While I was hoping to fly nonstop to Los Angeles, I was very happy to make the extra stop in San Francisco to secure business class on SAS, this time an 11-hour journey on the A330-300 from Copenhagen.
SAS A330 Business Class Copenhagen – San Francisco: My First Impressions
We dawdled for far too long in the SAS Lounge and then the Lego Store and then had to run to the gate…which was in a gate area I had never been to at CPH (E135). It’s a LONGHAUL just to get to the gate and we were the last to board (“Klint, is that you?”).
I had assigned three window seats, one behind the other, behind the other. We took our seats and shortly after took off.
Lunch was served after takeof. I had air-dried Skagen ham with pickled rhubarb and a fresh green salad for my appetizer. Delicious!
You can always count on excellent catering on SAS out of Copenhagen and I was pleased to see “slow-cooked beef brisket” on the menu, served with red wine sauce with fermented black pepper, mac and cheese, green beans and beets with thyme butter. It was a home run…so good.
For dessert, I had cheese and fruit.
There was also an ice cream bar on the dessert menu, which Claire Marie quite enjoyed.
I tried to sleep and managed a couple of hours, but continue to struggle to sleep on airplanes.
Meanwhile, my kids eventually fell asleep…both leaving the seat upright.
Oh Augustine…I had to help him.
Unable to sleep, I got up and made myself a cappuccino from the onboard pantry, a feature exclusive to the A330 on SAS.
Before landing, another sanck was served and although you could argue it was pretty meager for an 11-hour flight, I really enjoyed the open-faced sandwich with eggs and shrimp.
I had snagged a cinnamon roll from the lounge in CPH and enjoyed it (so, so good…not too sweet, but brimming with flavor) with another cappuccino before landing.
The service on this flight could not have been better. Excellent service from every flight attendant. Friendly and professional. The internet worked well.
However, the flight was not perfect…unfortunately, the aircraft was filthy. There’s just no excuse for such a dirty seat. My duvet also had a suspicious stain on it.
Why is it so hard for airlines to keep their aircraft clean?
We landed on-time in San Francisco, where we headed to the Air Canada Lounge before flying down to Los Angeles on United. The extra stop was 100% worthwhile to secure saver business class (50K miles for me, 25K for each child) from CPH-SFO.
I’ll offer a lot more details and photos from this flight in my full review.
@Matthew, great review. The CPH E gates suck for distance/lounge/food/shops, so the last minute boarding was probably best anyway. 🙂
How did you access the AC MLL with 2 guests? Did you pay extra for 1 kid? I’m guessing you couldn’t use your UA status to enter the UC since SAS is SkyTeam now and wouldn’t count as an international itinerary for UC access.
First Class.
That onboard pantry is fantastic and I don’t understand why US airlines can’t have something nice like that on their business class. Question: was the espresso machine loud? Usually espresso machines are loud specially foaming milk and grinding coffee so I wonder if that would be annoying when passengers are sleeping mid flight.
I also cannot understand why it is so difficult to keep planes clean. All you need is a vacuum cleaner with an accessory that can reach those areas and it would not take much time to make it more pleasant. As for the stains on your duvet, that is nasty. I just flew Delta One and was glad to see they have their new Missoni bedding and it is absolutely fantastic. And since it is brand new, it was pretty clean.
The espresso machine was quiet enough, but the milk frother was loud.
Does SAS discount business class awards for children?
1/2 off through age 12…a huge benefit of EuroBonus.
You used 50K FB miles for CPH-SFO-LAX?
No, 50K for ZRH-CPH-SFO then I bought SFO-LAX.
Good tip – Didn’t realize they had that discount, though it was ‘earned’ by Augustine during that grueling promo run
One day an enterprising kid will design a wide hose serpentine robotic vacuum that has the ability to snake around the tracking and pick up the filth. Ideally it will incorporate a magnetic housing to hold much of the debris human cleaners never access. Oh well. One day
@Matthew … “Why is it so hard for airlines to keep their aircraft clean” ?
Because it is Not their Priority . The Biggest Priority is inflated pay for the executives . How else can one explain a filthy aircraft at the Hub , where there re many available employees ?
In this case , the Lowest Priority is : keeping the aircraft clean .
What does that imply about food handling and storage ?
( By the way , JAL does not appear to have any difficulties keeping their aircraft clean , even at turn-around destinations , such as HNL , BKK , or LHR . )
Such a great redemption! Were the kids fine in sfo? I’ve had issues waking them up during a deep sleep to deplane and then wait for a connection. They often get tummy sickness (similar to auggie on your sas mission).
Claire Marie did snooze in AC Lounge, but thankfully we only had a 90 minute layover.
But I made them walk two miles to the car at LAX, lol!
Brilliant!
Do you prefer this pre-arrival meal or the older style? Not that the older had much more quantity from what I remember, but it was nice to have the pre-arrival meal plated at your seat.
Breakfast is still plated at your seat, at least that was true when I flew from LAX-CPH earlier this year.
Looking back to 2010, same meal ex-CPH!
https://liveandletsfly.com/cph-iad-on-sas-iad-phx-bur-on-us-airways/
Must have been an East Coast/ORD thing, because I remember the pre-arrival meal was a buffet of sorts that was plated at the seat.