SAS - Warning
 

Haven't used SK since around 2007 due to laclustre service in their business class.
Stupid enough to buy tickets with them for flights Sandefjord, TRF via Shanghai to Manila. Return via Hong Kong. Economy since out of my pocket. ;)
IFE from the seventies, 6, six music channels all of them filled with Muzak from unidentified musicians. Sixty minutes on each, no forward, no reverse, no choice.
If the "food" was a joke, their prices certainly weren't. No free drinks, GBP 7 for an small bottle of red, industrial strength vinegar. No free snacks, better bring cash.
Executive summary:
Norwegian/Ryanair service at Singapore Airlines prices.
Best avoided.
Per

Update: price for the wine GBP 8 upon return.

Ja tror ja älskar dej. Min vän har pengar. That's all you need.

That used to work in the old days Herod.
Somehow I dont think that will work on SAS these days?
Did You try Per?

Reminds me of the good old days out of Oslo Fornebu Deadheading with Airfrance for CDG and Chambery Base.
Practically DFDS

I have to say that, admittedly some 10 years ago, I flew 3 sectors, LHR/ARN/LHR & CPH/BHX with SAS and I particularly enjoyed the experience.

So long as it is reflected in the fare I actually prefer to pay for food & drink because then one isn't limited to how much they may eat or drink, on the LHR/ARN/LHR day I'd been up since crack of sparrows for a drive to LHR then straight in to a meeting at ARN before back on a teatime flight, I hadn't eaten or had a beer all day, I was knackered, and with my car parked at LHR I truly appreciated that SAS served low-alcohol beer and the most wonderful seafood baguettes, I was stuffing my face, I was so appreciative.

Compare that to, let's say, a German national carrier where they serve a 250ml miniature of beer and should one dare to ask for more or take a beer from their bag get scolded, well give me SAS any day!

Back in the day i flew SAS alot-living in Stockholm made it inevitable-they were streets ahead of anyone in Europe in business class and economy was pretty good too. Lots of cost cutting etc has reduced them to a shadow of their former selves in terms of cabin service.

As for learning Swedish it isnt that difficult for fluent English speaker compared to many languages or even German speakers
, it has a limited vocabulary compared to English where comparative words proliferate. In Swedish for example they stick to small big bigger gigantic /very big most of the time whereas in Uk we have tiny small minute average big biggish large, huge, enormous and on and on.
The hard part i s the pronunciation , in swedish you must pronounce the whole of the world , no dropping off the ends of words or de emphasising the ends, This is more common than you think when trying to pronounce words. Al;so Swedish like german goes in for some very long compound words which look intimidating but are really no more words run together. Grammar is not quite as optional as English and small mistakes make no real impact on meaning unlike German and the structure is fairly straightforward. Try learning a Slavic language where the structural changes make the difference between airbus and boeing no more thana different paint job.

Other benfits are that Swedes and Norweigians can understand you and you them-sort of , the danes (who pronounce the English way along with mumbles and silences but are roughly intelligible. No good with Finns tho, their language is from another planet not another country.
The biggest problem is that all Swedes speak English and most of them extremely well and cannot be bother to struggle through primary school Swedish compared to their fluent English , that said they really appreciative the effort and as in all languages it gives you a window into the culture. An example of this was on some of my many SAS flights the flight deck only did their announcements in English even on Intra Scandi flights Good luck or as they would say Lycka til

Same here, but different reason, haven't spotted a competitive priced SAS flight for a decade, and neither own pocket nor company willing to pay those prices.

Otherwise enjoyed flying with them earlier, enjoyed the Nordic atmosphere and seasoned cabin crew.

I totally agree with the OP.

Two sectors last month, booked primarily for convenience, delivered spartan, LoCo effects - but without low prices :(

Not that easy when wife is seated next to you. Anyways, the CC were hardly visible through the 12 hour flight, not much opportunity to communicate.
Agree that when Janne Carlsson was in charge their Business Class was in fact very good. I commuted CPH - PEK for years, and had no complaints. Later on I used them frequently SIN - CPH on my flights to/from Manila, but eventually gave up and transferred to Lufthansa and Singapore to maintain my Eurobonus Gold. These days I prefer Emirates or Qatar on my flights to Asia.
The SAS "experience" was due to a very late booking required by having another airline cancel our flight, and SAS offering tickets starting from our local airport, Sandefjord Torp, TRF.
I've learnt my lesson.
Per

'SWISS' are VERY good, I gave them a try once and became addicted, excellent cabin service and very friendly crew, something like one hour connections thru ZRH (and the baggage makes it), I used them to/from HKG and used LoCo connections between HKG and MNL.

Harry W

Interesting about Swiss havent flown them for years but they were always very good and glad they have made the effort to retain standards. Interestign to see how things are with the legacies in Europe. I had a lovely trip on Air Portugal last year, excellent seats and friendly crew who still had service attitudes from the 1980s and a quick trip to Paris on AF two weeks ago was pretty good to my surprise with a friendly cheerful AF crew on both sectors
PB

Booked on SAS for Trondheim NOR to Tromso NOR next Friday. Does anyone know if the route is/is likely to be affected by the strike? Travelling at the moment so comms with travel agents back in Australia are a bit difficult.

