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Our flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen arrived around 4PM, which left us the option of taking the 6PM Atlantic Airways flight to the Faroe Islands or staying in Copenhagen overnight and flying out the next morning. I didn’t love the idea of arriving in the Faroes at night, finding our rental car, and driving in the dark to our tiny little village… and given the snowy condition of some of the roads, I’m glad I chose the overnight layover option. We didn’t plan to see Copenhagen at all, so we really just wanted something close to the airport. There’s actually a very decent hotel attached to CPH airport — it used to be a Hilton, but it rebranded as a Clarion hotel a year or so ago. All things being equal, we would have just stayed there like we did last time, although I had an IHG free night certificate to burn, and the Crowne Plaza is only one stop away by train. It ended up being my first taste of Denmark (since we stayed in the airport hotel last time), but the location isn’t really what people think of when they think of Copenhagen… in fact, it looked fairly indistinguishable from the scenery of suburban Chicago where I grew up.

The hotel itself is located in a big office tower complex, so you can either enter through the office building (if your’e coming from the street), or through a dedicated hotel entrance that’s located on the opposite side of the building.

The office building atrium is actually pretty nice, so the hotel has that going for it.

It’s only a short walk, and then you’ll be in the hotel’s lobby.

The woman checking us in immediately recognized my IHG Platinum Status (which I earn through my IHG Credit Card from Chase) and gave me the option of welcome amenity points or two bottles of water. She also gave me two drink coupons for the restaurant in the office building atrium (which I guess doubles as the hotel’s restaurant). Finally, she said that I had been upgraded to the executive floor, but that I wouldn’t have access to the executive lounge. That seemed awfully bizarre to me, but I didn’t really care about lounge access given that our plan was to leave early and get breakfast in the Aspire Lounge at CPH airport. Still, I’ve never heard of getting upgraded to the executive level but not getting access to the lounge. The executive rooms at this hotel are slightly nicer then the rest of the rooms at the hotel, though, so it wasn’t a totally meaningless upgrade.

The room was comfortable and included a king-size bed with two separate narrow comforters (as is the style in Scandinavia), a large working desk, and views of the nearby office buildings. The bathroom was nicer than I was expecting, with a soaking tub and a really high-pressure shower. On to the photos:

Justine especially appreciated the standard Crowne Plaza aromatherapy stuff, and she used the lavender sleep spray every night for the rest of the trip.

After settling into the room, we went downstairs to the restaurant for dinner, and it was gross. Justine’s friend from New Zealand lives in Copenhagen, so she met us for dinner and agreed that the restaurant was gross. I like its open design, though.

I’m not that familiar with Danish food, but this restaurant felt distinctly American in that seemingly everything was deep fried. The appetizers were just these weird nondescript fried shapes, and, well…

While I wish I could tell you that at 37 years old, I no longer feel the urge to make dicks out of my food (in restaurants no less), I can’t tell you that. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Is that a weird note to end a hotel review on? I suppose it is, but here we are. The bottom line with this hotel is that it’s perfectly fine for a night, although if I were spending any more time in Copenhagen, I’d much rather find a hotel closer to the city center. It was a decent use of the IHG free night certificate, since both this hotel and the airport hotel were over $200, and the airport is easy enough to get to/from that I didn’t mind not staying right next to it. I guess there isn’t all that much to say about it… it’s a clean, comfortable business-y hotel near an airport. If that’s what you’re looking for, go nuts.

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Our flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen arrived around 4PM, which left us the option of taking the 6PM Atlantic Airways flight to the Faroe Islands or staying in Copenhagen overnight and flying out the next morning. I didn’t love the idea of arriving in the Faroes at night, finding our rental car, and driving in the dark to our tiny little village… and given the snowy condition of some of the roads, I’m glad I chose the overnight layover option. We didn’t plan to see Copenhagen at all, so we really just wanted something close to the airport.

There’s actually a very decent hotel attached to CPH airport — it used to be a Hilton, but it rebranded as a Clarion hotel a year or so ago. All things being equal, we would have just stayed there like we did last time, although I had an IHG free night certificate to burn, and the Crowne Plaza is only one stop away by train. It ended up being my first taste of Denmark (since we stayed in the airport hotel last time), but the location isn’t really what people think of when they think of Copenhagen… in fact, it looked fairly indistinguishable from the scenery of suburban Chicago where I grew up.

The hotel itself is located in a big office tower complex, so you can either enter through the office building (if your’e coming from the street), or through a dedicated hotel entrance that’s located on the opposite side of the building.

The office building atrium is actually pretty nice, so the hotel has that going for it.

It’s only a short walk, and then you’ll be in the hotel’s lobby.

