fassy

I would take the flight with the better schedule. IMHO the seat or cabin don't make much of a difference. At least not enough to accept a long layover or very tight risky connection in CPH, ARN or in ORD.

Tango Alpha

The Plus-seat in A350 is somewhat better than in A330/A340 and the footrest is much better. The A350 has also better overall comfort (noise etc.) Only drawback: the 2-4-2-seating - but the load on the ORD-routes is not very high, especially not this time of year.

Beware that the A350 might not be flying CPH-ORD regulary within a few weeks. (the SAS booking-site should tell you).

highupinthesky

Seams like SE-RSA has gone tech in CPH. It's on the ground for the 4 day in a row despite being scheduled to do the ORD rotations. On top of that OY-KBC seams to have gone tech in SFO

GUWonder

I guess the China cancellations help SAS when one or two of their planes are out of use for passenger flights.

criced

Both planes are working now again

GUWonder

There is an A350 scheduled to fly to ORD from CPH today. It departed late yesterday but is going out almost in time today and will probably get to ORD on time or ahead of schedule.

GUWonder

Here is my quick take of the SK A350 experience in economy class compared to the other SK long-haul planes.

Cabin is nicer looking than the other SK long-haul planes, and the typical noise from planes in air seem to be less in some way. Overhead bin space seems well designed and spacious while also leaving the cabin with rather high ceiling feel. Leg space isn’t noticeably worse than on SK’s other long-haul planes, and actually it feels a bit more roomy from the knees down. But when seats are reclined in front of me, it felt a bit tighter (at least from the waist up) than on the other long-haul SK planes; however, knee and leg space seemed no worse and may have even been better in feel. In-flight screens are nice and big for economy class seat-back video. Seat padding may be thinner but for now it seems to be enough in ways to make for a more comfortable seat than some of the other stuff out there on some US and European airlines. 3-3-3 seating arrangement has one upside: more possibilities to get the poor person’s version of business class, with 3 seats together to be used as a mini-bed. The seat has a coat hook in a sort of a weird place, in that your head can possibly bump the coat hook and coat used by the person behind you because of the sort of different coat hook placement on the seats. The economy lavatories have some problematic paper towel dispensers, and most people won’t be able to get paper towels out easily and quickly without sticking their wet and/or dirty fingers into the paper tower holding slots. The sounds from and between the toilets are more easily heard than is usual on the other SK long-haul planes. The SK toilet paper quality and dispensing capability in the lavatories on the 350 seem worse than on the other SK planes, but I’m not sure if this is a deliberate distinction by SK or just coincidental to-date. The lavatories aren’t as badly cramped as they are on some other airlines but they aren’t large either and come in two different sizes at least. The aisle space could be worse.

But keep in mind that this is a take biased by my flights on this plane not being anything close to full of passengers. If I have the audacity to fly this in economy class on peak days — and it may have to happen this month — maybe I wouldn’t feel so generous in my passing review.

Will I book away from SK’s A350s in favor of the older SK long-haul planes when it comes to economy class? I haven’t found any good reason to do so, and at least when the loads look light, I now prefer the A350 and SK’s A350 over a bunch of the other US and European airline long-haul planes.

The two A350 camera views available on the IFE system while flying are great.

wkndflyr

Thank you GUWonder for your review!

You mentioned noise by the lavs. Did you by chance check out the twin seats or the bassinet seats in row 40 right behind the lavs? Might you recall whether there was a lot of legroom for these seats? Are the aisle seat pax very close to (as in, less than an outstretched leg-length away from) those lav doors?

GUWonder

I try to avoid economy class bulkheads for the most part on long-haul flights as I prefer more room to stretch out my legs, so I am probably not the best judge of the bulkhead thing despite my volume of flights. I mostly dislike bulkhead seats even as I do get them from time to time, and part of that is the immovable armrest thing but not only that. That said, here’s my quick take: the bulkhead between the economy class cabin and the premium economy/SASPlus had less room than I like and wouldn’t take it myself if I can help it.

The bulkhead between the first section of the economy cabin and the rest of the economy cabin — the one that you are asking about — didn’t seem more spacious at quick glance, but I didn’t really look closely. I haven’t seen any bassinet use on these flights yet. That lav set up close to row 38-42 has a walkable gap between the lavatories and the forward-facing side of the bulkhead (so the lavatories’ walls are at least closer to 3 feet away from the seats you are asking about), but the lavatory sounds can probably still be heard at times and the lavatory smells seem to escape more around that area. On a full flight with lots of lavatory use by passengers, I wouldn’t want to be around rows 37-42 for reasons that go beyond just foot traffic near and around the labs.

But all of the above is comparing the SK A350 to the SK A330 and SK A340 planes.

When it comes to window-side seats closest to the bulkheads near the economy class lavatories, those A350 seats probably have more legroom than the middle section bulkheads since they didn’t strike me on passing as being worse than my general expectation for those kind of seats.

wkndflyr

Thank you GUWonder! Very thorough feedback and you gave me much to consider with these seats. I avoid regular bulkheads too because I'm moderately tall, and I have long legs and need to stretch them out for comfort. I usually book one row behind a bulkhead so that I can slouch down and stretch my legs under the seat in front of me once the plane reaches cruising altitude. It's my version of hobo angled-flat seat.

Glad to see detailed and fair feedback on Y seating. I self-fund my trips as a leisure flyer, and usually fly Y unless I get CPU (back in my days as UA Premier Gold) or (approximately once a year) I book J with miles. A good Y seat can be a tremendous value.

highupinthesky

SE-RSA hasn't been all that stable the last couple of weeks. It's scheduled to do 6 rotation to ORD and then have a day off, but today LN-RKF had to take its place and to the ORD rotation. Last week it was on the ground for 3-4 days in a row. Hope they will short out the issues and get SE-RSB ready soon.

GUWonder

I forgot to mention this earlier: when the economy class seats are reclined fully, most SK-flying adults in the row behind the reclined economy class seats won’t be able to very easily squeeze out into the aisle without substantial physical contact with (ie bumping into) the reclined seats in front. That can make for quite the disturbance for those sleeping in reclined economy class seats. It felt a tad tighter in that regard.

I’m not sure that there is a real bulkhead between any or all the SAS Plus seats and SAS economy on this plane, it seems like it shouldn’t be a problem for leg space as it’s a curtained partition in large part. I would avoid them due to the armrests anyway. I still haven’t seen infant bassinet use anywhere on this SAS plane, which surprises me given this is around the time where young family travel is pretty high for non-summer travel. That bassinet in economy would be around the lavatory section and the bulkhead nearest the (“mid”-economy cabin) economy class toilets. Not a great place for easily disturbed infants.

I must say that the SK A350 3-3-3 arrangement in economy class has been a boon for some people getting the poor person’s version of a flying flat bed on days for some routes where it was much, much harder to get.

Economy class seat armrests are so narrow as to be borderline useless for anything but being a divider between seats.

dcmike

I am flying to IAD from CPH in late March and it is showing as an A350 - I didn't see that in the list of launch airports. is this a result of flights to Asia being canceled or is it a bug in the system?

dohvegas

It seems to be temporarily pulled from the Beijing route https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...craft-changes/

SK1989

Which seems to already have been extended until end of May-2020.