Updated for July 2026 after my return visit
On my first visit to Copenhagen, I gave myself plenty of time at the airport specifically to write a Copenhagen SAS Lounge review. I had passed the massive two-storey lounge on arrival and had visions of Scandinavian design, great food and a relaxing send-off from Denmark.
What I got was construction, paper plates, plastic utensils and a breakfast spread that had me regretting not eating another bowl of porridge in Copenhagen.
I ended that original review by saying, “I guess I will just have to return to see the finished product.”
Well, it took me a few years, but I finally did.
On my latest trip through Scandinavia, I returned to Copenhagen Airport and paid for access to the SAS CPH Lounge specifically to see what had changed. Ironically, another lounge upgrade is on the horizon, but this time I managed to avoid the construction and actually experience the lounge as intended.
The difference was significant.
This visit came after spending three days in Porto and then three days back in Copenhagen before heading farther north to drive an electric vehicle to the top of Europe. In Copenhagen, I returned to some of my favourite things—canal cruises, Scandinavian food and, naturally, Carlsberg, before flying SAS to Oslo.
So, was my second SAS Lounge Copenhagen review better than my first? Absolutely.
Was it worth paying €40 to get in? That’s a slightly more complicated question.
Here is my updated Copenhagen SAS Lounge review, including what’s changed, who gets access, what you can eat and drink, whether there are showers and, most importantly, whether I think it’s worth paying for.
Copenhagen Airport SAS Lounge Location
The Copenhagen Airport SAS Lounge is located airside in Terminal 3 at Copenhagen Airport (CPH), in the Schengen area at Pier C. You’ll find it after security near the C gates and opposite the entrance to passport control.
The location was especially convenient for me because my SAS flight to Oslo was leaving nearby. I could enjoy the lounge without worrying about a mad dash across Copenhagen Airport when boarding started.
That won’t necessarily be the case for everyone.
CPH is a large airport, and depending on your departure gate, you could have a decent walk ahead of you. This is particularly important if you’re flying from a non-Schengen gate because you’ll also need to account for passport control.
My advice is simple: check your gate before settling too deeply into one of the lounge’s comfy Scandinavian chairs.
The location is one reason the CPH SAS Lounge works so well for SAS passengers connecting around Scandinavia and Europe. For my short hop to Oslo, it couldn’t have been much more convenient.
SAS CPH Lounge Access: Who Can Get In?
One of the biggest changes since my original SAS CPH Lounge review is how access works.
When I first visited, the space was divided into two lounges. The lower level catered largely to business and premium passengers, while the upstairs SAS Gold Lounge Copenhagen catered to eligible elite-status passengers.
That’s no longer the setup.
SAS consolidated the two spaces in October 2025, meaning the former SAS Lounge and SAS Gold Lounge now operate as one lounge across two floors.
According to SAS’s current lounge access rules, complimentary access is available to eligible passengers including SAS Business passengers, EuroBonus Gold and Diamond members and SkyTeam Elite Plus members travelling on qualifying same-day flights.
That’s another important change for anyone who hasn’t flown SAS recently: SAS left Star Alliance and joined SkyTeam in 2024. Don’t assume that the Star Alliance status that got you through the door years ago will still work today.
Can You Pay to Enter the SAS Business Lounge Copenhagen?
Yes, and this is how I got in.
I actually considered booking SAS Business Lounge Copenhagen access the expensive way: by flying SAS Business Class on my roughly one-hour flight to Oslo.
That seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do in the name of travel blogging. Then I noticed SAS simply sold lounge access.
Problem solved.
At the time of this update, SAS lists advance lounge access from 299 DKK/€40 when purchased online at least three hours before departure. Buy within three hours of departure and the price increases to 349 DKK/€45. Walk-up access is also 349 DKK/€45 and is subject to availability.
Purchased access is available beginning three hours before departure.
I paid for access because I specifically wanted to revisit the lounge, but €40 isn’t exactly pocket change. Then again, neither is eating and drinking at Copenhagen Airport—or Copenhagen in general.
More on whether I think the math works below.
SAS Copenhagen Lounge Check-In, Seating and Design
Walking into the SAS Copenhagen Lounge, you’re greeted by a staffed check-in area and automated turnstiles. Scan your boarding pass, get the green light and you’re in.
