My family spent most of the daylight hours of Christmas in the SAS Lounge in Copenhagen and it turned out to be a very lovely and productive day.
We Spent Seven Hours In The SAS Lounge Copenhagen On Christmas Day
We arrived in Copenhagen (CPH) from Chicago (ORD) at around 10:30 am and our connecting flight to Basel did not leave until 5:10 pm, leaving us a long layover. Thankfully, SAS offers intercontinental business class passengers lounge access on arrival and we made full use of it.
The sleeping rooms were occupied, but the lounge was lightly filled and we found a private area near the back of the lounge (upstairs) that allowed us to spread out and relax during the long stay.
Why not go into Copenhagen, a city that I love? Well, first it was Christmas Day and everything was closed. Second, it was very cold outside…
Whenever I write about the SAS, I can almost count on at least a handful of you to complain about how bad a lounge it is. I find that such a curious assessment–or at least an indicator that what I value is different–because I love this lounge.
First, I just like design and furniture…very Danish modern. Second, there’s a coffee bar with barista-made coffee, and I quite enjoy it. Third, I think the food is excellent and it really perplexes me when people complain about it.
We enjoyed fresh and high-quality sliced cucumber and beets, with cheese and dark rye bread. My wife loved the smoked trout. Hot selections included excellent tomato soup and medisterpølse (sausage), and duck.
With afternoon coffee, we also enjoyed freshly-made Swedish Kanelbullar (cinnamon buns), which were decadent without being sickly sweet.
I’m not a big drinker, so I understand the alcohol selection is not top-tier, but if I were to drink, I saw they had the Negroni fixings…
There are also clean showers, clean restrooms, and large couches to relax on.
The only real annoyance of this lounge, and one that does need to be addressed sooner rather than later, is the lack of sufficient outlets to plug in electronic devices. While it has never been a challenge for me to find an open plug, it if often an annoyance because they are not easily reachable from many seating areas. On this, I agree: SAS needs to fix it (and a new flagship lounge in Copenhagen is coming next year).
The seven hours truly passed rather quickly. I got my work done, Heidi and Augustine did a lot of reading, and Claire Marie slept the entire time, which is understandable for a five-year-old, but of course that made her wide awake when it was time to go the bed later that evening…
As a SAS EuroBonus Gold member sitting on a lot of SAS miles, I fly through Copenhagen quite often and I always look forward to it thanks to this lounge. The coffee and food suit me very well and although it was a bit odd to spend our Christmas in the SAS Lounge, we made the most of it.
What has your experience been like in the SAS Lounge in Copenhagen?
That drinks assortment is miserable. JW Red is so pathetic that even its official marketing frames it as a mixing drink- i.e. ‘please don’t drink this on its own’. Iberia are hardly the most premium airline in Europe, but they have JW Blue in their lounges (which is a decent whisky that retails at a ridiculous price point). Still, the food and the coffee do look very good to me.
Not a whiskey guy, but I will say SAS has nice Scandinavian whiskeys onboard in business class…
Nothing like a quiet Christmas at the lounge. Barista- made coffee, smoked trout and cardamom buns. Life is good!
Glad it worked out for you and yours, Matt. That said, waiting 7ish hours for a 2-hour flight, or driving 13+ hours after a redeye… hmm. Unfortunately, trains wouldn’t have gotten this route done easily either. Might’ve opt’d for an airport hotel over a lounge for that much of a wait (aren’t there a few by the CPH airport?) Then again, staying awake in the lounge is one way to adopt the time zone. Can be grueling. Shower and food seemed decent, though. And, that new Flagship lounge in 2027 seems like it’ll be nice.
I always consider hotels for such layovers (like Augustine and I did in Jakarta), but my wife also really enjoys the SAS lounge and that little private area I pictured above was like our own suite. We genuinely enjoyed the layover. It was a very relaxing day.
Matt, I thoroughly enjoy how you have a review for nearly every travel-related reference! LALF is like a modern-travel-encyclopedia. Also, in that review, the hotel’s map over the bedframe is quite inclusive. Like, they got NZ, Madagascar, Hawaii, even what looks like maybe Tahiti or Easter Island.
@Matthew
Does your youngest still believe in Santa or did she grow up with that? I suggested to my wife that maybe next year we do a trip to the beach or something like that instead of holding Xmas with my family (hers in the UK.) My suggestion was almost immediately shot down as that would “ruin that magic of Xmas for our 4 (will be 5yo at next Xmas.) Our son is still to old to really grasp Santa yet, but maybe next year. So to see you traveling on Xmas day, just wondered if “Santa” had anything to do for your family.
We never did Santa with the kids. Hard enough to believe a baby was born of a virgin, healed the sick, multiplied bread and fish, and was crucified but rose from the dead! 😉
Fair enough, thanks for the reply.
Its an interesting lounge. I appreciate the barista-made coffee, and appreciate that the food selection is very fresh and Scandinavian. That said, at least when it was still a Star Alliance lounge, I think there was only one meat option (and usually not that substantial either). It also isn’t very premium for it to be self-service for bussing your dishes.
Overall I thought it was a decent lounge, but there are better flagship lounges even in Europe.
100% agree that the lounge has certainly improved since the Star Alliance days…you’re exactly right, there used to be no hot food at all.
The SAS Lounges certainly have improved in the last few years. Previously, like @— said, the food selection was essentially limited to a hot (and bad) minestrone soup (or one of the other 3 soups on rotation). The self service alcohol selection is certainly horrid.
The furniture is nice, and so is the decor, but all SAS Lounges still suffer from their biggest flaw: crowding. This is of course not an issue on Christmas Day, but a normal week day during the afternoon the lounges become standing only (SAS Domestic OSL is especially bad). The furniture doesn’t help either, people space out in couches and many Scandinavians are too reserved to take action and too socially awkward to sit next to other people (Norwegians especially bad at this). Thus, you have maybe 2 people sitting in one couch occupying the space where there could’ve been 6 chairs, and people standing along the railing of the staircase eating some weird cold salad.
I’ve kind of poked around for this answer but haven’t really found anything. Do you happen to know the access rules for Delta Platinum/SkyTeam Elite Plus? I’m flying from Copenhagen to Brussels with two clients, and if I could get lounge access for all three of us (even if one had to be paid), that would be nice.
You and a guest with SkyTeam Elite Plus…looks like you can purchase a pass for 60USD for third guest:
https://www.flysas.com/us-en/travel-info/at-the-airport/lounges
Considering how utterly expensive everything is at CPH, the 60USD strikes me as a good deal.