ARN-CPH-NRT on SAS Business Class
Sep 29, 2009 | 10:35 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: CPH
Programs: SK Diamond *G, LH SEN *G, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 439
ARN-CPH-NRT on SAS Business Class
Trip report ARN-CPH-NRT on SAS Business Class
SK1423 dep. 13:45 duration: 1 h. and 10 minutes. I arrived kind of early at Arlander airport as I had to check out from my hotel at 10. I arrived at Arlander airport 11.00 and proceed to the SAS/Star Alliance business class check-in counter. There was no problem with my early arrival and my lugged was marked to my final destination with the Star Alliance priority tag. Then I got my boarding card and was given seat 01C to Copenhagen and 01A on the Tokyo flight. I was invited to use the fast track at the security and the SAS Business lounge at terminal 3. At the fast track I was the only one so I went straight through and the staff wished me a pleasant flight. The check-in and security was smooth and fast. And I went straight to the lounge.
The food selection was really nothing special. Different kinds of salad, chesses, ham and salami and the drink selection were also kind of boring: One red and one white wine, different kind of soft drinks, juice and coffee, and mineral water. The lounge was on the other hand really nice: Big, clean, and comfortable, with relaxing colures and materials. Best of all, almost no people. (I have been there many times before, and must say that overall experience hasnt been that good for a long time).
My flight was on time dep. at 13.45 boarding time said 13.20 but I knew that our gate were only a 5 minute walk from the lounge so I didnt leave the lounge before 13.25, walked straight to the gate and right on board. Apparently the flight was all full, only one available seat in the business/eco. extra section (from row 1 to 12) and two in economy. The flight to Copenhagen was only just a little over one hour, but I would expect a bit more service in business class. No free middle seat, no real glass or porcelain and it was my 3 flight in business class on the route arn-cph that week and same really tasteless and olive oiled soaked cold pasta dish was served all three times! I didnt eat it so I just had to the cold bread and some Danish butter. Nice selection of wine, beers, soft drinks and coffee/the.
Arriving at Copenhagen on time, first one to deboard the flight and went right to the sas business class lounge. Only had time for a quick cup of coffee and then I walked to the gate, passed passport control, which only took 5 minutes. But then I came to the gate area. NO business class preboarding line. Really bad, had to wait more than 45 minutes before I could enter the gate then waiting another 20 minutes before they finally invited business class passengers, eco extra class passengers and passengers travelling with kids and star alliance gold members to board, by only by ONE line and as they invited so many different segments to board at the same time there occurred quite a long line. So it took 20 minutes before I could stow my cabin bags away and site back in my seat. As soon as I sat down the flight attendant came introduced herself by name and welcomed me onboard took my coat and asked if I wanted champagne, orange juice or water and whether I would like todays newspapers, all the big Danish and Swedish ones, some American, British and German ones, one polish and one Finnish (guess I wassent the only connecting passenger in business today). I chose the champagne and water. The champagne was Henriot 2000 and I was asked a refill several time as boarding took really long time.
Finally we were ready for takeoff and got pushed back taxiing out to the runway and then 10 minutes later I had this nice view of resund and the windmills powering Copenhagen.
My seat was nice, really comfortable for relaxing, working and watching movies. The tv screen is ok, thought not the biggest one. Soon the wash bag and noise canceling earphones were handed followed by todays menu (in three languages, English, Danish and Japanese). Then the FAs came by with drinks and snacks. I asked for more champagne and some water. Together with the drinks came one red pepper stuffed with feta cheese, one green olive with garlic and some mini chorizo, really nice, but kind of small. One olive! Who serves just one olive?
Then the dinner service began. Nice touch that two of the FAs, the one that have special meal and drink training, changes into chefs clothing. On todays menu were smoked trout as first course followed by a green salad and then an option of four main courses. I went for the halibut medallion with a really tasty crab claw and carrot sticks. Nice main course, even though the carrots were overcooked for my taste, then a selection of cheeses with fig compote and for dessert orange ruby cake and fresh fruit salad from the trolley. As serving dessert the FAs asked each passenger if they preferred to sleep in and go for the quick grab and go breakfast or if they preferred the big breakfast. I dont really sleep that well on flights so I signed up for the big morning deal.
