SAS Scandinavian review - by John Jepsen
12 October 2006

Copenhagen to Washington DC and return in economy class, and was surprised of the good service by the flight attendants, they were aware of the passengers needs and came to you with a smile. Only one small minus there were only 1 choice of meal, but you always get warm bread and extra bread if you want. The check-in staff and staff at the gate both airports was very nice and helpful.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Kristian Laursen
10 October 2006

Was something in old times, but now service is non-existing. Just back from BKK-CPH on an Economy Extra ticket, leg room was ok, entertainment was ok, if mine was working (screen stuck and couldn't be fixed). These seats are quite old nowadays, so the comfort is quite low when sleeping, but sitting was ok. Food was rubbish, could choose between pork or fish, no before dinner drink offered, red wine was only one choice.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Paul Smith
30 September 2006

Shanghai-Copenhagen-Paris. Business Class staff friendly and accommodating - interested and polite but not intrusive. Great food choices, plenty of drinks on offer and seats really comfortable. More mature staff than usual - this was welcome and their professional attitude showed up many other airlines.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Martin Helander
22 September 2006

I just returned from Copenhagen to Bangkok 15 Sept2006. In the past I have been sentimental about SAS, since I am Swedish. This time I decided no more SAS . The sentiment among flight attendants was such that I had difficulties asking for a glass of water - I felt totally intimidated! No smiles - sour faces only, the head attendant was the worst! And there was only one option for food, which my wife could not eat. Some time ago my wife flew SAS on her own. She is a short Asian lady and she could not reach to put her luggage in the bin. She asked for help - but was denied! "We don't help pasengers to lift the luggage was the answer." I will let my SAS Gold card (EGB) transpire! To be fair I must add that the SAS gate personnel in Copenhagen was excellent and very helpful.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Mats Svensson
22 September 2006

I agree with some of the comments made about SAS flights in Europe, but SAS is still a good airline to get you from A to B. They have poor, expensive food and planes are in need of a new interior. I find the SAS seats to be fairly comfortable and flight attendants to be quite pleasant. I have also noticed that if you are Scandinavian and speak to them in Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian, they're a bit extra nice. The short haul flights may not be great, but when flying long-haul they serve good food, seats are very comfortable, IFE is good, and flight attendants are usually pleasant.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Hans Henrik Nygaard
16 September 2006

After years avoiding SAS I bought a ticket from Copenhagen to Bangkok on Economy Flex. I had hoped that time and competition would have taught SAS how other airlines manage to keep there passengers loyal. But wrong again. The plain was dirty, the seat was 5 cm wider than economy and the foam in the seat long gone. 40% of the passengers were upgraded from economy even there were still seat available in economy class. The food was terrible. SAS ask USD 3000.00 for a ticket like this and compared to the service from other airlines you feel cheated. Today I cancelled my return flight and asked for refund of the return flight. I will have to wait 3 months or more for the payback.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Per-Albin Hansson
13 September 2006

ARN-EWR with SAS this summer in economy, and it was a positive surprise. Unfortunately the plane was delayed 3 hrs due to some ATC problems, but the FAs served drinks to passengers during this time, and kept us up to date with the situation. The FAs also friendly, which isn't always the case with the FAs at SAS. Food were the usual story in economy, rather dull, and boring, but edible, and all drinks, including the alcoholic ones were complimentary. About 2 hrs before arrival we were served pizzas. All the seats had individual IFE, although no AVOD. Unfortunately the return trip from ORD to ARN was the usual SAS story. Rude cabin crew, screaming babies, and the breakfast served was a joke. It's really sad to see this was this once proud national airline has become.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Gregory Bradley
6 September 2006

Flew St Petersburg - Copenhagen - London 31/8/2006. St Petersburg flight was delayed 6 hours. No explanation given. Eventually aircraft meals and a bottle of water turned up after several hours of waiting. Didn't bother to organise missed connection which we had to do ourselves. Arrived London, bags lost. 12 hours later still no news. Phone calls to Airlines lost baggage line gives recorded message saying unable to answer right now, for over 5 hours. Horrific experience, never again.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Monika Weiss
26 August 2006

MUC-CPH-TKU, flight from CPH to TKU cancelled. Had to wait 2 hours in transfer centre, got a flight to ARN and then to TKU. Arrived with the last flight, about 5 hours delayed. Luggage was not there, arrived finally more than 24 hours later in TKU. No compensation, not even a snack in CPH or ARN. Never ever SAS again, if avoidable!!!

