Review of SAS flight from Copenhagen to Stockholm in Economy

thanksgiving scandinavia trip

My family just about never celebrates Thanksgiving, so this year I decide to take a trip out of the country and visit a friend in Copenhagen. I ended up adding a few days in Stockholm as well an overnight layover in Lisbon on the way back.

I purchased this leg with cash as fares were reasonable. Norwegian was about 20 euros cheaper, but once you consider the fact that their strict carryon limitations, it quickly becomes the more expensive option. As a Star Alliance Gold member, I was entitled to free seat selection, lounge access, and two free checked bags. Once that's all factored in, it made sense just to book with SAS.

SAS gold lounge

I arrived decently early for my flight to Stockholm because I wanted some decent WiFi to work with. I checked in at the SAS premium check-in counters, which are available to Star Alliance Gold members. Oddly enough, when printing my boarding pass, I was not given fast track, which I thought you were supposed to get as Star Gold. Despite that, security was fairly fast and in Copenhagen they did not make you take off your shoes. The only hiccup would be it takes a bit longer to get to the SAS Lounge. I was under the impression that Star Gold members got to use a dedicated security entrance. Oh well.
   
The lounge was easy enough to find. I enjoyed the massive display board detailing various statistics. I also love the large model A340 they had above the service desk. It would be nicer if it was more prominent. Then again, I did find it curious that they used the A340 here given how environmentally-conscious the Nordic countries are. Perhaps they should highlight their new A350 instead?

The lower level is the business class lounge and the upper level is the SAS Gold Lounge (for Star Gold and SAS's own elites).

There were a few separate rooms on the ground level, including a kids room, but the majority of the seating for the Gold Lounge was upstairs. There were also lounge-style seating in addition to the various tables pictured below, but I did not take pictures of them for whatever reason. My apologies for that.

Towards the back of the lounge there was a small meeting room. 

Facing the rest of the terminal was a large business area. Further in there were a few individual desk areas for phone calls and video conferencing.

There were also a few product displays set up throughout the lounge.

My AirBnb had a rather poor shower situation so I was dying for a good, hot shower. Even though the amenities were very basic (i.e. nothing except the shampoo and body wash), the SAS Lounge shower did the trick. Do note that the shower can be found at the service desk to the left, past the entrance of the business class section of the lounge. The showers are also on the lower level.

There was a nice option to add your own music to listen to while you showered, but I couldn't get my phone to connect.

The breakfast spread largely lacked hot options, but I think this is the standard in the Nordic countries? At least it was the case for the lounges. I apologize for missing a picture of the cold cuts.

There were various wines, beer, soft drinks, and juices available.

The highlight of the lounge was very prominent coffee bar. Lavazza beans were used for a variety of coffees made to order.

I ordered a cappuccino. It was pretty good, but not being a coffee drinker, I don't really know how to judge it.

Aside from the coffee bar, the most interesting part of the lounge was the daylight booster zone in the back of the business area. I'll let you read the description in the picture below. Seeing as this was my fourth day without any sunlight, this room was much appreciated.

There is a motion sensor that lights up the screen when you enter the area. I ended up working on my laptop here for the remainder of my stay.

kl1127

I made my way to the gate a few minutes before scheduled boarding. There was a little kids playing area right in front.

The plane was not yet at the gate and arrived 6 minutes before scheduled boarding.
  
Here is the plane: 

Despite arriving somewhat late, the deplaning was rather efficient because SAS deplaned from both ends of the plane. This was nice as boarding began at 11:28 despite such a late arriving plane - only 8 minutes behind schedule.

However, when we boarded, everyone boarded from the front.

There were no dividers between the "cabins" here. In fact, I'm not even sure SAS sells a intra-European J. All there was was a little placard sticking up from the back of a seat in row 10 indicating this was the end of the SAS Plus section of the plane.

I was seated in 12A, which I did not even realize was an exit row seat. Normally airlines charge a premium to select these seats, but I was thankful that SAS offered Star Gold the option to select it for free. The legroom was plenty comfortable.

Fairly standard seat here. I very much appreciate the USB charging port. The overhead controls also had individual air nozzles.

I was lucky enough to have an empty middle seat. It was just like I was in business class! In fact, aside from the bulkhead, I had more legroom than the usual intra-European business class.

Boarding was completed at 11:35, a mere 7 minutes after it began. Though far from a full plane (it was probably more than half empty), that is quite efficient! The captain welcomed us on board a few minutes later and told us to expect a 55-minute flight.

We pushed back at 11:53.
  
Here is an airline I had never encountered before: Atlantic Airways. They are the national airline of the Faroe Islands. This is the latest bird in their fleet: Ingálvur, a five-month old A320neo. Their entire fleet consists of an A319, an A320, an A320neo, and two helicopters. According to Wikipedia, they have 3 more A320neos on order.

We took off at 12:03pm. Here is the first glimpse of sunlight I've seen since arriving in Scandinavia.

Service began about 12 minutes into the flight. You had your choice of coffee or tea, I opted for the tea.

It was a very uneventful flight. We began our descent at 12:40 and touched down 15 minutes later. We were at the gate by 1pm.

I made the mistake of checking my bags this time (I had not consumed the gin from the KLM Delft House yet). It took nearly 20 minutes for them to arrive at the baggage claim.