SAS offers a charming lounge concept at five smaller airports: lounge cafés.
SAS bases operations out of three Scandinavian hubs: Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm, but serves 40 Scandinavian destinations. Some of these cities are too small to support a full lounge but to small or competitive to offer nothing. SAS has found a middle way through a concept it calls lounge cafés, available in the following five airports:
- Malmoe, Sweden
- Lulea, Sweden
- Tromsø, Norway
- Trondheim, Norway
- Ålesund, Norway
I had a chance to visit the SAS Lounge Café in Tromsø during a long layover.
The lounge constitutes a small rectangular single room with two rows of bench-style seating and some additional round tables. The only food and drink is a a coffee and juice machine, fresh bread, cookies and cinnamon rolls. It was quite crowded when we arrived in the mid-afternoon but emptied out by late evening. Internet worked well and a single attendant was on hand to restock food and help people who had trouble scanning into the lounge.
Warning: the cinnamon rolls went like Black Friday specials at Walmart. I chuckled that each time the lounge agent brought out a fresh basket of rolls, passengers descended upon them like vultures on a carcass.
Like other SAS lounge, the lounge opens an hour before the first flight and closes 30 minutes before the last departs. Although not explicit on the SAS website, this is Star Alliance Gold lounge.
CONCLUSION
While I naturally would have preferred a full lounge, this lounge represents a charming concept and was far better than waiting in the gate area for my fight to Stockholm.
Read more of my Scandinavia Trip Report:
Review: SAS A330 Business Class Los Angeles to Stockholm
Lounge Review: SAS Gold Lounge Stockholm
Review: SAS Business Class Stockholm to Oslo (Scenic Flight)
Lounge Review: SAS Gold Lounge Oslo
Review: SAS Business Class Oslo to Longyearbyen
The Advantage of AirBnB in Longyearbyen
A Boat Trip to an Abandoned Russian Mining Island
Review: Hotel Tulpan in Pyramiden
Why Pyramiden is a Must-See (Photo Tour)
Exploring Pyramiden at Midnight with Two Armed Female Bodyguards
Where to Eat in Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen to Stockholm via Tromsø on SAS
Lounge Review: SAS Café Tromso
Review: Radisson Stockholm Airport
Review: Hilton Stockholm
SAS Schengen lounge at Goteborg (GOT) has a similar feel and charm even though it’s billed as a full service lounge. I love flying utilizing SAS and the peaceful oasis’ of OSL/ARN/CPH over the chaos that is FRA.
on a side note, the 2nd sentence sounds slightly off syntactically.
@ Matthew — The FCQ and I have visited the lounge in Tromso. After getting over the horror of the commonness of the lounge, it turned out to be OK. Definitely NOT fit for a Queen.
Sadly this lounge is no more.
Did it just close?
How tragic! I was honestly just thinking about it earlier today.