Tere!

When it comes to travelling, one of the (personal) fun is flights! I love the excitement when getting on a plane, and being at an airport. As a student, I often had rough sleep at airports (mostly in Europe) but I didn’t do that this time.

The airlines that I used this time were Ryanair, the king of European LCC, and SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) that seems to be frequently used for travels in Northern Europe.

Also, since I travelled during the pandemic time, and there were some unusual processes and rules at the airports/airlines due to COVID, I will explain them (although I hope it won’t happen ever again).

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Table of Contents

1. Airports
     a. Arbrlanda airport
     b. Landvetter airport

2. Ryanair
          i. From a Schengen country (Estonia) to an EU but not Schengen country (Ireland) (Updated: July, 2022)
     a. Do I need a visa check to fly from Estonia to Sweden?
          i. Ryanair’s visa check in (Updated: July 2022)
     b. Mask
     c. How to check in online in Ryanair when having purchased tickets for more than one person (Updated: July, 2022)

3. SAS
     a. Name display
     b. Mask
     c. Check-in

★Summary

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1. Airports

a. Arlanda airport

When it comes to an airport in Stockholm, it should be Arlanda airport! It’s an international airport, where planes to many cities in foreign countries depart and arrive. It’s a pretty big airport, but not complicated.

When arriving at Arlanda airport and heading to the centre of Stockholm, basically you just need to follow the instructions displayed in the airport, but those are not shown for every step. At some point there was no guidance. I have used Arlanda a couple of times before, and yet I couldn’t remember the way to the bus stop. (I remember the way to the station.) So here’s how to find an aircoach to the centre of Stockholm.

In Terminal 5 at Arlanda airport, there is a yellow convenience store called Pressbyrån, and around there the display on the ceiling and on the floor is gone. However, I just decided to go forward and passed Pressbyrån. Then it was connected to Sky City and other Terminals. From somewhere there you can see the display guidance to the bus stop again, so just walk ahead.

At that time, I missed an aircoach to Stockholm just in front of me, but it is a capital city, so after only 15 minutes, another one came. So I didn’t wait that much. When going to the centre of Stockholm, it was bus stop 7, but I believe you should check before getting on it because there are buses to other directions from Arlanda airport. (The aircoach that I used is called Flygbussarna, and I will talk about this later separately.)

b. Landvetter airport

At Landvetter airport in Gothenburg, there is a digital display that shows the next three departures of Flygbussarna at the baggage reclaim area. So you don’t have to check your phone in how many minutes the bus will come, or remember the timetable (particularly for those who often make detailed plans).

Additionally, Landvetter airport didn’t look so big from the bus, but when you go inside, you may feel how big it actually is. When entering the inside of the airport, you will immediately see lots of check-n counters, and on the right facing the check-in counters, there are escalators to the security check and gates.

In the area of the security check, there is a bin box for an excess amount of liquidy stuff, and free 1L bags for a bunch of small liquid stuff. (At Tallinn airport it costs.) It was a super early morning, and there were not so many people, so the security check didn’t take time.

I reckon there were not so outstanding characteristics for this airport, and I’m not sure if you can have a rough sleep there.

2. Ryanair

Next, this is about the airlines that I used for this Sweden trip. The first one is Ryanair. When it comes to travelling in Europe, many people choose Ryanair. However, as a warning, some airports are specifically for Ryanair (or possibly for LCC), which are located somewhere unbelievable, so be careful when booking. Regarding Sweden, for sure Stockholm has. However, there shouldn’t be any problems between Tallinn and Stockholm because it should be connected (mainly) with Arlanda airport. Once, not from Tallinn, but I have used Stockholm Skavsta airport. It was ridiculously far from the centre, and the flight time was weird, so I had no choice but to stay at a nearby hostel/hotel as at Skavsta airport as you can’t have a rough sleep at Skavsta airport.

i. From a Schengen country (Estonia) to an EU but not Schengen country (Ireland) (Updated: July, 2022)

For the trip to Ireland in June, 2022, I used Ryanair again!