SAS Scandinavian review - by Eric Bateman
22 August 2006

Should SAS stand for "Shocking, apathetic, stupid"? Travelled Stockholm-CPH on a full (ish) fare ticket. No free food, no food to buy either (due to a strike by their suppliers). Plane arrived on time, then 90 (NINETY) minutes for baggage to arrive on the belt. Asked at the baggage desk why the Stockholm flight was showing delayed - "it may be for security reasons but it will be there in a minute. It always takes at least 40 minutes." Dreadful - but guess that they have a monopoly on intra-Nordic routes.

SAS Scandinavian review - by John A Mikkelborg
3 August 2006

Booked a flight, Seattle to Oslo, many months ahead of time. Seats assigned at booking were summarily changed without notice apparently to accommodate overbooking passengers. The flight was delayed (June 20, 2006) 50 minutes - no explanation given at all. Missed connection in Copenhagen due to late arrival and forced to wait hours to re-ticket. The worst treatment ever experienced by any other airline! Will consider SAS a dead last resort for next trip to Norway!

SAS Scandinavian review - by Moe Soto
30 July 2006

My wife and I were looking forward to flying on SAS from Denmark to Seattle. What a letdown. I hope to never fly again on SAS, but if I do I will take my own food. No choice was given, but only fish paste dishes were served. A Herring pudding as the salad dish and the main dish potatoes with a piece of meat which tasted awful along with red beets which stained the potatoes. Not all of us like red beets. Later on the flight a rolled up flat bread as a snack. It was filled with a fish paste. Near the end of the flight, a bread roll with a thin slice of ham and again covered with a fish paste. I have never decided on who to fly with based on food until now.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Thorkild Lykke
30 July 2006

LHR-CPH economy flex. Check-in done in 30 seconds at the self check-in. Just after boarding thunderstorms stopped all aircraft from leaving LHR. The captain updated passengers on the status. For a while it seemed we could end up waiting for a long time due to the airport being very busy at that time so the crew offered snacks to business class and economy flex with various drinks. Coffee was also offered for the entire cabin, i.e. also in economy/snowflake where you normally pay for everything. Luckily we ended up only waiting 1 hour on the ground before we could take off. The food offered on flex was excellent this time: Middle eastern bulgur salad with köfte, warm fresh bread, a slice of blue cheese, dessert and chocolates for the coffee.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Erich Koller
14 July 2006

Booked on SAS for a regular evening flight CPH to ZRH. MD81, clearly showing its age. Cabin clean, old seats comfortable but as I was sitting in economy, very noisy. There is zero free drinks/food served by SAS those days in economy, you've got to pay for everything, as simple water costs you 3 Euro (even at OS, water/coffee is free). As my flight number was an LX, I was wondering once again how Star Alliance is not harmonising service levels in Europe (LX has at least free drinks / small snacks on Europe flights when operated by LX). Otherwise flight was uneventful, both departure and arrival on time and cabin crew smiling.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Graham Williams
24 June 2006

MAN-CPH return. Flight cost was excellent value under £100 before taxes. Both out and return flights were Airbus A320. Flights were slightly delayed - one as no ground crew available. Check in online is great choose your seat, turn up check your bag off you go. The queues were horrendous at CPH but it was a Monday morning 8am flight out. So I queue jumped and got seen within 2 minutes - I wouldn't have Normally but baggage check-in was due to close. I give SAS 4 stars good value, very comfortable flight, pleasant FA. I didn't buy food but took my personal DVD player for entertainment. Cost of food onboard was not excessive, we are just used to free food onboard so 5 Euros for a sandwich and salad is reasonable. Was extra Euro for a beer included.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Vikash Nagar
24 June 2006

