SAS Airlines - Opinions Please

[Sunshine3601]

We are booked on a b2b for August 2020.    We have flown non stop with Norwegian for past trips to Europe but right now their ticket price is about $1500 higher and I don't want to book with them with all their financial problems.      Has anyone flown with SAS airlines - particularly their premium economy / SAS Plus from Newark to CPH?    

Good or bad?

I prefer to fly non stop when possible but if I have to the next best flights seem to be with British Airways or Lufthansa (both with connections either LHR or Frankfurt).   connections make me worry about losing luggage and I cannot be on a 16 day cruise without my luggage.   

Please let me know thoughts on SAS airlines and their Plus seats.

Thank you!

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

connections make me worry about losing luggage and I cannot be on a 16 day cruise without my luggage.  

 

I have not flown SAS is decades, so I can't speak to that.

 

 I do want to address your concern about luggage.  First off - recognize the difference between lost and delayed baggage.  The first happens when there's some kind of majore screw-up along the way.  Baggage tags and handles coming off a bag.  Bags put onto flights to locations where unaccompanied bags never come back (Bombay, Moscow, Lagos and most of Africa).  That's truly "losing" your luggage - maybe or maybe not it will find you again.  However, the number of truly "lost" bags is miniscule at best.

 

Then there is delayed luggage.  This tends to happen because of:  1) insufficient time at check-in for proper processing and screening, 2) insufficient time at a connection point, 3) wrong bag tag put on your bag, 4) baggage handlers putting your bag on the wrong aircraft, 5) baggage handlers failing to put your bags on the aircraft and 6) insufficient cargo space for all the luggage.

 

Passengers can mitigate against #1 by checking bags with plenty of time before your flight, #2 by building in sufficient connection time to accommodate mechanical and/or weather delays, #3 by checking the tag before it goes down the conveyor belt, and #6 by being aware of potential baggage issues with smaller aircraft at high and/or hot locations where loads may be limited.

 

You can't do anything about #4 and #5, but note that those kinds of bags are usually rerouted within a few hours.

 

Overall, the rate for US airlines is less than 3/10ths of one percent of bags have a report filed.  And reports include not just lost, but also delayed and damaged bags too.

 

 

[hallasm]

I live in Copenhagen and have been a SAS frequent flyer since 1992  - always flying with SAS whenever possible.

I'm sure a little biased for SAS but I always feel like I'm home when boarding a SAS plane.
It makes sense to fly directly from EWR to CPH. Aircraft are new Airbus A350-900 . I'm primarily flying Plus or Business on long haul - seats are comfortable and good service.
Plus allows for fast track, lounge access as well as priority boarding
I always book directly at flysas.com - after ordering it is possible to place an offer for upgrading to business class in the SAS app.

[waterbug123]

12 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

 connections make me worry about losing luggage and I cannot be on a 16 day cruise without my luggage.   

 

Are you planning to arrive the same day your cruise ship departs?  Most recommend against that, especially when flying to across an ocean.  My preference for European cruises is to arrive 2 days early, which is plenty of time for delayed bags to catch up.

[Sunshine3601]

I will arrive 1 day ahead of cruise departure.  Never travel same day.  

I am looking at booking SAS Plus seat.   Lounge access is always preferred and I have priority pass membership I can use if not included with SAS.  

Past trips to europe we flew norwegian air premium seats and were always happy.

How does SAS Plus compare to norwegian premium?

I am leaning towards booking this non stop flight but my Dh wants to save $800 and go with british airways with connecting flight at heathrow.  

 

[Zach1213]

1 minute ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I am leaning towards booking this non stop flight but my Dh wants to save $800 and go with british airways with connecting flight at heathrow.  

 

 

$800 per person or $800 total? It's hard not to save $800 per person just got stopping London for a couple of hours. $800 total...I still might do it, but it would be a little harder of a decision depending on what I wanted to do in Copenhagen on arrival and how much time the Heathrow stop might actually eat up. One can do a lot with $800 that will build memories...even more with $1600 🙂

[Sunshine3601]

Total difference is $800.  We will be booking either scandic palace or The Square hotel and figure we can drop our luggage at hotel storage and go off to tour copenhagen.  With SAS direct flight we would arrive at 730 am.  Vs BA flight with 3 hr layover in heathrow would arrive at 1 pm.