Immediately beyond the entrance are stairs leading to the upper floor.
This was one of the biggest improvements over what I remembered. Instead of thinking about two separate lounges, you now have one large, two-level space to explore. Both floors offer food and drinks along with plenty of places to sit, work or relax.
And this is where the lounge finally started living up to the expectations I had on my first visit.
There’s no shortage of seating.
You’ll find conventional dining tables, workspaces, armchairs, loungers and quieter corners throughout the lounge. Rather than rows of generic airport furniture, much of it has the clean lines, warm woods and understated styling you’d expect from Scandinavian design.
One of my favourite spaces was a quiet area furnished with stylish mid-century-modern pieces from Danish furniture maker DUX. It felt much more like an upscale Scandinavian living room than an airport waiting area.
It was exactly the type of space I had imagined finding on my first visit.
There are also smaller areas where you can escape the busier sections of the lounge, which is helpful given how large and popular the facility is.
SAS Gold Lounge Copenhagen: What Happened to It?
If you landed on this review searching for the SAS Gold Lounge Copenhagen, there’s an important change to know about.
It no longer operates as a separate lounge.
The former Gold Lounge upstairs and the regular lounge downstairs were combined in October 2025. Eligible guests now have access to the combined two-floor facility rather than being separated into different lounges based on the old structure.
For me, this makes the lounge much more interesting.
On my first visit, seeing two floors from outside gave me the impression that the CPH airport lounge was enormous. Finding out that access was divided between different passenger groups explained why.
Now it actually functions much more like the large lounge I originally thought I was walking into.
The upper floor was where I found some of my favourite seating, so don’t just scan in, grab the first chair you see downstairs and call it a day. Give yourself a few minutes to explore both levels.
Copenhagen SAS Lounge Food and Drink
Food was easily the biggest disappointment during my original visit.
I arrived around breakfast and found a pretty basic Scandinavian spread of cheese, meat and porridge. Lunch wasn’t much better: tomato soup, cold pasta salad and mixed greens.
To be fair, the kitchen was under construction. Paper plates and plastic utensils didn’t exactly improve the experience.
I remember thinking I should have stopped at Grød instead, after discovering Copenhagen’s food scene on a previous trip. If food is a major reason you’re visiting Denmark, my guide to understanding Copenhagen’s food scene is a much tastier place to start.
Thankfully, my return visit to the Copenhagen SAS Lounge was a major improvement.
I arrived around the transition between breakfast and lunch and found a much more complete Scandinavian-style spread.
There were blocks of cheese with wire cutters, yogurt, fruit, eggs and plenty of pastries. The Danish cinnamon rolls—kanelsnegle—were an obvious highlight because apparently my strategy in Scandinavia is to consume cinnamon rolls whenever one crosses my path.
There were also crêpes and pancakes with Nutella. Hard to complain about that.
Copenhagen Airport says the lounge serves breakfast until around 11:00 AM before switching to a seasonally adjusted buffet, so what you find will depend on when you visit.
Coffee, Carlsberg, Wine and the Barista Bar
The biggest food-and-drink highlight for me wasn’t actually the buffet. It was the coffee.
There’s a proper café area where baristas make drinks to order. I asked for a cortado and received something closer to a medium-sized milky coffee than the tiny, punchy cortado I had in mind.
Still good, though.
At the bar, I also found turmeric and ginger shots, which were a surprisingly nice touch and made me feel marginally healthier after the pastries and Nutella.
Of course, this is Denmark, so there is Carlsberg.
Beer and wine are available along with spirits and non-alcoholic options. The self-serve setup is considerably nicer than the plastic-cup experience I encountered during construction on my first visit.
And if you want to take your appreciation of Denmark’s most famous beer beyond an airport tap, check out my experience visiting the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen.
SAS Lounge Copenhagen Shower, Rest Cabins and Other Amenities
For travellers with a long connection, the amenities may be more important than the buffet.
Yes, there is a SAS Lounge Copenhagen shower.
SAS currently lists shower facilities at its Copenhagen lounge, along with rest cabins, work pods, relaxation and work zones, free Wi-Fi, digital newspapers and magazines, a children’s zone and SAS Travel Service.
There are also meeting rooms available to rent. Copenhagen Airport says the conference room can accommodate up to 12 people.