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The woman checking us in immediately recognized my IHG Platinum Status (which I earn through my IHG Credit Card from Chase) and gave me the option of welcome amenity points or two bottles of water. She also gave me two drink coupons for the restaurant in the office building atrium (which I guess doubles as the hotel’s restaurant). Finally, she said that I had been upgraded to the executive floor, but that I wouldn’t have access to the executive lounge. That seemed awfully bizarre to me, but I didn’t really care about lounge access given that our plan was to leave early and get breakfast in the Aspire Lounge at CPH airport. Still, I’ve never heard of getting upgraded to the executive level but not getting access to the lounge. The executive rooms at this hotel are slightly nicer then the rest of the rooms at the hotel, though, so it wasn’t a totally meaningless upgrade.

The room was comfortable and included a king-size bed with two separate narrow comforters (as is the style in Scandinavia), a large working desk, and views of the nearby office buildings. The bathroom was nicer than I was expecting, with a soaking tub and a really high-pressure shower. On to the photos:

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Justine especially appreciated the standard Crowne Plaza aromatherapy stuff, and she used the lavender sleep spray every night for the rest of the trip.

After settling into the room, we went downstairs to the restaurant for dinner, and it was gross. Justine’s friend from New Zealand lives in Copenhagen, so she met us for dinner and agreed that the restaurant was gross. I like its open design, though.

I’m not that familiar with Danish food, but this restaurant felt distinctly American in that seemingly everything was deep fried. The appetizers were just these weird nondescript fried shapes, and, well…

While I wish I could tell you that at 37 years old, I no longer feel the urge to make dicks out of my food (in restaurants no less), I can’t tell you that. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Is that a weird note to end a hotel review on? I suppose it is, but here we are. The bottom line with this hotel is that it’s perfectly fine for a night, although if I were spending any more time in Copenhagen, I’d much rather find a hotel closer to the city center. It was a decent use of the IHG free night certificate, since both this hotel and the airport hotel were over $200, and the airport is easy enough to get to/from that I didn’t mind not staying right next to it. I guess there isn’t all that much to say about it… it’s a clean, comfortable business-y hotel near an airport. If that’s what you’re looking for, go nuts.

The Waldorf Astoria was Tripadvisor’s #1 hotel in Amsterdam at the time that I booked, and while I don’t trust Tripadvisor all that much, I was at least pretty confident that the #1 hotel in any city is probably going to be halfway decent. Booking this hotel took some doing, since it costs 80,000 Hilton points per night (those 100,000 point bonuses that you can get on various Hilton cards get eaten up pretty fast if you want to use them at top-tier properties). To get four nights here, I combined two weekend night certificates from the Citi Hilton Reserve card plus the 80,000-point sign-up bonuses that Justine and I got on our no-annual-fee Amex Hilton cards.

Three card sign-ups and $7000 in minimum spending for four nights at a hotel… that’s a big opportunity cost, so was it worth it? In a word, yes it was. The thing with hotels is that there isn’t a night-and-day difference like there is with business class versus economy, so it isn’t really that crucial to stay at a top-tier property. My original plan was to use a free night award plus 45,000 Hyatt points to stay at the new Hyatt Regency, which looks perfectly nice and is in a decent neighborhood over by the Intercontinental where we stayed last year. Instead, I decided to hang on to my Chase points and aimed a little higher for a true five-star property, hoping that it would elevate our vacation that little bit extra. I’m glad I did, since our stay at the Waldorf turned out to be the best hotel stay I’ve ever had.

The hotel has a great location on the Herengracht (canal, but calling it the “Herengracht canal” makes you sound stupid, since “gracht” = “canal”), right in the middle of the historic canal ring. It is made up of six connected buildings, so the facade blends seamlessly into the streetscape. If not for the flag outside the front, you wouldn’t even be able to tell it’s a hotel.

We arrived in an Uber, and a bellman swooped down the stairs and took our bags into a separate entrance while we went to check in. Our first instinct that this hotel was going to be fancy AF was when we sat down at the check-in desk and another bellman brought us hot towels. (Any time you sit down at a check-in desk rather than standing at a counter, you know it’s going to be pretty fancy, but the hot towels were over-the-top.) It was a nice treat, since it was approximately minus six million degrees in Amsterdam and we had just gotten off a long flight.

Marta, the check-in agent, was friendly as could be, and she happily told us that not only was our room ready early, but that we had been upgraded a few categories on account of my Diamond status. Honestly, the upgrade was just gravy as soon as she told us the room was ready — we arrived around 10:45 AM and weren’t looking forward to having to kill four hours while we waited for check-in. The check-in experience continued with the hotel’s signature presentation of four scents that you can choose to have sprayed in your room at turndown service, and finally Marta escorted us to our room and pointed out some of the period details of the original buildings that had been preserved.

