Following Christmas with my husband in Mexico City, I almost immediately departed for another trip: a Scandinavian Retreat in Stockholm, with my mom. In this series of reviews I’m reviewing all the SAS lounges that I accessed, including the SAS lounge in Newark, in Stockholm and in Copenhagen. While I wasn’t planning on reviewing any flights since I had simply bought economy tickets (I was able to get a pretty good value), I got lucky and was upgraded to premium economy on the flight to Stockholm, and I reviewed that experience here.

I visited the Copenhagen SAS Lounge as part of my return journey, and took flight SK401 from Stockholm Arlanda ARN to Copenhagen CPH, departing at 8:00AM and arriving at 9:10AM, where I had a layover of 3:45 hours. Although I booked a Light (basic) fare, my Flying Blue Gold (as it maps onto SkyTeam’s Elite Plus status) status provided priority services and lounge access for the entirety of the trip. Suffice it to say, I was here while breakfast was being served, but also got to see was lunch was like.

In this last post in this series I will review the SAS Lounge at Copenhagen CPH, Terminal 3. I was here once before, back in August 2024, when I gave a combined review of this lounge, the business class experience of SAS, as well as the SAS Lounge at Newark EWR. This time I’m dedicating separate posts to each lounge, having already reviewed the SAS Lounge in Newark EWR and Stockholm Arlanda ARN, and have also reviewed the premium economy (SAS Plus) flight experience.

Overall, I really like the Copenhagen SAS Lounge. It’s a big lounge, spread over two floors. When I was last here, SAS was still a Star Alliance carrier, and the upper floor was for Star Alliance Gold members. Now that SAS is a SkyTeam carrier, the entirety of the lounge is accessible to everybody, which i think is a great development. I certainly preferred the upper floor for the high ceiling, which makes for a spacious and airy feel. There are various zones, setup for a variety of different activities, from working to eating to relaxing, and I thought all were nicely designed with comfortable seating. I’d be happy to return to this lounge!

1. Location and Hours
2. Access Requirements
3. Seating and Design
4. Food and Drinks
5. Showers and Restrooms
6. Summary

Location and Hours

The SAS Lounge doesn’t have clear opening times, but Google tells me 7am-11pm. As per the SAS website, the lounge opens an hour before the first scheduled SAS flight, and closes 30 minutes before the last SAS flight leaves. However, I could not find ‘official’ opening hours.

Sicne I was in transit from a flight arriving from Stockholm, I got to the lounge from a gate, rather than security. That said, as I experienced during my visit in 2024, if you’re taking the fast track security, you’ll find that your entrance into the airside part of the terminal is just to the right of the main entrance to the SAS Lounge. The signage over the entrance is pretty clear, with large, white lettering above it.

Upon entry you’ll first walk through a corridor, to finally emerge into the reception of the lounge. You will find a single desk here, usually staffed by two attendants. I was directed to scan my boarding pass at one of the electronic gates to the left or right of the desk to gain entry. It doesn’t matter which gates you use these days, but back in 2024, when SAS was still Star Alliance and the upper floor was the Star Alliance Gold portion of the lounge, the gate to the right would lead to that upper floor.

Access Requirements

ou can enter the SAS Lounge in the following ways when presenting a same-day boarding pass for a SAS flight:

• As a Business Class passenger on a SAS-operated flight, or as a Business Class passengers operated on a flight by a SkyTeam or another partner, you may get access to the SAS Lounge if it is the designated partner lounge. For example, the Newark SAS Lounge also caters to all SkyTeam partners and a select few other airlines, such as Emirates and El Al.
• If on a domestic SAS flight in Premium, you can also access the lounge (though that wouldn’t happen at the Newark SAS Lounge, as there are no domestic SAS flights departing from there)..
• Gold members or above in SAS’ Eurobonus frequent flyer program can access the lounge.
• SkyTeam Elite Plus members traveling on a same-day SAS flight can access the lounge.
• You can buy access to the SAS Lounge for $60 online until 3 hours before departure, or otherwise $65 within 3 hours before departure. For the Newark SAS Lounge you may not be able to buy access at the entrance, though at other locations it will be $65.

