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One thing about traveling this summer that made my life so much easier than when I traveled last summer was: NO MORE ArriveCan!! Yay!!! That said, things are definitely not what they used to be in the pre-COVID era. I've still been keeping up to date on vaccinations and always have a supply of masks close at hand. Flight delays, changes and cancellations are still a thing to reckon with - they were before the pandemic too, though not to the same extent. The days when I could travel student standby are far behind me!
Of course, the fewer transfers you have to make in your journey, the less such issues will muck up your overall itinerary. It helps if you live in or near a major centre, and are traveling to a major centre as well. Now, although I would consider Ottawa a major centre, there are unfortunately no direct commercial flights from Ottawa to Stockholm. SAS offers direct flights between Toronto and Stockholm and although I balk at flying southwest in order to fly northeast, that seemed the best way to do it in this case. The connecting flight between Ottawa and Toronto was through Air Canada.
My experience with SAS was certainly way more positive than the one I had with Aer Lingus last summer!
So when I started looking at flights, I obviously looked at costs and classes of fares. I quickly discovered that it's cheaper to travel mid-week so if you have that flexibility, I'd certainly recommend it. I also had some flexibility as far as what month of the year to travel. I had originally considered going there in June, but then realized that that's actually the peak of tourist season in Sweden. Their national holiday is early June and "midsummer " (summer solstice) is pretty much their most important festival. But by mid-August, the kids are back in school and autumn routines have resumed, yet the weather is still quite nice. So late August into early September, the time I ultimately chose, is part of what's often called the "shoulder season", when fares are slightly lower.
In case your budget doesn't run to business class tickets (mine didn't), it's still worth looking into something a bit nicer than plain-old economy class, where you have to be shoehorned into your seat, especially if the flight is completely full (or even overbooked, which is a regular occurrence these days!) Those intermediate fare classes are still considerably cheaper than business class.
I opted for SAS Plus, which meant wider seats and just two to a row, nicer meal and snack options, including wine or beer, all complimentary, priority boarding and a slightly more generous baggage allowance (both for carry-on and checked baggage). I even got a boarding pass that qualified me to go into a priority line for security screening. Not sure if that was determined by the fare class, the fact that there was a connecting flight involved, or that I'm a senior but whatever the reason, I wasn't about to quibble about it!
As far as security went, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to take off my shoes or unpack everything. My purse and carry-on wheelie-bag went through intact and the only thing that had to be separate was my laptop.
So, about baggage. I'd say if you can possibly manage without checked baggage, that would be ideal. But if you can't, it's better to check a bag on the way home than on the way to your destination, in case the checked bag is delayed or otherwise goes astray. That way, you won't find yourself without some crucial item, possibly not readily available at the destination, when you arrive exhausted and jet-lagged in a foreign country after an overnight flight! If it goes astray on the way home, at least you'll have clothes to wear and all the comforts of home even if you're missing a few of those souvenirs you wanted to bring back for people.
This trip I did manage without checked baggage. I packed a couple of scrunchable backpacks which I used during my days in Sweden, while seeing the sights. One of them was a nice bag I got at registration at a library conference in Quebec City in 2008. Made of canvas, it can be used either as a shoulder bag or backpack just by rearranging the straps. It has lots of zippered compartments to keep things of various sizes. If necessary, like if I'd bought more stuff in Sweden than I'd originally intended, I could have filled it up and checked it on the way home - or used it as a carry-on and checked my carry-on wheelie case instead.
My other trick was to try and buy souvenirs that were nice and compact and unbreakable: postcards, little carved wooden Dala horses and other animals, tea towels, T-shirts and hair scrunchies, coasters, CDs, etc. Naturally I had to buy books too but again I tried to limit myself to those that were fairly compact and that I didn't think would be readily available at home. There were also some that I read at the airport or on train trips between cities but was pretty sure I wouldn't be reading again or wanting to pass on to anyone in particular; these I just left in my hotel rooms.
Finally I'll talk about flight delays. My flight from Toronto to Stockholm was supposed to take off at 5PM, with boarding to begin about half an hour before that. So I was in Toronto by 3PM, hanging about in an area where I didn't need to go through security again... and upon checking the boards to find out my gate number, learned that the flight was delayed and not due to take off until 19:40. In the end, that was more like the time that actual boarding began, so the flight was about 3 hours late. It wasn't too bad actually. I'm not a big fan of Pearson Airport but at least it was still early enough in the day that the shops and food outlets were open. And while I was pretty exhausted on arrival in Stockholm, the train from the airport to central Stockholm was quick and efficient and I was able to check into my hotel right away.
