Tokyo Narita (NRT) – Copenhagen (CPH)
Date Saturday 24th October 2009
Airline: SAS
Class of service: Business Class
Flight number: SK984
Aircraft type: Airbus A340-300
Scheduled (actual): departure time 1140 (1205)
Scheduled (actual): arrival time 1605 (1530)
Flight duration: 11h. 35 m.
Seat: 8B
Departure
I arrived at the huge Narita airport with the limousine bus from my hotel. The traffic in and out of Tokyo in the morning can be quite a hell, so I took an early buss. The ride from downtown to the airport took just over 1. h.
I arrived at the check-in desk at 09:00, two hours and thirty minutes before departure. I was early, but the bus ride could just as well have lasted two hours or more. I went straight to the check-in counter. There was no one in line at Business, two other persons in line at the Star Gold counter, next to business class and the economy class area was all cleared. Well maybe all the eco. Pax used the self-service kiosks? There were plenty of them. And usually they work really fine. There was a small line, like 10-15 pax, at the two baggage drop counters.
I received my boarding pass and had my lugged tagged for my final destination and marked with the star alliance priority tag within two minutes. I made my way to security to find a separate first and business class queue, but there were only two lines and they were used by all passengers. But since it only took 10 minutes it didn’t really matter. Maybe it was just Asian efficiency? As there were quite a lot of people in the security lines due to the heavy load of passengers travelling with the Lufthansa 747 the SIA A380 and one Thai 747 taking off within the next three hours. Then walking to the immigration I was shocked. All checkpoints were open but what a hell of people. No priority lines what so ever! I chose a line and then preparing for waiting. It took around 30 minutes to clear immigrations and then I was free. Then I walked straight to the UNITED Red Carpet Club, RCC, or the SCC as I call it. Well this one definitely was not a SCC lounge. It was brand new, spacious, with a really nice view and comfortable furniture’s. The food selection on the other hand, wow that was poor. Would even call it none existing, a great selection of licker though (but at 09:30 in the morning not really my thing). So had some coffee and one banana and then I decided going to the ANA Business Class lounge to get some real food.
United RCC Narita
The ANA lounge was really nice. There were a great food selection including sushi, fresh croissants, white bread and different chesses and ham, dark bread, sandwich and fresh fruit, along with a great drinks selection. Also there were a soba/muddle bar available, where you could chose from a huge selection of different kinds of soba and noodle dishes. And complementary wifi, a big plus for me! Don’t understand why some lounges only offers pay-by-minute wifi, and not free wifi…
4'th flor ANA Business Class Lounge at NRT
The ground floor lounge is huge, but was crowded this morning, so I went upstairs, netx to the ANA F Lounge
At about 11:10, an announcement was made that my flight was boarding. I walked to the gate, it took around 10 minutes. I used the Business class line and was soon onboard and sitting in my seat, 8B. It’s in the last row of business class in the small second cabin. Once on board my jacket was taken and I was offered a drink of water, orange juice or Charles Hiedsieck Champagne.
I know its a small thing. But I dont like the design of the champagne glass on the SAS flights...
I took the Champagne and some water with ice. We pushed back from the gate two minutes after our scheduled departure time. But due to the heavy traffic going in and out of Narita we weren’t airborne before 30minutes later. 30 minutes later into the flight the seatbelt sine is still on and the captain introduces himself and notifies us that we will be crossing some sewer jet streams and causing turbulence and that it will last the next hour or so and that everybody have to stay seated with the seatbelt on as well as the cabin crew. So no service before 2 h. and 30 minutes into the flight. Not really SAS fault, just a bit annoying.