Note that as a SAS business class passenger or if you have Eurobonus Diamond, you can enter select SAS Lounge locations upon arrival as well. This depends on the arrivals procedures at the airport. For example, at Newar

Seating and Design

When you take a left turn and go through the gates, you get a nice view of the lounge, with its two levels. The height of the ceiling is impressive and I like the skylights. Right by the entrance was also a kinds play area, with a bunch of toys and kid’s furniture.

Going to explore the lower level, from left to right there’s some seating along the wall in the form of a banquette with small tables and stools/ottomans, then in the center are SAS’ signature round tables (which they also had in Newark and Stockholm), and finally to the right are several tables with high-top seating, on a carpeted surface that reflected SAS signature lounge colors: blues and greys.

Going further into the lounge, you’ll pass through the area with the round tables. As you can see, the seating here are mere stools. There are some sauces on the table as well, so it seems like the idea is that people would sit and eat, though I don’t feel as though it’s a particularly comfortable place to do so. The buffet on this level is a little further back, spread over two islands. I’ll describe these in more detail later.

Looking to the right, we are now under the upper level, hence the space feels a little bit more cramped. This definitely contributed to me enjoying the upper level more, since the high ceilings make the space feel very open, and not so enclosed. However, there is a substantial amount of seating here, ranging from communal tables with different kinds of stools, as well as various kinds of lounge chairs that are good for relaxing. By the buffet, there were a few additional, long comunal tables with stools that had back rests.

Then, beyond the dining area was a lot of lounge-style seating. Much of these were setup as either rows with smaller side tables in front or inbetween, or surrounding square coffee tables. The later would be great for a larger group, whereas the former would work well for people traveling alone or as a couple. It’s nice SAS has various seating configurations, but using the same seats, to provide for multiple group sizes. I also quite enjoyed the aesthetics of this area, with the frequent use of wood surfaces, and grey and blue: agai, a signature SAS look.

As you walk through that seating area back to the entrance of the lounge, there is a separated space. It’s pretty much its own room, and I imagine that when SAS was aprt of Star Alliance, this may have been another amenity of sorts? Regardless, there was an interesting feature here: There was a sign describing how in 2027 this lounge would receive a major renovation. There wasn’t much detail, but I’m curious to see what they will do with this space.

Going into the room beyond, it felt very homey, with several ‘pockets’ of seating that felt like several living rooms put together. Curtains softened the overall vibe, together with the white carpets and light brown seating upholstery. It was all quite cozy, and I noticed it was a rather silent space as well.

Going back and moving to the back of the lounge, past the buffet, there are two corridors that run parallel: one is just behind the buffet, towards the left side of the lounge, and the other is to the right, just beside all the communal tables. I went through the left corridor, which had a variety of work spaces. Some of these were communal, with stools and a partition in the middle for some privacy. There were also some desks with rolling chairs. Some of these seats had reading lights, but I didn’t see that at every seat. There were outlets at every desk. Overall, I thought the desks looked reasonably comfortable, but communal tables and stools didn’t seem like a great idea for a work zone…

As you emerge from the corridor, you enter another seating area. A major feature makes this particular room feel a lot more open: the windows! Back in 2024 I sat here for a while and quite liked it, and that’s despite the fact that the actual seating arrangement here is in rows, featuring the same seat in different colors, right beside one another. Smaller, round tables in-between the rows allow to place drinks and such. It all feels a little bit cramped, but the windows help to open it up a bit. You can see some of the upholstering has seen better days, but that’s more so true for the faux leather seats, and less so for the fabric ones. Not on the picture but available: a drink station with soft drinks and water.

Going to the back of this room (technically the right side of the lounge), there are a few larger meeting rooms here. It’s nice SAS has these kind of facilities. Sliding doors allow you to close create a soundproof space. There were two of such meeting rooms.

Otherwise, this floor also features showers and restrooms, but these I will discuss later. From here, I took the stairs up to the upper floor. I don’t remember noticing an elevator, mind you.

