6

So my wife and I will be traveling to the UK this month, and we booked the flight from Los Angeles to London through Kiwi.com. Our itinerary is LAX to OSL via Norwegian Air, and then OSL to LHR via SAS. We are travelling carry-on only, no checked baggage.

According to our Kiwi reservation page, we are able to online check-in for the LAX-OSL segment, but for the OSL-LHR flight it says that online check-in is not available and that we need to check-in in person at the airport.

I've never had to do this before, and was wondering if we needed to actually leave the terminal and go back to the main check-in desks and then go through security again, or if you can check in, say, at the departure gate or a customer service desk in the terminals.

Our layover is a little under 1.5 hours (we land in OSL at 1545 and our connecting flight leaves at 1710).

Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

John
  • 61
  • 2

2 Answers2

9

I am surprised SAS cannot do an OLCI for you for OSL to LHR. Make sure your passport details are all correct on your SAS reservation (on SAS's website). If that doesn't fix it, maybe telephone SAS to ask why OLCI is not working, perhaps they can unjam it.

In principle, the gate staff should be able to check you in and print your BP at the gate (although it will be a bit of a surprise for the gate handlers). If you cannot find a SAS desk airside, go to the gate as soon as possible, try to talk to the most experienced looking person at the gate, and potentially ask someone else if you don’t get a useful answer. Given the tightness of your timetable that is what I would do.

There is, or at least was, a bypass channel for non-Schengen to non-Schengen transfers, but it was under maintenance last time I was in OSL and before then you usually had to ask someone to open it for you. It's to your left as your approach passport control. It's a bit unusual to use it so you may have to attract someone's attention and ask them to open it. There's a long corridor and then a dedicated screening area, so it's normally fast, but you may have to wait for the screening personnel to arrive and open it up for you. Still, this is your best bet if you have a non-EU passport and there is already a queue of non-EU passports. The slowness of the non-EU lines should not be underestimated. You shouldn't have to present a boarding pass but you should know where you're going and which flight to catch.

Elsewise you'll go through immigration twice. If you don't have an EU passport you can expect to be queuing for some time because of the number of non-EU passports on that plane.

4

Check whether this is one or two tickets. KIWI sometime bundles two separate tickets and claims "Connection guaranteed by KIWI". If it's a single tiecket it says "Connection guaranteed by the airline".

If it's two ticket, you need to clear immigration and customs in Oslo and enter Norway. Make sure you have proper documentation to enter the Schengen area, depending on your nationality you may need a Visa.

Then you have to head to the terminal and go to the regular SAS check in counter, check in, get your boarding pass and go through security and exit immigration again. The process is no different from just starting journey in Oslo. Your previous flight makes no difference.

1.5 hours is on the tight side, but since you have no checked luggage, it seems doable unless your LAX flight gets delayed or you get snagged in immigration or customs.

I strongly recommend reading the fine print on KIWI's so-called "guarantee" and also check out a few online reviews of people who tried to use it. KIWI requires you to follow a fairly strict process and the guarantee has only fairly limited coverage, even if you do.

Hilmar
  • 119,360
  • 8
  • 205
  • 414