I didn’t use the shower on this visit, but it’s worth knowing it’s available—particularly if Copenhagen is a connection point on a longer journey.
The rest and quiet areas interested me more.
I found recliner-style seating in quieter, partially screened-off areas that would work well for putting your feet up between flights. This brought back memories of my first visit, when I tried to use the old relaxation room only to have my attempted nap interrupted by someone having a very enthusiastic phone conversation.
My Canadian roots prevented me from tapping the quiet-zone sign.
Some things don’t change.
For anyone trying to get actual work done, there are numerous tables, power options and dedicated work areas. Combined with the Wi-Fi, coffee and food, I could easily see myself spending a productive couple of hours here before a flight.
Is the CPH SAS Lounge Worth €40?
This is the question I’d ask before paying for the CPH SAS Lounge.
And my answer is: it can be.
I wouldn’t automatically pay €40 every time I flew through Copenhagen.
If you’re arriving at the airport shortly before boarding, don’t drink alcohol, aren’t hungry and don’t need a shower or workspace, the value is questionable. Save the money and head to your gate.
But if you’re planning to arrive early and would otherwise buy a meal, a couple of drinks and coffee at Copenhagen Airport, suddenly the calculation looks different.
If you have access to other lounges at CPH, it’s also worth comparing your options before paying. I’ve previously reviewed the Carlsberg Aviator Lounge at Copenhagen Airport, which gives you another Copenhagen Airport lounge to consider before your flight.
If you have access to other lounges at CPH, it’s also worth comparing your options before paying. I’ve previously reviewed the Carlsberg Aviator Lounge at Copenhagen Airport, which gives you another Copenhagen Airport lounge to consider before your flight.
My €40 got me up to three hours in a comfortable environment with food, coffee, beer, wine, spirits, Wi-Fi and plenty of space to work or relax.
In an expensive city like Copenhagen, that isn’t an outrageous proposition. This is why I recommend doing the math based on how you use a lounge rather than assuming lounge access is automatically good value.
If your airport plan looks something like:
- breakfast or lunch
- a good coffee
- a beer or glass of wine
- another drink
- Wi-Fi and somewhere comfortable to work
- possibly a shower
…then paying for the lounge becomes easier to justify. If you’re there for a coffee and a cinnamon roll, not so much.
Of course, I am also an airplane and lounge nerd. I willingly paid €40 partly because I wanted to see how much the lounge had changed since my disappointing first visit. Normal people may calculate value differently.
How the SAS Lounge Copenhagen Review Compares With My First Visit
The difference between my two visits was night and day.
My original SAS Lounge Copenhagen review ranked the lounge near the bottom of the business-class lounges I had visited. I knew that assessment wasn’t completely fair because much of the facility—and Copenhagen Airport itself—was under construction.
Still, I could only review what I experienced. That’s why returning was so interesting.
This time, I found the Scandinavian lounge I thought I was getting years ago: attractive furniture, quiet spaces, a much better food selection, proper coffee and enough different seating areas that the lounge didn’t feel like one enormous airport cafeteria.
The fact that the old Gold Lounge and regular lounge are now unified makes the space feel more cohesive as well.
My original review ended with:
“I guess I will just have to return to see the finished product.”
Mission accomplished.
Although, somewhat ironically, more improvements are apparently coming. Airports and airport lounges may be the world’s longest-running construction projects.
From Porto to Copenhagen and On to Norway
This lounge visit was also the end of a pretty fantastic European stopover.
Before returning to Copenhagen, I had spent three days in Porto, where food and drink played an equally important role.
If you’re heading that way, don’t miss my hunt for the best Francesinha in Porto, my recipe for a refreshing Porto Tónico, and my experience taking a Porto tapas and cooking class at Bolhão Market.
I stayed at Canto de Luz in Porto and even managed to squeeze in another lounge visit before leaving Portugal. You can see how that experience compared in my Porto Airport Lounge review.
From there, Copenhagen gave me another three days of eating, exploring and revisiting some old favourites before I continued to Oslo to start my EV drive north.
It’s a pretty great combination if you’re looking at building Portugal and Scandinavia into the same European trip.
What to Do in Copenhagen Before Your Flight
If you’re visiting the Copenhagen Airport SAS Lounge, hopefully that means you’ve actually given yourself time to see Copenhagen first.
