FeuilladeTravel: Airline review: SAS A320neo business class, Stockholm to London Heathrow

Getting the party started - my review of SAS A320neo business class, Stockholm (ARN) to London (LHR)
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01. Trip report introduction
02. SAS A320 business class, Stockholm to London
03. SilverKris Lounge, Heathrow
04. Thai Airways A380 Royal First class, London to Bangkok
05. Thai Airways Royal First Lounge, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi
06. Thai Airways A330 Royal Silk (business class), Bangkok to Taipei
07. Pacific Business Hotel, Taipei
08. Photo Essay: Taipei
09. The Infinity Lounge by EVA Air, Taoyuan Airport
10. EVA Air B777-300ER Royal Laurel (business class), Taipei to Amsterdam (via Bangkok), part 1
11. EVA Air B777-300ER Royal Laurel (business class), Taipei to Amsterdam (via Bangkok), part 2
12. Steigenberger Airport Hotel, Amsterdam
13. SAS A320 business class, Amsterdam to Stockholm
14. Trip summary
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Stockholm (ARN) to London (LHR)

Date: 2018-10-04
Flight number: SK525
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo
Registration: EI-SIC
Age of aircraft: 9 months
Duration of flight: 2:42 (gate to gate)
Seat: 2F (business class)

Seat map with my seat (2F) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com

During the end of the summer, SAS had quite a lot of problems with their "SAS Ireland" flights, including this SK525 between ARN and LHR. In fact, they occasionally leased aircraft from both Danish Air Transport (DAT) and JetTime. The DAT flights where flown with an old MD-82, and I have to admit that it would have been an awesome start to this trip flying on a Mad Dog. Most people would probably call me crazy for preferring an MD-82 to an Airbus 320neo, but I have never flown on an MD, and they are becoming more and more rare by the minute.

I kept checking this flight almost on a daily basis, and it was delayed more often than not, so when the day finally came, I was a little worried that it would get stressful in London. Missing my connection to THAI:s double-decker in first class would not have been a great start to this trip. But back to this review.

I arrived at ARN by commuter train with a little over two hours before scheduled time of departure, as I wanted to spend some time in the SAS Lounge. It is by no means spectacular, but I had never visited before, and since ARN is my main airport, I figured it was only fitting to have visited it at least once.

Getting a double espresso and a banana in the SAS Lounge

SAS Lounge, Terminal 5

My verdict? If you're connecting at ARN and have some time to kill - by all means visit the lounge. But is it worth to come here early to visit the lounge before starting your journey from ARN? No. I went to the gate an hour and a half before scheduled time of departure. It was actually calmer there than in the lounge too, since the lounge was full of pairs and groups of business travellers who were talking quite loudly.

Behind the red nosed Norwegian plane is one of the latest additions to the airlines operating at ARN - a China Eastern A330 just in from Shanghai (PVG)

The departures from the F pier at T5 this morning

No signs of a delay this morning!

A lot calmer here at the gate than in the lounge...

As our bird was already parked at the gate, and the crew arrived 45 minutes prior to departure time, it looked like we could actually get an on time departure. I used my cell phone to check in for my BKK-TPE flight (which I hadn't been able to check in for at the gate for some reason). Boarding was a few minutes late, but soon enough I was onboard for this first leg of my Taipei trip!

Our ride to LHR! She seems a little cold...

On board and settling in my seat (2F)

I've mentioned it before - I'm digging these grey seats!

Oooh, hello there! I'm about to fly on one of your cousins! I could've flown THAI directly from Arlanda to Bangkok, but then I wouldn't get to fly first class since they don't have that cabin on their B777:s

Despite having boarded on time, we could not depart on time. Our captain informed us that Heathrow Air Traffic Control held us on the ground due to thick fog at Heathrow. We were on the ground for almost an hour, but the captain made several announcements informing us of the situation. Overall - the crew onboard this flight was excellent!

Soon enough, the de-icing truck arrived to prepare us for take-off, and we could head out to runway 01L.

De-icing

BA771 taking off a couple of minutes ahead of us - she's also heading for LHR!

JS32 from AIS Airlines - my dad and I flew on this exact plane two months earlier!

You can see both the BA771 and the Jetstream32 in this picture, but now runway 01L was all ours!

Airborne

What a beautiful autumn morning!

The "SAS Plus" concept can hardly be called business class on intra-European flights. You get a seat in the front of the plane, and food and drinks are included. The seat and legroom is the same as the rest of the plane, however, and they don't block the middle seat for extra privacy. (Although I scored an empty middle seat anyway.) SAS's version of short-haul business class is basically what many other legacy carriers would call economy class...

The food was decent, but the portion was kind of small. Luckily, I would get my share of fine dining later on this trip!

Cruising

Breakfast box, juice and tea/coffee was served on this flight

Not too exciting (and not very generous)

Tea with a slice of lemon

The flight to London does not really take that long, but Heathrow is Heathrow, and more often than not, the inbound flights are required to fly a couple of laps around London before being able to squeeze in the tight schedule. I could never work at ATC at Heathrow, but kudos to the guys and gals who do!

We were also required to make a couple of laps, and the captain informed us about this as well. "Those of you sitting by windows will probably see a lot of other aircraft, and some of them will be quite big. Don't be alarmed - the closest they will be is 1000 ft."

Unfortunately, the fog was still thick over London, and when we were below the clouds, we were already at Heathrow and touched down only a few seconds later. So I didn't get a view of downtown London upon descent (but I will get another chance sooner rather than later).