Flying to Copenhagen | IcelandAir, SAS, Copenhagen Airport

IcelandAir Saga Lounge

After our 24 hours in Reykjavik, we were off again!  Somehow and honestly, I have no idea how I did it, I was up at 4:30 for our 5 am bus.  Thinking ahead, we had packed everything up and our transition out of the hotel was a seamless one.  Our shuttle arrived on time and we were off for the short ride to the bus station.  Then there was the transfer at BSI again to a larger coach to Keflavik airport.  Love IcelandAir as our check in was a quick one and we breezed through security.  Did you know that Icelandair has several daily flights to Copenhagen Airport? Finally, we made our way to the new Saga Lounge.  When I was at the airport in 2012, I didn't realize that the Saga Lounge was under construction and what I thought to be the lounge was near all of the shopping in the departures area was only their temporary lounge.

IcelandAir Saga Lounge

This space is large, bright, and immaculate.  Located just past gate 6, it's incredibly close to the gate area and you can relax, put your things in a locker, and get a bite to eat, relax, or go shopping.  They have a wide assortment of food and beverages and even iPads to use.  In the back area there is a leather piece of some sort hanging up that is pretty cool if you get a chance to see it.  Apparently, it belonged to an employee that worked for IcelandAir that would get people to sign it.  Some are famous, like George Bush, and others are regular, everyday people.

Time came to board our flight and the short 3 hour flight to Copenhagen was uneventful.  That is but for the meal that they served us for breakfast.  Remember that vegetarian meal we were served on the flight from Boston?  Yup, that was the same breakfast they served us on this flight.  We asked the flight attendant if she could get us something, anything different and she wasn't sure if she could.  Luckily, since I had flown IcelandAir previously, I knew that they did have vegetarian sandwiches in Economy Comfort.  The flight attendant eventually came back with two sandwiches and although we didn't have any of the other amenities that came with flying Saga Class (a tray, glass, flatware), we at least had a meal.

Copenhagen airport

Getting off the plane and walking through the Copenhagen airport was eye opening.  This airport is so airy feeling and clean -  I don't think I have ever seen a cleaner airport in my life.  Copenhagen airport is situated just 5 miles southeast of the city and we could have left to go into the city, but since we hadn't checked our luggage, that wasn't an option for this trip. Our goal instead was to locate the business lounge as we had a three hour layover until our next flight.  There are two lounges in this terminal, the SAS Lounge and the Servisair Lounge.  Saga Class customers can use the SAS Lounge and that's where we headed.

Yam Yam to Go

This airport is like a huge mall with tons of restaurants and shops, like YamYam to go, Prego, or even Starbucks.

To understand the size of this airport and even just this terminal, when you see cars parked in the middle, you know this is quite a sizable airport.

You might think that I was out for a day of shopping at the airport, but I wasn't, I swear!  All we were doing was looking for the SAS Lounge.  If you're looking for it, too, look for the huge H&M store and you'll see it just past the store on the left side.

Of course, if you did want to do some shopping for things like Scandinavian products or even caviar, there's an abundance of stores available for diehard shoppers.

Once inside the SAS Lounge, we presented our tickets and searched for somewhere to sit.  This lounge is quite large with the SAS Business lounge upstairs and the SAS Scandinavian lounge downstairs in the C terminal.

Think minimalist Scandinavian design and you will know exactly what the lounge looks like.  There is an abundance of seating and computers and printers for use as well.  We found a seat on the far end of the lounge near the windows.

I loved that they had free wireless printing available as I needed to print something from my iPhone.  I sat with my bottle of Carlsberg citrus sparkling water and did a little work before our flight.  Strangely enough, my iPhone connected without password but my iPad needed it, which was weird.  Don't worry as the passwords are on little cards all around the lounge.

Rich grabbed a beer and some snacks and as you can see here, there was a small variety of food available.

Waiting at gate to board plane

We didn't know if they were going to announce flights or not within the lounge so we didn't want to leave anything to chance.  Grabbing up all of our belongings, we left the lounge and walked over to our gate. Unlike US airports, there was no one waiting, no information available, nothing at all.  We didn't want to get in line since there were only a few people waiting and we didn't want to look like crazy people, but that was a mistake.  With everyone being so incredibly polite, we had to let everyone go before us as we hadn't gotten in line.  If you are expecting zones or classes to be called at the gate, don't. Queue up or you'll be left waiting for some time.

Once your ticket is scanned, you go down an escalator and wait inside a small area for a bus to arrive to drive you over to your plane.

Our flight was delayed for some time because a Canadian woman checked her bag but never showed up for the flight so they needed to take her bag off the plane. Once that was corrected we were off.

Our SAS meal: A vegetarian's nightmare

Our plane was a small one, a Canadair RJ 900 with the first two rows dedicated for First/Business Class, but all seats are the same.  The only difference between our seats and everyone else's is that we were served a meal.  Oh the irony that we were flying Business class and we get served meat and shrimp.  Well, the coffee was really good!

Our one hour flight to Berlin was uneventful and as quickly as we ascended into the clouds high above Copenhagen, we were soon descending into Berlin.  The SAS flight attendants were attentive and professional and I wouldn't hesitate flying SAS again.

Marian Krueger
Email: mkrueger@travelshopgirl.com