Think about flying to the top of the world this Winter.

Winter time is coming, why not be crazy and go to the northern most commercial airport in the world. (LYR) Svalbard Airport, Longyear. In 2008, the airport had 138,934 passengers, up 7.4% from 2007.SAS Scandinavian Airlines daily flights to Tromsø and Oslo on mainland Norway. Last year in February I decided to use my miles to get a within Europe reward ticket for 20,000 miles (now would be 25,000) to fly up to the top of the world. This was the best miles I have ever cashed in! My flights were on a mix of Lufthansa and SAS and did take 2 days to get there. Day one was FRA-OSL-TOS, I spent a cold night in Tromsø at the Tromsø Scandic hotel (not the best place but there was heat). We arrived at the airport around 9

pm, we were the last flight of the day, after we picked up our bags we went out in the sub zero weather to get the FLUGBUS, waited waited and waited to find out that the Bus did not run on Saturday (would have been nice to know), there was a sign but only in Norwegian. There was no one in the airport.. After an hour a fire truck pulled up to lock the airport for the night, at this point we found out that there was no bus, and we got a number for a taxi. After about 12 hours in the hotel headed back to the airport for the SAS flight to LYR. There was one check in desk, one lady working and she smiled and handed us our boarding cards and said “Have fun with the polar bears”.

Once again we were the only people in the airport. After about an hour, 30 min before boarding other arrived, there was about 20 people waiting for this SAS flight that was running OSL-TOS-LYR.

We all got picked up and headed toward Longyear the flight was on a B737-800 in Star Alliance colors, the 2 hour flight had some of the most amazing views (see below). We landed on the snow packed runway, and this was the first time I was not the only person taking photos of the aircraft. Something about a nice 737 sitting on a snow covered tarmac with icy skies.

Baggage clame was fun our bags came out on belt 1, the only one.

There was a real stuffed polar bear in the middle of the belt. Took the SAS bus service to our lodging, we picked the old miners dorm to stay in. We had a packed week with a day of Snowmobiles, then a two day dog sled tour with a night in the middle of no ware in a wooden shack. The city of Longyearbyen is small but is the heart of all the action; tours can be booked by request. I did all my arrangements via email ahead of time. The area is also tax free so prices are not too bad, they use the NOK Norwegian Kroner. I just wanted to share some of

the photos from the sky and my time way up north. I know there are people with tons of miles burning a hole in their pocket, and a trip to LYR is well worth it, once in a life time.. The flight home was just as nice, this time a B737-600 in SAS colors took us back to Tromso, were I did a long overnight “layover” and got to tour around this northern Norwegian city. The next day SAS to OSL a few hours in the Star Gold lounge then on LH back home to Frankfurt. The SAS Norway flights were very nice, I was upgraded to Economy Extra on my flights, it is not listed as a *G benefit but I got it. So that means free drinks and a cold meal. Most SAS flights are buy on board in the back. The seats are nice, and the service is very good. SASNorway is a much better operation then the rest of the SAS family. SAS Norway is all Boeing 737 no MD80s. See the detailed itinerary here.

Here are some very cool pics from the sky!