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Flight review – LOT Business Class, Stockholm – Warsaw

After my summer tour of Scandinavia, it was time to head off on my long-haul winter travels.

But first, there was the short connection to Warsaw in LOT Polish Airlines’ Business Class.

LOT uses the SAS Norrsken Lounge in Stockholm. However, as this was an early morning flight and I had already had breakfast at my hotel, I decided to skip this in favour of a quick transit through the airport.

Boarding was swift and efficient and I soon found myself settled in.

Business Class on this Embraer 195 was economy seating in a 2-2 configuration, with one of each pair kept free. I found this comfortable enough for the short flight.

Although this flight was only 90 minutes, there was time for a pretty well varied breakfast selection.

On approach to Warsaw, we circled over a blanket of very low and heavy cloud for around 15 minutes.

Fortunately we were able to land in Warsaw on time and in plenty of time for the next leg of my winter season, which sees me heading to Chicago and a 7,000 mile US roadtrip.

Flight review – Nordic Seaplanes, Copenhagen – Aarhus

Whilst in Copenhagen, I was presented with an interesting opportunity to try out a new style of flying – a 45-minute flight with Nordic Seaplanes to Aarhus, one of the oldest cities in Denmark.

At a one-way price of around €95, this seemed too good to turn down.

Unfortunately I was advised 24 hours in advance, that my planned 8:45 departure was cancelled and offered a seat on the afternoon flight.

As this was only a day trip, I opted to take the following day’s morning departure instead and I was quickly rebooked.

The flight departs from the company’s city terminal, a short distance from the iconic Little Mermaid statue.

The experience started with check-in 20 minutes before departure and a coffee in the small, but comfortable, lounge a very short distance from the boarding area.

The cabin is laid out in a 1-2 configuration and on boarding I was pleased to be assigned to one of the single window seats towards the rear.

Flying by seaplane certainly gives a different perspective from flying by jetliner and it was nice to experience the take-off over the city of Copenhagen.

The landing in Aarhus, with a steep nose-down angle was even more exhilarating.

The arrival was at the small terminal a short taxi ride from the centre of Aarhus.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and time efficient way to travel and involved none of the usual annoyances of air travel, such as time consuming check-in procedures, long security queues and extra travelling to and from airports.

My flight from Copenhagen to Aarhus was an enjoyable and trouble free way to travel and I would definitely use this service again.

Flight review – Widerøe Tromsø – Bergen

Following Tromsø, my next destination was Bergen, necessitating another flight.

The only direct flight between Tromsø and Bergen is operated by Widerøe, an airline I had never flown before.

Other options are Norwegian and SAS, but bot require at least one change if flight in Oslo.

With this in mind, I decided to give Widerøe a go.

The ground experience is very basic, with self service bag drop and no security fast track or lounge.

The on board experience is also basic, but no more so than economy class on just about any other carrier operating within Europe.

At an even six feet, I found the 29-inch seat pitch rather tight.

A buy-on-board menu is offered, although this short 10:35am flight was a little too soon after breakfast and not quite beer o’clock, so I settled for the complimentary coffee.

Overall, this experience was comparable to the better low cost airlines in Europe, such as easyJet. Given the convenience of the direct flight I was satisfied with the experience, although at around £225 or $270 it was rather pricey for what it was.

Flight review – SAS Oslo – Tromsø

As my tour of Scandinavia continued to the Arctic North, I decided to leave my car at Oslo Airport and fly to Tromsø, rather than take a three day drive each way.

There were several options for this route, including Norwegian and Widerøe. However it turned out that the best deal was on the direct afternoon flight with SAS.

The flight was quite expensive for a domestic one-way at €226 for the most basic hand luggage only ticket.

I, however, chose to upgrade to the SAS Plus fare at €270, including checked luggage and access to the SAS Domestic Lounge at Oslo Airport.

This proved to be a good choice, as the American Express lounge to which I would normally have access was located after customs controls and therefore not accessible to domestic passengers. It also allowed me to check in my small rollaboard rather than fighting for overhead bin space.

The lounge was pretty basic in terms of its food offerings, but offered wine and both draught and canned beer and provided a comfortable place to sit while waiting for boarding, so it suited me fine.

The on board experience was not up to the standards of even intra-European Business Class, in that middle seats were not kept free and refreshments were limited to a snack and drink. However, given the short length of this flight and the small premium that I paid, I was perfectly happy with it.

Overall, this was a nice, easy little flight and “upgrading” was worth it in my very specific case.

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