FeuilladeTravel: Airline review: SAS A320neo business class, Amsterdam to Stockholm

Ugly food but delicious chocolate, my review of SAS A320neo business class from Amsterdam (AMS) to Stockholm (ARN)
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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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Amsterdam (AMS) to Stockholm (ARN)

Date: 2018-10-07
Flight number: SK556
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo
Registration: LN-RGM
Age of aircraft: 1 year
Duration of flight: 1:58 (gate to gate)
Seat: 4F (business class)

Seat map with my seat (4F) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com

Finally it was time to board the last leg of this award trip, and although I was a little bummed not to be able to fly on the "little pig" (as the 737-600 is called) before SAS retire them, I was looking forward to another flight on the 320neo.

I arrived at Schiphol with almost two and a half hours to kill before the flight, with the purpose of trying out yet another airport lounge. Gotta make use of the award perks!

I had access to the fast track lane in security, but it turned out to be a slow track, due to the meticulous staff that wanted to take everything out of my bag, and for some reason insisted on speaking Dutch with me (of which I speak basically zero). I had to spend some time repacking my backpack afterwards, but I'd rather do that every once in a while than skip security altogether (like in Sveg...)

The contract lounge that SAS use at AMS is called "Aspire", and it was nothing to get excited about. Crowded, unimpressive food spread, and not deserving a blog post of its own. Therefore, I went to the gate with almost an hour to go before scheduled boarding time. Not that the rest of the airport was any better. Ugh. Super crowded, ambiguous signage and shortage of seating options. I've had KLM pretty high on my "want to fly-list" for a while now, but spending a couple of hours at Schiphol probably made me put them down a notch...

Our bird arrives!

Crowded at the gate...

Ten minutes before boarding, they made an announcement about this being a full flight, and therefore asked all passengers to gate check their luggage free of charge. Me? No, thank you. I know what baggage handling is like at ARN, and I didn't have any intention of waiting for my luggage for half an hour...

Funny thing is, this wasn't a full flight. There were only 13/24 pax in the "SAS Plus" cabin, and it wasn't completely full in regular economy either.

This doesn't seem like a "completely full flight" to me...

Decent leg room, but you knew that from my ARN-LHR flight...

And you might remember that I like the grey cabin of SAS

Homework before take-off

We headed out to runway 36L this morning, and it seemed quite far from the main terminal building. We were taxiing for almost 20 minutes before taking off, and the whole while, we were taxiing behind a British Airways A319, as a precursor to my next flight...

British Airways is another airline that's been pretty high on my "want to fly-list"

Almost our turn!

We have lift-off!

It was a really fine day for flying, and I sat glued to the window for most of this flight. That's really all the in-flight entertainment I need...

Such a great day for flying!

In-flight entertainment...

I love daytime flights!

15 minutes after take-off, hot towels were distributed. Then came the infamous SAS "cube", which I didn't get on my LHR flight a few days earlier. Maybe the cube is just for lunch and dinner..? Anyhow, the lunch was a real letdown (despite my low expectations...), but the dessert was absolutely delicious, which made up for it.

The infamous cube...

SAS apparently think that using fancy words such as "ballotine" and "terrine" makes their food edible. It doesn't. The ballotine was nothing but an ugly sausage, and the terrine could probably be described as an unidentified flying object...

Yuck!

At least they were generous with the water...

Tea with lemon

Dessert time - what is this?

Only one of the best desserts I've ever had on a plane - absolutely delicious!

And the views were still spectacular

The best word to describe this flight would probably be "uneventful", and a little over an hour after take-off, it was time to start the descent into Stockholm. Luckily, we used one of the 01 runways (01L), and got a spectacular view of downtown Stockholm!