BTW - while I am sympathetic to pilots in attempts to maintain decent working conditions, I'm not sure 13% per annum (as reported) is easy to justify - I've just been told my wage is frozen for 3 years! Can I join SAS's action? (Not a pilot though).

Any advice gratefully received,

R

SAS and the pilot unions are back at the negotiation table today. High hopes for business as usual on Thursday. I'll update if any news.
Per

booked to fly from LHR to Oslo tomorrow for the start of my mum's 80th birthday treat. My flight sk 810 is flagged as not operating on their website and no one has contacted me to let me know. I've now been on hold for 30 minutes in an attempt to rebook to an alternative flight and find out more. Truly a bottomless void of despair. So if you're reading this, SAS, please get back to me regarding booking K29TRD. You really are rubbish.

Check SAS on Facebook, you're not the only one. Not good for their goodwill.
Pet

Oh and it gets better. 45 minutes on hold at lunchtime to be told that my flight WILL operate. And 8 hours later I get a text to say that it is after all cancelled, I could have spent the last 6 hours making other arrangements to get to Hrtshals by Saturday lunchtime. SAS ? A bunch of clowns. Never again.

Doesn't look too good this morning, apparently negotiations broke down.
Per

Close to agreement, or so they say.
Per

Thanks for the updates Per, but we couldn't take the chance. Tromso is now off the ininerary - a shame, but these things happen.
We could have tried flying Norwegian instead at something north of GBP400 each, but I have a feeling that extra costs due to strike action may be an exclusion on our travel insurance. And that price may not be gouging by Norwegian - it's apparently via Oslo!

Anyway, another night at sea coming up with Hurtigruten. Hope yours works out pegpilot.
R

Too bad, Tromsø being my hometown and all. Enjoy the Hurtigruten.
Per

Ah, that makes it all the sadder. I'd say "next time", but this trip has shown that I'd need to save for 10 years to come back to Norway, and I'm way past "retirement age" already! A stunning country though, you are privileged indeed to live here (as I am, living on the Sunny Coast in Aus).

The strike is officially over.
@Recidivist, I moved from Tromsø at 15, now living in the south of Norway, had the pleasure of visiting Australia a number of times between '73 (Newcastle NSW) and 2014 (Perth WA). Will agree on the Sunny Coast.
Per

So a final synopsis of the SAS strike experience.
The intended flight was 17.30 Thursday, LHR - Oslo
Wednesday lunchtime - I spot ono the SAS website that my flight is not amongst those slated to operate irrespective of the strike
Cue 45 minutes on hold to SAS customer services to be assured that it WOULD operate
22.00 Wednesday - text received from SAS, after their customer service line was closed for the night, advising that they were working on a re-booking as my flgith was now cancelled after all -so their website had been right all along
10.00 Thursday morning - text received to say I was rebooked on the 19.30 flight
12.40 Thursday morning, on the train to London - a further text received to say that it wasn't possible to rebook me after all, and I should book with another carrier and seek reimbursement. The dilemma now was that other carriers were in "gouge" mode and charging upward of £400 for a single ticket
Cue another 45 minutes on hold, after which I was told to ignore most recent text and I was indeed rebooked on the 19.30. Question is, what if I had followed instructions from previous text and blown nearly £1000 on two tickets for my old mum and me, ignorant of the fact that I was actually booked on an operating SAS flight
So overall, a hugely frustrating, sometimes panic inducing experience that leaves me finished with SAS. When it all blows up you can't email them, you can't talk to them in a realistic timescale, they certainly don't want to talk to you, and all the messages I got from them contradicted each other leaving my brain scramlbed. If you wanted a case study as to how NOT to do customer communications, look no further- these guys are experts !

A final comment about the effect of the SAS strike on this (would have been) passenger. Deciding that we couldn't take the chance of staying with the Tromso booking, our travel agent booked us instead onto the northbound Hurtigruten ship from Trondheim to Stamsund, then switching to the southbound ship on which we were already booked. It so happened that, on the day we were northbound, it was "Cleanup Norway Day" and our ship had been allocated a small Island (Stott Island) to contribute to the effort. We volunteered to participate, and found ourselves as 2 of about 60 passengers engaging in the exercise. To carry this many volunteers,a comfortable power boat of about 45' was accompanied by 2 RIBs. We went in the longer RIB - about 40' with twin 300hp motors on the back (the smaller RIB was maybe 30' with an inboard jet motor, and almost as quick as us). Clad in full immersion suits, we went about half an hour to the island, and spread out collecting quite a lot of plastic rubbish for 2 hours. Then it was about an hour and a half directly upwind to rejoin our ship at Bodo. At first, the relatively open water constrained our speed to about 33 knots, but later as we came into more shelter that increased to 37 knots! This all being north of the Arctic circle, windchill was ferocious, and we arrived in Bodo very cold, but absolutely exhilarated from what would be a once in a lifetime experience. Many thanks to the SAS pilots who brought this happy sequence of events to pass!