disappointing process for SAS business class airplane change
 

My wife and daughter fly out tonight on SAS, ORD to CPH in business class. It is the first leg of a "trip of a lifetime" around the world. Yesterday SAS did a plane swap for the flight from a A330 to an A340. (thankfully not to LN-RKP). I know this happens and not a big deal. The odd thing was that although the first eight rows of business class are laid out identical in both planes (A340 even has a couple more rows) they switch their two blocked seats. In the grand scheme of life this is a minor annoyance but it is a little frustrating that we had bulkhead seats blocked for them since last June on this flight. I called SAS and of course can not move them now that everyone is reassigned and got the "they were never guaranteed". My question is why not just move seat assignments identical for all from A330 to A340 when the plane changed?

SAS uses the theorectical seating assignment module of altea that reseats everyone as a per a certain logic. That said in SAS business class bulkhead is not really preferred...

I'm a bit split on this one. I sat in seat 1A to and from Washington DC last week, and liked the bulkhead seats. A bit more space than the seats behind, and 1A at least has a small cubby in front where you can store things. I used it to store a laptop bag for easy access throughout the trip.

As Oliver2002. Seat assignments when which aircraft type is done by a computer program. It's not a person who does it manually. This program has an algorithm which has to fit all type of changes. If the change had been the other way around there would have been less seats, and someone would have had to be downgraded. Switching from an A330 to an A340 means 8 more business class seats, but it also means 28 less SAS Plus, 5 more economy which in total means 15 less seats. Passengers with diamond EB status always get priority during reseating, upgrade, downgrade and if a flight is overbooked. Most likely the seats you had picked were assigned to EBD passengers who was upgraded from SAS Plus due to the switch of aircraft model.

Which seats did your wife and daughter end up in?

Thanks, what you two have described makes sense. They ended up in 8D and 8F. Still had a great flight from what I have gotten so far. Currently enjoying the lounge in CPH waiting on a connecting flight.

John

I had the same annoying issue on SK939 a couple weeks back. I am EBD and the 330 was swapped to a 340. My 8A was at check-in a middle seat. Totally refused to move me back to my seat that I choose months ago.

I also don't understand why sas can't just map folks 1:1, especially from A330 to A340. This should be a single line of computer code if that is their excuse. This is just yet another sign of SK not given two craps about their customers.