LHR to NRT via CPH. All flights booked in Economy Flex (or extra for the long haul sector) this is good value for the long haul since it is classed as premium economy and the fare is fully flexible. The flight left on time for the short trip to CPH, took about 1 hour and 15 minutes. As we booked the Economy flex ticket we were offered complimentary food and drink, however I would not have complained if none was offered because of the short flight, so this is not the deciding factor for paying for this class. CPH was very well sign posted, a tip though is if you have more than 1 hour transit time, then to clear immigration and use the facilities/shops/restaurants near gates A and B. It is much bigger and a huge array of choice. Connecting flight to NRT was also boarded on time. SAS use the A340-300 aircraft for this route which in my opinion is better than the traditional B747-400 which the bigger airlines use on this route. We were seated in Economy Extra (similar to Premium Economy on Virgin). Cabin is separated from Business and Economy with a curtain. On this sector there were 7 people seated in a section of 28 seats so plenty of room to move around (economy section looked pretty full and Business also). Service was very good, food identical to economy, but you get served first. The seating was fabulous. I am over 6Ft tall and had enough room to stretch out. Only issue some may have is that all the window seats have the AVOD control unit under them. We took off about 40 minutes late due to the fact that the bread for the meals was late! however we made up a lot of time in the air and landed 25 minutes early. Overall a fantastic experience for our first trip with SAS and looking forward to the return trip.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Mark Lowrie
18 June 2006

LHR-Stockholm this week and LHR-Copenhagen a month ago. Difficult not to agree with others. The planes look tired, leaving and arriving at Term 3 at LHR is a real minus for European flights with it all taking much longer to clear security on the way out and immigration on the way back.. One check in person for economy at LHR created real queues. Security seemed casual at Stockholm with half passenger passports and boarding passes checked at the flight gate and half not. The machines for reading the boarding passes seemed not to work so boarding was very slow. The FAs seemed very casual about security procedures and clearing up after food service. Announcements kept to such a minimum so no explanation as to why we were late. Food and drink service slow and expensive with choices running out before Row 25 in economy. With a duopoly on LHR-Stockholm it is back to expensive BA!

SAS Scandinavian review - by Tony Irizarry
10 June 2006

I recently flew SAS for the first time from Washington Dulles to CPH and can honestly say it was one of the worst experiences in my travels in over 20 years. Uncaring and arrogant gate agents, terrible food in economy flex, late flights (over 5 hours late).

SAS Scandinavian review - by Anton Earle
10 June 2006

SAS make travelling with small children difficult. We flew from London Heathrow to Stockholm Arlanda with SAS on 30 May and 3 June 2006 respectively. On both journey we were told at check-in that our 18 month old baby's pram had to be checked in. We could not take it to the gate and then hand it to the aircrew for stowage in the hold as other airlines allow. This meant that we had to spend two hours waiting in the departure lounge with an 18 month old baby and no pram - all over his usual nap time. Both times we pleaded with SAS check-in staff for leniency - their attitude was that they don't make the rules and there is nothing they can & then asked that we hurry up so as not to block people behind us. On the trip back to London I asked for the name of the check-in clerk so that I could write a letter of complaint to SAS over his rude attitude - he refused to provide his name & leant over the counter to cover his name tag! When I called his supervisor I was also abruptly told that he does not have to provide his name & that he had not done anything wrong. This must rate as some of the most insulting customer service I have ever experienced.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Simon Rowberry
1 June 2006

