Excellent £1,300 SAS business class fares from UK to US – no Saturday night required

Scandinavian carrier SAS has launched some excellent fares from London, Birmingham and Manchester to the United States.

Whilst you will need to transit in Oslo, Copenhagen or Stockholm, these fares still represent excellent value for money if you want to try out a different carrier and perhaps see a bit of Scandinavia on the way.

A key benefit is that no Saturday night stay is required. As long as you are away for three nights, you can get these fares.

You can travel between September 2023 and February 2024.

Availability is excellent, even over the Christmas and New Year periods.

Your ticket is refundable for a fee of €250, it seems – but check the T&C.

Here are the fares:

From London Heathrow:

• New York (Newark or JFK) – £1,229​
• Boston – £1,233​
• Washington – £1,315​
• Chicago – £1,329

In theory similar deals are available from Birmingham and Manchester, although I found it harder to find dates.

Here’s an example for London to New York proving that you do NOT need to stay over a Saturday night. This is a Monday to Friday trip in October:

What’s the seating like?

I’ve never flown SAS long haul.

Here’s is a One Mile At A Time review of the new A350 seat which looks very good. Check the aircraft type you will get before booking. I would have inserted some images but the SAS website doesn’t seem to have any!

Note that SAS operates a ‘one class’ service on the connection from London so there is no dedicated Business Class cabin. I assume your ticket would book into SAS Plus which would get you a seat at the front of the aircraft and a meal or snack plus drinks. You do not get a blocked middle seat.

No lounge access

EDIT: Comments below suggest that this is a IT bug on the SAS website and that ‘Business Smart’ does come with lounge access.

These tickets are ‘SAS Business Smart’. This means that they do not come with lounge access, although I assume Star Alliance Gold members would still be accepted.

According to the booking page there is no other difference between ‘Business Smart’ and the pricier ‘Business Pro’ – even the luggage allowance is identical, both in terms of pieces and weight.

Some options have long connections, even overnight

Look very closely at the timing of your flights, as some require overnight connections in Oslo, Copenhagen or Stockholm.

Of course, you may like this idea. A long daytime connection may also be positive if you wanted to spend a few hours in any of these cities.

You will also see options which require TWO connections in Scandinavia. This would be too much for me, but ….

Where can I credit my flight?

SAS is a member of Star Alliance, so you can credit to any member programme.

SAS has its own EuroBonus scheme but rewards tend to be expensive in terms of miles. One upside is that EuroBonus is an American Express Membership Rewards partner which allows you to top up your account to get to a redemption.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is another possibility which is also an American Express partner, and of course you have other options such as Lufthansa Miles & More.

This HfP article looks at which Star Alliance programme may be best for you. This HfP article looks at how to top up your Star Alliance account with a UK credit card.

Note that, whilst SAS is a partner with Etihad Guest, you only earn miles if your flight has an EY flight number. This won’t be the case as you are not booking via Etihad and connecting to/from an Etihad service.

SAS is also a partner with Virgin Flying Club – click here. Oddly, Virgin Flying Club is NOT an option in the dropdown ‘Frequent Flyer Programme’ menu when you book on the SAS website so I’m not sure what is going on here.

How should you pay for your flight?

TIckets are priced in Sterling. Your best option would be American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which earns 2 Membership Rewards points per £1 when you spend on airline websites.

You can book on the SAS site here.

Hat-tip to Luxury Flight Club.

PS. Check out the new British Airways sale before booking – click here. You will find New York flights for a similar price to the SAS offer here, albeit with admittedly far fewer available dates.