Along with the first course I chose the Chateau Haut Bertinerie 2006 and for the main course I tried the guest wine white Chablis 2004, perfect for the halibut. To round off with the desert I chose the Sauternes 2002, an SAS signature dessert wine. If you havent tried it, I can highly recommend it. I would have liked some coffee to go with the dessert but strangely the crew didnt serve coffee and the before they had served dessert to all. With my seat 01 it meant that I was way done with the dessert before the coffee service began. Over all a really good dinner at SAS on this flight, one of the best I have ever had.
After eating I found my computer and began to work a couple of hours. Great space for working and power outlet in seat. Then I watched some movies, must say I was rather disappointed by the selection, there was only two premiere movies and as I had been in New York just before with SAS I had already seen one of them. Nice with AVOD but that is what you must expect in business class. The business class buffet area is really nice, forgot to take a picture sorry guys, but nice selection of fresh fruit, sandwiches, Swiss chocolate, snacks, wine, spirits, champagne and soft drinks etc. and really nice with the espresso machine.
Then I tried to get some sleep, reclined the seat to sleep position, but you do feel like your sliding down cause its not fully horizontal. But I managed to get almost 5 hours of sleep, even thought we went through some pretty heavy turbulence over the north of Siberia. I woke up almost 4 hours before we landed, but just couldnt sleep anymore. Went to the gallery to get some food and talked to the cabin crew. Must say that they were really attentive, nice and outgoing in a Scandinavian way. I cant stand the over happy and hyper attentive FAs but prefer them to be nice, polite and attentive. And still you have the feeling that you can ask them to bring whatever you like or just chat with them as 12 hours is a really long time trapped inside an airplane.
Ca. two hours before landing the cabin crew turn on the morning light and began to wake up the passengers who wished the full breakfast service and wow, that was a full breakfast. I even had two portions as they came by with the hot selection from the trolley twice. As soon as I was don eating I hurried to the lavatory, by the way the toilets on SAS A340 is great, so much space. Changed t-shirt, washed my face and brushed my teeth, when I came out half the cabin was in line for the 2 lavatories in the business class section and as the captain 30 minutes later turned on the seatbelt sine and approached Tokyo Narita there were still a lot passengers waiting to use the lavatories. Maybe sas should serve breakfast 30 minutes earlier. But down we came after a long but good flight. Arrived on time in Tokyo. The passengers in Business could leave the aircraft first so when I came to emigration there was only one person in line in front of me, went straight through and walked pretty far to the bagged claim. As I came, the suitcases marked Priority Star Alliance was already waiting for us.
Overall: A nice flight, great service and meals, nice cabin crew but SAS needs to do something about the movie selection and specially they need to replace the business class seat with some similar to the new Swiss Business class beds. And then sas need to work on the ground service, especially in Copenhagen. You expect a better service paying the sky-high business class price. I would give SAS 7 out of 10 on CPH-NRT and only 5 on ARN-CPH.
SK1423 dep. 13:45 duration: 1 h. and 10 minutes. I arrived kind of early at Arlander airport as I had to check out from my hotel at 10. I arrived at Arlander airport 11.00 and proceed to the SAS/Star Alliance business class check-in counter. There was no problem with my early arrival and my lugged was marked to my final destination with the Star Alliance priority tag. Then I got my boarding card and was given seat 01C to Copenhagen and 01A on the Tokyo flight. I was invited to use the fast track at the security and the SAS Business lounge at terminal 3. At the fast track I was the only one so I went straight through and the staff wished me a pleasant flight. The check-in and security was smooth and fast. And I went straight to the lounge.
