Booking with SAS or UA

Hello , I just booked my first Baltic cruise on NCL for next May and I'm trying to arrange airfare. Want to fly STL-ORD-CPH on May 21st return Jun 3rd. SAS and UA have the flights I need. My question is is there an advantage to booking on one airlines website vs the other? I think they are a codeshare, so does that mean my checked luggage goes straight through? This is my first international flight and much I don't know.

We have flown international flights in the past, with no issues. We were recently scheduled to fly Icelandair on a return flight from Europe to USA. Received last minute call from Icelandair saying they moved us to a SAS flight. NEVER again will I fly SAS. We had the smallest seats ever, extremely uncomfortable (we are not overweight people), flight attendants were rude, as were some of the passengers, and the food was horrible. Worst flight ever and as I said before, NEVER again. In my opinion SAS translates to Suck Ass Service.

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Which ever airline you fly book direct with the airline who is actually fly the Plane! That way if there is any issues they can help you immediately.

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Which ever airline you fly book direct with the airline who is actually fly the Plane! That way if there is any issues they can help you immediately.

If your ticket includes legs on 2+ separate airlines (not uncommon when flying internationally) you obviously have to pick 1; you can't book with both. Well, you can book separate tickets but you create the potential for additional problems if you do so. Either way, if you have a ticket to fly on a particular flight and there is an issue, the operating carrier will assist you regardless of whether you bought the ticket from them or one of their alliance or code share partners.

If you have loyalty with UA, I would book with UA. If you don't have a membership with their loyalty program, Mileage Plus, then I would book with whomever the owns the first plane you board. So if you were flying STL-ORD on UA, then ORD to CPH on SAS, I would book on UA. I suspect this would be the situation you are in.

It is not true that if you book through UA, and there is a problem with SAS that SAS wouldn't help you. If you are booked on SAS, and there is a problem with SAS, SAS is obliged to help you. UA is not.

NEVER again will I fly SAS. We had the smallest seats ever, extremely uncomfortable (we are not overweight people), flight attendants were rude, as were some of the passengers, and the food was horrible. Worst flight ever and as I said before, NEVER again.

OP's leg on SAS for this itinerary is pretty short; they can probably make do. Code shares are a pain. I'd probably book this on UA if there was no significant price difference, as that is your carrier with the longest leg and you don't want to run into problems with seat selection because you booked on SAS (I don't know if there would be any, but you could check).

We have flown international flights in the past, with no issues. We were recently scheduled to fly Icelandair on a return flight from Europe to USA. Received last minute call from Icelandair saying they moved us to a SAS flight. NEVER again will I fly SAS. We had the smallest seats ever, extremely uncomfortable (we are not overweight people), flight attendants were rude, as were some of the passengers, and the food was horrible. Worst flight ever and as I said before, NEVER again. In my opinion SAS translates to Suck Ass Service.

 

 

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Interesting about SAS, we're looking to fly from Florida to Copenhagen and SAS was one of the better priced airlines, so good to know.

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OP's leg on SAS for this itinerary is pretty short; they can probably make do. Code shares are a pain. I'd probably book this on UA if there was no significant price difference, as that is your carrier with the longest leg and you don't want to run into problems with seat selection because you booked on SAS (I don't know if there would be any, but you could check).

STL-ORD is longer than ORD-CPH???

I don't do *Alliance, I do SkyTeam. But, it is the same premise. My own data point is that I have not had any issues with code shares in the years of international air travel. Maybe I'm lucky. The worst was having to call Alitalia directly for my seats because there was no way to select them online, even after I got an Alitalia PNR from Delta. But, that was not a big deal to me.

It should not make a difference which carrier you book with if they are in the Alliance and co-list their flights. Get the appropriate PNR numbers for both airlines (not just the Alliance number) so you can monitor your flights directly from each airline's website.

Thank you everyone for your help and advice. I have no loyalty with UA it's just the most convenient for this trip. I'm having trouble with the SAS website, United and Expedia are much easier to navigate. On SAS they show booking catagories with no explanation. SAS GO, PLUS and Business are clear enough but what is Plus Saver, or Business Saver?