Our bags were waiting for us in our room, which was a King Grand Premier room as far as I could tell. There are tons of room categories at this hotel, and due to the layout, even rooms in the same category have different sizes/shapes. Our room was on the second floor and didn’t face the canal, but the views were still really good. The best feature of the room is the soaking tub, which sits just below a window that looks out on some typical Amsterdam scenery. The room wasn’t enormous, but it was plenty roomy for us, especially considering the big walk-in closet, which made the room seem bigger by giving us a place to sequester all our stuff.

There were certain touches in the room that really put it over the top in terms of luxury… things like the Nespresso machine for coffee, the extensive array of brand-name bathroom amenities, and of course the writing kit (which I regrettably didn’t photograph). I joked on Twitter about how I’m obsessed with writing accessories, and the Waldorf really went to town in that department. There was a pad of high quality paper on each bedside table, as well as a placemat-size writing pad inside a leather folder on the desk. Instead of the normal cheapo pen, there was a heavy rollerball pen, which I most definitely took with me as a souvenir.

The bathroom was what you’d expect from a hotel of this caliber, with heated floors, a walk-in shower with excellent pressure, a deep soaking tub with a TV, and soap/lotion/shampoo everywhere you looked. Little touches like the name of the hotel and logo in the shower drain drove the point home that this was no ordinary hotel.

On the first floor, past the check-in and concierge areas, there’s a big sitting room (“Peacock Alley,” which I guess is a thing common to all Waldorf Astoria hotels) where you can order food or snack on the free sweets they set up on the table in the middle of the room. On our last day, we had lunch here, and it was probably the best meal we had on our trip (with a cost to match, of course). Even if you’re not there to eat, it’s a really nice place to sit if you’re feeling cooped up in your room, and the views of the garden and nearby buildings out the floor-to-ceiling windows are pretty nice too.

It seemed like the hotel was going out of their way to surprise and delight us throughout our stay. A typical example was this flower vase that showed up in our room on the third day for no apparent reason. We came in from walking around the city and saw it on the little table in the sitting area, brightening up the room with its insane amount of Dutch-ness (yellow tulips in a delftware vase???).

When we checked out, they actually apologized to us for not being able to honor all of my Diamond benefits (which was weird, since I didn’t think they left anything out), so they gave us this delftware jar of stroopwafels just in case we were mad. Neither of us complained about anything during the stay, so I guess this will remain a mystery. Still, for the hotel to proactively offer it underscores how well they take care of their guests.

As a Diamond member, I was entitled to free breakfast every day, and the incredible spread really took the overall stay to another level. Technically Waldorfs Astoria are supposed to provide a continental breakfast or $15 food and beverage credit to Gold and Diamond members, but we were offered the “Full buffet experience” instead. This includes the entire buffet (cold and hot items) as well as a selection of made-to-order items, and it normally costs 37.50 euro. Now, I don’t know if this is only available to Diamonds, or if Gold members get the full buffet too. If they do, that’s a hell of a benefit for a mid-tier elite.

Here are some more photos of the buffet:

After four days of this breakfast, the cozy room, the excellent service, and the drop-dead gorgeous surroundings, I was happy I went to the trouble to line up a stay here versus the Hyatt Regency. The location also made a big difference — while the Regency isn’t that far, it was so frigidly cold while we were there that we didn’t want to do any walking that we didn’t have to. The fact that we were right on the main canals made it easy to get around without 10-15 minutes going from the hotel to the city center every time.

And when I say it was cold, I mean it was really fucking cold. I may live in California now, but I grew up in Chicago, and I know from cold. The temperature most days was between 15-20 degrees Fahrenheit, although the “feels like” temperature was usually below zero. While it was cold to the point of being kind of annoying, it did give me a different perspective on Amsterdam, especially when I saw people ice skating on the canals. (While the weather we had in the Faroe Islands in the days that followed was definitely wilder, it was in the low 30s, which felt positively balmy.)

As our stay was wrapping up, I mentioned to Justine that the cash price for our upgraded room was around $700 per night, and while that’s an insane amount to spend for a room (and an amount much higher than I’ve ever paid for a hotel), I felt like the hotel did enough for me to have felt like I got my money’s worth if I had paid cash. It’s an awfully subjective question, but there were just so many little ways the hotel went above and beyond my expectations that it ended up setting a new bar for what a luxury hotel stay could look like.

My main benchmark for ultra-luxury is the Park Hyatt Paris, which pales in comparison to the Waldorf Amsterdam. When I left the Park Hyatt, I was happy to have satisfied my curiosity about it, but it didn’t really stick with me. Sure it was fancy, but the service was mostly indifferent, the room was fairly small, and I still can’t get on board with the hideous beef jerky monster sculptures that line the walls. I mostly felt like the high price was there to separate the Park Hyatt’s high-end clientele from the types of people who stay at lesser hotels. It didn’t feel like the $600 or so per night that rooms usually cost went toward anything exceptional, and I could never under any circumstances justify paying for a room there. On the other hand, if I got a bonus at work and had some extra money to blow on a trip, I could see myself paying for the Waldorf again.