For a short visit, start with my three days in Copenhagen itinerary. Copenhagen is compact enough to cover a surprising amount in a few days, especially by bike and boat.
One of my favourite ways to see the city is from the water. I previously joined Hey Captain and came away impressed enough to write a full Hey Captain Copenhagen canal tour review.
If you’re looking to book something similar, you can check availability for my recommended Copenhagen canal tour with Hey Captain. The smaller-boat experience is a much more personal way to see Copenhagen’s canals than simply checking sights off a list from shore.
For something combining two things Copenhagen does particularly well—cycling and food—consider this culinary bike tour of Copenhagen. It’s a good option if your time is limited because you can cover more ground while sampling the city’s food scene along the way.
If Copenhagen is the starting point for a larger Denmark road trip, you can also compare Copenhagen car rental rates here.
Where to Stay in Copenhagen
If you’re overnighting before an early flight, staying somewhere with straightforward airport access can save a lot of stress.
For budget-conscious travellers who still want a private hotel experience, check rates at Wakeup Copenhagen Borgergade or Wakeup Copenhagen Carsten Niebuhrs Gade. You can also compare Wakeup Copenhagen properties here.
At the other end of the spectrum, Nimb Hotel Copenhagen is the splurge option, with a prime location by Tivoli Gardens.
Travelling solo or simply trying to keep accommodation costs down? Compare Copenhagen Downtown Hostel and Steel House Copenhagen.
Copenhagen Airport hotel map:
And if you’re still piecing the trip together, start by searching for cheap flights to Copenhagen.
SAS Lounge Copenhagen Review: My Second Take
So, is the Copenhagen SAS Lounge worth visiting?
This time around, yes. More importantly, I finally got the experience I had expected on my first visit.
The food was substantially better, the Scandinavian design and DUX furniture gave the space some personality, the barista-made coffee was a highlight and there were enough different seating, work and relaxation areas to make spending a couple of hours here genuinely enjoyable.
Being able to pay for access was also appreciated.
Would I spend €40 every time?
Probably not.
But give me three hours, a meal, a couple of drinks, good coffee and somewhere comfortable to sit at an otherwise expensive airport, and I can make a pretty good case for it.
That’s ultimately how I suggest approaching paid lounge access. Don’t compare €40 with free. Compare it with what you would realistically spend in the terminal.
If the difference is small, I’d take the SAS Copenhagen Lounge every time.
After my first disappointing visit, I’m glad I returned.
And with SAS continuing to evolve its premium ground experience, I suppose there’s always a chance I’ll have to come back for a third take.
What a shame.
Copenhagen SAS Lounge FAQ
Where is the Copenhagen Airport SAS Lounge?
The Copenhagen Airport SAS Lounge is located after security in Terminal 3 in the Schengen area at Pier C, near the C gates and opposite the entrance to passport control. Check your departure gate before settling in, particularly if you need to clear passport control for a non-Schengen flight.
How much does the SAS CPH Lounge cost?
As of this 2026 update, SAS lists paid access from 299 DKK/€40 when purchased online at least three hours before departure. The price increases to 349 DKK/€45 within three hours of departure or at the lounge entrance. Walk-up entry is subject to availability.
Does the SAS Lounge Copenhagen have showers?
Yes. If you’re specifically looking for a SAS Lounge Copenhagen shower, SAS currently lists shower facilities among the Copenhagen lounge amenities. The lounge also has rest cabins, work pods, relaxation areas and meeting facilities.
Is there still a SAS Gold Lounge Copenhagen?
No. The former SAS Gold Lounge Copenhagen and regular SAS Lounge were combined into one lounge in October 2025. Eligible guests can now use the unified two-floor facility rather than the old separate Gold and business lounge arrangement.
Is the SAS Business Lounge Copenhagen worth paying for?
For me, yes—particularly if you have enough time to enjoy a meal, coffee and a couple of drinks. At €40 when purchased far enough in advance, the SAS Business Lounge Copenhagen can make financial sense compared with buying the same items separately at Copenhagen Airport. If you’re only planning to spend 30 minutes inside before boarding, I’d save the money.
What say you?
Thoughts on this SAS CPH Lounge Review?
Let’s hear it!
For more luxury travel reviews from Copenhagen and beyond see HERE.