The food selection was really nothing special. Different kinds of salad, chesses, ham and salami and the drink selection were also kind of boring: One red and one white wine, different kind of soft drinks, juice and coffee, and mineral water. The lounge was on the other hand really nice: Big, clean, and comfortable, with relaxing colures and materials. Best of all, almost no people. (I have been there many times before, and must say that overall experience hasnt been that good for a long time).
My flight was on time dep. at 13.45 boarding time said 13.20 but I knew that our gate were only a 5 minute walk from the lounge so I didnt leave the lounge before 13.25, walked straight to the gate and right on board. Apparently the flight was all full, only one available seat in the business/eco. extra section (from row 1 to 12) and two in economy. The flight to Copenhagen was only just a little over one hour, but I would expect a bit more service in business class. No free middle seat, no real glass or porcelain and it was my 3 flight in business class on the route arn-cph that week and same really tasteless and olive oiled soaked cold pasta dish was served all three times! I didnt eat it so I just had to the cold bread and some Danish butter. Nice selection of wine, beers, soft drinks and coffee/the.
Arriving at Copenhagen on time, first one to deboard the flight and went right to the sas business class lounge. Only had time for a quick cup of coffee and then I walked to the gate, passed passport control, which only took 5 minutes. But then I came to the gate area. NO business class preboarding line. Really bad, had to wait more than 45 minutes before I could enter the gate then waiting another 20 minutes before they finally invited business class passengers, eco extra class passengers and passengers travelling with kids and star alliance gold members to board, by only by ONE line and as they invited so many different segments to board at the same time there occurred quite a long line. So it took 20 minutes before I could stow my cabin bags away and site back in my seat. As soon as I sat down the flight attendant came introduced herself by name and welcomed me onboard took my coat and asked if I wanted champagne, orange juice or water and whether I would like todays newspapers, all the big Danish and Swedish ones, some American, British and German ones, one polish and one Finnish (guess I wassent the only connecting passenger in business today). I chose the champagne and water. The champagne was Henriot 2000 and I was asked a refill several time as boarding took really long time.
Finally we were ready for takeoff and got pushed back taxiing out to the runway and then 10 minutes later I had this nice view of resund and the windmills powering Copenhagen.
My seat was nice, really comfortable for relaxing, working and watching movies. The tv screen is ok, thought not the biggest one. Soon the wash bag and noise canceling earphones were handed followed by todays menu (in three languages, English, Danish and Japanese). Then the FAs came by with drinks and snacks. I asked for more champagne and some water. Together with the drinks came one red pepper stuffed with feta cheese, one green olive with garlic and some mini chorizo, really nice, but kind of small. One olive! Who serves just one olive?
Then the dinner service began. Nice touch that two of the FAs, the one that have special meal and drink training, changes into chefs clothing. On todays menu were smoked trout as first course followed by a green salad and then an option of four main courses. I went for the halibut medallion with a really tasty crab claw and carrot sticks. Nice main course, even though the carrots were overcooked for my taste, then a selection of cheeses with fig compote and for dessert orange ruby cake and fresh fruit salad from the trolley. As serving dessert the FAs asked each passenger if they preferred to sleep in and go for the quick grab and go breakfast or if they preferred the big breakfast. I dont really sleep that well on flights so I signed up for the big morning deal.
Along with the first course I chose the Chateau Haut Bertinerie 2006 and for the main course I tried the guest wine white Chablis 2004, perfect for the halibut. To round off with the desert I chose the Sauternes 2002, an SAS signature dessert wine. If you havent tried it, I can highly recommend it. I would have liked some coffee to go with the dessert but strangely the crew didnt serve coffee and the before they had served dessert to all. With my seat 01 it meant that I was way done with the dessert before the coffee service began. Over all a really good dinner at SAS on this flight, one of the best I have ever had.