Who else has stayed here, and did you like it as much as we did? If you’re going to be in Amsterdam and have enough Hilton points, I can’t recommend it enough… just make sure you pick up an Amex Hilton card if you don’t already have status, since the elite benefits here are substantial.

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The Waldorf Astoria was Tripadvisor’s #1 hotel in Amsterdam at the time that I booked, and while I don’t trust Tripadvisor all that much, I was at least pretty confident that the #1 hotel in any city is probably going to be halfway decent. Booking this hotel took some doing, since it costs 80,000 Hilton points per night (those 100,000 point bonuses that you can get on various Hilton cards get eaten up pretty fast if you want to use them at top-tier properties). To get four nights here, I combined two weekend night certificates from the Citi Hilton Reserve card plus the 80,000-point sign-up bonuses that Justine and I got on our no-annual-fee Amex Hilton cards.

Three card sign-ups and $7000 in minimum spending for four nights at a hotel… that’s a big opportunity cost, so was it worth it? In a word, yes it was. The thing with hotels is that there isn’t a night-and-day difference like there is with business class versus economy, so it isn’t really that crucial to stay at a top-tier property. My original plan was to use a free night award plus 45,000 Hyatt points to stay at the new Hyatt Regency, which looks perfectly nice and is in a decent neighborhood over by the Intercontinental where we stayed last year. Instead, I decided to hang on to my Chase points and aimed a little higher for a true five-star property, hoping that it would elevate our vacation that little bit extra. I’m glad I did, since our stay at the Waldorf turned out to be the best hotel stay I’ve ever had.

The hotel has a great location on the Herengracht (canal, but calling it the “Herengracht canal” makes you sound stupid, since “gracht” = “canal”), right in the middle of the historic canal ring. It is made up of six connected buildings, so the facade blends seamlessly into the streetscape. If not for the flag outside the front, you wouldn’t even be able to tell it’s a hotel.

We arrived in an Uber, and a bellman swooped down the stairs and took our bags into a separate entrance while we went to check in. Our first instinct that this hotel was going to be fancy AF was when we sat down at the check-in desk and another bellman brought us hot towels. (Any time you sit down at a check-in desk rather than standing at a counter, you know it’s going to be pretty fancy, but the hot towels were over-the-top.) It was a nice treat, since it was approximately minus six million degrees in Amsterdam and we had just gotten off a long flight.

Marta, the check-in agent, was friendly as could be, and she happily told us that not only was our room ready early, but that we had been upgraded a few categories on account of my Diamond status. Honestly, the upgrade was just gravy as soon as she told us the room was ready — we arrived around 10:45 AM and weren’t looking forward to having to kill four hours while we waited for check-in. The check-in experience continued with the hotel’s signature presentation of four scents that you can choose to have sprayed in your room at turndown service, and finally Marta escorted us to our room and pointed out some of the period details of the original buildings that had been preserved.

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Our bags were waiting for us in our room, which was a King Grand Premier room as far as I could tell. There are tons of room categories at this hotel, and due to the layout, even rooms in the same category have different sizes/shapes. Our room was on the second floor and didn’t face the canal, but the views were still really good. The best feature of the room is the soaking tub, which sits just below a window that looks out on some typical Amsterdam scenery. The room wasn’t enormous, but it was plenty roomy for us, especially considering the big walk-in closet, which made the room seem bigger by giving us a place to sequester all our stuff.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

There were certain touches in the room that really put it over the top in terms of luxury… things like the Nespresso machine for coffee, the extensive array of brand-name bathroom amenities, and of course the writing kit (which I regrettably didn’t photograph). I joked on Twitter about how I’m obsessed with writing accessories, and the Waldorf really went to town in that department. There was a pad of high quality paper on each bedside table, as well as a placemat-size writing pad inside a leather folder on the desk. Instead of the normal cheapo pen, there was a heavy rollerball pen, which I most definitely took with me as a souvenir.

The bathroom was what you’d expect from a hotel of this caliber, with heated floors, a walk-in shower with excellent pressure, a deep soaking tub with a TV, and soap/lotion/shampoo everywhere you looked. Little touches like the name of the hotel and logo in the shower drain drove the point home that this was no ordinary hotel.

On the first floor, past the check-in and concierge areas, there’s a big sitting room (“Peacock Alley,” which I guess is a thing common to all Waldorf Astoria hotels) where you can order food or snack on the free sweets they set up on the table in the middle of the room. On our last day, we had lunch here, and it was probably the best meal we had on our trip (with a cost to match, of course). Even if you’re not there to eat, it’s a really nice place to sit if you’re feeling cooped up in your room, and the views of the garden and nearby buildings out the floor-to-ceiling windows are pretty nice too.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It seemed like the hotel was going out of their way to surprise and delight us throughout our stay. A typical example was this flower vase that showed up in our room on the third day for no apparent reason. We came in from walking around the city and saw it on the little table in the sitting area, brightening up the room with its insane amount of Dutch-ness (yellow tulips in a delftware vase???).