The Plus Saver is a Plus seat that has change fees associated. Ditto with the business saver. Contrary to a previous poster I am rather fond of SAS. We always fly Plus Saver. It is only a little more than regular economy fares, has a separate cabin with good seats and lounge access and more allowed checked baggage. The only difference between regular Plus fares and the Plus Saver is the change fee.

Thank you very much for clarifying that for me. Do you usually book on SAS website? I can't seem to make it do what I want or UA website now either. I realize I must fly economy on UA and I want Plus or Business ( or Plus Saver or Business Saver) for the international portion. On Expedia it shows STL-EWR-CPH and CPH-ORD-STL on those airlines but UA website only shows flights with 2 stops. UGH!!

Glad to hear you have had good experiences with SAS. I greatly appreciate the reassurance.

I usually use something like kayak or ITA to look for flights and then book thru the SAS site. When I looked at your dates it only showed options via ORD in both directions. On your outbound leg the Plus Saver was just $42 more than the cheapest Go fare (economy). On the return the Plus saver fare was over twice as much as the Go saver fare. Doesn't make much sense to me.

Just as an FYI SAS uses an upgrade bidding system. So after you purchase your tickets you can place a bid to upgrade from Go to Plus or Plus to Business. They will email you 36-48 hours before flight time to let you know if your bid was accepted. We have had pretty good luck with that system and the one time our bid was not accepted they offered us a paid upgrade at check in for the same amount as our bid Go figure. Either way it's an affordable, if not entirely reliable way to fly business.

We flew SAS to Copenhagen from ORD in September 2015 Business Class. It was a very pleasant experience, although not the "best" Business class I've flown. Our flight from Phoenix to ORD on United was first as well. Return flights on Delta in Business were awesome. (Airfare was arranged by our cruise line, Regent, hence the different airlines on outbound vs inbound.)

I don't believe you will be able to book mixed classes on one itinerary (meaning economy for the domestic portion and business for the international.) Perhaps a travel agent might be able to assist with such a booking.

Best of luck!

 

I don't believe you will be able to book mixed classes on one itinerary (meaning economy for the domestic portion and business for the international.) Perhaps a travel agent might be able to assist with such a booking.

 

Best of luck!

Not true. Some "cheaper" award flights on UA are frequently coach domestically and business or first internationally.

Not true. Some "cheaper" award flights on UA are frequently coach domestically and business or first internationally.

Yes, searching for Biz award seats can return some mixed options, but I don't think you can specifically REQUEST in the search parameters that one leg be First/Biz and another leg be coach, can you?

Yes, searching for Biz award seats can return some mixed options, but I don't think you can specifically REQUEST in the search parameters that one leg be First/Biz and another leg be coach, can you?

I agree...don't know that you can specifically search for those. But simply searching for flights from XXX to ZZZ will give you various "mixed class" options.

OP's leg on SAS for this itinerary is pretty short; they can probably make do. Code shares are a pain. I'd probably book this on UA if there was no significant price difference, as that is your carrier with the longest leg and you don't want to run into problems with seat selection because you booked on SAS (I don't know if there would be any, but you could check).

STL-ORD=258 milies

ORD-CPH=4271 miles

(according to great circle mapper).

according to my public school math 4721 is a lot more than 258. ;)

Now if the OP wanted to stay on UA they could fly into AMS and grab one of the frequent AMS-CPH flights then it would only be a short flight on SAS.

Thank you everyone for your help and advice. I've booked our flights via the SAS website , Plus saver outbound and Go for the return and already placed bids for upgrades.

My next question is regarding my connecting flights on AA. SAS let me choose seats on AA but they don't show on the reservation. Will they show up at check-in on AA or should I contact SAS first? And will I need to claim my luggage at ORD and check in at SAS after arrival from STL ? I'm not sure why/how SAS offered AA instead of UA but that what I was offered and booked.