Avis du vol SAS Oslo → Tromsø en classe Premium Eco

to start with

Together with a fellow french Flight-Report, Chevelan, we had decided to head to Alaska in December to see the northern lights. Unfortunately they weren't out, so we agreed to try our luck again in February this year but closer : to Tromsø

a transit in norway.

As usual in Norway, passengers arrive in the terminal which is, in theory, great.

I arrived at the D gate and my connecting gate is A2. I have an hour to make the connection.

This way:

There are E-Gates to go to the domestic terminal:

So one can make an international transit without any customs nor security controls. But if you arrive international and want to transit to a domestic flight, you have to go through those gates. I try to use them with my boarding pass, red biiiiip and "not allowed" on the display.
I checked the screens next to it and:

You can transfer from SAS to SAS, or SAS to Widerøe, intra Norwegian or Flyr flight but not from Lufthansa to SAS. What a non sense, even if you only have hand luggage…

No other choice then to go through the arrival hall:

And of course, no suitcase to pick up. What a waste of time.

And to make it even harder, if you have a luggage, you will need to re-check it at a regular check in counter on the level above. If you look at how many people wait in line, you'd better have a gold card or a business ticket.
For me I have lucky enough to be able to skip the lines and head to security.

And the security is one of the most strict I have ever seen: every electronic device needs to be out of the bag: smartphone, camera, and so on.

I was lucky enough, with only carry on and mostly aware of that procedure, to clear everything in around 10 minutes.
Here's my plane to be, a cool Star Alliance livery 737-800:

SAS BUSINESS LOUNGE

I was even able to quickly pay a visit to the lounge:

Inside the lounge:

And the food offer:

Everything is cold food, nothing hot:

There is just this soup that makes the exception to the rule :)

Alcool free … wine :)

my flight

I just stayed at the lounge to have some water, go to the restrooms and went back to the gate:

Boarding started on time with priorities first:

The tail of our 738:

And a three time aircraft door :)

WiFi is available:

It was one of the coldest welcome I experienced. The crew was not concerned, seemed not happy to be there and barely answered to my "Hello".

The cabin is all grey and lacks touch of colours:

And the recline is ridiculeous:

The pitch, however is great and there are USB plugs available:

The BOB:

Safety Card:

The last luggages are loaded:

Norwegian:

Front view:

An A320neo parks next to us, I really like the SAS livery:

Those are engine protections:

Would you recognize those 3 birds?

752 Icelandair:

Getting closer to the three tails :)

Norse already got 4 Dreamliners delivered but wasn't flying at that time

And number 4:

Still taxiing:

We had to give way to this A319 landing:

Very short final:

And our turn:

As we took of towards south we had to make a U turn:

The airport in distance:

What a wonderful place to be!!

There was an announcement that in coach the service will be BOB and in Premium we could take whatever we wanted. I just took water, cashews and chocolate:

The middle seat stayed empty, there is someone on the aisle. Good to know is that SAS doesn't block the middle seat neither in Premium on domestic flights nor in Business on international flight. #shame

The only good thing is that WiFi is free of charge for Gold and Premium passengers. You need to enter your name and PNR.

The WiFi was so good that I was even able to make a Whatsapp video call, a first for me in a plane!

Then I went to the lavatories:

Top of descent:

Wow, the views were just amazing, and the water color!!

Pure magic for me:

Approaching TOS:

The city center of Tromsø is an island, you don't see it here, but I will put some touristic bonusses where you'll see it.

There was a bit of snow but little did I know that in the next 36H we would have heavy snowfalls, with around 40cm of fresh snow!

Dash 8-100 Widerøe:

The farewell was even colder as the welcome: nothing. My only interaction with the crew was the food ordering. Sad, really sad.

Good bye cuttie:

On my way to the exit:

This way:

And heading to the taxies:

I had a nice surprise: the car that I took looked brand new and while seating inside, the driver told me that his company has a tradition: the first customer on a new car gets his ride free of charge. And I am this first customer. The only condition is to take a picture of me in front of the taxi once arrived. I feared something might be wrong, but gave it a try. And it was indeed the case. Once arrived at my lounge, we took a picture and that was it. I wanted to tip him and really had to insist to get him something since he really emphazed that the ride was free of charge :)

tromso lodge and camping

I usually, in English, never or seldom add touristic bonusses but here I think it will be worth it.

I decided not to stay in Tromsø downtown but on the other bank of it, Tromsdalen, because 1- downtown accomodation is ways overpriced and Tromsdalen is away from the city and much easier to see the northern light if any.

The Tromsø Lodge and Camping,  is a camping but offers also lodges, "Economy" for 4 people but no running water nor toilets, you have to go to shared bathrooms. "Traditionnal" a red wood cabin, sleeps 6 with bathrooms but too big for us, "Explorer" the brand new cabin that we originally had chosen and the "Superior" for 4 people + the "Deluxe" for 6. All with indoor bathroom and kitchen

The Explorer are sold with "some with river view, that is the one above. The cabin is quite compact for 4 people, only 20 square meters. It looks nice when you have the river view. But when not, it looks like a crowded village:

I saw this when using google satellite map. And decided the risk to be in the middle of the other cabins vs the river view was to big and upgraded us to a Superior.
They only have 5 Superior and are at the far end of the lodge:

Outside sitting:

The entrance has a heated floor that goes up to 60 degrees, ideal to dry wet clothes. But impossible to walk bare feet :)

The living room:

Big windows:

Bedroom:

And the bathroom. What I liked it that the whole cabin was floor heated but each room had its own adjustable pannel. So we heated up the entrance to dry the clothes, the bathroom and the living room and kept a cool room to sleep.

More views of the lodge, with the Explorer cabins, really to close to each other:

Those are the "Economy" cabins:

The "Traditionnal":

A walk through the lodge (which is huge) at dusk:

And this is in the middle of the night, it was snowing that much that with the lights of the lodge, one would think it was almost day:

Later in the night:

Close to midnight the sky cleared a bit and it was possible to see a super light aurora borealis, but you won't see it on that picture since it is really, really super light :)

A walk to Tromsø

The next morning I went for a walk to the nearest supermarket since my friend was arriving in the evening and I wanted to cook something. All restaurants are closing at 5H anyway and are super expensive. Since we had a full kitchen I went for the food supply for our week-end.
The beautiful blue sky let me think that we'll have a beautiful day:

It was such a wonderful walk on the fresh snow:

Just amazing:

Tromsdalen:

I had to climb a bit to the supermarket :)

More climbing:

More Norvegian views:

I loved the fact that each person I crossed said "hello". Something we don't do in France :(