When we checked out, they actually apologized to us for not being able to honor all of my Diamond benefits (which was weird, since I didn’t think they left anything out), so they gave us this delftware jar of stroopwafels just in case we were mad. Neither of us complained about anything during the stay, so I guess this will remain a mystery. Still, for the hotel to proactively offer it underscores how well they take care of their guests.

As a Diamond member, I was entitled to free breakfast every day, and the incredible spread really took the overall stay to another level. Technically Waldorfs Astoria are supposed to provide a continental breakfast or $15 food and beverage credit to Gold and Diamond members, but we were offered the “Full buffet experience” instead. This includes the entire buffet (cold and hot items) as well as a selection of made-to-order items, and it normally costs 37.50 euro. Now, I don’t know if this is only available to Diamonds, or if Gold members get the full buffet too. If they do, that’s a hell of a benefit for a mid-tier elite.

Here are some more photos of the buffet:

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After four days of this breakfast, the cozy room, the excellent service, and the drop-dead gorgeous surroundings, I was happy I went to the trouble to line up a stay here versus the Hyatt Regency. The location also made a big difference — while the Regency isn’t that far, it was so frigidly cold while we were there that we didn’t want to do any walking that we didn’t have to. The fact that we were right on the main canals made it easy to get around without 10-15 minutes going from the hotel to the city center every time.

And when I say it was cold, I mean it was really fucking cold. I may live in California now, but I grew up in Chicago, and I know from cold. The temperature most days was between 15-20 degrees Fahrenheit, although the “feels like” temperature was usually below zero. While it was cold to the point of being kind of annoying, it did give me a different perspective on Amsterdam, especially when I saw people ice skating on the canals. (While the weather we had in the Faroe Islands in the days that followed was definitely wilder, it was in the low 30s, which felt positively balmy.)

As our stay was wrapping up, I mentioned to Justine that the cash price for our upgraded room was around $700 per night, and while that’s an insane amount to spend for a room (and an amount much higher than I’ve ever paid for a hotel), I felt like the hotel did enough for me to have felt like I got my money’s worth if I had paid cash. It’s an awfully subjective question, but there were just so many little ways the hotel went above and beyond my expectations that it ended up setting a new bar for what a luxury hotel stay could look like.

My main benchmark for ultra-luxury is the Park Hyatt Paris, which pales in comparison to the Waldorf Amsterdam. When I left the Park Hyatt, I was happy to have satisfied my curiosity about it, but it didn’t really stick with me. Sure it was fancy, but the service was mostly indifferent, the room was fairly small, and I still can’t get on board with the hideous beef jerky monster sculptures that line the walls. I mostly felt like the high price was there to separate the Park Hyatt’s high-end clientele from the types of people who stay at lesser hotels. It didn’t feel like the $600 or so per night that rooms usually cost went toward anything exceptional, and I could never under any circumstances justify paying for a room there. On the other hand, if I got a bonus at work and had some extra money to blow on a trip, I could see myself paying for the Waldorf again.

Who else has stayed here, and did you like it as much as we did? If you’re going to be in Amsterdam and have enough Hilton points, I can’t recommend it enough… just make sure you pick up an Amex Hilton card if you don’t already have status, since the elite benefits here are substantial.

Sometimes I wish my blog had a bigger platform, and not just because I crave the validation of thousands of strangers. When you have a well-known blog, you can put companies on blast about bad policies (or policy abuse), and it very often effects meaningful changes. Right now, I’m way too small for Hilton to care either way what I have to say, and I wish there were some way to get them to see this and actually respond, rather than just brushing it off as another #hater complaining on the internet. In the past year, I have earned three free weekend night certificates — two from completing the minimum spend on my now-canceled Citi Hilton card, and one from opening the new Amex Hilton Aspire card. Amex made me wait around ten weeks to receive the award this time around, during which time I’ve had my eye on a particular redemption. When I finally got the email from Hilton with my certificate ID, I called immediately to try to book the stay while there was still a standard room reward available.

The first pain point is that Hilton makes you call in to redeem the certificate, rather than letting you do it online like IHG or Hyatt. I feel like it would save them time and money to invest in this functionality, but I guess they aren’t there just yet. I went ahead and called, and the phone rep I reached took twenty minutes just to confirm that my certificate existed. He insisted first that I had an Amex gift card and not a free night certificate, and then that I had to call Amex to redeem it. Frustrated at having to defend myself when I was objectively right while he showed almost no interest in changing his mind, I explained that Hilton sent me the certificate and told me to call the normal Honors number. He muttered to himself for a minute or so and then put me on hold for the third time. When he finally came back, he said, “good news, I was able to get you approved to use your certificate,” in a tone like he was doing me a favor.

