NellieVA

Just returned from my first SAS long-haul journey in more than 20 years. Our trip was personal and, as such, was in Economy. I had hopes for SAS, given fond memories of JFK-CPH service in the late 80's, but what I found was a translatlantic crossing that made United look like Qatar or Emirates.

We flew the IAD-CPH route round-trip, on the same (seemingly ancient) a340 with Star Alliance livery and the sole a330 interior layout. Check-in at IAD was a joke. They had two SAS agents and two others from ANA helping. The ANA desks had nothing to denote them as helping out the with SAS -- which is located in the neighboring stalls -- so confusion reigned. There was a big sign for "Internet Bag Drop," but that line did not exist. The sign was placed up near the Business Class check-in, but was clearly not intended for that line, as several people were turned away and sent to the end of the very long Economy check-in line.

Boarding was chaotic, with only pre-boarding for Business, *A elite, and then families with very young children. It then opened up for everyone, but no announcement was made as to which door folks were supposed to use.

The plane is simply old and shabby. The Economy (Go) seats are just plain awful. Equally as poor as the cattle car that is a United transatlantic 757. Aside from no legroom, the seats are bulky and uncomfortable. As noted by others, SAS chose to place no lavatories for Go+, and they are not allowed to use the Business Class lavs, so everyone from Go+ and the first cabin of Go have to walk back to a bank of six lavs. The lines extended the longest I've ever seen after meal service -- at least 10-15 rows back up the aisle.

The dinner was simply awful, with no choice given and the very light plastic tray literally chucked onto our table. All alcohol costs extra, as so small snacks during the flight. This is the first time I have seen at least wine not served with dinner for all Economy passengers. The food itself, on both crossings, was absolutely awful. When Tarom and Air Egypt are looking like Michelin restaurants compared to SAS, you know something is wrong.

The seat-back screens are TINY -- not much bigger than my cell phone -- and their fidelity is lousy. Aside from very poor contrast and brightness, setting the volume is hard, and you have to use their tiny headseats given the proprietary plug in the seat. Worst yet is that while there is a video library from which to choose, you cannot start/stop content on-demand, but rather have to jump in wherever the show/movie might be. The movies, too, were all old, with no new content.

On both flights, I found the cabin crew to be surly, at least to the Go passengers.

I could go on and on, but I wanted to get a short vent out and to share how very disappointed I was with this trip. I know SAS is facing serious competition from Norwegian, but nickel-and-diming for everything and offering nothing to justify higher prices (or to counter Norwegian's stable of new and modern aircraft) do not bode well for SAS...at least on their long-haul service. As part of the constant advertisements that run throughout the flight on the overhead screens, I see that SAS is now flying non-stop from SFO to CPH and IAH to Stavanger. Given that my 8 1/2 hour fly just to DC today was torture, i can't imagine suffering through either of those treks in anything less than Business Class...and even then, I might bring food from home.

Oflyt

While I do agree with many of your points in this rant it feels like many of your issues with the cabin will change for the better next year when the new cabin is introduced. Hopefully that brings with it some better food

I might be one of the few that still likes SAS Longhaul, but flying via CPH to SFO in Plus is actually a very nice experience that I do many times a year.

FT Guest xyzpdq

Many of your points are valid. I am 197 and SAS does not have alot of leg-room, but still better than is the case on many competing TATL services. While the cabins are worn - I actually do find the seats quite comfortable.

IFE and meal service is a joke though. Only one choice - and often ineddible and poorly presented.

FlyingMoose

Business class food is a considerable upgrade, no need to bring your own. It certainly is pathetic in all other classes and specifically on non-longhaul.

All your other points are valid, one of SAS's main problems is staff/crew in many ways, including age, cost and generally non-service minded rudeness.

The cabin/IFE problem is hopefully getting better next year with the announced changes. Business will receive a proper upgrade at least.

fassy

To be honest I don't think the C class food is very good. It is decent but far from great compared to the price paid. To be fair, I compare with LX and OS which have excellent C class service - and usually saves a couple of hundred Euros connecting through ZRH or VIE.

aulrik

It's been around 3 years since the last time I had along-haul flight with SAS, but your description very much summarize my experience (except, that time I believe wine was still complimentary in Y).