After the seatbelt sign were turned off the service began. The crew handed out the comfort kit (better than the one on the CPH-NRT route) and noise cancelling headphones. I just bought a pair of my own Sony digital noise cancelling MDR-NC500D. And guys I tell you it’s the best I have ever tried. They are just amazing. The comfort kit were containing hand cream, lip balm, shaving kit, eye mask, slippers, sucks, earplugs, a shoe bag and shoehorn as well as mints and some antibacterial wipes. And we also got today’s menu:
Canapé
Grilled scallop, red pimento, Japanese sweet chili and pickled Chinese artichoke skewer
Green leaf salad with dressing of the day
First course
Swedish gravlax with wasabi cream sauce, salmon roe mache lettuce and lime
Selection of breads
Rye bread, rolls and selection of Scandinavian crisp breads served with Danish butter
Main course
Simmered alfonsino fish, vegetables in sweet soy sauce and black sesame rice
Sautéed chicken breast with penne pasta, vegetable tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese
Roast lion of lam with almond crust, leek and potato gratin, root vegetables, suga snap peas, dried lingonberries and Madeira sauce
Mushroom risotto with vegetable tagliatelle and okra in a basil cream sauce (the vegetarian course)
Cheese
Camembert and Danish Blue cheese with date and apple chutney
A sweet finish
Chocolate cream cake with fresh fruit salad
Wine
White wine:
Chateau Haut Bertinerie 2006 Bordeaux 100% Sauvignon Blance
Sancerre Les Grandmontains Domaine Laport 2007 100% Sauvignon Blance
Today’s guest wine: Chablis 2002 – don’t remember the name of the house
Red wine:
Crozes-Hermitage Petite Ruche 2007 100% Syrah from the northern Rhone district
Casa Silva Los Lingues Grand Reserva 2006 100% Carmenere Colchagua Vally Chile
Today’s guest wine: Sorry don’t remember anything else beside it was from Italia
Champagne:
Henriot 2000 Vintage Millesime, 58% Pinot Noir and 42% Chardonnay
Within 10 minutes the drink service began, I continued with the champagne and some nuts and the canapé. I forgot to pick up a newspaper at the gate so asked the sweet FA taking care of our small cabin if she got an extra Berlingske and Børsen (two Danish papers). So before the dinner service began I enjoyed my Danish paper and the nice chilled champagne. The scallops though were kind of tasteless and boring.
Then the FA came around setting up the table for dinner, a white tablecloth and wine glasses. I asked for more champagne and a glass of the Chateau Haut Bertinerie. Then the FA’s came around with the starter, a perfect gravlax with fresh salmon caviar. But wonder what people who don’t like seafood does? The first course as well as the canapé was seafood and no option of anything else.
For main course I chose the Roast lion of lam. It was perfect cooked for my taste, medium done and tender. Served with a great potato gratin, perfectly backed root vegetables, perfect steamed sugar snap peas, dried lingonberries and Madeira sauce. I found the sauce to be a bit too thick for my taste, but overall a great course. With the lamb I chose the red Crozes-Hermitage Petite Ruche and continued with that for the great cheese platter, as always on SAS. Followed by the desert cake from the trolley served with fresh fruit salad, it’s a winner, every time. Some may find I boring that the dessert always is a variety of cake and fruit, but I enjoy it and especially the Sautern makes the dessert complete.
After dessert I tuned to the movie selection. As I have pointed out before I find the AVOD system on SAS a bit lousy. The movie selection is just too small for a 12 h. flight as well as a frequent traveler on SAS intercontinental flights the selection is too small. I enjoyed one movie together with a nice selection of snakes from the buffet area. And then I went to bed. If you recline the seat fully you fell like your sliding down, so you need to adjust the seatback and leg rest after reclining the seat. And I find the seat a bit too short, I’m 185 tall, so I prefer a bulkhead seat, since the normal seats recline into a box under the seat in front of you. So the best row in business is for me row 1 and row 7.
Woke up around 5 hours later and asked the FA to get me a fresh brewed cappuccino, a fresh sandwich and some fruit (strawberry’s, melon and pears). A nice small meal, which I enjoyed will working on my laptop. The business class seat offers great space for working and eating at the same time and lots of table space available. But it’s a shame that you can’t turn the seat into a fully flat bed.
The buffet bar
Then the second meal service began, offering:
First course – selection of canapés
Shrimp cocktail with spicy tomato salad
Smoked chicken with onion and pimento confit
Hot main course – your selection from the trolley
Swedish beef Lindström – beef, beentroot and caper patties, with creamy demi-glace sauce
Steamed salmon galette in a tarragon cream sauce, sautéed potatoes with red onion and thyme, rice with black sesame seeds and sautéed vegetables
Dessert
Fresh fruit salad
Short after dinner we began the in-flight into Copenhagen airport, landing just a bit before schedule.
The flight was overbook in economy and economy extra but almost empty in business. One of the FA’s told me this. So most of the passengers in business were some lucky bastarts
– then I asked if they had upgraded the passengers depending on their FF tier level. But no, all by luck at check-in. It makes one wonder why no one at SAS ground staff at the gate decides to upgrade some Eurobonus Gold or Silver members before upgrading other passengers.…
All in all a great flight. And I must say again. The service on the intercontinental flights has improved a lot over the last two years, even though the staff has been cut down. Great job SAS.
