A long-time Award Expert client and friend recently returned home from Europe and had the great fortune of having the entire business class cabin to himself onboard a brand new SAS A350-900 in business class.
When we booked his ticket and assigned his seat, we noticed that there were only three other seats showing assigned in the entire 40-seat business class cabin. Turns out those were just blocked and no other passengers were onboard.
He shared the following thoughts and pictures with me on his flight from Copenhagen to Newark, which I am pleased to pass on to you.
The Only Passenger Onboard: SAS A350-900 Business Class Review
Visited lounge before flight. Most empty. Only Schengen lounge open.
Walked right on board and to the seat. FA showed up with an amenity kit.
There were what looked like two blankets in the seat, and I put them into the 3H seat for more room. They were from Hästens, the super-expensive bed people. But I can’t comment on them as I never used them.
I was the only person in business, including the sector behind the galley.
I like the seating. It is better than most first class and superior to just about any other business except Singapore A380. It is worth going out of the way for.
Much wider, at least by 6 inches from the outbound [ed. note: he flew United on the outbound]. Really comfortable.
Plenty of foot space without having to twist my toes in like the cheap Air Canada and United.
The work area on the side gives plenty of space for food or drink or documents. Inside the corner where the electrical items are is plenty of room so things don’t go flying; slightly back and out of the way. It is where the water bottle is also stored.
Kept the iPhone connected the whole flight and it was safe and out of the way.
Flight time was estimated at 7 hours, 45 minutes. We pulled back from the gate about 35 minutes late.
Big 15 inch HD TV at the right distance for my glasses to keep all in focus. Touch screen, and intuitive to use. It had a handset, but the touch screen was so easy, I tried out most of the options; movie, about SAS, music, drinks, including the cameras on the tail and the one under the cockpit.
I did not sleep on the return. Read and watched the two movies.
The movie selection was mostly old stuff, so I selected a Danish film with sub titles, and then an American indie film.
Music selection even more limited. Listened to 4 of 7 (playlists) no Jazz and no Classical.
The wines were listed on the TV, so I knew what I wanted. Started with a Portuguese Red. Nuts were given in a sealed bag.
About an hour into the flight the FA came by with a menu in his hand, which he showed me (I was instructed not to touch). So no printed menu for the passenger, just a photo (this was interesting concept) of the two choices, salmon or chicken.
I did not select the chicken, but he said I could have that too if I wanted.
No more than two minutes after selecting the mean, it showed up hot. So it must have been already prepared.
FA asked if I wanted to change wine, so I selected a white. He kept filling the glass to that I actually consumed almost the whole bottle while eating the tray.
At the end of food service I asked for ice cream. He said there was none, but what about chocolate, but not the usual, it was an unusual candy bar. Then later in the flight he brought me another.
I was intrigued with the alcohol available that I saw under drinks option on the screen. It had two Swedish whiskies. He described them and I asked to sample them both. So he brought both. After about 20 minutes he came by to ask which I preferred. He said that usually they have full bottles in business, but he had had to go to the back and get the little bottles for me (they were served in a glass so I did not make the connection).
Two thirds through the flight I had an extended conversation with the female FA and a 3rd male FA, perhaps the purser for the flight. There was a 4th who stayed mostly in the galley and seemed to serve the food.
The first FA who kept filling the wine glass was a former purser who had retraining and now was a FA. So apparently seniority was also used at SAS for layoffs.
CONCLUSION
Matthew here. I appreciated this look at the A350 so much and cannot wait to try it myself, especially once full service is restored. The last time I flew SAS transatlantic was on an A330 from Los Angeles to Stockholm and I had a wonderful flight. I look forward to flying the A350 myself.
Have you flown the new SAS A350? What were your impressions?
” It is better than most first class and superior to just about any other business except Singapore A380. ” Huh?
Better than other First classes is debatable. Superior to other business class except Singapore Airlines is indisputable. SQ has a terrible business class , unless you are under 5ft tall and/or don’t mind sleeping at a weird angle. Plus the seat is rock hard and very uncomfortable when upright.
This invalidates the whole rest of his review. I think he was unduly influenced by the amount of booze consumed 🙂
In his defense, I’ve long said that SAS is one of my favorite overall business class products. I also know he can hold his alcohol very well!
Nice review. How is SAS with releasing business class award space?
They are good with releasing space far in advance and close-in (24-72 hours before). Not so much in between.
Actually when it comes to using UA, AV, AC or A3 miles, I have found that they are historically awful about releasing business class award space near in to departure on most US-CPH/ARN flights of mine. But this year is different/better in the regard.
Anybody who’s a CPH regular will ID the lounge as SAS’ regular lounge which is Schengen.
That was my fault.
Mackmyra whisky is Swedish, not Danish.
That looks like an economy meal. Unacceptable that is served in premium economy, much less business class
SAS doesn’t have a Non-Schengen lounge, but I can see how the author made the mistake. The combined Business/Gold lounge is close to passport control for the Non-Schengen gates.
Personally, I think SAS Business is just fine – not bad, but not great. Vantage XL isn’t my favorite seat, but it does beat LH and LX. Service pre-pandemic was a bit like an assembly line, even though they did spruce it up a bit with the chef coats and trolleys.
In any case, it’s refreshing to see a review from a different perspective, especially one so enthusiastic about a product. It’s a good thing he didn’t have an intra-Europe connection; SAS Plus without a blocked middle and the horrendous cubes would’ve been a let down… :-p
There is nothing called swedish scotch whiskey…it should be swedish whiskey..lol
I mean, Kavalan and a couple other brands call themselves “scotch” even though they’re nowhere near the UK. I guess they’re trying to say that they are “scotch style”
Hah “super expensive” is an understatement! You have expensive (every mainstream brand), super expensive (Duxiana, “high-end” version of the mainstream brands), then you have Hastens… mattresses that cost more than luxury cars…
Any trip report is highly appreciated in these times, but as a regular SAS Business Class client (at least 20 legs a year), I really can’t wrap my head around “I like the seating. It is better than most first class and superior to just about any other business except Singapore A380. It is worth going out of the way for.” I would say that it’s worth going out of the way to avoid SAS A330/A340 since the seats’ air bladders are broken at least 50% of the time, and the A350s (who lack air bladders thankfully) are better than LH/OZ/LX/UA but still average at best. To say that SAS Vantage XL is “better than most first class” is simply not true.
I like this concept of having regular reader guest reviews. It’s fun to get different perspectives and see what they highlight. I really think you should encourage more of them…and it’s also fun for people to be a “reviewer for a day” and not have to commit to it long term. Gives you more content as well.
As well, I finally got to see a seafood entree in business, ya know…given your love of beef, Matthew! 🙂
I can’t see anything really other than the extra 6 inches of space on the seat that makes this business class product worlds ahead of other offerings. Seems a heavily biased review.