When you get upstairs, the first thing to note is that there is a barista coffee bar here, which I thought was quite neat. The ceiling is truly high, and so on this upper floor you get a marvelous sense of space that’s simply lacking on the lower level.

Turning right, I walked to the back of the level so I’d get a goo sense of the entirety of this level. Doing so I passed by a variety of seating, from restaurant-style seating with tables and chairs, to couches and ottomans for a living room-style relaxation experience. Then coming to the back and turning around, you get a great view of the level as whole.

Walking back to where I ascended onto this level, this is where this levels’ buffet and most of the dining-style seating is. You’ll find many high-top communal tables and lots of tables arranged for two to four persons. Some of these are arranged by dividers to offer a little bit more privacy. With the high ceiling, I thought it’s really a lovely place to have a bit and relax.

Given all these ‘loose’ seating scattered around, I wondered whether there were any electrical plugs at all. At first I didn’t spot any, until I spotted that they were affixed under the seat. I thought this was a nice and elegant solution, though note most of the ones I found were the European style plugs, so you’ll need to make sure you have a fitting adapter with you.

This level also has corridors that link to a space in the back. This corridor had some cool fixtures on the wall. This corridor then emerged into a space that was quite similar as its equivalent on the lower floor, but with slightly different amenities. There were several day beds, encircled by privacy curtains. These were all in use, so I didn’t make pictures. Then to the right of those were some enclosed rooms for relaxation, and another meeting room.

Turning left into the rest of this room you’ll see it’s more of what we saw on the lower floor: the same sorts of seats with the same sort of arrangement. Like the lower floor, there was a small drink station here as well.

Again, like the lower floor there is a parallel corridor to the one I showed above, and like on the lower floor, this other corridor has a variety of a work stations. Here, though, there was essentially only communal-style work areas with stools. I just don’t think this is a particularly comfortable place to work, so I wasn’t surprised to not see anybody sitting here.

From here I went to back of the lounge, from where I took the initial sweeping views of the upper level, since there is another space here. Actually, it’s another work zone, and this one is way nicer than what I showed above. You get here by walking all the way across the lounge, and going up the steps.

To the left of this space you’ll find a communal table and a drink station. Then to the right are a bunch of communal work tables with plugs in the center. Then further in the back, using curtains as privacy screens, are several true desks with plugs and desk chairs. I thought this was quite a nice place to work.

Overall, I really like the aesthetics of this lounge. It’s very big, spread over two levels, and has ample of seating. The seating is generally quite thoughtfully designed, in that there’s plenty of options depending on the group size and the needs of the travelers. I generally like the materials used as well, with lots of wood and greys and blues in the carpets and upholstery. Clearly though, the upper level is much nicer than the lower level, thanks to the high ceiling. Some areas do feel like they could use a modern touch, especially the work zones.

One thing I couldn’t make pictures of, but I think is worth mentioning: the upper level appeared to have nap rooms. I assume you can reserve this with the attendants at the reception, though I didn’t try to get in or inquire about them.

Food and Drinks

The Copenhagen SAS Lounge has two buffets, one on each level. The buffet on the lower level is towards the back of space, but before you enter the corridors that lead to the very back of the lounge. It’s hard to miss: you’ll see two large islands, one dedicated to drinks, the other dedicated to food.

Starting with the drinks island, the front has a variety of hot drink machines and inbetween all the mugs can be foun, as well as tea bags and such. There’s also a soda fountian that ahs all the usual options, a Carlsberg beer tap, and two wine taps: one for white wine and the other for red wine.

The other island, containing all the food, was a bit skinner in shape. At the very front was all the bread, and then going around it there was a variety of whole pieces of fruit, various salads, soups, cereals, cold cuts, and some hot options as well. When I got here these were all out, but contained breakfast staples such as little waffles and sausages. There were also hardboiled eggs.

The buffet on the lower level is quite well-stocked, but the breakfast spread isn’t the most exciting, I think. Still, everybody should be able to find something to eat.

As I mentioned, there’s a second buffet on the upper level. There is more or less the same food options here as downstairs, but the setup is a little bit different. You’ll find all the drinks on a long counter along the wall, and food both on certain sections of this long buffet, but also (and predominantly so) on an island.

