Austrian vs SAS

Best product each one flies

Scored on what can be verified. Service, food and ground recovery are absent deliberately: they need someone in the seat, and they live in the reviews rather than here.

One caveat on the Value line, stated rather than buried: Value is computed from business fares, and a carrier with too few of them does not get a Value score at all. Where you see a dash, we have fewer than three priced business routes for that airline and did not want to invent a figure from one or two — so its product score is the mean of three dimensions rather than four, and it is not directly comparable to a score built on hundreds of fares. The airlines with the most fares behind them are named on the business-class ranking.

Dimension by dimension

• Seat: level

  8/10 on the 787-9 against 8/10 on the A330-300 / A350-900.

• IFE: level

  Screens, connectivity and power: 8/10 against 8/10.

• Lounge & bags: level

  What the fare includes before you board: 10/10 against 10/10.

• Value: level

  Median premium over the cheapest carrier on the same route: 7/10 against 7/10.

Where both were priced on the same dates

Every fare is November 8–14, 2026, so a difference between two rows is a difference between two airlines and nothing else. These are economy fares, while the cabin scores above describe the business product — read them as how each airline prices against its competitors, not as what its business seat costs.

What happens if the aircraft swaps

Both carriers are paying-the-same-fare-either-way propositions on some frames. The worst product each one flies:

Austrian: Thompson Vantage in alternating 1-2-1 and 2-2-2 rows. Recorded as no direct aisle access because the field means every seat, and here it is row-dependent.

SAS: Thompson Vantage XL in a staggered 1-2-1 on both widebodies, so the product does not change with the frame.

Common questions

Is Austrian or SAS better to Europe?

Austrian and SAS score level at 8.3/10 on verifiable product. On the four dimensions we can verify, Austrian wins 0 and SAS wins 0. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.

Which is cheaper, Austrian or SAS?

On the 16 routes where both were priced for the same week (November 8–14, 2026), Austrian was cheaper on 6 and SAS on 10. Every pair of fares is the same departure and return date in the same cabin, so the difference is the airline rather than the dates or the cabin.

Does the aircraft change the answer?

Yes. Austrian scores 8/10 on the 787-9 and 5/10 on the 777-200ER. Check the equipment on your date before deciding.

Has Jon flown either of these?

Neither, so this page is product facts and fares only. Any review we publish of either will be labeled Researched until that changes.