I got about as close as I’ve ever come to using an airport lounge a few months back, flying out of Porto on a late one. We’d arrived at the airport stupidly early, bags dropped and boarding passes sorted with the guts of three hours still to kill. I’ve got a decent stash of RevPoints sitting in my Revolut account, so I did the maths. Spend the points on a lounge pass, or spend the same money on overpriced coffee and a sad airport sandwich anyway. Either way I was parting with roughly the same value, so why not get comfortable while I was at it.
That near miss is exactly why the Revolut Lounge announcement caught my attention. Revolut has confirmed plans to build its own network of branded airport lounges across Europe, with the first one landing at Copenhagen Airport and expected to open in 2027. It’s being developed with Copenhagen Airport itself and Plaza Premium Group, an operator that already runs one of the biggest lounge networks in the world, and Revolut says the finished space will be the largest common use lounge in the Schengen area. The lounge follows Revolut’s plans for its first physical Revolut Store in Barcelona, something we touched on in our piece on Revolut’s rebrand and what it means for customers, so the fintech is clearly serious about stepping outside the app and into buildings people can actually walk into.
For a company with more than 75 million customers worldwide, plenty of them here in Ireland, this is a genuinely exciting prospect for anyone who travels regularly. That said, my own experience trying to use a lounge recently has me hoping Revolut sorts the basics before it gets too caught up in being the biggest thing in the Schengen area.
What is Revolut Lounge and when does it open
Revolut Lounge is the fintech’s first go at running its own physical airport lounge rather than simply buying customers access to somebody else’s. The Copenhagen site is the only confirmed location so far, due to open in 2027, with Revolut saying it plans to roll the concept out to further European hubs after that. No date beyond “2027” has been given, and Revolut hasn’t said whether access to Revolut Lounge will work through the same RevPoints and plan tier system it already uses for its existing network of more than 1,600 partner lounges, or whether it’ll run on entirely separate terms. That’s the bit actually worth watching, because it’s what affects your next trip.
My closest call with an airport lounge
Back to Porto. Bags dropped, hours to kill, RevPoints burning a hole in my account, I figured I’d redeem a pass and treat myself to somewhere comfortable to sit instead of a plastic chair by the gate. So why didn’t it work out? The lounge was closing its doors just as I arrived, timing that no amount of RevPoints was ever going to fix.
There was a second problem too. Getting to the gate meant clearing a border check first, and realistically that would have eaten into any lounge visit even if the doors had stayed open a bit longer. Between the two, I walked away thinking lounges need to be a good deal more reliable, on both fronts, before I’d ever hand over actual cash for one rather than points I’ve already earned.
Some Revolut customers have bought lounge passes in the past that certain lounges simply didn’t honour when they turned up, so I understand completely why the company wants direct control rather than leaning entirely on third party lounge partners it doesn’t run itself. Building and staffing a physical hospitality space is a different game altogether from shipping app updates, though, and that’s a genuinely big leap for a company that’s built its name on software.
The Goosed verdict
My hope, and it’s genuinely a hope rather than a prediction, is that a company that clearly sees the value in looking after its travelling customers can actually deliver on that idea in Copenhagen and wherever comes next. This is a good move in principle. But reliability is the thing that will make or break it for anyone who’s already been let down once, and that’s exactly the experience I had. Get that right and everyone wins. Fair play to them for trying at all. In the meantime, existing lounge access still runs through Revolut’s current lounge pass system, with Ultra customers getting unlimited entry and Premium, Metal and Standard plans working on discounted or pay per visit terms.
