Review of SAS flight Copenhagen → London in Economy

Trip Recap!

Transiting in Copenhagen

I had just exited my SAS Plus flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen, I then had a good 100 minutes to transfer flights.

Whilst it was nice to be back in Copenhagen, I wasn't here on holiday or a proper trip like my 2016 visits, I had to change flights and start off by finding my Gate for the London Heathrow flight and to get through passport control to clear the Schengen Area.

I quickly found which gate I needed, following a quick stroll across Copenhagen Airport I found the passport control, and after a quick wait of a few minutes I was seen to by a Danish security officer who stamped me out of the Schengen Zone so I could get home to the UK.

I grabbed a last minute shop in Duty Free so I could get some Danish sweets to take to my work colleagues. I had pre-ordered an onboard meal for this upcoming flight, so I wasn't worried about eating anything at Copenhagen Airport.

The flight for that evening was due to leave from Gate D-101, I was flying with the SAS Go ticket and only holding the basic level Star Alliance tier with Lufthansa Miles & More, so I wasn't in a rush to board as I was allocated into Group 4 out of 5 Boarding Groups.

SAS GO in Action (CPH-LHR)

This evening I would be flying on a SAS Connect (formerly SAS Ireland) Airbus A320neo registered as EI-SIA in November 2017, making it the first aircraft to enter the Irish spin-off of Scandinavian Airlines. This plane has flown for the airline its entire existence apart from a brief period from September 2020 to October 2021 where it flew for the parent company Scandinavian Airlines with a Swedish registration SE-DYC. The aircraft still wares the 2000's era SAS livery featuring the orange engines. The aircraft is named "Ulv Viking".

During boarding, I followed the jet bridge to come across a sign and an open door leading to the apron instructing passengers to go to the rear of the plane on the tarmac if you were in Rows 17 and behind, so I followed the signage not expecting anything of it, I got outside, the plane was all roped up and set up, there was a good six people already at the plane and the rear door was closed!

The flight attendant quickly opened the door and let us in, she was clearly confused as they had prepared for everyone to come via the front door so we didn't go outside in the rain, but the ground crew seemed to have prepared the flight for boarding at both ends, regardless!

I also noticed there wasn't any ground crew out observing passengers going to the rear door, despite leaving the door open with displayed signage, which could have caused a major security and safety issue if one of us walked over to another plane or didn't go to the SAS A320neo we should have been going to.

I made my way up the SAS A320neo to find my seat for the next flight, that being Seat 22A. The seats in the A320neo cabin are a dark grey colour with a paper rack for a safety card, inflight menu and sickness bags. On the upper right side of seat back is a USB charging port.

We pushed back on time, the crew performed the safety demo before dimming the cabin with the purple mood lighting. It was still raining porously at Copenhagen Airport.

We departed Copenhagen quite promptly after we pushed back, it was a quick taxi to the runway and I don't think there was anyone ahead of us as I don't recall us holding at the Runway turn on.

My phone managed this rather grainy shot as we buzzed out of a dark and wet Copenhagen Airport.

As we settled into the flight after departure, I plugged my phone into the USB port to charge up, about 20 minutes into the flight I received my pre-order in the form of a Margarita Pizza hot snack alongside a cognac, the cognac should have set me back 8EUR (£6.50p), but as the crew on this flight were the same as my HEL-CPH flight, they knew I wasn't able to get a cognac on the previous flight in SAS Plus, so they kindly arrange to give me one complimentary on this flight- Thank you guys! 

SAS does offer Wi-Fi packages on their Airbus A320neo fleet (not sure about the smaller A320ceo fleet) so I thought I'd share the sheet offering details on the SAS Wi-Fi for those who would find this interesting!

During the flight I opted to visit the loo, so I took the time to grab a quick picture of the SAS A320neo galley as well as a cabin shot. One of the crew came to the rear galley just before I left so I enquired for a quick cup of tea as well as buying a Karl Frazer chocolate bar (costing 2EUR). Karl Frazer chocolate is a weak spot for me, and I'm glad to see SAS offer it as well as Finnair, Norwegian- please take note!

Unfortunately the good times must come to an end and we began our arrival into London Heathrow eventually. 

Our flight path from Copenhagen to London took us across the South of Denmark, passing across Germany North of both Bremen and Hamburg before entering the airspace of the Netherlands, heading South-West but North of both Amsterdam and Rotterdam, we then passed over the North Sea and entered UK Airspace just North of Southend-on-Sea. Our approach path took us in between Basildon & Chelmsford entering London Airspace from the North-East before coming onto the final run into London Heathrow making an "S" shape in the sky as we came toward Central London from the North of the city.

I'm not a huge fan of night time flights, but I do love coming into London Heathrow at night if we pass over the city centre, it is amazing to see London all lit up- given its one of the four Big Cities in the World that "Never Sleep".

As an airline that is part of the Star Alliance (for now at least) SAS Scandinavian Airlines operates from Terminal 2. We luckily arrived onto Runway 27L, the Runway that offers great arrival views at Myrtle Avenue, so it was a short taxi once we vacated the Runway over to the main facility for Terminal 2, we passed Terminal 3 which offers a huge variety of airlines that operate from LHR, although it was somewhat quiet at this time of the evening as most the long-haul flights had left for the Americas and Asia.

I held back to be one of the last people off the aircraft as I didn't want to get into the scrum of people hurrying to get off the plane. I don't like to rush too much. It also allowed me to get a few final cabin shots of the aircraft as the plane was emptier than when I boarded.

We had parked on Terminal 2B, the satellite terminal for T2 which usually takes long-haul flights. Unlike the more spread out Terminal 5A-5B-5C layout, the Terminal 2/Terminal 2B area is more condensed and allows you to make the walk from plane to immigration in about 10-15 minutes depending on how you make the journey.

It took me a little longer as I fancied grabbing a few photos of the walk to arrivals as I haven't done many trips out of Terminal 2 (I'm mainly seen at T5) but I did clear passport control flawlessly and in a few minutes of arriving using the Biometric Gates… All though I do have very negative opinions on the audacity of London Heathrow's Car Parking charges… £7.50p for up to 30 minutes- That's more than my hourly pay at my first job in 2015!