We spent Christmas Eve with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), enjoying an evening journey to Copenhagen to kick off a brief trip to Germany for the holidays.
Christmas Eve In SAS Business Class
I mentioned yesterday, when outlining my elite status strategy for 2026, that I continue to love EuroBonus, the loyalty program of SAS. If you are willing to fly SAS, there are great redemption opportunities and a lot of extra space for members compared to redemptions via SkyTeam partners.
We wanted to spend the holidays in Germany and SAS opened space from Chicago (nothing from Los Angeles), so we took a redeye to Chicago in economy (ouch) then flew SAS from Chicago to Copenhagen in business class on Christmas Eve.
I prefer to spend “Heiligabend” (the German word for Christmas Eve) at home with family and attending a late-night church service, but sometimes you just have to take the space that is open.
It was a very good day to travel. The airport was not crowded (though the new Air France Lounge in Terminal 5 was quite crowded, considering the Delta SkyClub closed early for Christmas Eve). Onboard, the flight was less than half full…no wonder SAS had copious amounts of award space available in all three cabins!
It was a crisp, cold evening and after a long day, I was ready to get to sleep. Thankfully, the service was efficient, with dinner served promptly after takeoff. Service began with warmed cashews, followed by an appetizer (smoked salmon or duck) and a green salad.
I’m avoiding alcohol, but I love that SAS has upscale “Apple Must.” Like fine wine and coffee, not all apple juice is made equal and the Norwegian Ringi Farms takes apple juice to a whole other level.
We had pre-ordered our main courses, which these days is necessary if you want fish (since the three onboard options tend to be beef, chicken, and pasta). The salmon with lentils hit the spot.
I rounded out the meal wth fruit and cheese, leaving about six hours until landing to sleep.
I skipped breakfast and slept until we began our descent into Copenhagen, enjoying a cappuccino before landing.
Claire Marie had some trouble waking up…
The crew was very nice on this flight, and as we were gathering our things after landing, one of the pilots invited the kids into the flight deck, an unexpected and kind Christmas treat.
CONCLUSION
I’ve delayed even my first impressions of this by a week for my own safety…there are some nasty people out there (and I’ll just leave it at that). I’ll share brief impressions about the flights over the next few days, then full flight reviews at a later point. My SAS reviews are becoming about as common as my United Polaris reviews were in years past, but I quite like flying Scandianvian Airlines!
Registered to say sorry about the nasty people out there Matthew. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to flying SAS business someday, as I haven’t flown them in over 30 years!
Thanks, Joe.
Great trip review, and excellent redemption! SAS food looks really good, too. At first glance, the interior-cabin color-scheme reminded me of SQ in J. Glad the kids got to see up-front. That’s a treat (for adult av-geeks, too!)
No review of the AF lounge at ORD?
“I’ve delayed even my first impressions of this by a week for my own safety…there are some nasty people out there (and I’ll just leave it at that)”
You can’t make a statement like that without offering more details lol All kidding aside, if it is a safety issue, sorry to hear that.
You know me. I don’t generally do first impressions of lounges, only flights. You’ll get the full trip report soon.
I’ve flown SAS’s relatively new intra-Europe business-class product three times in the last 30 hours: Paris–Oslo, Oslo–Copenhagen, and Copenhagen–Helsinki. The verdict: inconsistent at best, poorly executed at worst.
In Paris, SAS uses the above-average Extime Lounge, which pours champagne retailing for roughly $150 a bottle. The 2-and-1/2-hour flight to Oslo was fine. The service was not. The (older lady) cabin crew served food before drinks. It took 15 minutes to get even water, by which time the hot meal was cold. No refills were ever offered.
At Oslo, the SAS lounge in the Schengen concourse is mediocre at best. The food is better than KLM lounge food, but the wine and alcohol are dreadful—think US$2–US$5 boxed wine. There’s effectively no customer service. The lone SAS agent at the desk claimed the airport was “too busy” to help with any issues. All food-and-beverage staff appeared to be contracted workers from Asia.
The short flight from Oslo to Copenhagen on a CRJ-900 was better than CDG–OSL, but still flawed. The flight is simply too short for the service SAS is trying to force on one flight attendant. Once again, meals were served before drinks. The lead attendant should be taking drink orders on the ground, with the second attendant assisting in the cabin. Instead, it was a scramble to serve five business-class passengers. The lone attendant did her best, but the training clearly isn’t there. Meals weren’t pre-set with cutlery or napkins—an embarrassing oversight that only compounded the delays.
Copenhagen was the low point. The flagship SAS lounge is awful—worse than Oslo and worse than KLM’s lounges in Amsterdam. No power outlets. No meaningful staff presence. Mediocre food and even worse drinks. No beer, for example. How does SAS not serve Carlsberg in its home-market hub from morning to night?
On the 90-minute Copenhagen–Helsinki flight, the regional-jet attendant from CityJet working business class was noticeably better than SAS mainline—but again, meal before drinks. With only two passengers, it was manageable, yet the lack of proper service training was still obvious. Refills required asking.
The food itself is mediocre. There are ovens, so at least you get hot bread and occasionally a warm entrée. But there’s no Wi-Fi, no USB ports, no power outlets, and frequent bus gates—making the business-class advantage minimal beyond the meal and alcohol.
SAS does serve Charles Heidsieck champagne. On all three flights, local passengers were aggressively drinking it, presumably because it’s expensive at retail and “free” onboard. On the one-hour Oslo–Copenhagen flight alone, they went through three bottles.