So we finally got down to booking the award, at which point he said, “Unfortunately, you don’t have enough points in your account to use the certificate.” I asked him what the hell he was talking about and he explained that the terms and conditions of the reward certificate state that you need to have enough points in your account to book an award stay at the hotel in order to use the certificate. In other words, you can use the certificate to book a room instead of using points, but it’s invalid unless you already have enough points for the award.

This is obviously non-sensical, and the terms and conditions absolutely do not say anything to that effect. I kept pushing him, more out of annoyance than anything else, because I knew he wasn’t going to relent. I asked him to email me the terms and conditions he was reading, and he said he couldn’t do that. I asked for a supervisor, and he said that the supervisor would tell me the same thing, since it’s clearly written in the terms (the ones he couldn’t send to me).

Here’s the thing: this is the second time I have run into this issue when redeeming a free night certificate. It’s an obvious hang-up-call-back situation, but now I’m wondering why multiple Hilton reps are refusing to let people redeem their free night certificates based on a non-existent policy. The first time it happened, I went back and forth with the rep and then her supervisor for 45 minutes before calling back, talking to a different rep, and redeeming the certificate in under five minutes. Hilton, you’re officially on blast: WHY ARE YOUR REPS INVENTING A RESTRICTION ON FREE NIGHT CERTIFICATES?

Has anyone else run into this? The idea that you’d need to have enough points to pay for a stay in order to use a certificate that entitles you to a free stay is a ridiculous policy, but someone somewhere is communicating it to Hilton reps, and they’re making what should be a simple process into a serious headache. More frustratingly, I earned those certificates — Hilton didn’t just give them to me to be nice. I paid $450 for a credit card in order to get this one, and it’s really shitty of them to make it so difficult to use.

Of course that leaves aside the long argument I needed to have in order to get the rep to even admit that the free night certificate was a real thing and not an Amex gift card or something. I recognize there are bad apples, and if it were a one-off, I’d probably let it go. However, my track record is now two-for-three with Hilton reps refusing to honor the free night. I’ve been really happy with all my Hilton stays recently, so it’s a shame that their call center stands in such stark opposition to their on-property staff when it comes to providing service to their members.

PS: In case you were wondering, at no point did I bring up my Diamond status as a reason I should get my way, because I may be easily irritated, but I’m still a ways from becoming the “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” guy…

Anyway, I’ll let you know if I ever hear from Hilton, although I’m not confident. If anyone else has dealt with this, I’d love to collect more examples of it (although I feel bad for you that you had to deal with it too).

~        ~        ~

Update: Immediately after posting this, I contacted Hilton to try again to redeem my certificate, and I found out some interesting info. Happily, the rep I spoke to was able to book the stay for me with no pushback whatsoever, which at least put this particular headache to rest. After I got the confirmation number, I asked him if he had ever heard of the “you need the equivalent cost in points” policy, and here’s what he told me… Apparently, in their system, a free night certificate stay looks like a points stay. As a result, in order to apply the certificate, you need to book the room on points and then redeem the certificate, which credits the points back to the account. So it’s not that it’s a policy requiring you to have points in order to redeem the certificate or anything — it’s more of an IT issue.

To get around this, experienced reps know an internal procedure to “borrow” points, which forces the reservation through the system far enough that they can apply the certificate to complete the booking. However, as he was explaining this, he kind of chuckled and said that since it’s uncommon for people to call in with the certificate, there are a lot of reps who don’t understand the borrowing procedure and flat-out refuse to make the booking due to the system not letting them. (This explains why, when I dealt with this issue the first time, a supervisor told me that the system physically prevented her from making the booking, even though a different rep was able to do it without issue.)

Now I think I understand what’s going on here… the problem is that Hilton isn’t adequately training their phone reps in the process around free night certificates, which is causing phone reps to cite terms and conditions that are different from what the customer sees when they click on the full terms and conditions of the reward certificate. (I now also understand why the first rep I spoke to today couldn’t send me the terms he was referring to, since they weren’t “terms” as much as the reality of the IT system he was working with.) It’s not some nefarious plot to swindle people out of their certificates, it’s just corporate bureaucracy creating friction between customer expectations and operational realities. Yay?

You liked this post enough to read to the end, but did you like it enough to give me money? If so, check out my Patreon page.

Sometimes I wish my blog had a bigger platform, and not just because I crave the validation of thousands of strangers. When you have a well-known blog, you can put companies on blast about bad policies (or policy abuse), and it very often effects meaningful changes. Right now, I’m way too small for Hilton to care either way what I have to say, and I wish there were some way to get them to see this and actually respond, rather than just brushing it off as another #hater complaining on the internet.

In the past year, I have earned three free weekend night certificates — two from completing the minimum spend on my now-canceled Citi Hilton card, and one from opening the new Amex Hilton Aspire card. Amex made me wait around ten weeks to receive the award this time around, during which time I’ve had my eye on a particular redemption. When I finally got the email from Hilton with my certificate ID, I called immediately to try to book the stay while there was still a standard room reward available.

