My family recently flew SAS Airlines A330 business class to Europe. While this isn’t an exciting business class product, it was a perfectly comfortable way to get to Europe and get a few hours of sleep on the way. Given the 50% discount for child tickets, I imagine that we will continue to prioritize finding seats on SAS while I spend down our haul from Million Mile Madness.
SAS A330 Business Class Bottom Line Review
SAS offers flat-bed business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, which means that every passenger has direct aisle access and a flat bed for sleeping. Flight attendants were warm and friendly, and seemed eager to provide good service. No part of the experience was cutting edge or exciting, but it was as satisfying as flying most other airlines to Europe in business class.
Catering was surprisingly good, the bathroom was one of the most spacious I’ve seen in a business class cabin, and the amenity kit came in a handy laundry bag. My wife and I both found the seat a little uncomfortable (a little extra padding for the bed mode, as some other airlines offer in business class, would probably help), but it was passable for a night.
The most exciting thing, in my opinion, is the price. At 50,000 miles and about $25 one way per adult in business class, it’s a solid deal for travel from the US to Europe. Even better: kids ages 2-11 get a 50% mileage discount, paying just 25,000 miles and the same ~$25 in taxes & fees one way from the US to Europe. That’s a terrific deal for the kids. As a family of four, we could fly for just 150,000 miles each way in business class, which is terrific. In this case, we had an additional family member along for the ride, so we paid a total of 200,000 miles. At that price point, SAS becomes very attractive. Keep in mind that SAS partners with Mesa, so those with the Mesa Homeowners Card have access to SAS (and some readers participated in the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion).
The transfer in Copenhagen was easy: security and passport control were both efficient. Our connection was originally scheduled for one hour, but between an early arrival and airport efficiency, we ended up with plenty of time to check out the SAS lounge and get breakfast before the connection.
The difficulty is in finding availability. In our case, I stumbled on the availability just a few days before departure on a separate award that we had booked to get to Europe (I was using Award Tool and stumbled on it). It isn’t common to find seats far in advance with SAS, though I check Seats.aero and have occasionally seen select routes offering 2-4 seats a few months in advance. You almost need to be in a situation where you have the ability to book at the last minute, whether because you have a lot of flexibility to travel when availability appears or because you have some other option booked that can be cancelled at the last minute if SAS space opens up.
Another key issue to note is that seat selection is not free until ~30 hours before departure. When I went to book our tickets, I found that selecting business class seats at the time of booking would cost about $100 per passenger. Ouch! I am not used to seeing that on business class award tickets.
A final negative, in my opinion, is the flight timing. We departed Newark at 5:30pm. That’s rough timing for a ~7hr flight, as I would ordinarily only go to bed about 7 hours later — when we were arriving in Copenhagen. That early arrival time is likely to make short connections possible on their morning departures within Europe, but it isn’t a great time to depart if you’re hoping to get sleep and “hit the ground running” on arrival. Most of the SAS flights from the East Coast seem to depart in the early evening. I’d generally rather be departing the East Coast for Europe after 9pm Eastern for an overnight flight (or I’d be happy with one of the morning departures that Greg and Tim have recently praised).
However, I am glad to report that seat selection became free about 30 hours prior to departure. I’ve read that SAS opens check-in at the 30-hour mark, but for our flight departing the US, check-in did not begin until 24 hours prior to departure. That said, I was obsessively checking my booking, and around 30 hours prior to departure, I noticed that I could select seats for free on the first leg. I was unable to select seats on the connecting leg from Copenhagen to Dusseldorf until 30 hours before the departure of the connection. Because they do charge for seat selection in advance, most of the business class cabin was still available when seat selection came online.
Overall, we’d gladly fly SAS again. It isn’t the most comfortable seat in the sky, but you get a flat-bed seat, good food, warm service, and an easy airport transfer in Copenhagen for a solidly good price when you find saver-level availability.
SAS Business Class: The short-story bullet points
- How we found it: I found the availability using award search tool Award Tool just a few days prior to departure. Availability came in and out; I missed it the first couple of times it became bookable, then snagged it the third time I saw it.
- How we booked it: I used 50,000 SAS miles + $24.60 per adult passenger. SAS offers a 50% discount on the mileage price for children ages 2-11, so each child cost 25,000 miles + $24.60. In total, I paid 200,000 miles + ~$123 for 5 passengers (3 adults + 2 children).
