SAS Scandinavian

I recently flew Oslo to Amsterdam and I was quite pleased. Customer service at Oslo was excellent. I flew on an oldish 737-400 and had economy seats. Seats were surprisingly spacious and comfortable. The inflight service was decent but the thing that bothered me was that the food wasn't free and the prices were quite expensive. Flight was pretty good no delays and I got to Amsterdam safely.

Outbound MAN-OSL-TOS. Return TOS-OSL-CPH-MAN. 6/812 - 14/8/12. Economy class. Very happy with the whole experience. Planes clean and punctual. Staff pleasant and attentive. MD82 on the OSL-CPH route was a bit of a journey back in time but OK. Would use them again if travelling to Scandinavia.

ZRH-ARN SK1606 Economy Extra Seat 6F Boeing 737-600 August 15th 2012. Flight on-time (as always). Excellent staff and good personal service. The service starts with drinks before the meal. Service is well planned. Staff very alert to your needs if you want more bread more to drink etc. Parking at stand both at ZRH and ARN (ie. no remote stand). Seat comfort was ok on this flight but mostly thanks to the seat next to me not being occupied. No in-flight entertainment system and no Internet. In-flight magazine ok but could be made better and more comprehensive since no other in-flight entertainment is provided. Food (only cold) was ok. Good selection of soft drinks wine and spirits for free. Cabin and aircraft generally feels slightly old and worn down.

Booked 2 return Sydney-Copenhagen Business seats. We travelled with partner airline Thai Airways to Bangkok first. Good flight! On landing in Bangkok were met and told the seat allocated to us on SAS would not recline and there were no other seats available. As we had a connecting flight and a hotel booked one of us had to except this broken seat completely upright rather than the sky bed. Once airborne none of the audio equipment functioned in either mine or my husbands seat. Hence we sat for over 11 hours in this state. Our flight attendant was extremely apologetic and I was to understand the seat was broken prior to leaving Copenhagen which would have given ample time to find another business seat for paying passengers. Surprisingly the purser didn't even do us the courtesy an apology. We tried to discuss the matter with SAS office in Sweden on arrival to no avail. We have our return flight this Thursday back to Australia. Will keep you updated as to this trip.

OSL to FRA early Sunday morning 5 Aug 2012. I was tired and looked forward to a nap. That nap was impossible because of two constantly shouting children. Business Class was completely empty and I asked the purser if I could sit down in business class. She let me. I was sleeping for 40 min and when I woke up the purser had put a blanket on me. After my nap I went back to my seat. Then the purser came to me and asked if I would like a cup of coffee. Fantastic service.

Flew Athens to Copenhagen in Business but was overwhelmed by the number of tourists on board. The Crew did nothing to keep them out of the Business Class area. Did not get any work done. Flight was freezing and when I was given a blanket I discovered it was covered with Hair from a previous Passenger. Food was only fish and was certainly not interesting. Flight itself was smooth but the airline is loosing its touch as it has failed to Upgrade like other regular Airlines. SAS is more a Low Cost airline.

Last week BRU-OSL-SVG-CPH-BRU in economy first two sectors on ageing B737s return on a crammed CRJ and finally the last sector on a very old MD-81. Flights on time as mentioned by staff after each sector. All planes looked old but were clean. Coffee/tea/water for free and newspapers available at the gates. SAS seems to be saving money by not connecting the planes (outside BRU) to the tubes and making the pax to walk on tarmac before boarding the planes. Luckily it did not rain. Not recommended for the physically challenged.

Monday July 10th onboard ARN to Chicago. Upgraded from Economy Extra to Business with Eurobonus points (no more free upgrades any more). Took of on time 10.20 am. Service with drinks and food was excellent. Food choice good. Sat in my seat 1H. Second serving was good too with choice of cold meat and cheese. We landed 30 minutes before schedule which means everyone made his/her connections.

Return flight July 17th Chicago-ARN. This time I got upgraded to business. After some drinks in Gold Lounge we boarded on time. Took of 20 min late and then we had to wait for drinks for about 1hr 40 min due to heavy turbulence. This meant first food serving ended almost 3 hrs from ARN. The choice of movies were too bad so I went to sleep. Tried to sleep but we had two infants onboard who just did not want to be still. So we had a very bad 2.5 h sleep. Breakfast was cereals yoghurt cheese and 1 slice of ham - terrible. 2 weeks ago we got egg and bacon on SAS into Beijing. Landed 20 min late which was okay.

ORD-CPH-VNO. I find food and service improved on the transatlantic route since the last time I flew with them. Meals were as much filling and tasteful as they could be on board the airplane and served with a smile. A small bottle of mineral water in every seat upon boarding was a pleasant surprise. The In-flight entertainment (AVOD) consisted of 4-5 boring movies and games and is in need of improvement. The European leg was another story. There were nothing offered during the 90 min. flight not even soda or a snack - just tea or coffee. Felt like flying a low-cost airline except the price. Their competitors do much better. I may recommend them for the intercontinental flights but avoid them if flying in Europe.