Earlier during the year SAS stopped the ability to book Star Alliance awards using EuroBonus points. However, SAS have now (partially) resumed the ability to book these flights. The service is currently only available by phone. The online booking service is unfortunately still closed at this time.

On a trip back in March I was able to upgrade from their premium economy (SAS Plus) for a relatively low cost (About 20 000 Eurobonus points). I’ve flown SAS Business a number of times before and as a result this review will be a mix of my different experiences, however with focus on the latest flight.

Update (April 17, 2020): Award space with United MileagePlus is now wide-open on the Cape Town and Cancun routes. Interestingly only Business awards are available on the Cancun route.

Back in January I flew Japan Airlines (JAL) from Seoul Gimpo (GMP) to Tokyo Haneda (HND). It was definitely one of the better economy flights I’ve experienced recently. From the crew and cabin, to the seat and food, everything was excellent. My only complaint was not being able to choose my seats in advance. Read more about that below.

The recent 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak (SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19) is definitely having a large impact on the travel and airlines. Whether you’re currently travelling or planning to travel there are many different aspects that may affect you, including suspended flight services and country travel restrictions.

SAS EuroBonus has just released award availability on the new ANA direct flight between Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) and Tokyo Haneda (HND). Award space is currently wide-open, which is a rare sight for any Tokyo route. A maximum of 3 economy seats and 2 business seats have been released per day. Get your flights while they last!

AwardFares makes it easy to find and track award availability. Learn more about the core features available in AwardFares.

We recently announced a new Gold/Diamond feature that lets you see cabin information for certain flights. Read more here Introducing Cabin Annotations. Today we’ve released cabin annotations for many more airlines and even added support for seat maps.

Lufthansa currently offers First Class with 3 different aircraft types on 30 routes (20 from Frankfurt and 10 from Munich). Most routes are quite consistent, but some changes do occur so it can be difficult to keep track them. Here’s an updated list of all routes as of December, 2019.

Cabin type information is now available for certain flights. Most Singapore Airlines flights and some ANA flights will now display the type of cabin used for that particular flight, if the information is available. Note that this feature is only available to Gold and Diamond members.

Scandinavian Mountains Airport (SCR/ESKS) is a new airport in Sweden that will begin operations during December 2019. The airport will serve the Sälen, Idre, and Trysil ski resorts. SAS will operate seasonal flights from Copenhagen (CPH), Aalborg (AAL), and even London Heathrow (LHR). SAS Press Release

Haneda International Airport in Tokyo offers tours of the aircraft maintenance facilities. There are two tours available, one operated by ANA and the other by their main competitor JAL. Both are free but you need to make a reservation ahead of time. Note that the tours are in Japanese only but are still suitable for non-Japanese speakers.