- Cash Price: More than $8,000 per ticket for the same flights, though keep in mind that this was a one-way booking within a few days of departure.
- Route: EWR-CPH-DUS (Newark to Copenhagen to Düsseldorf, Germany)
- Ground Service:
- Check-in: The check-in experience was smooth and easy. We cut things much closer than usual for this flight and arrived not long before the bag drop cutoff, but there was no line at the business class check-in point.
- Departure Lounges: Because of how close we cut things on arrival, we only had about 7 minutes in the lounge at Newark. It was very small and had limited options, but we had some pasta, meatballs, and salad before boarding, with the goal being to go to sleep rather than eat dinner on the plane (though I still ordered dinner mostly so I could report on it).
- Business Class Seat:
- Comfort: Not the most comfortable. It lies fully flat, but my wife and I both felt like there wasn’t enough padding (a mattress topper would have really helped!). Some folks might find the footwell a bit narrow, though I had no difficulty sleeping on my side, and my kids slept perfectly well. We did find the cabin a bit warm — I was glad to have a T-shirt under my button-down shirt so I could de-layer. When awake, I found the seat to be a solid fine, with a decently large tray table.
- Storage Space: There weren’t many storage spaces, but my side table was plenty big enough to accommodate my laptop. I put my passport wallet on the shelf on top of the amenity kit and my glasses under that shelf when I went to sleep — it felt like there was enough room to meet my needs, but no particularly notable storage spaces.
- In-flight Entertainment (IFE): I didn’t watch the in-flight entertainment myself, and I rarely do. I usually download a movie or two before my trip and I rarely ever watch it as I am usually either focused on getting work done or getting sleep while in-flight.
- Food and Beverage: Better than expected! The smoked salmon appetizer had a really satisfying smoky flavor, and the vegetarian dish was so flavorful as to almost make me forget that I didn’t expect to like it.
- Service: I find that good service can come in two different forms: the good service that is formal and rehearsed, and good service that feels warm and genuine. Both can be enjoyable, but this was certainly the latter. Flight attendants were almost always smiling and proactively offered assistance.
- Cabin Ambiance/Temperature Control: My wife and I both found the cabin temperature too warm for our liking, though that is partially because I am used to the fact that my wife prefers to sleep with the room temperature set to “polar vortex”. Still, everyone in our group seemed to feel a bit warmer than they’d like. My wife also reported the cabin air being very dry, though I don’t tend to notice that kind of thing.
- Internet: Fast and free for business class passengers. I found this to work very well while I was using it (for about the first hour after take-off and the last hour).
- Amenity Kit: A laundry bag with all of the usual stuff.
- Would I choose to fly it again? Yes, I would. The seat wasn’t my favorite, but it was as good as most across the Atlantic, and the price is very competitive. Good food and service combined with the solid pricing and easy-to-transit Copenhagen airport would have me choose this over other so-so business class seats.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Great award price (50K per adult / 25K per child in business class, plus ~$25 in taxes per passenger from EWR-CPH-DUS)
- Genuinely friendly service in-flight
- A standardly decent business class seat (though not the most comfortable)
- Good catering in-flight
- Transiting Copenhagen was quick and efficient
Cons
- The seat felt like it lacked sufficient padding in bed mode.
- Narrow footwell (this didn’t actually bother me, but I know it would bother some)
- Saver-level award availability is hard to find apart from close to departure
- Seat selection costs ~$100 per seat until around 30 hours prior to departure, when it becomes free. I find that ridiculous in business class: selecting your business class seat ought to be free.
- 5:30pm departure time for a ~7hr flight to Europe makes for bad timing in my opinion. We managed to get the kids to sleep shortly after 6:30pm, but most folks are probably unlikely to feel very rested when arriving at what fees like ~12:30am. On the flip side, the timing allows for early arrival in many connecting cities.
Image Gallery
SAS A330 Business Class Middle Seat
SAS A330 Business Class Window Seat
SAS Business Class Food and Beverage
SAS Business Class Amenity Kit
SAS Wifi Pricing (free in business class)
SAS Business Class lounge at Copenhagen
The lounge in Copenhagen was spacious, and food options were plentiful and fresh/tasty. While there was sufficient seating, the lounge was quite busy before our flight, making it difficult to get pictures without other passengers, hence the relatively limited selection here. Suffice it to say that the lounge will meet your needs even if it won’t blow you away.
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Thanks Nick. Great review and pricing. Who was the RTN with?