I have used SAS on a fortnightly basis BHX-CPH-HEL for the last 4 years or so and am a Eurobonus Gold Member. I've been very interested to read the various comments from people on the site and, although I recognise many of the things people are saying (good and bad!), I think that the point is that they have had serious financial problems and are trying to keep themselves in existence through reducing costs. I agree that they piss the Economy passenger off with outrageous prices for, frankly, crap (come on, whose idea was the Chicken and Jalapeno sandwich I bought - for €7 - this morning? Awful combination but nothing else available); that they are increasingly late; that they've reduced services without commensurate reductions in fares; they've got some incredibly surly ground staff (especially at CPH); their Business Class product is pretty shabby; the cabin interiors are tatty (especially the MD80 series); and, having just turned the financial corner, their pilots and cabin crew seem to want to commit commercial suicide by striking. Also, this morning (29 May) my CPH-BHX flight was delayed 30 mins as no ground crew at the Gate. Pathetic, I admit. SAS has superb lounge staff in Europe (at HEL); always responded rapidly to my complaints (via Customer Relations at LHR); keeps you informed of arrival gates and rebooks you if late; has more superb members of staff than dragons. Yes, it has changed since late 2004. However, it always gets me there one way or another, safely and with a relative degree of comfort. It needs to reinvent itself, and I hope it does. It needs to be more consistent - the varied comments of contributors demonstrates this fact.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Jorgen Aberg
29 May 2006

CPH-EWR-CPH and CPH-SEA-CPH in the past four weeks (both trips in economy). Having being through four recent trans-atlantic trips on SAS in the past month, I have been able to see the level of service that SAS offers. The list of pros is very short: new and modern aircraft and very pleasant SAS staff in Seattle. The list of cons includes the following: catering on-board that is virtually non-existent and of inferior quality, IFE that hardly ever works, on-board staff that could not care less and treat people in an inconsistent manner. Something that comes across very clearly with SAS is that it has become a no-frills airline with premium prices. On my way to Seattle, I hear that the CEO for SAS is stepping down. It makes me think about how things have gone dramatically wrong during his tenure. From here on, things can only change for the better.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Ingo Neubert
29 May 2006

Living both in Northern Germany and Moscow, Russia, SAS has been the airline of my choice since 1996. Flying them regularly and becoming their status customer I enjoyed their way of making you feel comfortable. Cabin staff has been always friendly. Now this airline turned into something can be described only as a try of struggling airline managers to keep their company swimming. Aircraft breakdowns (3 from 4 flights in a row did not depart) and late departures are common now. The EuroBonus program, once one of the better ones, now is joke, making it for Economy passengers impossible to earn enough miles. Their upgrade policy with these unhappy certificates is more than old fashioned. My latest experience was on May 15, when check-in on my SVO- CPH, although late on arrival was closed earlier than usual - 1:15 hrs before departure and I denied my from checking in. SAS station managers comment on my and 2 other passengers situation: Only 3 people? They find their way home without us! In my opinion they did not decide yet what product to offer - a low cost, no thrill or a full service airline. Both is impossible.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Ulo Maasing
24 May 2006

This once good airline has deteriorated drastically during the last few years. Recently flew EWR–ARN. We were delayed out of EWR almost two hours because the goods containers had been loaded in the wrong order. How difficult can it be to follow a loading scheme? The water system on the A330 broke down immediately after take-off. No running water in the lavatories, no coffee, no tea on an all night flight. And of course, no compensation offered as is the usual SAS standard nowadays. I am a SAS Eurobonus gold card holder since many years but have switched to using other airlines as much as possible, primarily because of the poor inflight service that SAS offers. On European routes business class service is only marginally better than economy class service used to be. Economy class service is a joke – sandwiches that hardly have any taste, drinks and coffee served at exorbitant prices. SAS used to be one of the most punctual airlines in Europe, but these days it ranks at the bottom of the list. They also lose lots more baggage than they used to. The list goes on to show that there is a marked lack of quality in the entire product SAS offers. This once very good airline is now sadly an airline to avoid whenever possible! It is definitely not worth a three star ranking.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Philip Cokkinos
24 May 2006

