TvlLeaders: Off to Copenhagen!

Off to Copenhagen!

We departed Minneapolis on Wednesday January 16th bound for Copenhagen. Our itinerary….(as sold by United / SAS as a connection from Minneapolis)

16 January United 3470 Depart Minneapolis 6:55pm Arrive Chicago O’Hare 8:23pm

16 January SAS 944 Depart Chicago O’Hare 10:05pm Arrive Copenhagen 1:20pm 17 January

We prayed for no delays out of Minneapolis as we watched the wind whip around in Minneapolis. The United flight was booked solid, it was quite a chore to get our small wheeled bags in the overhead compartments (had to go in sideways) but we were determined as we knew we had a tight connection in Chicago and didn’t want to have to wait for luggage. Because our tickets were issued separate we could not transfer our bags from one flight to another (good reason to book as 1 ticket – unfortunately we were unable to do this).

The flight to Chicago went smooth – in the air about an hour so it’s pretty much up and down. When we landed (about 8:05 pm) we found out we had to change terminals, quite an adventure! By the time we taxied to our gate, transferred from Terminal 1 over to Terminal 5 (lots of really fast walking, some moving walkway rides, and a tram ride) we finally made it to Terminal 5. You have to clear security with the change of terminals but this went well because we were flying in business class so we were able to bypass the long TSA line for a much shorter one that went rather quickly. Had we not had the business class, I think we would have been worried about not making our flight. Luckily, we made it to the SAS business class lounge with about 25 minutes to spare before boarding started for our flight to Copenhagen. After careful consideration I would be inclined to have a longer connection in Chicago and hang out in the SAS lounge or just wander the airport – being worried about a missed connection is just not fun.

Business class on SAS was very nice with lie flat seats, big plush blankets, nice headphones for use during travel, dinner, snack, breakfast service and drinks – plus a little “cafe” you could get things during the flight. They also gave us a nice little bag with a full size toothbrush (nothing cheap about it) toothpaste, lip balm, moisturizer, socks, ear plugs, and an eye mask. The flight attendants were attentive yet not overbearing, the food was very good, and the plane was quiet enough that sleeping was not an issue at all. The optional in flight music or movies were very nice and if you wanted you could even have coffee to go upon arrival.

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