My 10.5-hour SAS A350 flight in business class from Los Angeles to Copenhagen was another excellent overall experience on Scandinavian Airlines, though a trio of factors onboard limited my rest on what is ordinarily a flight perfectly timed for sleeping.
SAS A350 Business Class Review (LAX-CPH)
I prefer flying nonstop from Los Angeles to Europe (versus a connection in the US Midwest or East Coast) because it provides an extra hour or two for sleep…and sleep is what I wanted to maximize on this flight. It didn’t quite work out, but it could have been worse.
I booked my ticket (including a connection from Copenhagen to Prague) for 50,000 and minimal government taxes…SAS Eurobonus is great when you redeem your points for SAS flights.
I had a full day of work ahead of my flight, so I arrived early at LAX–where I was wrongly denied the use of the Delta One check-in facility–before stopping in the Delta SkyClub, Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, and Air France Lounge ahead of my flight to CPH.
Boarding began at 6:00 pm from the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
SAS (SK) 932
Los Angeles (LAX) – Copenhagen (CPH)
Friday, March 28
Depart: 6:40 PM
Arrive: 1:20 PM+1
Duration: 10hr, 40min
Distance: 5,642 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Seat: 2A (Business Class)
Onboard, I was greeted by a seasoned crew and found my seat onboard. Last time I flew the SAS A350 (on the Bangkok – Copenhagen inaugural), I was traveling with a friend and chose a seat in the center section. This time, I chose a window seat (2A).
Seat
The SAS A350 business class cabin includes 40 Thompson Aero Vantage XL seats spread over two cabins in a 1-2-1 configuration, with a galley and lavatories in between. Even-numbered A and H seats are true window seats (with the side console on the aisle side rather than between the seat and window). The bulkhead seats (rows 1 and 9) do have a larger cutout for your feet.
Each seat is 22 inches wide and converts into a 78-inch lie-flat bed. The seat has a bi-fold tray table that slides out from the console and includes a personal device holder that can support a tablet or mobile phone.
On the side is a compartment that houses noise-canceling headphones and below it the seat controls and a universal outlet and USB-A charging port. The light brown leather provided a great contrast to the gray seat.
The seat is comfortable, bedding includes a soft pillow and duvet from Dux.
On this flight, I only managed five hours of sleep….I blame three things:
- a strong tailwind, which reduced our flight time to only 9.5 hours
- dinner service took more than two hours to complete from takeoff (more on service below)
- no personal air vents
On the last point, while the cabin never became overly hot, the cool directed air from an air nozzle always helps me to sleep better on an airplane.
Unfortunately, the cabin was not clean–hardly a problem unique to SAS, but dismaying nevertheless. Visible dirt and grime were present all over the business class seat.
Food + Drink
Dinner was served after takeoff and breakfast before landing.
Dinner
Menus were presented after boarding. Pre-departure everages were offered, including water and sparkling wine in glasses.
After takeoff, first came a bowl of warmed cashews with a beverage (I tried a “whiskey mule” with Stauning rye whiskey, Fever Tree ginger beer, and lime).
Appetizers were served via cart. For my appetizer, I chose the scallop ceviche with salmon couscous, vanilla, and blood orange over the five-spice roasted duck breast with apricot jam, faro, and dried salad. Very delicious. It was served with a choice of bread and a green salad (with thousand island or balsamic vinaigrette dressing).
Main course choices included beef cheek goulash, Jidori chicken, and saffron fettuccini with truffle cream sauce options but SAS offers meal pre-orders and I chose fish in advance, which was a very delicious “pan-seared pink snapper with artichoke barigoule, San Marzano tomato confit and smoked eggplant puree.”
Dessert was also served on a cart with fruit, cheese, and lemon meringue pie (which made it very easy to turn down the sweet option…I’m not a fan). I finished off the meal with a cup of green tea.
A very delicious meal…SAS always succeeds in offering superb meals, even from outstations.
Mid-Flight Snack
I certainly was not hungry after a late lunch in the lounge followed by dinner onboard, but soft drinks, sandwiches were placed on a shelf between business class cabins and Scandinavian products like nuts, protein bars, and chocolate were later added.
Breakfast
A very large breakfast was served 90 minutes prior to landing. I was not hungry at all, so this meal was more for the picture than the food itself (overnight oats, meat and cheese plate, eggs and bacon that looked more like pork belly, and a croissant). This meal was not served via cart. Instead, it was brought out from the galley on a tray.
While I was too full to eat (yeah, I know…how very unlike me), I did enjoy a very good cappuccino onboard, one of the best I’ve had on a plane in recent memory.
IFE + Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is complimentary for business class passengers and worked well enough for me to send and receive messages and email. That said, it had been a long day by the time I boarded my flight and I was not in the mood to work at all.
I’d rate the SAS in-flight entertainment library as average to below average. To be sure, there was a wide selection of movies and TV shows, plus games and audio, but the library paled in comparison to even US carriers like American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines.
During the (prolonged) meal service, I watched A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg’s latest movie. It was very well-done: his cousin Benji (played by Kieran Culkin) grated me…the sort of well-done character that you can have both empathy and disdain for at the same time.