 

[Zach1213]

2 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Total difference is $800.  We will be booking either scandic palace or The Square hotel and figure we can drop our luggage at hotel storage and go off to tour copenhagen.  With SAS direct flight we would arrive at 730 am.  Vs BA flight with 3 hr layover in heathrow would arrive at 1 pm.

 

 

Ugh, that's a tough one if you haven't been to Copenhagen before and that's your only chance to explore. 5.5 hours is a lot of exploration time, and by 1pm (later, of course, after you clear immigration, get bags, get in to city) you'll probably start getting tired after the overnight flight, so your prime time of alert exploration may already be passed. 

 

But $800 is still $800 and you can do a lot with $800...I don't envy your decision. 

[hallasm]

3 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

How does SAS Plus compare to norwegian premium?

Similar, however might vary for type of aircraft - I have not yet been flying premium in Airbus A350-900 - next time when flying CPH to ORD in February.

3 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

my Dh wants to save $800 and go with british airways

Personally, I prefer LH to BA. Poor experience with connections in LHR - but 3 hours will improve chances of luggage being with the flight to CPH. Generally shorter wait time in FRA or MUC and usually no problems with missing luggage. When no direct SAS service available my greference i LH via MUC or FRA.

 

With only one night in Copenhagen I'll recommend to get as much time as possible except if you're staying post cruise.

[Zach1213]

1 hour ago, hallasm said:

I have not yet been flying premium in Airbus A350-900 - next time when flying CPH to ORD in February.

 

 

To be fair, I don't think anyone has flown SAS A359 yet...I didn't think they had any in service quite yet. I think the first one is January 2020? 

[scottbee]

19 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We are booked on a b2b for August 2020.    We have flown non stop with Norwegian for past trips to Europe but right now their ticket price is about $1500 higher and I don't want to book with them with all their financial problems.      Has anyone flown with SAS airlines - particularly their premium economy / SAS Plus from Newark to CPH?    

Good or bad?

I prefer to fly non stop when possible but if I have to the next best flights seem to be with British Airways or Lufthansa (both with connections either LHR or Frankfurt).   connections make me worry about losing luggage and I cannot be on a 16 day cruise without my luggage.   

Please let me know thoughts on SAS airlines and their Plus seats.

Thank you!

 

Check out full business class on Icelandair. While it's not up to the level of BA or LH's business class, it's likely better than their PE seats, and I suspect isn't much different in price.  You'd have a quickish change at Keflavik on the way out

[hallasm]

1 hour ago, Zach1213 said:

To be fair, I don't think anyone has flown SAS A359 yet

Correct - First aircraft delivered to SAS but currently test flights - first transatlantic flight will be January 28 from Copenhagen to Chicago.

[Sunshine3601]

6 hours ago, scottbee said:

 

Check out full business class on Icelandair. While it's not up to the level of BA or LH's business class, it's likely better than their PE seats, and I suspect isn't much different in price.  You'd have a quickish change at Keflavik on the way out

I just checked icelandair and the cost $2500 more for their premium sits and has a connection vs SAS non stop.  

I think I will go on choiceair site and book SAS non stop plus seats.  Using choiceair will give us flexibility to change up to 90days before cruise.  

Plus nice to have reprice option with choice air if fares improve. 

Anyone know if I can pick seats now or wait till paid in full next may?  I forget what I did last time with choice air

[mhb1757]

We have flown SAS Plus twice to Scandinavia and have another trip booked for May. The plus seats and service are about comparable to domestic first. Not lie flat seats but large and comfortable with decent recline. They run about $1100-1200 RT from EWR or BOS during the summer months. Much less during the winter. We like having lounge access with Plus and on the overnight flight outbound we usually put in a bid to upgrade to business (we have been successful both times with a bid of about $10 over the minimum), so for about $350-375 we were able to fly business with the nice flat bed seats on the overnight flight and fly home in the Plus seats. No guarantees that a bid will work for the upgrade but we have been lucky thus far. 

 

I am not a fan of BA’s Premium Economy but that is pretty subjective. Service in my experience was bad and seats did not seem comfortable at all. 

[Sunshine3601]

Thank you for your help.  I have booked sas plus for rt flight out of ewr for next august.  Price now is $1500 pp but booking thru choiceair gives me the option to reprice if price lowers.  So that is nice option.

Enjoy cruising