The service offered by SAS in SAS Plus on this flight was decent without being exciting, but that wasn’t the point of the flight…
So here I am again, on the road or rather in the air, with Vietnam as my final destination. To get there, I found an excellent price on a Turkish Airlines flight from Oslo…so I had to get to the Norwegian capital first.
Here’s the complete routing for this trip.
You’ll find a summary of all the articles about this vacation in Vietnam at the bottom of the page.
Booking
For this flight I didn’t hesitate too much: it will be SAS in SAS Plus (premium economy), since the airline doesn’t offer business class in medium-haul.
The reason is quite simple: I was short to keep my Diamond status on the Scandinavian airline’s loyalty program, and traveling with them allowed me to not just to score points, but to score lots of points since, as a Diamond (also valid for Gold), I have a 25% bonus in award and status points when I fly with SAS.
A purely mercantile choice, but one that paid off. I’ll even take the “organic” option, which finances the purchase of sustainable fuel…and earns points in the process. Just under 400 euros for a 4-segment flight (outbound via Stockholm, return via Copenhagen).
It’s all worth settling for a fairly average product.
Check-In and ground experience
The journey to the airport was a laborious one, as the highway was partially closed for roadworks. I then had to cross St Denis, which was anything but a piece of cake and cost me a good half-hour.
I go to the SAS counter to check-in my luggage. No one in line, so I’m sure it’ll go like clockwork…
No materialized priority lane, but in this context it doesn’t matter.
I stop in front of an agent who looks at me and says “you have to go to a kiosk to print your baggage tags, stick them on and then come back“. Super friendly and super premium and it hadn’t been like that 15 days earlier for my flight to Copenhagen. In any case, they’re not scoring any experience points here.
Anyway, I comply, she checks-in my suitcase and I’m off to my departure satellite.
The course at T1 is as typical as ever…
The security checks will be over in a flash, thanks to the priority lane, and I’m at my gate…
SAS no longer has a lounge at Roissy, so this is where I’ll be waiting.
Boarding
The aircraft doesn’t arrive until the theoretical boarding time, and we end up boarding 10 minutes late, which is a minor inconvenience. Priorities will of course be perfectly respected.
Only to be stuck in the jetway for a few more minutes…
And now we can finally board the plane.
The cabin
The A320Neo features SAS’s usual medium-haul cabin.
3-3 configuration, no separation between SAS Go (economy) and SAS Plus and no blocking of the middle seat in SAS Plus.
The seat is even thinner than Lufthansa’s NEK.
Not uncomfortable at all, but I wouldn’t spend 4 hours in it.
Legroom is very comfortable in row 1, even if there’s no seat in front to stretch out your legs underneath.
The flight and the service
While boarding continues, a Jet Time parks next to us. It’s a Danish airline that SAS uses as a wet lease and that I took a few days ago on my way back from Copenhagen. At least as good as SAS…
In the end, the cabin is not full, and the middle seats will be empty in SAS Plus. Good news.
We won’t make up for our 10-minute delay, so we’ll be leaving…10 minutes late.
Goodbye Roissy…
The service starts quite quickly. With SAS Plus, you get a lunchbox, while with SAS Go you only get buy-on-board.
As with 100% of my flights in SAS Plus, it will be salmon. More specifically salmon with fennel, with potatoes in a creamy dill and mustard vinaigrette. Yung cucumber marinated with blackcurrant leaves and cold-pressed rapeseed oil.
It wasn’t bad at all, with lots of taste even if the potatoes were perhaps a little heavy…
It’s not as good as a good business class service, but for a premium eco it’s very decent.
Here I am to kill time until the arrival.
The Swedish countryside gradually appears and we prepare for the descent.
Descent and arrival
Nothing looks more like a Swedish landscape than another Swedish landscape: lakes and greenery.
After a short drive, we pull up to our parking stand.
It’s time for me to go to the lounge to wait for my flight to Oslo.
The service
Not much to say. Friendly and efficient.
Bottom line
Not an unpleasant flight at all, but above all a very utilitarian one. In the end, I’m left with just one question: do they ever serve anything other than salmon?
Articles about this trip to Vietnam
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