One annoying thing about the SAS A350 screen is that it is highly-reflective:
Usually, when I fly the A350, I turn on the tailcam and just leave that on, but it was not working on this flight. It was a very beautiful evening departing from Los Angeles and a very beautiful landing in Copenhagen.
Amenity Kit
Like the bedding, the amenity kit is also Dux-branded in a cute striped bag. Contents included:
- Verso face moisturizer + lip balm
- Swedish Stockings (high-quality socks)
- The Humble Co dental kit
- Dux-branded eyeshade
- Earplugs
Lavatories
The SAS A350 has a lavatory reserved for crew use in the front of the aircraft and two lavatories between the business class cabins. I quite like little touches like the green plant in the lavatory…it makes a (hopefully) sterile environment a bit more cheerful. Unlike the A330, no lavatory windows.
Service
Service was courteous, but it moved slowly. I appreciate not rushing passengers or gruffly plopping down a single-tray so full you can hardly eat from it, but I think the happy medium is completing meal service within 90 minutes. I’m not sure what the initial delay was (it wasn’t turbulence) or the delays between courses, but two hours is too long for dinner service.
One more shoutout to the FA who made my cappuccino…it was one of the best espresso drinks onboard a plane I’ve had in many years.
CONCLUSION
As I said when offering my first impressions of this flight, ultimately, this was a satisfactory flight. It wasn’t outstanding and it wasn’t bad…it was solid and I have yet to have a bad SAS flight (well, perhaps that one in 2009 from Copenhagen to Washington Dulles…). With a nice selection of lounges in LAX (and a respectable flagship lounge in Copenhagen on arrival) plus a good seat with functional free wi-fi, I look forward to many more SAS flights as I spend down my million miles.
To show you how remarkably consistent this product is, check out my SAS A330 review from Los Angeles to Stockholm from 2016.
> Read More: SAS A330 Business Class Los Angeles to Stockholm Review
We’ll see how that changes when SAS updates its soft product this autumn.
Out of all of the AFKL group airlines where AFKL own at least a 15% share, KL is now the “low-cost” option.
It feels like SK longhaul will be the “boutique” option for the AFKL group.
What’s your agenda against KL @Malik? Aren’t you a FB Ulti?
I think SK will make KL back to what they were pre-pandemic in terms of service and soft product. Before the merger and during covid KL top brass had an announcement and directly stated that they were competing against nordic carriers (most notably SK at the time).
“but the library paled in comparison to even US carriers like American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines.”
To be fair, I think the IFE on US carriers is pretty good and above average. No, not quite up there with SQ, EK, etc, but certainly better than most European and many Asian carriers.
Another handsome pic!
It’s great to see airlines making an effort with the catering. Hopefully I’ll soon manage to experience SK on long haul and finally start spending my own million.
In your flight description is Bangkok to Copenhagen. Is that copy paste from previous report?
It is. Thanks, fixed.
SAS is feeling like the Austrian Airlines for AFKL
I flew SAS for the first time LAX-CPH in business last month. It was wonderful. Definitely doing that again.
Enjoyed the AF lounge at LAX too.
Nice review. Just flew SQ for the first time and was blown away by the latte art. Amazing what levels of service are possible!
My experience with SAS has been a total disaster.
I bought tickets to Paris to take my granddaughter to the Stray Kids concert last weekend. At the airport in Trondheim we recieved a SMS that our flight had been cancelled, and we had been rerouted through Oslo and then London, delaying our arrival in Paris by 7 hours. When I tried to call SAS, I was put on hold for 45 mins. So we took it all with a smile and decuded that we would not start our vacation in at sour mood. And we had a great week in Paris. The night before our departure we once again recieved a SMS from SAS telling us ince again that our flight was cancelled This time however we had been rebooked on a flight out of Paris the next afternoon, to Split in Croatia!!!! There we had ti wait at the airport for 5 hours and fly to Copenhagen!!! Where we once again had to book into a hotel and stay the night, then the next day we were on a flight from Copenhagen and back to Trondheim. Once again I yried to contact customer service and after 2 hours (2 bouts of being on hold) the gentleman informed me that he could not help me but I had to contact the SAS servicedesk at the airport. Unfortunately my experience is not the exeption. So for anyone that asks me I never recommend SAS. No matter how deilightful their businessclass is, it does not help when customer service is as it is!!!!
Very poor experience! Sorry to hear that.
I’m glad you enjoyed the flight! 🙂 I’ve flown over 100 flights in SK business over the years (I’m a long-time EB Diamond), and I’m not as impressed. The A350s are definitely a massive improvement over the often lackluster A330s (with seats that break down on a daily basis), but I would still rate both the catering and service well below, for example, Lufthansa. I can’t remember the last time I had a good meal on SK. Since they switched to SkyTeam, long-haul award tickets on partner airlines have become almost impossible to score, and their customer service has… well, decreased in quality. I miss the good old days and wish there were viable alternatives for those of us living in the Nordic countries 🙂