full.
All I could see of our plane through the blinds:
After not too much waiting, pre-boarding for families with children were announced and thereafter Business Class passengers, then Economy Extra passengers and finally for Economy Passengers.
The order was enforced by the gate agents.
We headed down the jetway among the first Economy passengers.
The Jetways at ARN's F-pier is all glass walls, so it offers some nice views of the aircraft when boarding.
The ride for today is OY-KBN, obviously a new reg for me, since this was my first A330 flight.
We boarded and I headed down the first aisle to my seat 27 A, my Mother was seated next to me on 27B. Due to some trouble when canceling my sisters ticket, my father was seated on 40 C. It wasn't too much of a problem though, as he will be happy as long has he is seated on an aisle seat.
SE-REF on the neighboring gate:
The seats were over expectations. Soft and comfortable, and the legroom was actually much better than I thought it would be.
The only thing I could complain about regarding the comfort is that the IFE system box is rather large and reduces the space for your feet quite a bit.
Boarding process wasn't really that fast since the flight was completely packed. Jumpseats were used for passengers.
After a while though, things calmed down and “Boarding Completed” was announced.
A welcome message was played on the PTVs and we pushed back. The welcome message was followed by the safety demo, also played on the PTV.
There were also a few messages from the crew. The captain was a Norwegian fellow with a very English sounding name, I actually remember him from my DXB-CPH flight earlier this year.
He announced that we would have quite a lot of headwind today, so we would have quite a lengthy flight time.
The crew that mainly served our part of the cabin was an older male and an older female. As usual on SK flights (esp. longhaul) the average age of the crew was rather high.
The IFE system was turned on since we sat down, you could choose between a forward camera or moving map, the other functions, such as movies, music and games, were turned on after takeoff.
Forward camera while at the gate:
Pushback.
We taxied towards ARN's runway 19R.
Qatar A330 on another neighboring gate:
SE-REF on takeoff roll. Have a good flight!
Cabin view from my seat during taxi.
Overhead panels:
We entered the runway and did a rolling takeoff.
TG on the B-pier of Terminal 5.
Terminal 2:
When we had gained a little altitude after takeoff, we turned right, and lined up for our westbound direction.
Still a long way to go:
For the first few minutes of the flight, it was pretty nice views over Mälardalen region of Sweden, west of Stockholm.
Soon though, the skies got overcast.
Around this time, the seatbelt sign was turned off.
Not too long after, a drink run started, they were clear about this being a drinks run only, and that you will be given a second chance to get drinks for your meal.
Makes sense since it's still too early for lunch.
I decided on orange juice and apple juice. The drinks were served with salted almonds.
I have already drunk most of my juice in this picture, so no, they did not serve me that little!
An hour or so later the meal service was started. There aren't suppose to be any choice regarding the entree for economy passengers, but they had meals over from the economy extra section, so we could chose between chicken with mushroom risotto or fish with mashed potato, fish being the economy extra dish. I decided on the chicken while my mother had the fish. Apparently they had loaded quite a few of those fishes, as my father also got to choose the fish, he was told he got the last one.
The meal was great, one of the best one I've ever had on an airplane actually. The chicken was perfectly cooked and it was served with broccoli's. Didn't eat much of the risotto though, as I'm not that fond of mushroom and I somehow got the impression that the mushroom would be separated from the rice, and not a part of the risotto.
The salad starter was nice, the panna cotta as dessert was nice, the soft bread and the crackers were nice, so overall, a very good impression of the meal.
When the drink run for the meal was commenced they were out of apple juice so I decided on having two glasses of orange juice.
My mother, who usually don't like airplane food, said that she loved the fish. So catering for this flight was really great.
Cabin after the meal service:
The flight progressed smoothly, unfortunately though, the skies stayed overcast for most of the flight.
Earth was visible for a few minutes once over Greenland.
And once at the coast of Canada.
One thing that I don't like about SK's longhaul economy product is the IFE system. It's not very bad, just not as good as the competition. It is a PTV with touchscreen, it has a few games you can play, but the worst part is that it don't have AVOD. You can choose what movie you want to watch, but they loop on separate channels, so if you begin watching a movie that already started, it's impossible to know for how long the movie has been playing or how long it is until it starts over. Music is about the same, did not bother too much with that though since I prefer to play my own music.
Oh well, atleast they have a decent airshow and a forward/down camera, and the system worked well with a quick response time.
Another bad thing about the IFE system is the location of the handheld remote. Its on the inside of your armrest, so it's really easy to accidentally hit a button. A lot of people hit the FA call button without meaning it. I imagine that having it located in the seatback infront of you would be much better.
I did however manage to watch (most of) a movie with this system.
The mood on the flight were really great, with lots of vacationers going to New York and other places in America. The crew was great and had a nice approach to the passengers with lots of smiles.
About halfway into the flight I did a little tour of the economy cabin to visit the lavatory and visit my father in the larger rear economy cabin.
