foppishbum

Hello, fellow FlyerTalker!

We are booked on the following flights:
Thu 24 Mar 16 SK 940 LAX to ARN in SAS Go on A330 (31G/31H)
Tue 29 Mar 16 SK 939 ARN to LAX in SAS Go on A340 (31G/31H)

This will be a few days after SAS inaugurates the LAX-ARN route. From this thread, I can see that all of the A330's are finished with the new cabin refurbishment. However, there are still a couple of A340's with older cabins that we may get on our way back from Stockholm.

My questions are:
1) Window. Window. Window! It's very important to me and I'm wondering if anyone knows whether 31H has missing window?
2) I know the Optiontown upgrade availability but is it worth close to $1000 to upgrade both of us for the entire trip to SAS Plus? (Mind that we don't live an extravagant life style and can probably bear the slight discomfort for the $1000 saving.)
3) The call center agent said that row 30 and exit rows are unavailable right now. Does anyone know whether SAS block those seats and release at a certain time like T-24hr or T-48hr? Or do the exit rows open for selection at airport? (I am Star Alliance Gold.)

LAX-ARN is a new route and I'm hoping that SAS will put a refurbished A340 for our ARN-LAX route. *fingers crossed* ^

FlyingMoose

It's been mentioned here a few times that a refurbished A340 will participate in operating this route until the delivery of additional A330ER's. This is meant to keep the product from ARN consistent as all A330's are upgraded.

I have multiple bookings on the new route and ran into the same problem. I asked the same question here and SK1989 seems generally well informed.

Can't help with your other questions unfortunately.

CPH-Flyer

Exit rows are normally available for selection in advance and not blocked.

foppishbum

Thanks for the info FlyingMoose, glad to hear the A340 flying the route will have refurbished cabin. I've been trying to find updated A340 maps online but found nothing. ExpertFlyer's map and SAS's seat reservation system is a little confusing. My outbound isn't showing the exit row and I can't identify which rows on A340 are exit rows.

Exit row 40 on A330 is skipped on the flysas seat map (39...41)...hence I assumed they are unavailable for advance selection. It's also not showing on ExpertFlyer.

ekf

If the entire row is "missing", I would say it isn't there at all. Usually if not available for preselection, they just block the seats, "X" in EF...

They have skipped some numbers here and there to keep some consistncy between plane types, if that is the case here, I don't know

CPH-Flyer

Blocked rows always show on EF.

It is not unusual for airlines to skip row numbers for various reasons. AA and UA keep their exit row numbering consistent through the narrowbody fleet, TG and SQ always start widebody business class at row 11 no matter if there is a first class cabin or not, or the size of it. Check for SK row 13, it is not blocked just not there.

foppishbum

I understand that airlines may skip rows and numbers. China Airlines doesn't have row 4 because the number sounds like "death" in Mandarin.

However, on the virtual tour (Google Street Map) of SAS's A330 cabin, there is a row 40 but it doesn't show up on flysas seat map and ExpertFlyer. I've also found out that row 30 has full set of windows (yay!) but now I'm thinking of getting the exit row seats because my s.o. is 6'1" (~185 cm).

CPH-Flyer

The number of rows seem to match on ExpertFlyer, so there is an error or SK has inconsistent numbering.

Tango Alpha

To those of you who have tried both the new A330E and the old A330 with refurbished cabin: Is there any difference in the cabins (seat layout, visual differences, IFE, overhead bins, etc.)?

w0r1dtrave1er

I've flown both, only thing I noticed was that the biz lav doesn't have a changing table on the 330e. That was a bummer, I got creative with my little guy.

FlyingMoose

I've flown both, only in C, though didn't notice any obvious differences. The new birds come with the new feel, everything was a bit more crisp.

AndrewT84

Just flew the A330 LAX-ARN last Thursday. Row 41 is the exit row. There was no Row 40.

foppishbum

We were on the same flight! Yes. I walked over to figure this out and found out there were no "40". I wonder why the seat maps weren't updated. We were lucky and got upgraded to SAS Plus on the outbound (3/24) and SAS Business on the in-bound yesterday (3/29).^

SK1989

Row 40 is the exit row on the refreshed A330 that are mainly flying out of CPH. The new A330E that operates out of ARN has exit row on 41 instead

foppishbum

Thanks for the info, SK1989. I'll take note of this when I plan future SAS flights. I completely fell in love with Stockholm and I want to see Oslo and Copenhagen in the near future!