How is SAS European Economy Class in 2021?
Unlike our return, on Singapore Airlines and British Airways Business Class via Rome, we took the quickest and most direct route from London to Copenhagen - i.e. the way normal people would travel. This was on Denmark’s national airline and Star Alliance member Scandinavian Airlines or SAS from London Heathrow who compete with British Airways directly, as well Norwegian, Ryanair and easyJet from other airports.
A bit of history on SAS
Image Courtesy: Scandinavian Airlines Group/24-02-1954
SAS is a bit unique in that it is formally the national carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden for over 75 years. This decision was taken to merge operations of the three countries’ domestic carriers as well as to form joint international routes. Although there is no proof of this, I suspect Scandi pragmatism set in that having three competing smaller airlines would be unprofitable on long haul international routes and that to combine operations would improve their economies of scale as the industry grew. One could even argue that SAS even set the bar for future airline mergers of the 21st Century with the likes of Lufthansa Group and International Airlines Group (British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia) having similar logic. Strangely though, and to their benefit, Finnair was always left out in the cold of this joint Nordic project.
What can you expect on SAS European Economy now?
Bare bones comes to mind but lets start with the positives of SAS European Economy.
The seats are quite slim and may be uncomfortable for their longer flights but they are not too bad and…
…Legroom was pretty okay too at 30-31 inches, made more spacious with the slimline seats. I would take more legroom over seat comfort on these short flights any day!
Their latest aircraft all come with WiFi on-board - which may be particularly useful for those who are working on these short hops across Europe.
As well as USB charging ports at every seat - which isn’t always common on legacy carriers.
SAS provide free hot drinks and water on-board.
The toilets are pretty cramped and feature no amenities to speak of - then again, you’re unlikely to need to get changed or wash on a flight of this duration.
And finally, the cabin features pretty funky mood lighting…
…but not a patch on the mood lighting Finnair offers on-board some of their aircraft (courtesy: YouTube/Jontsa73).
How much did this one way ticket with 23kg of luggage cost me? GBP 90 which is comparative to low cost airlines in busy seasons once you add extras such as bags and hot drinks. For me, the ease of travelling to Heathrow as well as the ability to access Star Alliance Gold lounges made SAS the obvious choice to travel to one of their hub airports. Is their European Economy anything special? Definitely not but then again nobody else in Europe is offering anything special or innovative - just a service that gets you there comparative to low cost carriers.
I would also just drop a note of caution too about their European Business Class or SAS Plus as it is branded. This offering is extremely poor with limited food (only cold not hot) and drinks on board. It does give you pre-flight lounge access, but the Copenhagen SAS Lounge isn’t good enough to justify the increase. They don’t even separate the cabin to give it an air of being more premium (even if it was just a piece of cloth)! The primary scenario I would pay for SAS Plus would be if I needed extra luggage and the price increase was not extortionate - otherwise don’t bother.