Ireland is registered as an EU country, but not as a Schengen country. When I lived in Ireland as an exchange student (from 2015 to 2016), I needed to print out a boarding pass, and get a visa check at a Ryanair check in counter at Dublin airport whenever I used Ryanair. This time I bought tickets for two people together, I also talk about checking in in such a case. (I added “Updated: July 2022” for the additional sections so you can find the updates easily.)

a. Do I need a visa check to fly from Estonia to Sweden?

When I was an exchange student in Ireland, I always needed a visa check, but where I currently live is a country in the Schengen area. In addition, it was the first time to travel abroad since 2019, so I completely forgot what kind of procedure I needed, and I had to check it.

There is an article on my website in Japanese, in which I wrote about my trip to Scotland in 2019, but since Brexit has been over, the situation is different. It cannot be any reference, and I felt like a travel beginner.

So, I contacted Ryanair.

If you need a visa check, you are required to get a stamp at a visa check counter at an airport, and for this it’s essential to print out the boarding pass. If not needed, I wanted to use Ryanair’s app (or the PDF file), so I contacted them. The descriptions below are replies from Ryanair.

1st contact: I recommend you to print it out just in case! → I’m not asking what to do for “just in case”.
2nd contact: If you see a QR code, you don’t need to print it out! → I see the barcode too.
3rd contact: No need to print it out! → I want to know the reason.

Yes, I asked the same question three times because this Ryanair’s page sounds like I would need it everywhere I use Ryanair.

So, I eventually asked a Ryanair crew at Tallinn airport, and she said I didn’t need it because my travels are within the Schengen area. Yes, that’s what I wanted to know! What I wanted to know was “if the travel is within the Schengen area”! In other words, if the travel is not within the Schengen area, I need a visa check!

You may be wondering why I didn’t print out the ticket just in case. This is because Ryanair’s free check in opens 24 hours prior to the flight departure, and I had to arrive at the airport before the printing shop opened.

Anyways, if you are a non EU/EEA passenger, but travel within the Schengen area, you don’t need a visa check!!!

Let’s keep this in mind. We may travel more often like before as almost no COVID restrictions are there these days as of June 2022 (although monkeypox is concerning us…)

i. Ryanair’s visa check in (Updated: July 2022)

In the trip to Ireland in June, 2022, one PDF included information for both of us with one boarding pass. My page didn’t have any barcode or QR code, instead there was “VISA CHECK”.

When I saw it I was like “Huh?” Not because of “VISA CHECK” description. When I lived in Ireland, after checking in online, the PDF file had a barcode. That’s why I needed to print it out, go to the check in counter at airports, and get a stamp on the printed boarding pass.

Then, when I went to Ryanair’s check in counter at Tallinn airport for the first time to go to Ireland since 2019, I showed the printed paper without any barcode as well as my passport, and they issued that wide boarding pass!!

Also later I found that I didn’t have to show the printed paper. It actually makes sense because at online check in I need to register my passport number, and there is no point to print the file out as they don’t put a stamp on it and even if they do, I still can’t use it as long as I don’t have any barcode or QR code. (I tested this without showing the paper, and it worked.)

When going to Dublin from Tallinn, the flight departure was at 3 in the afternoon. Only I went to the airport by myself to get the visa check done. And when I met my boyfriend at the security check gate, he saw my classic wide boarding pass, and asked me “Why do you have that boarding pass and I have only the file??”, having a little sad/disappointing face. 😂

When leaving Ireland, we went to the airport together. I’m not sure whether it was because he was behind me, and yet the check in staff member issued two boarding passes.

He looked happy. 😂

I’m happy for you.

After this experience, I thought Ryanir’s service was partially improved.

For non-EU citizens! Don’t forget to get a visa check when travelling between a Schengen country and a non-Schngen but EU country. You can know if you need it in the PDF file you will get after online check in.

b. Mask

When I travelled to Sweden this time, throughout Europe each country had gradually lifted COVID restrictions, and yet some airlines had different regulations about COVID.