Back at my seat:
One and a half hour or so before our scheduled arrival time there was a light meal. We were offered a cheese sandwich and a tetra with blackcurrant lemonade.
Before serving we got a hot towel:
It wasn't really much but it tasted good enough.
Despite our headwinds we sooner or later reached American Airspace and begun descent.
During descent they showed information for those continuing on a connecting flight.
The flight deck announced that the weather in New York was snowy, so there were some delays at EWR and we would be in a holding pattern, so it would be another hour until landing.
We did a few laps over Albany and another one closer to New York.
Shortly thereafter, the captain was on the speakers again. He first told us that there still was a lot of delays and other troubles due to the snow at EWR, and that it would be another 30 minutes or so until landing.
Why, thank you! Even though we are not quite there just yet.
Shortly after the picture above were taken, the flight deck was once again on the speaker. He said that the situation had become even worse at EWR, and that the airport had been closed. He continued saying that we had fuel enough to divert, and that we would do so by flying to Washington. I'm guessing that this destination was chosen because SAS flies to IAD from CPH, so SK had some ground service available.
The reaction of the passengers wasn't really too bad, mostly surprised I'd say.
The same can be said about my reaction, after all, I would get to log a route that isn't flown commercially (ARN-IAD) and I'd get to visit a new airport, even if only for a landing. I was also looking forward to seeing the famous terminal building in IAD.
This would also be my first diversion.
Next followed a few minutes of cruising on this rather low altitude (around 10000 feet), while pointing our nose to IAD.
As the seatbelt sign was still turned off and people were moving around the plane, I decided to go back to my father to hear his reaction about the diversion. It was about the same as for the other passengers. While I was chatting with my father we begun climbing, so I decided to head back to my seat.
The rear economy cabin a few minutes after the diversion announcement:
The pitch of climb increased while I was walking up the aisle, It actually got rather heavy to to reach my seat. Was probably the most powerful climb I've experienced while standing up in an aircraft. And you could tell that it wasn't only me having trouble moving about in the aircraft.
Not surprising, shortly after I was once again seated, the seatbelt sign was turned on and not long after, we experienced some serious turbulence.
The aircraft was thrown right, left, up and down. I did get a little sick after a while, but not too bad.
My father later told me that it was plenty of people throwing up in the rear cabin, and that one passenger almost fainted.
They changed the IFE systems destination to Washington aswell.
Why, thank you... again!
We climbed through the clouds and we soon broke through them, if only for a minute or two, before once again beginning our descent, although this time to IAD.
I found it funny that they kept showing the transfer info for those with connections at EWR even after the system changed its destination to IAD.
The turbulence had become somewhat better, and soon into the descent it was all over.
The visibility was very bad with thick clouds. Ground wasn't visible until final approach.
The clouds really was thick, that winglet is usually blue.
Scratch that, I mean, it's usually a winglet out there!
Washington had seen some snow too, but not enough for any major troubles at the airport.
We touched down on runway 1R about 1½ hour after what our scheduled arrival time would have been at EWR.
We slowly taxi to a remote stand, next to a deicing area for regional jets and turboprops.
One of the reasons AA is doing badly:
I like this picture, it has all 4 of UA/CO's current liverys, even if only in regional versions.
Parked at last:
The crew said that we have to stay in the aircraft until they get information of what will happen next, but we are allowed to use cellphones and similar.
30 minutes or so later, we are told that we will be bussed to the terminal and retrieve our luggage, where we would receive further information.
Another 30 minutes and we're on one of those funky buses that you step onto at the same height as the aircraft door, and lower itself to the ground while driving. I find them rather cool actually.
I believe that two buses was sufficient to empty our plane. They were quite large inside.
One of the buses as seen from the plane:
Cabin during deboarding:
View of our plane from the bus, first time I went through a rear door of a widebody.
Interior of the bus:
First view of the beautiful terminal:
We get driven to immigration that is in a rather modern and nice facility.
View of the beautiful terminal from the immigration room:
The queue is long but there are a sufficient amount of officers working today so we get to the counter in about 20 minutes. The girl at the immigration counter tells us that this weather is not normal for the east coast this time of the year, and that IAD had already gotten 4 flights diverted to from the NYC airports.
Once we're through we had to wait for our luggage for another 35 minutes or so. The only additional information we received regarding our situation was that we would have to go to the SAS check in desks once we were through customs.
So through customs we went and we arrived to the arrival hall, and found our way up to the departure hall with the checkin desks. Great architecture here, seems like those Finns actually are good at something!
A girl in the desk informed what many of us was suspecting, we were being bussed to EWR.
We were directed to the bus and luckily we got room in the first one.
The bus that was taking us to EWR:
The seat was comfortable with a nice amount of recline.
Legroom was nice when the seat infront was upright.
Much worse when the seat infront was reclined though.
