Trip Report: SAS Airlines, Copenhagen to London Heathrow (September 2018)

Trip Report: SAS Airlines, Copenhagen to London (LHR) 
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In looking for flights between Copenhagen and London, there are many options available including both mainline and low-cost carriers.  The various airlines also serve the various airports in London, so which airline you choose largely depends on price, your airline preference, time of day, and which London airport you would like to arrive at.  My only criteria for my flight was that I wanted to leave Copenhagen in the evening, everything else I was flexible with.  

As I said there were a number of options available including easyjet, Norwegian, Flybe, British Airways, Ryanair, Eurowings, and SAS.  In looking at base prices, initially the low-cost carriers were the lowest in price; however, once I added on extras such as a checked baggage, the price went up dramatically.  When I looked at mainline carriers - SAS and British Airways - both had a variety of options available.  They had 'light fares' which were comparable to low-cost carriers to 'packaged fares' which included other amenities in the fare.  When I compared the package fare of SAS (which included a 23-kg checked baggage) with that of the low-cost carriers, it was only a price difference of 10euro.  To me, that is not that much of a price difference especially given that with the mainline carrier I would land at Heathrow (which is more central), the timings of the flight was better, and I would have the option for miles accrual.  Based on all these factors, I choose to fly with SAS.  

My flight on SAS was scheduled to depart Copenhagen at 8:35p and land at Heathrow at 9:35p.  The flight was scheduled to be operated by an Airbus A320 and a scheduled flight time of 2hours.  Through the app I was able to manage my reservation and create flight notifications.  24-hours prior to departure I was also able to check-in and preselect my seat for the flight (at no additional charge).  I went to the airport very early (as another airline had lost my luggage and had found it two days later) and while I was at the airport I wanted to check my bag in.  It was about 5hours prior to the flight so I inquired with SAS who informed me that they accept checked baggage up to 24-hours prior to departure!  As with most European airlines, there were self-service kiosks where I printed out the baggage tag, tagged my own bag, loaded it up on to the scale, and it was scanned and sent to holding.  

Even though I already had my boarding pass and my luggage was already checked through, I still arrived at the airport about 2hours prior to the flight time.  Boarding was scheduled to begin at 8:05pm, but I also knew I had to go through security and immigration so that could take a while; and it did.  The security lines at Copenhagen airport were ridiculously long, and it took a while to get through the entire process.  Once that was completed, those who were going to non-Schengen countries or who were going somewhere else internationally also had to complete immigration protocols - this also took some time but was quicker than the security line.  I finally reached the boarding gate for it only to be closed.  Apparently the boarding gate was closed until the boarding time listed on the ticket, so most of the passengers were crowded in the hallway waiting for the boarding gate to open (seems like an inefficient system).  The boarding gate finally opened, our boarding passes were scanned, and passengers proceeded to sit and wait at the boarding gate.  While waiting at the boarding gate, the inbound aircraft came in late and the ground crew did not seem in a rush to quickly turn the plane around; it looked like it was going to be a late departure.

Boarding finally started but there was no system to the boarding.  Business class and priority members were called first, and then it was a free-for-all so passengers could board at their leisure.  The operating aircraft was an Airbus A320 in a 3-3 seat configuration.  The seats were slimline seats but were comfortable enough for the short flight.  The seat width and seat pitch were also pretty good - better than some airlines but not as good as others; it was good for the intra-European flight.  The seatback did not contain a personal screen, but rather had a slot for the airline magazine and safety cards.  Next to the slot was a USB port, which was a welcome addition (the USB was only activated after reaching 10,000ft).  Below the slot was a tray table and below that was a pocket for personal use.  To add to the chaos of boarding, carry-ons were not limited based on their number nor weight so many passengers had multiple carry-ons in various sizes and weights; this delayed the boarding even further.  Once the passengers were boarded and seated, the pilot came on and basically said he was in no rush - he said that the inbound flight was delayed and the turnaround time 'was ridiculous for a human to accomplish' so they were going to take their time and do things properly.  This meant a delayed pushback and delayed take-off.

Once the boarding doors closed, manual safety demonstrations took place.  The plane was operated by SAS Ireland and most of the crew had English (British) accents.  Once we reached cross 10,000ft the inflight service commenced.  SAS' inflight service depends on the class and type of ticket you purchased; regular economy passengers receive complimentary tea, coffee, and water but have to pay for everything else.  If you have paid for a higher service, then complimentary meals plus a drink is included in your fare.  Flight time was scheduled at 1h30min and the flight was entirely full so it took the cabin crew almost the entire flight time to serve all passengers.  Once the inflight service had finished, passengers were left to pass the time as they pleased.  The time to start the decent into Heathrow approached, and the cabin was prepared for landing.  We landed and then took a long taxi to the gate at Heathrow.

Overall, it was a very interesting experience at SAS.  The USB ports and the seat comfort plus seat pitch were good, but the chaotic boarding and not trying to rush and maintain on-time departure was a little disturbing.  Also, there was no wifi so no personal entertainment was available on the flight (even though SAS had been advertising this all throughout Copenhagen airport and the city).  I was interested in trying SAS short-haul first before testing if I could stand their long-haul service, and based on this experience I would try their long-haul service but they would not be my first choice.