Review of SAS flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen in Economy

SAS

SK - SAS

Flight taken on 08 December 2024
SK554
20:15 01h 20m 21:35
Class Economy
Seat 07A
ThomasDutch
322 · 35 · 0 · 13

Introduction


As I only returned home the friday prior to this flight, I received a notification from operations that they had activated my reserve duty for the following week and that I had to position to Malmo on Sunday. Given that Malmo isn't really connected to the world and Copenhagen Kastrup is actually closer to the city than Malmo itself, I received a ticket with SAS from Amsterdam to Copenhagen followed by a direct train to Malmo's Main Station. The flight itself wasn't particular cheap as the office paid about 300 EUR for a one-way fare to Copenhagen and would be performed by Cityjet on behalf of Scandinavian.


Heading to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol


As my flight was leaving around 8 pm, I decided to grab the train at 5 PM as it takes about an hour to reach the airport by public transport from my home.


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The train station of Amsterdam's airport is located at a pretty good spot right under it's plaza, so one doesn't need to walk a lot to reach the airport like you have with some airport.


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Amsterdam Airport Schiphol


Given that SAS officially made it's swing to Skyteam on the first of September 2024, I kind of expected them to change their departure area to KLM's counter, which is usually the case for those who become part of Skyteam and do fly into Amsterdam, however SAS decided to keep their usual spot in the beginning of terminal 1.


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Row 2-3 are being used for SAS' their flight with a huge preference to self check-in and drop-off. While the drop off is quite easy to use and self explanatory, I'm still quite surprised seeing so many people walking to those counters without any luggage tag attached to their bags like they are expecting someone to tag it for them.


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The system allows you to obtain your booking either through booking number, boarding pass or passport, though passport often does not work here as many airlines do not bother to ask for your passport details when booking for any schengen destination.


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Eventually tagged my own luggage and I made it on my way to one of those drop off counters where one only have to scan their boarding pass, re-check their destination and sent it off. The hardest part of it all is to place the luggage in the designated luggage zone (just mind you that the tag is visible for the scanner and is within the area that's being sealed off. If your luggage tag sticks out of the machine, the machine will tell you to replace your luggage correctly.


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Security was quite busy, though I could bypass most of them due to my access to Schiphol's fast track, so it took about five minutes for me to clear and eventually found my way to the Privium's Express Lounge, which is hidden away behind a kiosk in the d-pier.


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The lounge itself is never too crowded as it does have a lot of restrictions for outsiders to enter and is definitely a pleasure to stay. It isn't overly large, but it gives a good vibe with passengers that tend to behave as most of them are business travellers anyway.


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The food selection is limited as to what's served on the kitchen island.


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A limited selection of alcoholic beverages and soft drinks are available. In terms of alcoholic beverages, we are talking about wine, prosecco, beer & maybe 3 to 4 different hard liquors.


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A few snacks at the end of the kitchen island giving you options to pick between some nuts, sweet pastry, cheese and black grapes. Tortilla crisps are also available with three different dipping sauces (hummus, guacamole & Mexican salsa).


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A tiny salad bar with the dipping sauces for the tortilla crisps on the right.


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And on the left, where the chap is busy, you can often find some sandwiches, wraps and some soup with croutons, though I didn't really realize that the photo was that blurry. Coffee, Tea & Sparkling Water were available in the aft.


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Time to find our gate


Given that SAS usually departs from the B-Pier (which tend to be the gate where Vueling & Star Alliance usually departs from for shengen destinations), it meant that I had to leave the lounge a bit earlier than I would've liked to as it is probably the most distant pier from the lounge.

Currently a lot of construction is going on at Amsterdam to update and modernize the terminal.


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A new section that recently opened is a minimalistic seating area as seen below.


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On my stroll to my flight's gate, I found this beautiful Airbus A220 of ITA Airways currently boarding for it's flight to Milan Linate.


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Eventually I found my way to our gate where our aircraft had already arrived and was currently disembarking the passengers from it's previous flight. 

EI-FPR, a 7.3 year old CRJ-900, will do the job of bringing us over to Copenhagen Kastrup. This specific bird was newly delivered to CityJet in September 2017 and immediately being used by them to fly on behalf of Scandinavian. This bird has been named ''Ragni Viking''.