That, in many ways, sums up SAS’s current intra-Europe business-class product: decent ingredients, poor execution, and shockingly weak training.
It’s interesting because my experience is very different. First, I love the CPH lounge. Fresh, “real” food like sliced cucumbers and beets, excellent bread and cheese, interesting hot dishes like duck last visit, barista-made coffee, and excellent kanelbullar. I like it. If I’m drinking, I’ll skip the lounge and enjoy the Norwegian or Swedish gin onboard (whiskey is also not bad).
Second, I’ve found the intra-Europe service excellent. Granted, I only fly between ZRH-CPH and those flights are operated by SAS Connect, but great crews/service/meals. I love the new business class tableware and really enjoyed my recent lunch coming back from this trip. Got kids’ meals for the kids and it was a very nice warm pasta dish for them. SAS uses LX J lounge in ZRH, which I also really like.
My gripe was that it took 3.5 hours to complete lunch service on my CPH-ORD flight…unbelievable how much it was dragged out and the IFE selection onboard is very poor.
I flew SAS business class for the first time a few months ago, Milan – CPH-SFO. The CPH-SFO flight was fine and I liked it. I agree with you that their Flagship SAS lounge in CPH is lousy and the food options were pitiful – a real low budget affair that made me feel like I was flying a low fare airline. I was surprised it was that bad. Probably the worst flagship lounge I have ever been at. Next time I am in CPH, I won’t bother going to the lounge.
Lovely review – that cabin looks fabulous!
I am pivoting away from business class trips like this with the whole family. It’s just such a large amount of points when you have to position with a red eye. Then take another flight on arrival in Europe. I actually think it’s better just to go on a one stopper in economy from LAX. I’ve mentioned before but we cancelled our trip in AA first via nyc from Ord to London to fly on Icelandic with a stopover. 10pm departure from Ord to Reykjavik was great. We ate then slept pretty well. Great two days in Reykjavik then short hop to London.
My calculus is that even if SWISS had been available LAX-ZRH, it would have been 40K Aeroplan or 44K United in economy…compared to 60K SAS for business. I’ll make the stop, especially in Chicago.
In my experience a half-full flight makes for happy, relaxed pax and a happy, relaxed, attentive crew. Nice score.
So did you fly there on Christmas Eve and arrive Christmas day?
Correct. Spent most of Christmas in SAS Lounge, ha!
Do your kids believe in Santa? If so, how did you handle?
Ha. No they do not. There’s a funny story there with Augustine and his first grade teacher.
Even if they did, it’s very easy to explain. Santa knew they were flying to Germany, so he brought all the gifts there instead.
What a splendid flight! SAS is gradually setting the bar high…
They really need to improve their IFE selection though.
I always pre-order the meal, even if I want one of the “default” choices. I figure if everyone did, things would be easier for the airline and FA. Plus, since I’m often toward the front, I feel like I’m less likely to snatch the choice the last person would have wanted. But, I’m not sure if it works that way. Plus, if you’re on a plane with 8 or 12 seats in F, I suspect the probability of having choices run out is more likely than larger F cabins.
I’ll be flying SAS LAX-CPH-OSL in about a week and a half in Premium Economy. Put in a bid for the Business upgrade. As there are only 6 seats left, don’t think I’ll get it. But I can live vicariously through these posts!
Great report. Do SAS regularly make award space available nearer departure? I’ve used eurobonus points to reserve an AF flight to SGN in June, but I’m mostly planning to explore the Northern part of Vietnam and wouldn’t mind flying SK to ICN instead.
We have had lovely flights on SAS and also like the lounges. A close friend flies back and forth to Finland and Sweden regularly and its their first choice.
During on trip, we had the above friend’s son with us and our similarly aged son. Friend son speaks Swedish and the crew assumed our son also spoke Swedish and spent the entire flight speaking to him in Swedish. Our son just nodded and accepted whatever food and drink provided.
As my travel has me in Stockholm a lot more often these days…. I have certainly focused on flying SAS more often than I previously have given them not much thought now that they don’t partner with United out of SFO.
I have refused the skyteam alliance just due to the ego of delta for a long time. Delta isn’t that great to warrant a boy toy of a CEO when their onboard product isn’t musch better than Alaska. And on AS the food is much better and the service is better than DL.
So i went with them recently on my long haul and really have found a decent solid carrier. It isn’t QR or EK. But the food is amazingly fresh in the lounges (I too love the cucumbers). Although some improvement needs to be there. But you can have good showers and even play music. Very scandanavian quirkiness.
Thier upgrade bidding is reasonable. Intra Europe business is cheap with upgrades clearing a lot of the time with lounge access included.
Long haul is decent. Upgrades are reasonable cost. Solid food options. I just flew their 3 week old 359. Pretty nice. Although the 333s need a coat of paint and a refresh.
I’m EB silver and gonna get gold by march. I’m pretty happy with the experience. Except having to fly delta from time to time. But I credit to SK. I refuse to participate in skypesos.
Keep it up SAS. Just don’t fold into flying blue. Also pretty cheeky ad campaign about having a tough crowd to please…..but knowing quite a few Swedes….they demand things to work and be efficient. Perhaps the Germans and the USA could learn something basic again.
I agree that the upgrading bidding is very reasonable and transparent: a great system.