Starting with the drinks, starting at the back and making our way forward, you see the same Carlsberg taps, some fridges with wines (no wine taps here, I guess), the soda fountain, and two hot drink machines. I believe these more or less dispense the same drinks, but I didn’t do an exhaustive comparison.

On the upper level the breakfast was served, just like downstairs, but later on I was able to see the lunch options. I have some photos of that later on. For the breakfast, the food was the same as downstairs, with some slight differences. Along the counter by the wall there were soups, breads and muffins, and a selection of cold cuts (mostly salami).

Then the island had the more impressive foods. Here were the hot options, including waffles and sausages, hardboiled eggs, salads, and cold cuts and cereals. So, pretty much the same as below.

As I mentioned, it was around 11:30AM or 12PM that the staff started to swap out breakfast options for lunch options, and with that food became quite a bit more interesting. New soups were brought, and a bunch of cereals were swapped out for various kinds of salads. As you can see, that included all sorts of good stuff, including carrot salads, beats, olives, cucumbers, and some other vegetables. Most important, the waffles and sausages disappeared, and were replaced with three different dishes: ‘ham mignon’, confit de canard, and rice. I thought the two meat options were very nice, and definitely not what I was expecting to see at a SAS Lounge. Suffice it to say that I had a filling lunch before going to the gate.

Overall, I appreciate that there are two buffet locations, though I thought the breakfast spread was a little simple. I suppose it correlates with the Northern European taste, though it paled by the spread I had in my hotel in Stockholm (that was a spread to dream about!). Clearly, the food became more interesting with lunch, when some very nice options were brought. Overall, I don’t think the food here will blow you away, but it’s pretty nice.

Showers and Restrooms

The lounge does have showers, on the lower level, but I wasn’t able to make pictures as they were all locked.

Restrooms can be found on both levels of the lounge. I will only review the lower-level restrooms, as the upper-level ones were essentially identical. The restrooms on both levels cna be access through the right-most of the two corridors that connect the main space of the lounge with the back-most seating areas. As you walk trhough from the main sapce, take a left when you get to a short corridor.

Inside you’ll find a main passage, with various toilet stalls sprouting off on each side. Like in the other SAS Lounges in Newark and Stockholm, the toilet stalls have their own sink. Walking a little bit further you’ll find urinals on the left, and sinks on the right.

The restrooms at this lounge were pretty clean and well-maintained on both levels, and I appreciated the fairly large toilet stall with dedicated sinks. I thought there were plenty of stalls and urinals available, so there was never a line.

Summary

Overall, the SAS Lounge at Copenhagen CPH is a beautiful space. I was here in late 2024, when SAS was still part of Star Alliance and the upper level was for Star Alliance Gold members. Fortunately, with the transition to SkyTeam, SAS opened the entire lounge to everybody. And to great effect: I really love the openness with the two-level design. It does mean that the lower level feel a little bit more cramped and dark then the upper level, as the ceiling is a little lower than I’d like – but I may not have felt like that had the upper level not been there! Because of the high ceiling, even when you’re on the upper level, there is great sense of space that feels nice and open and I really enjoyed relaxing on the upper level. In general, this lounge has a large variety of seating options, from lounge chairs, to communal tables, to couches, in multiple settings. From the spacious upper level to the cozy (and windowed!) back rooms, it’s easy to find a pleasant place to sit, I think.

Admittedly, I feel the food is a bit of a weak point, but I think this is a more general issues with breakfast service at (North) European lounges. It’s just not very exciting. Options usually include some breads, cold cuts, cheeses and perhaps some cereals and fruits, and maybe (parts) of an English breakfast with sausage and egg. Fortunately the options got better with lunch, and based on my experience at the Newark SAS Lounge, dinner would likely be another step up.

All in all, I liked this lounge when I was here in 2024, and I still feel this is a nice place to be, especially with the opening of the upepr level to all lounge guests. It seems that the lounge will be renovated in 2027, so I’m curious how the lounge will chase.