The first pain point is that Hilton makes you call in to redeem the certificate, rather than letting you do it online like IHG or Hyatt. I feel like it would save them time and money to invest in this functionality, but I guess they aren’t there just yet. I went ahead and called, and the phone rep I reached took twenty minutes just to confirm that my certificate existed. He insisted first that I had an Amex gift card and not a free night certificate, and then that I had to call Amex to redeem it. Frustrated at having to defend myself when I was objectively right while he showed almost no interest in changing his mind, I explained that Hilton sent me the certificate and told me to call the normal Honors number. He muttered to himself for a minute or so and then put me on hold for the third time. When he finally came back, he said, “good news, I was able to get you approved to use your certificate,” in a tone like he was doing me a favor.

So we finally got down to booking the award, at which point he said, “Unfortunately, you don’t have enough points in your account to use the certificate.” I asked him what the hell he was talking about and he explained that the terms and conditions of the reward certificate state that you need to have enough points in your account to book an award stay at the hotel in order to use the certificate. In other words, you can use the certificate to book a room instead of using points, but it’s invalid unless you already have enough points for the award.

This is obviously non-sensical, and the terms and conditions absolutely do not say anything to that effect. I kept pushing him, more out of annoyance than anything else, because I knew he wasn’t going to relent. I asked him to email me the terms and conditions he was reading, and he said he couldn’t do that. I asked for a supervisor, and he said that the supervisor would tell me the same thing, since it’s clearly written in the terms (the ones he couldn’t send to me).

Here’s the thing: this is the second time I have run into this issue when redeeming a free night certificate. It’s an obvious hang-up-call-back situation, but now I’m wondering why multiple Hilton reps are refusing to let people redeem their free night certificates based on a non-existent policy. The first time it happened, I went back and forth with the rep and then her supervisor for 45 minutes before calling back, talking to a different rep, and redeeming the certificate in under five minutes. Hilton, you’re officially on blast: WHY ARE YOUR REPS INVENTING A RESTRICTION ON FREE NIGHT CERTIFICATES?

Has anyone else run into this? The idea that you’d need to have enough points to pay for a stay in order to use a certificate that entitles you to a free stay is a ridiculous policy, but someone somewhere is communicating it to Hilton reps, and they’re making what should be a simple process into a serious headache. More frustratingly, I earned those certificates — Hilton didn’t just give them to me to be nice. I paid $450 for a credit card in order to get this one, and it’s really shitty of them to make it so difficult to use.

Of course that leaves aside the long argument I needed to have in order to get the rep to even admit that the free night certificate was a real thing and not an Amex gift card or something. I recognize there are bad apples, and if it were a one-off, I’d probably let it go. However, my track record is now two-for-three with Hilton reps refusing to honor the free night. I’ve been really happy with all my Hilton stays recently, so it’s a shame that their call center stands in such stark opposition to their on-property staff when it comes to providing service to their members.

PS: In case you were wondering, at no point did I bring up my Diamond status as a reason I should get my way, because I may be easily irritated, but I’m still a ways from becoming the “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” guy…

Anyway, I’ll let you know if I ever hear from Hilton, although I’m not confident. If anyone else has dealt with this, I’d love to collect more examples of it (although I feel bad for you that you had to deal with it too).

~        ~        ~

Update: Immediately after posting this, I contacted Hilton to try again to redeem my certificate, and I found out some interesting info. Happily, the rep I spoke to was able to book the stay for me with no pushback whatsoever, which at least put this particular headache to rest. After I got the confirmation number, I asked him if he had ever heard of the “you need the equivalent cost in points” policy, and here’s what he told me… Apparently, in their system, a free night certificate stay looks like a points stay. As a result, in order to apply the certificate, you need to book the room on points and then redeem the certificate, which credits the points back to the account. So it’s not that it’s a policy requiring you to have points in order to redeem the certificate or anything — it’s more of an IT issue.

To get around this, experienced reps know an internal procedure to “borrow” points, which forces the reservation through the system far enough that they can apply the certificate to complete the booking. However, as he was explaining this, he kind of chuckled and said that since it’s uncommon for people to call in with the certificate, there are a lot of reps who don’t understand the borrowing procedure and flat-out refuse to make the booking due to the system not letting them. (This explains why, when I dealt with this issue the first time, a supervisor told me that the system physically prevented her from making the booking, even though a different rep was able to do it without issue.)

Now I think I understand what’s going on here… the problem is that Hilton isn’t adequately training their phone reps in the process around free night certificates, which is causing phone reps to cite terms and conditions that are different from what the customer sees when they click on the full terms and conditions of the reward certificate. (I now also understand why the first rep I spoke to today couldn’t send me the terms he was referring to, since they weren’t “terms” as much as the reality of the IT system he was working with.) It’s not some nefarious plot to swindle people out of their certificates, it’s just corporate bureaucracy creating friction between customer expectations and operational realities. Yay?

