sas connect - heathrow to copenhagen flight review

not really a tech review, but i thought i'd publish it as such due to it being pretty similar.

published 31/12/2024

check-in and security experience

upon arrival at heathrow terminal 2, the 1st thing i noticed was the quiet atmosphere. of course, this is unsurprising for a flight taking off early in the morning, but it was still a pleasant surprise.

there wasn't much of a queue, however i found the drop-off experience badly labeled.

instead of an obvious, hanging notice that you had to operate a kiosk and scan this or that before joining the queue, the only notice regarding such things was already beside the kiosks, which means you have to look at the kiosks to read the operation instructions.

ignoring this little niggle, the check-in and bag drop off was more than quite fast, and i quickly proceeded through and onto security, which was just as quick, and did not require me to remove my laptops from my backpack anymore.

shopping + seating area experience

upon passing security, i was greeted by a relatively modern looking terminal with a real dearth of food and shopping options.

there seemed to be only about 4 takeaway options, with a few restaurants which did not appeal to someone with only 1 hour of time left until boarding.

i ended up going to pret a manger, and bought myself 2 boxes of some sort of deep-fried potato snack, plus a 'filter coffee' for 99p (pret sells filter coffees for 99p each, no discount code, app, points card or the like needed), and ended up sitting down on some seats not far away from the bathrooms.

the only shops available seemed to be some designer stores with things i'll probably never use with eye-gouging prices, as well as harrods, which had a box of chocolate-covered almonds priced at £20 (hard pass!).

soon enough, the gate i was flying out from opened and i proceeded to walk the very short distance to it.

there was a seating area, some charging locations and a very clean set of bathrooms available at the gate, and it served for quite the pleasant experience.

boarding and cabin experience

in about 20 minutes after i had arrived at my gate, we were allowed to board, and everyone slowly filed on. the plane still had the old sas livery and a mildly dated cabin (good sort of dated!) that was relatively spacious, and had some positively lovely grey fabric seats. cabin crew gave us a very warm welcome, and the plane was nice and clean, with no millipedes the length of my shoe crawling out from under the bathroom doors (i'm looking at you, wizz air!)

there were very few people onboard, maybe half of the plane's capacity, and the cabin crew kindly relocated those squished together like sardines in a tin to more spacious seats, which allowed me to bag a window seat with a seat's space between me and the lady occupying the window seat.

in-flight experience

the plane took forever to trundle down onto the runway, which made for some nice snaps of nearby planes, including a lovely concorde, but once it was in place, it only took about 8 seconds to take off (stol much!).

a nice detail i noticed during take-off was the purplish lights that emanate from above the overhead lockers, which changed to a peach colour once we reached cruising altitude.

when we were up in the air, the food & drinks cart was rolled down the aisle, and i ordered a mojito mocktail that cost me 3.5 euros, and came in a can with a cup provided to pour it into.

unlike british airways, which flies this same route albeit at a higher cost, sas go (sas's economy offering) were not barred from purchasing/getting some food onboard, and the food seemed to be quite decent.

seats were relatively wide and spacious for an economy cabin, and everything was in a greyish-black theme with small blue details.

bathrooms were also perfectly clean and fully stocked, and the flight attendants were very polite and kind.

descent and landing

as the descent began, the plane slowly lowered through the clouds.

there was some medium turbulence at the very landing, and it managed to make my cup spill a few drops of mojito onto my clothes.

the touchdown was quite smooth, however it took quite a while for the plane to roll into place and allow us to disembark.

copenhagen airport experience

first thing i noticed after disembarking and going up the metal stairs and into copenhagen airport's arrivals was how the airport looked like the few photos i have seen of 1980's-era airports from eastern bloc countries (coming from me, this is a compliment!)

it felt pleasant, welcoming and decently homely, the bathroom facilities were squeaky clean, and small trolleys were provided on which you could place your backpacks and coats in order to roll them around the airport.

i didn't spend long at the airport, and the train ticket machines were apparently on the fritz, but it was a decently pleasant experience.