Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
I typically don’t review domestic flights but thought I’d give it a shot this time. This is a short flight, blocked at 1 hour, 39 minutes so I didn’t expect much above a beverage service and maybe a snack. It unexpectedly became a lesson in trip planning!
AA 2559 MEM-DFW, Aircraft N885NN
Why I Booked This Flight
I’d found business class award space from Dallas-Fort Worth to Copenhagen on Finnair so I had to get from Memphis to DFW. At the time I booked my long-haul flight there was no saver-level award space between Memphis and DFW. When I’m booking separate tickets I always like to ensure there’s a way to get to my international gateway should something go wrong with my positioning flight. That often means I arrive at the gateway more than four hours before my international flight and sometimes airlines will not allow a connection of more than four hours. And then there’s the restriction Alaska Airlines has: when flying on a ticket purchased with their frequent flyer miles, if two airlines are involved, one of those airlines must be Alaska Airlines. That’s tough for me because Alaska does not even fly to Memphis but I found a good price from DFW to Copenhagen using Alaska’s miles.
How I Booked the Flight
American Airlines had some relatively cheap award space from Memphis to DFW. I’d even considered using cash but then I remembered that my dad, who no longer travels much at all, still had some American miles. So I used 15,500 of my dad’s AA miles + $5.60 for this ticket. Paying cash was actually a better deal as it was $205 and the 15.5K points were worth about $232. But it still meant that was NOT $200+ out of my pocket and it’s not like my dad was going to use the miles anyway.
AA 2559 (MEM-DFW)
Boeing 737-800
Seat 2A (Domestic First Class)
Depart: 11:06 AM (actual 1:26 PM)
Arrive: 12:45 PM (actual 2:54 PM)
Pre-Flight
While there are three lounges in the Memphis airport, I was not eligible for any of them on this trip. There’s a Delta Sky Club, a lounge for military personnel and a lounge for St. Jude patients. So after clearing security I went straight to my gate.
The Memphis airport underwent a modernization a few years ago where what was formerly the B (central) concourse is now the only concourse in use. The ceilings were raised and there’s now a lot of natural light along with people movers. There are now ample bathrooms with stalls large enough to bring in your rolling bag. It’s such a huge difference from a few years ago. And if you happen to be on the concourse at the right time you may be treated to some live music!
I arrived just before 9 AM for my flight because I figured there would be quite a few leisure travelers (as in, not as experienced flyers) since this was the week before Labor Day. I was glad I’d allowed extra time because there was a line for the American Airlines First Class check-in and only one person working that counter. I tried to relax knowing I’d allowed myself plenty of time.
I was on a separate ticket from DFW to Copenhagen (via Helsinki) but I wrote down the ticket number and confirmation codes in hope that the AA agent would be willing to check my bag all the way through. I knew it wasn’t policy but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask nicely. Unfortunately they would not.
The Pre-Check line was pretty short and moved quickly so I was through there in five minutes and on the concourse by 9:20 AM.
I milled around the airport and picked up a sandwich to-go since there was no food on our flight, even though we were due to depart just after 11 AM. That turned out to be a good thing on my part.
Boarding
We boarded on time, beginning at 10:29 AM and boarding was complete by 10:59 AM. First class was completely full and I believe economy was as well. We were offered pre-departure beverages and I had a Coke Zero.
After boarding was complete, the captain announced a slight delay as there was too much hydraulic fluid and a little bit needed to be bled off before we could be on our way. “It shouldn’t take long.” Famous last words.
The Delay
At a medium-sized airport like Memphis the maintenance and ground crew are often contracted out. Only problem was – and I don’t know if this was because it was a Saturday – there was no one actually on-site to handle our issue. Which meant someone had to be called in from wherever they were. I kept getting rolling delay notifications from TripIt Pro but nothing from American itself. The delay kept rolling and rolling. Finally I got notification from AA that the departure time was now 12:30 PM. But that came and went with no update. By this time we could see maintenance folks but what irritated me was I did not see any sense of urgency in their movements. Obviously I didn’t want them to hurry through the procedure itself, but would it have killed them to hustle a little as they came to and from the cockpit? Knowing I had to claim my bag in DFW, change terminals, and re-check it then go through security, I was starting to get quite worried. Finnair only has one flight a day from DFW and it doesn’t run on Sundays (the next day) so if I missed it, I was either going to be stuck for 2 days (if there was even a seat open) or, more likely, would need to fly economy on some other routing. But since I’d already checked in for my flight I wasn’t sure I’d be able to use those same Alaska Air miles to get another ticket and might have lost them. I did check and there was an economy ticket available on Sunday that would meet up with my friends for the flight from Philadelphia to Copenhagen so that was my worst-case scenario as it would have been over $1000 just for that one-way ticket.
At this point I was glad I’d picked up that sandwich as I realized I wasn’t going to have time to visit the Capital One Lounge in DFW and would otherwise have been very hungry by the time dinner was served aboard my next flight, whatever flight that might be.
I never received another update from AA but TripIt did keep me informed and finally, finally the door was closed at 1:18 PM and we pushed back at 1:26 PM. To further my frustration we then sat with the engines spinning until 1:34 PM. I’m sure there was a good reason but boy was it stress-inducing.
In-Flight
Not a lot to say about the flight itself. The FA in First was quite good; she monitored the cabin and served us beverages and mixed nuts (in a bag) but the flight time itself is only just over an hour so I didn’t expect much anyway. The seat did have a USB-A port for charging.
Arrival
We touched down at about 2:40 PM but, being DFW, had to taxi for about 14 minutes before reaching our gate. Of course we exited the runway at the far end of Terminal E, so had to backtrack all the way past all the Terminal E gates and almost all the way around Terminal C before reaching our gate, C6.
One thing that’s handy about DFW is that baggage claim is never far but, of course, that just gave me more time to stress out over how long it was taking the bags to reach the belt. Despite the priority tag on my bag, it was nowhere near the first few bags on the belt. But once it showed up I grabbed it and then popped outside to catch the Terminal Link bus.
While I didn’t have to wait long for the bus, it serviced both Terminals E and D and, naturally, went to Terminal E first. And somewhere along the way we picked up a family with two small children in car seats plus luggage which slowed us down as well. There was a guy on my bus who was on my same flight but he had only carry-ons so he would have had an easier time if he had Pre-Check.
I arrived at Terminal D and the Finnair check-in counter about 3:40 PM, just an hour and ten minutes before my flight. The good news was that there was absolutely no line for either Business or Economy so I was able to walk right up to the counter.
In the end
I was SO glad I’d booked the extra time between my flights. Next time I take a connecting flight to DFW I may just go the night before to give myself an even bigger cushion.
2B Traveling 
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