After eating I found my computer and began to work a couple of hours. Great space for working and power outlet in seat. Then I watched some movies, must say I was rather disappointed by the selection, there was only two premiere movies and as I had been in New York just before with SAS I had already seen one of them. Nice with AVOD but that is what you must expect in business class. The business class buffet area is really nice, forgot to take a picture sorry guys, but nice selection of fresh fruit, sandwiches, Swiss chocolate, snacks, wine, spirits, champagne and soft drinks etc. and really nice with the espresso machine.
Then I tried to get some sleep, reclined the seat to sleep position, but you do feel like your sliding down cause its not fully horizontal. But I managed to get almost 5 hours of sleep, even thought we went through some pretty heavy turbulence over the north of Siberia. I woke up almost 4 hours before we landed, but just couldnt sleep anymore. Went to the gallery to get some food and talked to the cabin crew. Must say that they were really attentive, nice and outgoing in a Scandinavian way. I cant stand the over happy and hyper attentive FAs but prefer them to be nice, polite and attentive. And still you have the feeling that you can ask them to bring whatever you like or just chat with them as 12 hours is a really long time trapped inside an airplane.
Ca. two hours before landing the cabin crew turn on the morning light and began to wake up the passengers who wished the full breakfast service and wow, that was a full breakfast. I even had two portions as they came by with the hot selection from the trolley twice. As soon as I was don eating I hurried to the lavatory, by the way the toilets on SAS A340 is great, so much space. Changed t-shirt, washed my face and brushed my teeth, when I came out half the cabin was in line for the 2 lavatories in the business class section and as the captain 30 minutes later turned on the seatbelt sine and approached Tokyo Narita there were still a lot passengers waiting to use the lavatories. Maybe sas should serve breakfast 30 minutes earlier. But down we came after a long but good flight. Arrived on time in Tokyo. The passengers in Business could leave the aircraft first so when I came to emigration there was only one person in line in front of me, went straight through and walked pretty far to the bagged claim. As I came, the suitcases marked Priority Star Alliance was already waiting for us.
Overall: A nice flight, great service and meals, nice cabin crew but SAS needs to do something about the movie selection and specially they need to replace the business class seat with some similar to the new Swiss Business class beds. And then sas need to work on the ground service, especially in Copenhagen. You expect a better service paying the sky-high business class price. I would give SAS 7 out of 10 on CPH-NRT and only 5 on ARN-CPH.
Sep 30, 2009 | 10:17 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: CPH
Programs: SK Diamond *G, LH SEN *G, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 439
Sep 30, 2009 | 10:51 am
#5
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Argentina
Posts: 40,882
Not sure if you're doing it right or not. What you have to do is right click on your picture and "copy link location". Then click on the Insert Image link at the top of your post box then paste your link into it - after you have clicked your cursor on the part of the trip report you want the picture to show.
Sep 30, 2009 | 10:30 pm
#6
Community Director Emerita
Join Date: Oct 2000
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Oct 1, 2009 | 1:37 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
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Posts: 439
Last edited by NicoEBG; Oct 2, 2009 at 5:30 am
Oct 1, 2009 | 11:01 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: CPH
Programs: SK Diamond *G, LH SEN *G, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 439
Sure was a great flight - but hope that it will be even better on the return. The ground staf in Narita was great last time as well as the ANA Lounge. So hope that the sas grund staff does better then the ones in copenhagen. I will do an other report on my return flight the 24/10
Oct 2, 2009 | 2:30 am
#11
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: LPI
Programs: SK *B (?)
Posts: 362
Nice report, thank you.
Just one comment about the photos; I see many FTers posting photos of their boarding cards with their names carefully redacted, but with the 2D barcode in plain view.
There's quite a lot of data in that barcode, including the passenger's name, easily extractable with freely available software. (In this particular case, the barcode might be a bit too blurry to be readable, though.)
Disclaimer: I haven't actually decoded a single barcode from FT photos myself, I'm just pointing out that it's possible to do.
Just one comment about the photos; I see many FTers posting photos of their boarding cards with their names carefully redacted, but with the 2D barcode in plain view.
