Review of SAS flight Stockholm → Amsterdam in Business

Intro

Hello,

Given that my wife and me usually plan a separate trip every year, I decided to go ahead to my usual destination down in Southeast Asia, while my wife fancied a trip to the Mediterranean for herself. As competition becomes fiercer by the year down to Thailand from Europe, it opens a lot of possibilities and cheap prices.

Given that there are plentiful of direct flights to Bangkok from Amsterdam both flown by KLM & EVA Air, you also have plentiful of one stop connections with many airliners and given that Air India, which I was skeptical to book at first, offered a very cheap one-way fare to Bangkok with an excellent stopover time in New Delhi, I couldn't ignore this ticket. The return was with THAI via Stockholm to Amsterdam and resulted in a total fare of 950 EUR in both directions with luggage (without domestic flights). KLM was charging 1000 EUR without cabin luggage and EVA Air unfortunately did not fly on the days I needed them to.

Last flight

Given that Stockholm Arlanda isn't an overly large airport and does not witness tons of connecting passengers, border control with no automatic systems wasn't that slow and security was deserted with me being the first out of a total of ten people that were actually connecting through. This was quite a breeze, however it surprised me when they asked me to take out my powerbank, which has never happened so far in Europe.

A view of the apron with an Ethiopian Boeing 787-8 being pushed back for it's departure to Addis Abeba.

The funny part is that I was asked about a month ago whether I wanted to bid for an upgrade. I simply gave them the lowest possible amount to bid for an upgrade (which came around 50 EUR) and basically forgot that I even bothered to do it until I received a new mail about the day prior to the flight with the fact that my upgrade was accepted….. Well, didn't need it, however it gave me a chance to kill my time for four hours in the SAS lounge.

The SAS Business Lounge isn't doing any wonder and is quite simplistic with furniture straight out of an IKEA store. The lounge was smaller than I expected and seating became limited if I decided to arrive an hour later.

Food on offer was also limited, though alcohol was available if someone fancied some at 8 am. I decided to grab my usual coffee for a wake up call.

The bread section with some jams, scrambled eggs and bacon.

The other counter consisted of some cereal, spread for your bread, boiled eggs and fruit, which basically covered all the food on offer.

An impression of the other side as I moved seats. I found that some of the lights over some of the seats were making certain seats being uncomfortable warm, however my biggest complain with this lounge is that seating isn't particularly private and can become somewhat odd when someone is sitting in front of you.

After spending my four hours doing some work and hitting myself up with tons of coffees, it was now time to head to the gate in terminal 5. Despite the construction work, I found Stockholm Arlanda to be very airy, spacious and nicely designed.

Our plane is playing hide-and-seek behind the Norwegian & Pegasus.

As our aircraft was departing from Stand F39, I slowly made my way to our gate. There isn't much activity at our pier other than a small eatery and some vending machines.

However the gate offers plenty of seating and I can say that those seats were actually quite comfy and clean. 

The Airbus A320neo of Pegasus Airlines parked next to our aircraft.

And here is our bird that is going to bring us over to Amsterdam. EI-SIV is a 1.2 year old Airbus A320neo newly delivered to SAS Connect in March 2023 and is named after the Norse God of Thunder ''Thor Viking''. SAS' Airbus A320neo can carry up to 174 passengers in a combined mix of Euro J & Y and is powered by two CFMI LEAP-1A26 Engines.

Boarding was called right on time and went quite smoothly with the first 15 rows being boarded via jetbridge and those in the aft rows were directed via stairs to the aft of the aircraft. Upon embarking the aircraft, we were kindly greeted by two flight attendants who were very attentive and friendly, but were UK based given the fact that some Scandinavian travellers were confused that none of them spoke any Scandinavian language.

The seat itself is your standard economy seat, did offer plenty of legroom with me being 1.83m (6'') tall and had a USB charging plug in the left top of the seat. However unlike most major airlines in Europe offering some sort of EURO J service, SAS does not block the middle seat when the cabin is full like today's flight making the service worser than it should be.

The view from my seat however was something to be pleased about.

Pushback was about one minute ahead of our schedule departure with a very short ride to Runway 08 for a quick departure to Amsterdam.

As we were quickly climbing to our cruise altitude, I took a quick shot of the literature you can find in your seat pocket. Not much as it consisted only of a sickbag, safety card and a small buy on board menu.

Upon reaching cruise altitude, we were handed out a small carton box with a roast beef salad. 

The meal they served wasn't impressive nor did it taste great and I just wished that they started to implement some Scandinavian identity in the way they serve their meal. 

While many of us are complaining about the way KLM is serving their business class meal in J class on regional routes (me included), I think SAS is probably doing a worser job on it, however I must admit that the flight attendant of South Korean origin was doing her utmost best to give us a great experience by being very attentive, smiling and kept asking whether we wanted something more (after the food service for the entire aircraft).

Despite my positive words about the flight attendants, another big complaint from me is that they provided us with a meal service but were not offered any drink until they finished their buy on board service for economy. At least provide us with a drink before your heading to the aft to start your buy on board.

It took about 25 to 30 minutes for me to receive my first drink after receiving my meal. At least they did clear my table when they gave me my drink.

Another fifteen minutes later, I asked for an additional coffee and the other flight attendant came around serving us chocolates from Lund.

Enjoying the view.

The captain announced himself about 15 minutes to landing that we were already descending into Amsterdam, gave us a weather update and thanked us for flying with SAS.

As we were coming from a northeasterly direction and with favourable winds, our flight was lining up for Runway 22. This runway is not that common to have in Amsterdam and is primarily used by the private jets, however it drastically reduced the taxi time comparing it to Runway 18R, which was the other runway in use.

Touchdown on 22 about ten minutes ahead of schedule!

with a very short ride to our gate B23.

Disembarkation followed soon after and made my baggage claim, which was pretty crowded as many holiday travellers were returning back home. Our baggage belt was absolutely crowded as it was serving about four to five flights and it took about 20 minutes for our luggage to appear. Not an impressive stat to be fair.

That concludes my holiday trip in May 2024! Thanks for stopping by!