The people who couldn't take our bus, and had to wait for the next ones:
Cabin view:
Remained off for the entire drive:
Last look of the beautiful terminal:
Spent the trip mostly trying to sleep, but as always, I had difficulties to sleep while sitting up.
The bus driver had promised us a break around halfway to New York, but he decided to skip it because he had been told that the weather was to worsen as the night came closer. Fine by me, I just wanna get to NY as soon as possible, but I could tell that some people were clearly annoyed by his decision.
After a four hour bus ride, we were dropped off at EWR 9 hours after our scheduled arrival time.
The bus that took us here:
EWR Terminal B:
ATC tower:
We decided to just take a cab to our hotel.
As soon as we reached our room, we just crashed and slept for a good 11 or so hours.
Our hotel was called Holiday Inn express Times Square. It was on west 39th street and had small but functional rooms and a decent breakfast included. The location was also rather nice. We had a room on the 29th floor.
Our view:
Hotel exterior:
Next followed five days in the city that never sleeps, the town of all towns, the Big Apple!
We did plenty of things during our visit, I'm gonna show you some of the highlights.
We went to a Rangers game at the Madison Square Garden, it was Rangers vs. San Jose Sharks.
The game ended with a victory to Rangers, 5-2!
Too bad though that our Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist didn't play. Oh well, always a reason to come back and do it again!
Another thing that we did was to visit a park called High Line on lower west side.
Its basically an old railroad track at the height of the 3rd floor on the surrounding buildings, that has been revamped into a park, where you can leisurely stroll from one end to the other.
It was a nice experience, with nice design and some good views of Manhattan buildings.
We also visited the Marriott Marquis hotels revolving rooftop restaurant & lounge.
We decided on the lounge, as they had a buffet, and were much cheaper than the restaurant. We were mostly there for the view anyway!
There was a nice sunset displaying over New Jersey.
Interior:
The lounge was on the 47th floor, and the restaurant on the 46th. The hotel is located right next to Times Square, and I highly recommend a visit to this restaurant or lounge for anyone in New York, that want to dine with a view!
Last time we were in New York, we went up the Empire State Building, so this time, we decided to go up the Rockefeller Center instead. They had a nice facility, almost as high up as the Empire State Buildings observation deck.
The famous ice-rink at Rockefeller Center:
The Rockefeller Center facility was located on three floors from 67-70, with views both from indoor and outdoor. Plenty of room for everyone and not cramped at all. A nice experience with a nice view.
Empire State Building and Downtown:
Pan Am building:
Central Park:
I kinda like this shot:
Marriott Marquis, where we were the previous evening:
Times square from above:
LGA in the distance:
We also walked over Brooklyn bridge, a nice experience with lots of nice picture opportunities of the Manhattan Skyline.
Some construction works going on:
Downtown Manhattan:
Statue of Liberty in the distance:
Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, with the Pan Am building in between:
36 hours or so before our return flight, the morning on the day before departure, we received an email from Optiontown saying that we had been upgraded to Business class for our EWR-OSL flight!
But when I went in to our booking on the SK website, we were only able to choose seats in the Economy Extra cabin. We decided to ask at the airport the next day what that was about.
That evening we checked in for our return flights, and chose exit row seats for our OSL-ARN leg.
November 3
After spending a few days in New York it was time to head home.
We took a cab to EWR Terminal B.
We headed to the SAS ticket office to ask what class we would be traveling in, and the lady at the ticket office probably didn't understand our question, as she just told us that optiontown doesn't guarantee an upgrade and that Business class was fully booked.
EWR terminal B interior, they were doing some renovation work:
So we went on to the checkin desk and asked the same question there, and the girl there was as clueless as the one at the ticket office.
Luckily though, SK's station manager at EWR walked past and noticed our problem, and unlike the others, he understood it. He did a lot of typing on his keyboard and said that we indeed were only upgraded to Economy Extra, and that Optiontown must have made a mistake. For the record, I have yet to see if we will get our money back for the additional cost of the business upgrade.
Oh well, Economy Extra isn't too bad really. The main downside with the upgrade is that I lost my window seat, we now had a block of three seats in the middle of the cabin.
But hey, I get an upgrade to Economy Extra and a helluva lot more EuroBonus points. Besides, it's a night flight anyway so there won't be that much views, and the extra space will do nicely when trying to sleep.
So when done checking in I held a boarding pass with the seat 18E in my hand.
We walked towards security and as there were only a few people there we were through in about 10 minutes. I had forgot my computer in my backpack, so what they did was to open my back and take it out, without notifying me, scanning them separately with my bag wide open.
Luckily though, nothing fell out and we could continue to our gate.
My mother and father have Diners Club cards, but as the lounge we had access to at EWR was in the same terminal, but in a different pier, we could not reach it. Atleast I did not find a way to move between the piers once airside.
The pier was rather boring, with only a few small shops and rather expensive prices.
Corridor out to the departure lounge:
One of the “stores”:
Atleast there was sufficient seating once we reached the circular shaped building.
Top
...
Sultanils