There's quite a lot of data in that barcode, including the passenger's name, easily extractable with freely available software. (In this particular case, the barcode might be a bit too blurry to be readable, though.)
Disclaimer: I haven't actually decoded a single barcode from FT photos myself, I'm just pointing out that it's possible to do.
Oct 2, 2009 | 5:23 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: CPH
Programs: SK Diamond *G, LH SEN *G, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 439
Nice report, thank you.
Just one comment about the photos; I see many FTers posting photos of their boarding cards with their names carefully redacted, but with the 2D barcode in plain view.
There's quite a lot of data in that barcode, including the passenger's name, easily extractable with freely available software. (In this particular case, the barcode might be a bit too blurry to be readable, though.)
Disclaimer: I haven't actually decoded a single barcode from FT photos myself, I'm just pointing out that it's possible to do.
Just one comment about the photos; I see many FTers posting photos of their boarding cards with their names carefully redacted, but with the 2D barcode in plain view.
There's quite a lot of data in that barcode, including the passenger's name, easily extractable with freely available software. (In this particular case, the barcode might be a bit too blurry to be readable, though.)
Disclaimer: I haven't actually decoded a single barcode from FT photos myself, I'm just pointing out that it's possible to do.
Oct 2, 2009 | 6:21 pm
#13
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: yyz
Programs: Non-Rev Lifetime
Posts: 1,925
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Trip report ARN-CPH-NRT on SAS Business Class
SK1423 dep. 13:45 duration: 1 h. and 10 minutes. I arrived kind of early at Arlander airport as I had to check out from my hotel at 10. I arrived at Arlander airport 11.00 and proceed to the SAS/Star Alliance business class check-in counter. There was no problem with my early arrival and my lugged was marked to my final destination with the Star Alliance priority tag. Then I got my boarding card and was given seat 01C to Copenhagen and 01A on the Tokyo flight. I was invited to use the fast track at the security and the SAS Business lounge at terminal 3. At the fast track I was the only one so I went straight through and the staff wished me a pleasant flight. The check-in and security was smooth and fast. And I went straight to the lounge.
The food selection was really nothing special. Different kinds of salad, chesses, ham and salami and the drink selection were also kind of boring: One red and one white wine, different kind of soft drinks, juice and coffee, and mineral water. The lounge was on the other hand really nice: Big, clean, and comfortable, with relaxing colures and materials. Best of all, almost no people. (I have been there many times before, and must say that overall experience hasn’t been that good for a long time).
My flight was on time dep. at 13.45 – boarding time said 13.20 but I knew that our gate were only a 5 minute walk from the lounge so I didn’t leave the lounge before 13.25, walked straight to the gate and right on board. Apparently the flight was all full, only one available seat in the business/eco. extra section (from row 1 to 12) and two in economy. The flight to Copenhagen was only just a little over one hour, but I would expect a bit more service in business class. No free middle seat, no real glass or porcelain and it was my 3 flight in business class on the route arn-cph that week and same really tasteless and olive oiled soaked cold pasta dish was served all three times! I didn’t eat it so I just had to the cold bread and some Danish butter. Nice selection of wine, beers, soft drinks and coffee/the.
Arriving at Copenhagen on time, first one to deboard the flight and went right to the sas business class lounge. Only had time for a quick cup of coffee and then I walked to the gate, passed passport control, which only took 5 minutes. But then I came to the gate area. NO business class preboarding line. Really bad, had to wait more than 45 minutes before I could enter the gate – then waiting another 20 minutes before they finally invited business class passengers, eco extra class passengers and passengers travelling with kids and star alliance gold members to board, by only by ONE line and as they invited so many different segments to board at the same time there occurred quite a long line. So it took 20 minutes before I could stow my cabin bags away and site back in my seat. As soon as I sat down the flight attendant came introduced herself by name and welcomed me onboard took my coat and asked if I wanted champagne, orange juice or water and whether I would like today’s newspapers, all the big Danish and Swedish ones, some American, British and German ones, one polish and one Finnish (guess I wassent the only connecting passenger in business today). I chose the champagne and water. The champagne was Henriot 2000 and I was asked a refill several time as boarding took really long time.