In case of Ryanair, wearing a mask was required, but any mask was basically fine. I used UNIQLO’s cloth mask that my mum sent me during the pandemic, and it was acceptable in Ryanair.

c. How to check in online in Ryanair when having purchased tickets for more than one person (Updated: July, 2022)

This time I bought the tickets for two with my Ryanair account, but I found that I could not check in first, send the online check in link to my boyfriend, and let him check individually. (I contacted the Ryanair support and asked.)

So I asked him to send me necessary information by showing the screenshot of the check in page on Ryanair’s website. Then I completed checking in for both of us, and got a boarding pass.

Again, be careful, you cannot check in online separately when buying tickets with someone together.

3. SAS

In this trip, I had four flights, and three of them were run by Ryanair, but when I went back to Estonia, I used SAS. I have also used SAS before, and I think it was also a trip to Sweden…

a. Name display

This time I booked a seat in SAS on an online travel agency called Mytrip (because they offered the cheapest price), but the name display was strange, and I contacted SAS as I didn’t want to get rejected for the flight.

Then, they said I needed to contact the travel agency as my booking was done through them, so I contacted Mytrip. They said the name display was fine (that the title and my first name had no space between them).

However, I was still concerned, so I contacted SAS again. I explained the whole process of this, and they said there was no need to change as it was shown like that due to the system. I thought about why I was worried a lot, and at the same time, these ping-pong contacts were pretty annoying. I wished they had written such information somewhere on their website.

b. Mask

SAS also required us to wear a mask.

On the second day in Stockholm, which was Saturday, a wonder popped up in my mind in the afternoon; do I need a mask? So I googled, and found that SAS did not accept a cloth mask! You may wonder why I didn’t research before travelling, and yet I didn’t have such “capacity” to do in my head.

I quickly searched if there was any pharmacy around the hostel. Even in Estonia I had never bought paper or surgical masks, so I was worried if the supermarket that I found had paper masks, but it turned out that there was a pharmacy in the same building.

Just in case, I went to both the supermarket and the pharmacy, and yet the price was the same, so I decided to buy at the pharmacy as they sold black masks that looked better (more fashionable) than the blue ordinary surgical masks.

This is an extra story and it’s about a case of LOT Polish airline, but at Landvetter airport in Gothenburg, I was waiting for my flight in front of a gate which was open for passengers to LOT Polish’s flight. When the gate was about to close, two people who looked like a couple were running towards the gate, but since they didn’t have paper masks, they were rejected to onboard.

However, they were lucky.

Coincidentally a man who went through the gate one step earlier had a bunch of paper masks, and noticed them, and gave them a few.

I learnt we had to be careful when the situation in the whole world is remarkably different than usual.

c. Check-in

Lastly, this is also related COVID. I kind of remembered how to check in for SAS. I like rectangular classic shaped boarding passes which I could get from the self-check-in machine at an airport, but this time SAS required passengers to submit some COVID-related documents beforehand.

Some people seemed to be able to upload documents in advance, but this method was not applied for those who have lived in Estonia, and I had to go to a check-in counter in the airport.

In fact, when I went to Arlanda airport, all SAS’s check-in counters were for check-in luggages by themselves, and no staff were there.

So I asked an SAS lady who was guiding business-class passengers, and explained, but she also looked like “what is that?”, so she let me go to the lane for the business passengers.

Then, at a business counter, I explained what the SAS support told me before coming to the airport, and showed my COVID certificate. Then the staff issued me a boarding pass, and I could go forward.

I was so concerned….

★Summary

To conclude, this article was about a compilation of the information on the airports and airlines that I used for this Sweden trip.

I guess maybe some day this article will be in vain because of the time with COVID. In 2022, since I’m using Dublin airport, Frankfurt airport, Tokyo Haneda airport as well as Kansai airport (as of June 2022), I might write some articles about those airports too. But as for the airports in Japan (or even Frankfurt airport), the article/s might be published in 2023.

Aitäh! 🙂