Recently flew SAS over a 2-week itinerary ATH-CPH-OSL-SVG-CPH-ATH in Business Class (which someone else paid for). Service on the flights within Scandinavia is virtually non-existent. The service ATH-CPH was excellent in Business with a hot meal including delicious marron glace cake for dessert, wine and beer, Baileys after dinner, and a good hot breakfast on the return leg CPH-ATH, operated by an A321 with 3 windows of legroom in front of row 1. Inflight mag is very good. Onboard WC on the MD80 and A321 spotless. The late opening of the cramped check-in desks in Stavanger on the day of my return (at 05h10 for an 06h00 flight to CPH, ie just 50 min before scheduled departure) meant a mad scramble at check-in and security. I decided to go to self-service check-in to avoid any delays. This went smoothly. In the event, the flight SVG-CPH left 30 min late, allowing only a 30-min connection time in CPH for the last leg to Athens. Other passengers had similar connections. We informed SAS staff, the plane was accelerated to make up for some of the lost time, connecting gates were announced on arrival in CPH, we disembarked quickly, and I made it to my next gate with ample time to spare. There was even time to look up my emails in the SAS lounge. CPH airport excellent, probably the best in Europe. Bags had made the connection and arrived in ATH quickly. Airmiles appeared on my Lufthansa account within 72h. So although SAS ground crew (check-in in SVG) could have caused problems, I was impressed with the subsequent handling to avoid a potentially unpleasant situation. Other airlines (Alitalia, Air France) wouldn't have cared less. Overall a very good experience.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Mats Genberg
24 May 2006

SAS Copenhagen-Shanghai-Copenhagen last week. Outbound in Economy Flex, and return in Business. I like their Airbus 340's and find their IFE worked well with PTV's in economy. The wireless internet was superb, and I even edited a web-site from 35,000 feet above Russia! Staff are not service robots, but experienced with a sense of humour and flexibility. Two FA's were chinese. The homebound plane was 2.5 hours delayed from CPH, but they managed to make a very quick turnaround and in the end we landed in CPH only 35 minutes behind schedule. All in all a pleasant flight, and I would use them again.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Pete Crow
21 May 2006

Seattle-Copenhagen-Brussels. At one time, SAS was my airline of choice, but they have now instituted some changes that can only be interpreted as them trying hard to piss economy passengers off. The service on European routes isn’t. They have switched from offering full service to selling soft drinks at exorbitant prices, and packing all economy passengers into the back of the plane. Their economy flex cabin is about half the airplane, but only seems to attract 5% of the passengers, thus leaving a full back with one person per row between economy and business. No effort was made to spread the passengers out, and my status of Star Alliance Gold made no difference once I boarded the plane. On the way back to Seattle, I was seated right next to the lavatories with another Star Alliance Gold flyer. Since this is a 9 hour flight, the aroma was less than desirable. We both complained about our seating assignment, and ended up being skipped on meal service by a member of the flight crew that didn’t appreciate that. Our letter of complaint sent to SAS six weeks ago has not been answered. For someone who does not hold frequent flyer status, this airline is not that bad. For those that do, fly with one that will recognize it on and off the plane.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Mike Langran
20 May 2006

ARN-CPH Economy. Full MD81 on this early morning flight from Stockholm. Lined up and ready to go on the runway when a passenger collapsed several rows behind me. Cabin crew sprang into action and alerted the pilot just before he started our take off run. Pleased to say the passenger wasn’t seriously unwell but we taxied back to the terminal for him to be taken to hospital. Finally took off 55 mins late, but as the captain pointed out, if we’d become airborne then it would have been much worse and he thanked the crew for their quick thinking. Once airborne, we were given a standard SAS deli breakfast (always nice early in the morning) which is fairly rare these days. Whole crew performed really well throughout this flight, unflustered by the earlier incident and thanked everyone for their patience. Most impressive of all was their handling of onwards connections. Most of us on the flight were connecting at CPH and the staff took a lot of time and trouble to keep everyone informed and re-booked those who had already missed their flights. As others have noted, SAS are not the same as 5 years ago but crews do make a difference as well illustrated today - a pat on the back for the crew on this flight! Great lounge at CPH too.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Steve Hearne
18 May 2006