Finally we were ready for takeoff and got pushed back – taxiing out to the runway and then 10 minutes later I had this nice view of resund and the windmills powering Copenhagen.
My seat was nice, really comfortable for relaxing, working and watching movies. The tv screen is ok, thought not the biggest one. Soon the wash bag and noise canceling earphones were handed followed by today’s menu (in three languages, English, Danish and Japanese). Then the FA’s came by with drinks and snacks. I asked for more champagne and some water. Together with the drinks came one red pepper stuffed with feta cheese, one green olive with garlic and some mini chorizo, really nice, but kind of small. One olive! Who serves just one olive?
Then the dinner service began. Nice touch that two of the FA’s, the one that have special meal and drink training, changes into chefs clothing. On today’s menu were smoked trout as first course followed by a green salad and then an option of four main courses. I went for the halibut medallion with a really tasty crab claw and carrot sticks. Nice main course, even though the carrots were overcooked for my taste, then a selection of cheeses with fig compote and for dessert orange ruby cake and fresh fruit salad from the trolley. As serving dessert the FA’s asked each passenger if they preferred to sleep in and go for the quick “grab and go” breakfast or if they preferred the big breakfast. I don’t really sleep that well on flights so I signed up for the big morning deal.
Along with the first course I chose the Chateau Haut Bertinerie 2006 and for the main course I tried the guest wine white Chablis 2004, perfect for the halibut. To round off with the desert I chose the Sauternes 2002, an SAS signature dessert wine. If you haven’t tried it, I can highly recommend it. I would have liked some coffee to go with the dessert but strangely the crew didn’t serve coffee and the before they had served dessert to all. With my seat 01 it meant that I was way done with the dessert before the coffee service began. Over all a really good dinner at SAS on this flight, one of the best I have ever had.
After eating I found my computer and began to work a couple of hours. Great space for working and power outlet in seat. Then I watched some movies, must say I was rather disappointed by the selection, there was only two premiere movies and as I had been in New York just before with SAS I had already seen one of them. Nice with AVOD but that is what you must expect in business class. The business class buffet area is really nice, forgot to take a picture sorry guys, but nice selection of fresh fruit, sandwiches, Swiss chocolate, snacks, wine, spirits, champagne and soft drinks etc. and really nice with the espresso machine.
Then I tried to get some sleep, reclined the seat to sleep position, but you do feel like your sliding down cause it’s not fully horizontal. But I managed to get almost 5 hours of sleep, even thought we went through some pretty heavy turbulence over the north of Siberia. I woke up almost 4 hours before we landed, but just couldn’t sleep anymore. Went to the gallery to get some food and talked to the cabin crew. Must say that they were really attentive, nice and outgoing in a Scandinavian way. I can’t stand the over happy and hyper attentive FA’s but prefer them to be nice, polite and attentive. And still you have the feeling that you can ask them to bring whatever you like or just chat with them as 12 hours is a really long time trapped inside an airplane.
Ca. two hours before landing the cabin crew turn on the morning light and began to wake up the passengers who wished the full breakfast service and wow, that was a full breakfast. I even had two portions as they came by with the hot selection from the trolley twice. As soon as I was don eating I hurried to the lavatory, by the way the toilets on SAS A340 is great, so much space. Changed t-shirt, washed my face and brushed my teeth, when I came out half the cabin was in line for the 2 lavatories in the business class section and as the captain 30 minutes later turned on the seatbelt sine and approached Tokyo Narita there were still a lot passengers waiting to use the lavatories. Maybe sas should serve breakfast 30 minutes earlier. But down we came after a long but good flight. Arrived on time in Tokyo. The passengers in Business could leave the aircraft first so when I came to emigration there was only one person in line in front of me, went straight through and walked pretty far to the bagged claim. As I came, the suitcases marked Priority Star Alliance was already waiting for us.