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The seating area near the gate was sufficient for this bird though.


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Let's enjoy our flight.


Boarding was called a few minutes ahead of our scheduled boarding time and went quite swiftly with a short walk from the jetbridge to our plane for today.


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Upon embarking the aircraft, I took a quick snap of the fuselage including proof of the ownership. The CRJ is probably one of the worst regional jets on the market, yet the aircraft has a very nice look to it.

One of the two flight attendants on board was kindly greeting us before heading to my designated seat.


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The legroom isn't particularly generous on a CRJ, though it is sufficient for the hour long flight to Copenhagen.


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The cabin when boarding was completed with a loud remark of the flight attendant who was surprised that all luggage fitted in the cabin with the current load on today's flight. I'd say the load was about 95%.

Captain checked in with us thanking us for the speedy boarding process and told us that we would be pushing back shortly. Pushback was eventually engaged about eight minutes ahead of our scheduled departure.


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With a quick taxi to Runway 36L, we were soon rolling for our departure to Copenhagen.


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Once at safe altitude, the flight attendants jumped into action to serve the complimentary juice, coffee & tea or some Buy-on-Board if you fancied. I took this opportunity to check whether the table was clean. It passed the check.


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The literature in the seat pocket contained of a buy-on-board menu, sickbag & a safety card. The buy on board is somewhat minimal and isn't the cheapest, though they do have some decent options.





When they passed by, I asked for an IPA. This IPA is specially made for SAS by Belgian brewery Mikkelier. It wasn't the best IPA to be fair, but neither was it the worst.

Operations also booked me a light meal as a sorry for calling me up so suddenly (which was not really necessary as I didn't really fancy it), I kindly asked the flight attendant about it. She told me that they didn't receive any information from the company about light meals and told me that they ran out of that product. She kindly asked whether I would like something else in order to replace it, which I kindly rejected and that I would ask a refund for that. The refund to this date hasn't been paid out yet nor do I think they ever will, but am not going to bother about it for 7 euro. I just find it sloppy that the airline provides you with the option, though doesn't deliver on their promises.


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About 90 minutes later or so (with a flight time that actually took longer than planned), we touched down about four minutes past our scheduled arrival time at Runway 04L


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After a taxi ride of approximately 10 minutes or so, we were finally on our stand and disembarkation followed soon after. Below you can find the seat I was on on my flight to Copenhagen. While legroom wasn't impressive nor generous, the padding of those seats was quite comfy.


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Goodbye to EI-FPR.


Saying goodbye to our aircraft. While I'm not a massive fan of this bird as passenger, the aircraft looks quite neat, but now it's about time for our bus to head to the terminal.2


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After being dropped off by the bus in the terminal and a short walk of approximately five minutes, it took about another 15 minutes for our luggage to appear on belt. 


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Once collected, I made it my way to Copenhagen Airport's train station to catch the first possible train to Malmo Central Station, which takes about 20 minutes or so. 

Display all

Product ratings

Airline

SAS 6.4

  • Cabin6.5 / 10
  • Cabin crew8.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi6.0 / 10
  • Meal/catering5.0 / 10
Lounge

Independent Privium Club Lounge7.6

  • Comfort8.0 / 10
  • Meal/catering7.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi8.5 / 10
  • Services7.0 / 10
Departure airport

Amsterdam - AMS6.3

  • Efficiency7.0 / 10
  • Access7.5 / 10
  • Services7.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness3.5 / 10
Arrival Airport

Copenhagen - CPH6.5

  • Efficiency7.0 / 10
  • Access6.0 / 10
  • Services7.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness6.0 / 10

Conclusion

While SAS isn't an award-winning airline, it is quite decent to be fair. The cabin and seats were ok and well-maintained, however they were quite sloppy with the catering as my ticket clearly stated that I did have a snack included, yet nothing was loaded nor did I get the refund as one the flight attendants told me I would. It was only 7 euros tho, but still...., if you offer a service with a deadline of 24 hours prior to your flight (which was bought at least 48 hours prior to the flight) and you can't deliver, just don't offer the service.

Amsterdam itself was quite efficient, though the level of cleanliness is dropping every time I'm returning. Copenhagen itself was decent and efficient.

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