Best Route and Airline From Portland Oregon to Stockholm

Michele - I'm not sure what you mean by best route. Are you talking about flight time? When are you looking to travel? You can connect thru Chicago on SAS and have a 8-9 hr flight to Stockholm. Delta flies to Stockholm via Amsterdam, that's a 10-11 hour flight. I would suggest checking out a site like Kayak to get an idea of cost and flight times.

PDX is our airport also and we generally fly Delta. IMHO the "best" route is PDX to Amsterdam (Delta) to Stockholm. Its nonstop to Europe and AMS is a good hub for flights to Scandinavia. Have a good trip.

Icelandair is good and also cheaper than others, I just got $849 round trip Portland-Stockholm in February from their website (would be more later in the year). We've flown them from Seattle a couple of times and the fare saving is well worth the Reykjavik stopover. But from Portland they would route you through Seattle on an Alaska Airlines flight (included in the $849 fare), so you'd have three flights to Stockholm. It might be easier to take a nonstop from Portland to Amsterdam or somewhere else in Europe, then connect to Stockholm. If it's a winter trip I'd suggest avoiding places like Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, or New York where bad weather could mess up your trip coming or going.

It is a long trip as it is so if you can do a direct flight to Amsterdam and then transfer to Stockhold, that would be my suggestion. Amsterdam is a great airport and from Vancouver, BC it is our first choice for going to Europe.

This is a no-brainer. Take Delta to Amsterdam and then onto Sweden. I did the Iceland Air once and the saving wasn't worth the hassles.

All other things being equal, a non-stop flight to Amsterdam and then another non-stop flight to Stockholm is preferably to me as it has one less stop (Seattle) if flying Icelandair via Reykjavik to Stockholm. Fewer stops typically mean fewer delays, hassles.

I would do almost anything to avoid US flagship airlines. When that is not possible, minimize distance covered by them. My first choice is British Airways. However, a good part of the trip is operated by American, a terrible choice. SAS has good options. You can avoid Delta altogether, a good thing, and fly only to O'Hare on a US carrier (United) and from there, nonstop to Stockholm on SAS. There is only a 2 hour stop over at O'Hare. That would be my choice.

Mary---what was the hassle with Iceland Air? Don't you just change places in Reykjavik instead of some other place?

I tend to prefer long flights followed by short hops, so I would probably prefer the PDX-AMS-CPH flights on KLM. The advantage is that there is less chance of something going wrong and it is easier to get final leg the closer you to the final destination. Otherwise, there really isn't that much of a difference. Your goal is to minimize the amount of travel time, stops, and cost.

I fly from Seattle to Europe every summer and always try to get a non-stop flight but it is getting harder to do every year. I have checked out Icelandic Air due to their price and the option to stop in Iceland for a couple of days. Everything looked good until I discovered that they fly
Boeing 757s which only has one isle. I refuse to fly long distance in an airplane that only has one isle due to its constant use by flight attendants, bathroom folks and others just trying to get some exercise (like me). Personal preference.

Some of the previous posts have good points to know. I have been to Finland 2 times now, and am going for my 3rd visit this summer. I normally fly out from Seattle. From my experience only in the last 12 yrs: 1. I will never book a flight who's hub is in Amsterdam. I do not like all the extra security and type of security staff that I experienced there. And the flight was at that time United with awful service and only the big movie screen up on the wall. 2. My second flight was with SAS, which I really love the service and staff and movie screen on the back of the seat in front of you. Good food and great hub airport for flight transfer, Copenhagen. The price for the ticket is always a little higher though.. 3. So for my flight this summer, I found a great deal from Air France/Delta for a round trip ticket that is less than I paid 12 yrs ago. Hub transfer is in Paris, France with FinnAir to Helsinki from there. We shall see what the airport is like in Paris, but the great thing is this. NO LAYOVER TIME, like the previous flights. This I like. I absolutely despise trying to find something to do while waiting for the flight to Finland from the transfer hub. So there you have it.... Hyvää matka!
SMA

I've read on the net that CDG is not a great hub for a layover...hope it proves me wrong for your sake. As for "NO" layover...you better hope the flight from the US isn't delayed by weather or any one of many reasons this can happen. I always aim for a minimum 3 hour layover when flying to Europe..either state-side or in Europe do to unforseen delays. Good Luck! Dan