Overall: A nice flight, great service and meals, nice cabin crew but SAS needs to do something about the movie selection and specially they need to replace the business class seat with some similar to the new Swiss Business class beds. And then sas need to work on the ground service, especially in Copenhagen. You expect a better service paying the sky-high business class price. I would give SAS 7 out of 10 on CPH-NRT and only 5 on ARN-CPH.
SK1423 dep. 13:45 duration: 1 h. and 10 minutes. I arrived kind of early at Arlander airport as I had to check out from my hotel at 10. I arrived at Arlander airport 11.00 and proceed to the SAS/Star Alliance business class check-in counter. There was no problem with my early arrival and my lugged was marked to my final destination with the Star Alliance priority tag. Then I got my boarding card and was given seat 01C to Copenhagen and 01A on the Tokyo flight. I was invited to use the fast track at the security and the SAS Business lounge at terminal 3. At the fast track I was the only one so I went straight through and the staff wished me a pleasant flight. The check-in and security was smooth and fast. And I went straight to the lounge.
The food selection was really nothing special. Different kinds of salad, chesses, ham and salami and the drink selection were also kind of boring: One red and one white wine, different kind of soft drinks, juice and coffee, and mineral water. The lounge was on the other hand really nice: Big, clean, and comfortable, with relaxing colures and materials. Best of all, almost no people. (I have been there many times before, and must say that overall experience hasn’t been that good for a long time).
My flight was on time dep. at 13.45 – boarding time said 13.20 but I knew that our gate were only a 5 minute walk from the lounge so I didn’t leave the lounge before 13.25, walked straight to the gate and right on board. Apparently the flight was all full, only one available seat in the business/eco. extra section (from row 1 to 12) and two in economy. The flight to Copenhagen was only just a little over one hour, but I would expect a bit more service in business class. No free middle seat, no real glass or porcelain and it was my 3 flight in business class on the route arn-cph that week and same really tasteless and olive oiled soaked cold pasta dish was served all three times! I didn’t eat it so I just had to the cold bread and some Danish butter. Nice selection of wine, beers, soft drinks and coffee/the.
Arriving at Copenhagen on time, first one to deboard the flight and went right to the sas business class lounge. Only had time for a quick cup of coffee and then I walked to the gate, passed passport control, which only took 5 minutes. But then I came to the gate area. NO business class preboarding line. Really bad, had to wait more than 45 minutes before I could enter the gate – then waiting another 20 minutes before they finally invited business class passengers, eco extra class passengers and passengers travelling with kids and star alliance gold members to board, by only by ONE line and as they invited so many different segments to board at the same time there occurred quite a long line. So it took 20 minutes before I could stow my cabin bags away and site back in my seat. As soon as I sat down the flight attendant came introduced herself by name and welcomed me onboard took my coat and asked if I wanted champagne, orange juice or water and whether I would like today’s newspapers, all the big Danish and Swedish ones, some American, British and German ones, one polish and one Finnish (guess I wassent the only connecting passenger in business today). I chose the champagne and water. The champagne was Henriot 2000 and I was asked a refill several time as boarding took really long time.
Finally we were ready for takeoff and got pushed back – taxiing out to the runway and then 10 minutes later I had this nice view of resund and the windmills powering Copenhagen.
My seat was nice, really comfortable for relaxing, working and watching movies. The tv screen is ok, thought not the biggest one. Soon the wash bag and noise canceling earphones were handed followed by today’s menu (in three languages, English, Danish and Japanese). Then the FA’s came by with drinks and snacks. I asked for more champagne and some water. Together with the drinks came one red pepper stuffed with feta cheese, one green olive with garlic and some mini chorizo, really nice, but kind of small. One olive! Who serves just one olive?
