In what has to be one of the more puzzling moves by an airline in recent memory, SAS will be charging for drinks in longhaul economy between meal services as of October 1, 2012. Interestingly the only article about it so far is in Norwegian, and can be found here. Per Google Translate, it roughly translates to English as follows:
It results when the airline is now changing its dining concept on long routes.
The new concept will be more efficient for the airline, and will involve a weight savings. But first and foremost it will be better for passengers, promises information manager Knut Morten Johansen of SAS to VG Nett.
He explains the concept of the economy as follows:
* Passengers will have three units with drinks at mealtimes on long routes, ie six units total.
* The units are twice as large, 0.33 liter instead of 0.15 liters.
* Passengers will also get free bottled water and free water refills. Also coffee and tea are free.
* Between meals the planes have a better selection of snacks for sale. Then, too soft cost savings, 20 million for a soft drink.
Thus he asks himself totally unable to understand NTBs version of news at the site takeoff.dk that soda will no longer be free. Also AP published this case.
– You will be able to get two bottles of wine with dinner and a cognac for drinks. Or one liter of soda or beer for every meal. Normally, passengers will be quite well equipped, says Johansen.
In the short routes will be no change.
The new guidelines for serving drinks is determined by the SAS headquarters in Stockholm, reports the Copenhagen newspaper Politiken.
So let me make sure I understand this. You’re serving passengers up to three drinks with each of their meals, and if they want anything except water, coffee, or tea between meals they’ll have to pay (~$3.50USD for soda)? And of course the most important thing we learned is that this “will be better for passengers.” Crickey, please tell me something is lost in translation there!
I could point out the ridiculousness of this all day long, though I’ll simply ask one question — how the heck are you going to keep track of how much of their three beverage allotment 195 passengers have used? Seems like a lot more trouble than it’s worth…
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.