Saturday, May 18, 2013

Why SAS is losing customers and bleeding money?

Flying with SAS to Washington is such a bad experience. Considering that the airline is in a brink of collapse it seems that they have not found that golden chalice that can save it. For a company like SAS to survive it should not try to compete with the budget carriers, however it should provide a good experience instead.

Flying with SAS on domestic and short European flights is OK. However flying with them for any flight more than 4 hours, its a regrettable experience. First is the price. SAS is never cheap compared to the budget carriers. Second is inflight the service. I don't know where they train their staff, but they can surely learn from Asian and Middle Easter carriers. The inflight service is so bad that on an 8 hour flight on economy you are forced to pay for inflight meals that taste like it came straight from the freezer after being stored for years. I mean how had can it be to integrate a 5$ deal on the ticket sales instead of trying to profit from it by charging double and selling in while on the air? 5$ is nothing when combined with a ticket costing 2000$ or more. Other than the looking down at the melting glaciers, ice and snow over Greenland there is really nothing good about in flight services with SAS. Thirdly is the plane. They fly really old planes with seats are are falling apart and very uncomfortable that my back, and shoulders were hurting badly during and after the flight. Lastly is the entertainment system. Even in Asian regional carriers you get a personalized screen in economy, on SAS you only get the tiny over head display with very bad resolution that you can not actually see the picture unless you are Superman with laser vision.

Its a pity because the ground experience at Scandinavian airports are so good with their efficient self-service kiosk (eliminating waiting time). The inflight experience is a such a let down that I told my self given the choice I will never fly with SAS long haul again unless they fix the bad experience they serve to their customers. If I look at a Thai flight I took from Bangkok to Copenhagen, there's a lot of things SAS can learn, even considering that that flight is very full (all seats taken) , you still come out with a very good experience that you would want to keep flying with the airline. Which brings me to the point that on the same day I flew from Bangkok to Copenhagen I was given the option to fly with Thai or SAS and was told that Thai was overbooked while SAS is almost empty, at that time me and a hundred other passengers made the right choice. So why does SAS keep losing customers and bleeding money? Well their executives should take this long haul flights in economy and compare how they do against airlines such as Singapore Air or Emirates or Virgin…. Experience is everything, even on airlines.

Problem is of course airline executives never fly in their own economy cabins….

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