Then the dinner service began. Nice touch that two of the FA’s, the one that have special meal and drink training, changes into chefs clothing. On today’s menu were smoked trout as first course followed by a green salad and then an option of four main courses. I went for the halibut medallion with a really tasty crab claw and carrot sticks. Nice main course, even though the carrots were overcooked for my taste, then a selection of cheeses with fig compote and for dessert orange ruby cake and fresh fruit salad from the trolley. As serving dessert the FA’s asked each passenger if they preferred to sleep in and go for the quick “grab and go” breakfast or if they preferred the big breakfast. I don’t really sleep that well on flights so I signed up for the big morning deal.
Along with the first course I chose the Chateau Haut Bertinerie 2006 and for the main course I tried the guest wine white Chablis 2004, perfect for the halibut. To round off with the desert I chose the Sauternes 2002, an SAS signature dessert wine. If you haven’t tried it, I can highly recommend it. I would have liked some coffee to go with the dessert but strangely the crew didn’t serve coffee and the before they had served dessert to all. With my seat 01 it meant that I was way done with the dessert before the coffee service began. Over all a really good dinner at SAS on this flight, one of the best I have ever had.
After eating I found my computer and began to work a couple of hours. Great space for working and power outlet in seat. Then I watched some movies, must say I was rather disappointed by the selection, there was only two premiere movies and as I had been in New York just before with SAS I had already seen one of them. Nice with AVOD but that is what you must expect in business class. The business class buffet area is really nice, forgot to take a picture sorry guys, but nice selection of fresh fruit, sandwiches, Swiss chocolate, snacks, wine, spirits, champagne and soft drinks etc. and really nice with the espresso machine.
Then I tried to get some sleep, reclined the seat to sleep position, but you do feel like your sliding down cause it’s not fully horizontal. But I managed to get almost 5 hours of sleep, even thought we went through some pretty heavy turbulence over the north of Siberia. I woke up almost 4 hours before we landed, but just couldn’t sleep anymore. Went to the gallery to get some food and talked to the cabin crew. Must say that they were really attentive, nice and outgoing in a Scandinavian way. I can’t stand the over happy and hyper attentive FA’s but prefer them to be nice, polite and attentive. And still you have the feeling that you can ask them to bring whatever you like or just chat with them as 12 hours is a really long time trapped inside an airplane.
Ca. two hours before landing the cabin crew turn on the morning light and began to wake up the passengers who wished the full breakfast service and wow, that was a full breakfast. I even had two portions as they came by with the hot selection from the trolley twice. As soon as I was don eating I hurried to the lavatory, by the way the toilets on SAS A340 is great, so much space. Changed t-shirt, washed my face and brushed my teeth, when I came out half the cabin was in line for the 2 lavatories in the business class section and as the captain 30 minutes later turned on the seatbelt sine and approached Tokyo Narita there were still a lot passengers waiting to use the lavatories. Maybe sas should serve breakfast 30 minutes earlier. But down we came after a long but good flight. Arrived on time in Tokyo. The passengers in Business could leave the aircraft first so when I came to emigration there was only one person in line in front of me, went straight through and walked pretty far to the bagged claim. As I came, the suitcases marked Priority Star Alliance was already waiting for us.
Overall: A nice flight, great service and meals, nice cabin crew but SAS needs to do something about the movie selection and specially they need to replace the business class seat with some similar to the new Swiss Business class beds. And then sas need to work on the ground service, especially in Copenhagen. You expect a better service paying the sky-high business class price. I would give SAS 7 out of 10 on CPH-NRT and only 5 on ARN-CPH.
Oct 3, 2009 | 2:23 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: CPH
Programs: SK Diamond *G, LH SEN *G, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 439
Not sure if you're doing it right or not. What you have to do is right click on your picture and "copy link location". Then click on the Insert Image link at the top of your post box then paste your link into it - after you have clicked your cursor on the part of the trip report you want the picture to show.
Oct 3, 2009 | 2:29 am
#15
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: CPH
Programs: SK Diamond *G, LH SEN *G, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 439