It would have been a bigger worry if the flight back had been delayed that long. It would have meant missing my connecting flight in Toronto and possibly getting back home at some really ungodly hour of the next morning (which would have felt 6 hours later because of the time difference). But much to my relief, the return flight was on time.
Thus concludes the second instalment of my series on travel in the 2020s.
Of course, the fewer transfers you have to make in your journey, the less such issues will muck up your overall itinerary. It helps if you live in or near a major centre, and are traveling to a major centre as well. Now, although I would consider Ottawa a major centre, there are unfortunately no direct commercial flights from Ottawa to Stockholm. SAS offers direct flights between Toronto and Stockholm and although I balk at flying southwest in order to fly northeast, that seemed the best way to do it in this case. The connecting flight between Ottawa and Toronto was through Air Canada.
My experience with SAS was certainly way more positive than the one I had with Aer Lingus last summer!
So when I started looking at flights, I obviously looked at costs and classes of fares. I quickly discovered that it's cheaper to travel mid-week so if you have that flexibility, I'd certainly recommend it. I also had some flexibility as far as what month of the year to travel. I had originally considered going there in June, but then realized that that's actually the peak of tourist season in Sweden. Their national holiday is early June and "midsummer " (summer solstice) is pretty much their most important festival. But by mid-August, the kids are back in school and autumn routines have resumed, yet the weather is still quite nice. So late August into early September, the time I ultimately chose, is part of what's often called the "shoulder season", when fares are slightly lower.
In case your budget doesn't run to business class tickets (mine didn't), it's still worth looking into something a bit nicer than plain-old economy class, where you have to be shoehorned into your seat, especially if the flight is completely full (or even overbooked, which is a regular occurrence these days!) Those intermediate fare classes are still considerably cheaper than business class.
I opted for SAS Plus, which meant wider seats and just two to a row, nicer meal and snack options, including wine or beer, all complimentary, priority boarding and a slightly more generous baggage allowance (both for carry-on and checked baggage). I even got a boarding pass that qualified me to go into a priority line for security screening. Not sure if that was determined by the fare class, the fact that there was a connecting flight involved, or that I'm a senior but whatever the reason, I wasn't about to quibble about it!
As far as security went, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to take off my shoes or unpack everything. My purse and carry-on wheelie-bag went through intact and the only thing that had to be separate was my laptop.
So, about baggage. I'd say if you can possibly manage without checked baggage, that would be ideal. But if you can't, it's better to check a bag on the way home than on the way to your destination, in case the checked bag is delayed or otherwise goes astray. That way, you won't find yourself without some crucial item, possibly not readily available at the destination, when you arrive exhausted and jet-lagged in a foreign country after an overnight flight! If it goes astray on the way home, at least you'll have clothes to wear and all the comforts of home even if you're missing a few of those souvenirs you wanted to bring back for people.
This trip I did manage without checked baggage. I packed a couple of scrunchable backpacks which I used during my days in Sweden, while seeing the sights. One of them was a nice bag I got at registration at a library conference in Quebec City in 2008. Made of canvas, it can be used either as a shoulder bag or backpack just by rearranging the straps. It has lots of zippered compartments to keep things of various sizes. If necessary, like if I'd bought more stuff in Sweden than I'd originally intended, I could have filled it up and checked it on the way home - or used it as a carry-on and checked my carry-on wheelie case instead.
My other trick was to try and buy souvenirs that were nice and compact and unbreakable: postcards, little carved wooden Dala horses and other animals, tea towels, T-shirts and hair scrunchies, coasters, CDs, etc. Naturally I had to buy books too but again I tried to limit myself to those that were fairly compact and that I didn't think would be readily available at home. There were also some that I read at the airport or on train trips between cities but was pretty sure I wouldn't be reading again or wanting to pass on to anyone in particular; these I just left in my hotel rooms.
Finally I'll talk about flight delays. My flight from Toronto to Stockholm was supposed to take off at 5PM, with boarding to begin about half an hour before that. So I was in Toronto by 3PM, hanging about in an area where I didn't need to go through security again... and upon checking the boards to find out my gate number, learned that the flight was delayed and not due to take off until 19:40. In the end, that was more like the time that actual boarding began, so the flight was about 3 hours late. It wasn't too bad actually. I'm not a big fan of Pearson Airport but at least it was still early enough in the day that the shops and food outlets were open. And while I was pretty exhausted on arrival in Stockholm, the train from the airport to central Stockholm was quick and efficient and I was able to check into my hotel right away.
It would have been a bigger worry if the flight back had been delayed that long. It would have meant missing my connecting flight in Toronto and possibly getting back home at some really ungodly hour of the next morning (which would have felt 6 hours later because of the time difference). But much to my relief, the return flight was on time.
Thus concludes the second instalment of my series on travel in the 2020s.
