Business class longhaul
 

I'm booked on a business class leg to China. I read the latest reviews on airliequality.com. Is SAS really that bad considering seat, food, service attitude, etc?

With the FA service mindness and attitude it is hit or miss. Younger Danish or Swedish crews are usually really nice, the old grumpy ones a pain.

I don't think the food is great but certainly not terrible if you like their style.

Overall way behind LH, OS, LX or TK but ahead of UA ;)

The new business class seats are well within expectations, you are just unlikely to experience it to China unless you're booked well into 2016.

The food is outright terrible though subject to route and direction. Flights bound for APAC usually have an offering to accommodate Asian passengers (Singapore chicken+Noodles often which are nice) so you're okay for the C main course. The breakfast is a joke, a few leaves of salad with inedible additions. Flights FROM the United States TO Europe tend to have better C food because they receive US catering instead of Scandinavian.

Alcohol and drink offering is well within expectations and won't leave you disappointed.

In-flight wifi on long haul is excellent and exceeds most competition (if they have it).

The IFE quality in the new cabin is great though the offering is worthless, expect 10 movies and a handful of shows you've already seen. Bring your own content. The old IFE is a joke. Another annoyance with the old IFE is that they turn it on very late in the flight and off very long before landing, generally spending about 10-15% of the flight without IFE. In the new cabin IFE works before take-off and only stops a few minutes before landing.

Service and attitude is a huge hit or miss depending on crew. If the average age of the crew is closer to a 100 than to 0 you're in for a rough ride. Do not expect service, attentiveness or assistance when very obvious things such as broken chairs need fixing. With the older crews also expect constant interruptions and noise from the crew on night flights so bring sleeping aids. About 90% of my long haul crew experience with SK is bad, there are however also outstanding crews, just to few of them. (Ironically I had a JT flight operated for SK yesterday which had by far the friendliest, most service minded and attractive crew I've ever had on a flight with a SK number.)

They market their punctuality very highly and this is often the case, if you travel a lot for business that is a welcoming feature.

Frequent flyer program and lounges are sub-par, we've seen recent improvements on some hubs but there is a long way to go.

Is wifi available on the unrefurbished A340's?

No

So, why do you fly such a terrible airline at all?

Timing and schedule plus often the only direct option?

(And often enough for a lot of us SK is the company's preferred carrier...)

Service on any aircraft is hit or miss, it is up to you to be nice.,

Food is loaded on, the FA have nothing to do with it, and eat the same thing you do.

FC is just a bigger seat, and less people..

Enjoy, it is called Oublic Transportation for a reason.,

Next time take a Private Jet and have the event catered,,,

Wrong on all points.

1) some airlines manage to hire and keep staff with a great attitude and consistently the experiment flying with them ends up in a pleasant surprise how nice and attentive the FAs are - while on other airlines the negative experiences seem to be the normal thing... To be honest I can't complain about the SK longhaul crews, they have been mostly quite nice to me.

2) nobody said the FAs need to take blame for the bad food. But SKs food selection on short haul is disgusting (had 4 times the Plus meal this week and all of them were inedible bad) and on long haul in C underwhelming bad compared to the competition which is LH, LX or OS for me.

3) We are talking international business class where a seat costs several thousand dollars not US domestic first class. It is about much more than a bigger seat and less people.

4) Public transportation in Premium class - for a Pemium price tag, so you can expect Premium service which other carriers regularly provide.

There is no F

My experience is with AA and UA, PEK PVG, 4 times a year for the last 10 years, never been in J, or Y,

Do I understand that you correct that you are comparing EU-Asia C class on SK with trans-pacific F class on UA/AA:confused:?
I would sincerely hope that expectations would be different between C and F class, both in service and food quality. I get your point that we tend to complain about 1st world problems, but I think your earlier post was a bit dramatic. I would hope that both the FAs (customer service) and the passenger (human decency) should be nice and that food quality should improve with the cabin/cost. Otherwise people are paying a high premium for the seat.

Travel time first, wifi and punctuality often can't be beaten from ARN by other carriers. There is the 1/30 flight where the planets align and you end up with a proper meal and crew which does provide an acceptable ride in terms of value for money.

We've seen a lot of improvements on SK's product in the past 18 months, the remaining items are all simple fixes and I'm hoping they will get sorted sooner than later. For example AY does not have any of these issues, so it is not a Nordic problem. I fly SK to support them in achieving those fixes so the airline becomes more attractive. The items I'm raising that need improvement are echo'd widely by others.

I have no corporate agreement that forces me to fly SK, I'm free to choose who I fly. I value spending as little time in the air as convenient as possible. Having something normal to eat and something to watch are not outrageous requests when forking out at least 30k SEK per trip.

Very valid point.

Having said that, and while I am usually further back in the bus than you (corporate policies :rolleyes:) I am however more content with the recent improvements in Go and Plus.

I suppose food preferences are somewhat a matter of subjective opinion and culture. Personally, I find the C class catering catering concept introduced this year to be excellent both in terms of quality, appearance and taste. Also, getting rid of the plastic wrappings on the dishes is a big plus. Compared to long haul C on BA and LH, my experiences of the catering on SK, especially out of CPH, are far superior. Perhaps SK is catering more to the Scandinavian taste, e.g. more fish, dark bread and dairy products?

About 90% of my long haul crew experience with SK is good. Yes, they are not SQ, but overall I find the crew good save for the 10% indifferent to bad crew.