After flying with SAS for several years, both for business and pleasure, I now avoid them like the plague. Their economy check-in facilities in Terminal 3 at Kastrup are a disaster. The queue often snakes around the terminal and it can take the best part of an hour just to get to the counter. Why, even when it is obviously busy, do SAS never seem have more than 4 check-in desks open? Even more infuriating is their habit of reducing the number of available check-in desks at the most inappropriate of times. Surely they must know the amount of people expecting to travel and hence be able to anticipate the staff required to cope? A couple of months ago, my partner and I were booked on a flight from CPH to Manchester. The flight was cancelled due to bad weather (obviously not SAS fault). The ensuing scramble to get re- assigned flights at the under-staffed transfer desk, along with SAS' complete lack of information and directions, was disgraceful. When I enquired about compensation, SAS customer services did not even have the manners to respond. I now use BA instead. Check-in at Terminal 2 is quick and you still get free food and beverages on the flight. SAS used to be a fine example of an airline. Where did it all go wrong?

SAS Scandinavian review - by Michael Scott
18 May 2006

I recently flew a round trip between London and Tokyo with SAS, via Copenhagen, and definitely would not use this airline again. The short- haul flights between LHR and CPH were dreadful - going out, we were delayed by an hour, and on the return leg all the economy class passengers were crammed into the last 12-15 rows of the plane while the middle of the aircraft was empty. Our e-tickets stated that there would be a cold meal but that did not materialise and the food on sale was unimaginative and grossly overpriced. On the long-haul flights the seats were comfortable and the legroom quite generous - but that's just about the only positive thing I can find to say. The food was appalling - easily the worst airline meals I've ever had on a so-called full service airline. The choice of entertainment was poor, and presented very badly: all channels ran on a continuous loop, with no attempt to synchronise the start of movies and no way of telling when a particular movie would next start. To make matters even worse, both handset and touch-screen were extremely unresponsive. On the outward leg SAS failed to transfer any of the luggage from the delayed London flight (presumably deliberately, to avoid delaying the long-haul flight), which meant a long queue of frustrated passengers at the luggage handling counter in Tokyo. First they told us that the luggage would arrive later that day on a Lufthansa flight (it didn't); then they told us that one of the bags had been located in Frankfurt, but didn't know where the other one was. The bags were eventually delivered (unannounced and separately) to our hotel the following day, but it had been a very stressful 24 hours while we wondered whether our cameras, clothes and medication would arrive in time for us to start our tour. We want to visit Japan again - but will not be using SAS.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Andy Page
9 May 2006

Having flown SAS quite a few times on European flights, I have to say they haven't provided the best service or impression. Often the flights are delayed and my luggage has been lost twice now, only to be returned a couple of days later just in time for me to return to the UK. I have also had a bag ripped due to bad handling. It may not be the fault of airlines that luggage is lost, but I have never had any trouble on any other airline. With flights costing substantially more than low cost airlines and no difference in service levels, I think it is ridiculous not to give passengers a drink during the flight. I use them because often there is no alternative - but where there is, I will use it.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Angus Gilmore
6 May 2006

MAN-CPH-MAN for a weekend break in economy at a price too good to refuse. Flights on time both ways. Service excellent from a very helpful and friendly crew. As comfortable as any other European carrier in economy. Check in at Terminal 3 in CPH hopeless though - three desks open to service all economy passengers resulting in long queues and frustrated passengers made late for their flights by this system jumping the queue and making things worse.

SAS Scandinavian review - by Robert Lewis
2 May 2006

CPH to LHR Sat 29th April. Row 1 to 14 - Business & Economy Flex had 10 people sitting in (relative) comfort. Row 15 to the back of the aeroplane was almost 90% full. Talk about SAS treating economy passengers as cattle! In my opinion when it comes to customer service SAS is rapidly moving towards becoming a joke. The economy extra product is a sop aimed at keeping the business market. Do they expect to find 10 rows of misguided passengers to fork out 400 pounds plus for a weekend flight?

SAS Scandinavian review - by Mike Boogaard
30 April 2006

CPH-AMS. MD-82. Full plane, nice flight, good food, good space, good service. Normally not a SAS Fan but this flight makes me happy.