My review of the SAS Gold Lounge, Copenhagen

I’ve been an ITA Executive member for so long and the time finally comes to use its benefits! I’m flying from Copenhagen to London on SAS, who joined Skyteam only days ago, and I’ll probably be one of the few who’s gonna access their lounge with a Skyteam partner membership.

Copenhagen Airport has three terminals, but it’s not really big. T1 only runs a few domestic flights, and T2 / T3 are effectively just different check-in areas in the same terminal. SAS operates just one lounge here which says something about the traffic. There are a few other contract lounges that Oneworld and most Star Alliance airlines will be using.

The SAS Lounge is between Gate C and D, before passport control.

Usually you just scan your boarding pass at the e-gate and the gate will open automatically, but surely it’s too early for the Skyteam boarding passes to work yet. In fact I couldn’t even add any Skyteam membership number to my booking, so human intervention is definitely needed.

A lady the reception helped me, and tried to confirm my eligibility by checking the newly arrived memo and work manual. It didn’t took long before she got confused and just gave up, and opened the gate for me anyway.

The lounge is divided into two parts with separate barriers. Downstairs is the business lounge and the upstairs Gold Lounge is reserved for SAS and Skyteam elite plus members.

The Gold Lounge is similar to Lufthansa’s idea of Senator Lounge, to treat elite members better than business class passengers. Qatar Airways has kind of gone the other way around, and it’s hard to tell which approach is right or wrong.

The Gold Lounge has two small rooms downstairs too, both very quiet.

You’ll find much more space upstairs. Turn right for the business area with working desks:

And there’s a curious object inside:

Daylight booster is famous “specialty” in Nordic countries, but I believe they could be very useful in the UK too!

Come out, turn right to enter another large room, with a small resting area in the corner.

The pink dropdown curtain adds an exotic flavour to the lounge, but I’d much prefer a proper resting pod or even better, room. It’s not really soundproof or lightproof.

To the main hall of the Gold Lounge, the design style of which is a nice balance between minimalism and cosiness, mainly consisting of natural wood tones. Very Scandinavian.

The dining area:

Three hot dishes are available:

• Mexican beef
• Chili con carne
• Chicken kebab

Food offering is very simple but not basic, like of the rest of the lounge. Surprisingly there’s no vegetarian (hot) dish. Not that I’m complaining, as the meat is very tasty.

And you can order a barista coffee from the little cafe:

I wasn’t anticipating much from SAS, but their Gold Lounge has surprisingly exceeded my expectations and is definitely one of the better or even best airline lounges you can find in Europe. The business lounge however seems overcrowded and slightly underwhelming, so make sure you enter the right one if you have Skyteam Elite Plus status.