Trying new airlines in Premium Cabins always excites me! Even now! While I am always a fan of SQ, it is still nice to see the product out there and experience it. I can’t say that I am very experienced out there since 95% of my premium cabin flights are on SQ metal. This is somehow also the very first full-price premium cabin that I have bought with cash. I decided to go for it since the prices were rather similar to economy class. I also needed checked baggage for this flight. This more or less makes it around the same price. While the intra-Europe seats are nothing special, this is still a new premium seat on a new airline that I have not tried before. I was actually considering between Air France and this. Air France is a little bit more expensive, but they do have a nice lounge that I would love to check out. Sadly, it is closed on the day that I am flying. Which is why I just went for SAS, the cheapest option. Let’s see how it is! 

Checking In

Somehow, SAS doesn’t include seat selection even for business class. That is rather weird. We still can’t choose seats even when online check-in is open. We can only try our luck at the airport. We got a Bolt to the airport, which is certainly the better way since we had heavy bags. The price is also not a lot more than taking the train, which would have cost 14 Euros each. We got to the airport at around 11.20am, SAS flies out from Terminal 2B. It took quite some time since there was only a counter for premium cabin. They were very unprofessional. Only one counter was manned despite them having like three or four staff around. They were chatting and standing around. This is disastrous and unappealing. Everyone who required assistance also just came to the business line, which resulted in the wait being super long. Business Class passengers can use the priority lines for security. I spent the rest of my time at the lounge. 

Boarding Process

We were assigned to gate D66, which is around a 10-minute walk from the lounge. It is quite far. Boarding is assigned for 1.40pm. Boarding in reality started at 1.45pm, with premium cabin passengers invited to board first, but we ended up being held at the air bridge while we waited for passengers disembarking. It is such a mess on the ground for SAS. We were only allowed entrance at 1.55pm. We were warmly welcomed at the door. I was one of the first to board and got some pictures of the area. It is challenging to do any boarding service when there is only a single aisle and a single door where everyone is boarding from. We left with all business class seats full. There were a total of 3 rows with 12 passengers. We pushed back at around 2.46pm and were airborne by 3pm.

Scandinavian Airlines SAS A320neo Business Class 

Intra-Europe business class is more or less the same and pretty standardised. It isn’t that exciting given that they are more or less the same as economy, with the middle seat block off. This makes it into a 2 – 2 configuration. The system allows for customisation and allows them to change the supply of business class seats depending on the load. In summary, you are getting a guaranteed middle seat empty. This kind of defeats the purpose if you’re travelling in a group of two or three. The legroom is more or less the same for all the seats. The better one will be in row 1, where the bulkhead seats offer slightly more legroom. I did not manage to get it since the seats were auto-assigned by the system. Let me just share some pictures of the seats as well as the cabin. 

The seats were really simple. There were no power sockets, either. You do have a USB-A port right in front of you and a jacket hook at the side. That is about it. A pillow would be nice. Wifi is also available but only complimentary for EuroBonus Diamond and Gold members. It seems really stingy not to offer it to business class passengers.  

The toilets were normal and nothing memorable. There are no special items or amenities. The front toilet is left exclusively for the use of business class. The crew were strict in enforcing the rule. This is nice of them. 

Meal Service

Coffee, tea and water are always served free of charge on SAS. In Premium and Business, meals and snacks are included. Meals are also included on flights outside Europe. In Economy, you can pre‑order meals on flights within Europe and buy snacks, light meals and drinks from the onboard menu. There is no ground service or welcome drink being offered. This is probably due to the fact that we are doing single-door boarding, and on a narrow-body, this will be challenging. Immediately upon levelling off, the crew came by to close off the curtains separating the business class and economy class cabin. Service started shortly after, and the crew came by to distribute packet nuts and to take drink orders. For alcoholic drinks, they have red wine, white wine, champagne, spirits and beers. They were pouring Charles Heidsieck, which is excellent. This is top-notch and what SQ offers in business class too. 

For those who want something non-alcoholic, there are soft drinks, sparkling and still water, tea, coffee and juices. Soon after the crew brought over the meal, there were no options or choices. Everything was served on a tray. The meal certainly exceeded my expectations. I love the ravioli and mango cheesecake. It was so delicious. A small card menu was presented alongside the meal. Can I just say that I love the glassware so much. The mug was so pretty. It is well insulated and nice to hold. SAS do not offer any barista coffee drinks, but the brewed coffee was quite nice.

We had a great set of crew, especially the two working business class. They were very friendly and polished. Especially Victor. They seemed genuinely interested and kept coming by to check on us if we needed anything or refills. They have certainly exceeded my expectations.

 

Conclusion

I enjoyed my very first premium cabin flight on SAS. It was great, at least for the flight itself. The ground service in Paris was a stark contrast. They have to improve it. It was appalling how they do things over here. It was a disaster. The flight itself was excellent, with a great set of crew and a lovely champagne pour. The food was top-notch too. I got into Copenhagen comfortably. The flight went by in no time. While the hard product on intra-Europe flights is not much of a factor, they certainly made an impression with the soft touches. It might not be a splurge, but the pricing is not much more than the cheapest economy class ticket with baggage included, which I needed. I haven’t flown enough intra-Europe business-class flights to actually compare this and put it into perspective.