However, the main reason why I stopped using SK on long-haul is their, in my eyes, terrible C product. I really hope it will improve with the new cabin next year and I'm prepared to give them a chance, but somehow I doubt it will be much better. I fear that food, FA and service will be exactly like it is now.

nacho

Flew the same route as OP, and my experience was very similar to OP.

Food - 4 people travelling together and we got 2 different kinds of food - it was so salty. On the way out 1 drink was offered but not on the way back.

Seat - I sat right in front of the loo at the back of the plane from IAD-CPH. I got woken up whenever someone flushes the toilet. Then the light at the galley was on the whole time, and the crews were chit chatting all the time - again couldn't sleep well because of that.

IFE - my kids complained about it like crazy because they can't pause a movie. I gave up using it.

2 months later we were on TATL with UA (777-200 from LHR to LAX), wow that was a huge difference - as UA S we were seating at Y+ without having to pay. Food was ok but the crews were much nicer and walking around constantly to serve drinks. The IFE - well it doesn't take much to beat SAS's. Then we flew AC back from YYZ - once again it's better than SAS - nice crew, ok food - at least you have a choice (except the oven was broken so they couldn't heat up all the food at the same time).

I don't even want to compare SK with TK. Why am I flying with them? It's because they are cheap (DKK 2000 to DC, DKK 4500 to PVG during week 44), since we have lounge access then we don't have to be dependent on their food and drink. I don't care about the IFE since I'll be sleeping anyway. 100% miles is another plus too.

I doubt that SAS is going to any positive change - the 'new' Y cabin would probably be LH's NEK which is total rubbish IMO - paper thin seats that will automatically recline when a pax weighs over 80kg.

SK2751

Incidentally I was on UA (AMS-IAD) 10 days ago, and it had the same crap IFE as known from SK, with the same size of screen and image fidelity So at least some comparisons here are somewhat unfair.

But I agree on some other points.

Milkman

Just flew JFK-IST-MBA-IST-IAH last week, my first experience on TK. Except for the legroom, which I was not impressed with (and I'm an average 1.80m), this airline blew my mind. The food was the best I ever had and beats even C class catering on a handful of other European carriers. Lovely AVOD selection as well, that kept me busy on the 12h30m long IST-IAH leg.
I was on a dirt cheap ticket originating and ending in MEX with connecting flights on AM, but still got 100% milage on UA Mileage Plus.
Even the 737-900 on the IST-MBA-IST legs had huge AVOD selcection and great food offerings.

Sorry this thread is about SK, but just had to add to the comment on TK.

aulrik

As long as everything goes according to the plan, TK is good. Once something goes wrong - a canceled flight, you miss your connection, etc, the legendary poor TK customer services comes into action, and if you don't know your way around the system, you are screwed (I say this as a TK Elite+ with more than 300.000 miles on TK every year).

AVOD is good, but why on earth don't the change the movie selection on a regular schedule? If you fly just a bit extensive with TK it will not take you long to get through most of the collection and it's not like there is a lot of new blockbusters or classics added regularly.

TPJ

I have never been on Tarom flight, but Egyptair serves very good meals - especially in Y.

nussle

I wonder if SAS customer services department ever has a look at this stuff. Perhaps they do and just don't care.

I have missed out on SAS stateside always ended up on LH which IMHO was fantastic.

raunow

As much as I agree with you in general, I was treated very well by TK on a misconnect in July (as a M&S Elite).

BOM-IST came in late due to traffic in BOM and I missed my IST-BLL connection. Went to the lounge, and was quickly offered a choice between overnight hotel and IST-BLL the day after or a connection through CPH later that day. Chose the CPH connection and was invited to relax in the lounge while they fixed the tickets. In the lounge I found a quicker connection through ARN, asked if I could get on that, and got it without any questions.

As good a misconnect service as I've had anywhere.

johan rebel

On the other hand, UAs 763s have a quite nice and intimate Global First cabin. Only six seats, configured 1+1+1. On certain flights 2K is a designated crew rest seat, so if you are in 1K you have the whole starboard aisle to yourself. Almost feels like a private cabin.

Johan

Bjornstrom

SAS almost went bankrupt in 2012 and there's been no investment into longhaul for a long time now. I think we'll see a huge improvement beginning with the refitted A340 in January and all-new A330's coming right after that.

That being said; I haven't been on a SK longhaul flight since 2010 myself. But I think that will change next year.