 

Quick background here: I wrote the below post back when Flying Blue announced the details of their new program, but then I deleted it, because I thought it was a little over-the-top, even for me. Flying Blue is back in the news lately now that they’ve released new information about the changes they’re making on the redemption side. As expected, they’re getting rid of award charts, which pretty much means that all bets are off in terms of how much awards are going to cost tomorrow, let alone a year from now. Anyway, reading about the changes reminded me how annoyed I am at them not only for their changes, but also for the disingenuous way they’re pitching those changes to their customers. It seemed like a good time to revisit my post from last fall, so with a few edits to rein it in a little, here you go…

This is a rant. If you want to read the specifics of how Lying Blue just sodomized the idea of a loyalty program with an iron rod, there are other sites that cover this in greater detail. I’m going to use this space to vent about how pissed off I am about their “enhancements.” Oh and to try to coin “Lying Blue.”

Maybe I shouldn’t be so upset. I mean, Lying Blue has never been a great program to begin with; between their fuel surcharges, phantom availability, buggy website, and overzealous fraud department, it was always kind of a pain in the ass to book tickets with them. And even in cases where everything went right (you were able to transfer in miles without your account getting shut down, the availability you found was real, etc.), there was still a 50% chance that the site would error out when you tried to confirm your purchase, requiring you to start over.

Here’s what bugs me so much, though – there’s clearly a marketing executive at Air France (unfairly or not, I associate all of these negative changes with Air France and not with my beloved KLM who would never do something like this to me) who read the word “millennial” in an industry whitepaper and decided that everything the airline did from this point on had to appeal to millennials in the most ham-handed way possible. First it was JOON, the astonishingly misguided airline for millennials… because nothing gives a millennial a fifteen foot boner like flight attendants wearing Keds. (In case you weren’t aware, I’m not being sarcastic. One of the things Joon touted when it launched was that flight attendants would wear Keds.) Seriously, dangle some Keds in front a millennial, and they will buy whatever you tell them to. Smear some avocado on there and you could convince them to go fight ISIS.

Cut to this week, when the revamped frequent flyer program they just unveiled just smacks of “well we have to figure out a way to appeal to millennials” — I mean, look at the stupid website they launched to try to convince you that the new program will be better, not worse:

Look at her – she’s using a tablet to book her flights. A tablet! She’s not going to tolerate some shitty loyalty program that requires her to use a… ugh… a computer. She may not even know what a computer is for chrissakes. Isn’t that what grandpa uses to do his crossword puzzles?

And that same annoying marketing executive went to some dumb industry conference where a bunch of MBAs talked about how millennials don’t want to be told what to do — they may want to use their miles for flights, but they may also want to use their miles for “experiencing experiential experiences” and if you don’t offer that to them, they’ll go find other miles that will. So instead of offering frequent flyer miles that you can only use for fuddy-duddy grandpa things like taking plane trips, now you can use them to go to your Skrillex concerts or whatever else you kids are into these days.

Just like JOON, the predominant idea here is that if you smear enough millennial-baiting jism over your fundamentally bankrupt ideas, your customers won’t notice, because they’ll be so excited about a company that finally gets them.

Hence, the big unveiling of the reinvented Flying Blue program – “more simple, more clear, more flexible.” (As an aside, I think the phrase “more clear” tells you all you need to know. “Clearer” would be too clear, of course.)

I feel like there’s invariably going to be some pedantic shithead in the comments who accuses me of being entitled… AKA “You want business class seats, then pay for them – the airline isn’t obligated to make business class awards available to you just because you want them.” And while that’s true, I’m really just trying to call out the absurd logical contortions programs like this (and Delta, of course – let’s not forget Ed “Millennials want to redeem miles for a haircut” Bastian in all this) go through to convince you that they aren’t shitting right into your mouth.

Most articles about marketing to millennials conclude with some variation of the idea that millennials value authenticity… yet somehow we end up with shit like this, where the marketing is an almost-comical bucket of lies. Nothing says “authenticity” like lying through your teeth, right?

So, if I understand it correctly, miles will be harder to earn, worth less, and you’ll never know how many miles you need for a flight, since it will depend on the price of a ticket. But you’ll be able to use them on any flight, so it’s okay! Except you already CAN use miles on any flight, which is what a Flex award is. It’s not like saver/standard awards are some convoluted scheme unique to Flying Blue, yet they act like the current program is a byzantine maze that stymies any attempts to get value out of it.

The slow decline of aspirational redemptions just sped up a little bit, I guess. For now, there are plenty of great programs still available, but this kind of shit does not bode well for future developments, such as Air Canada’s forthcoming in-house program, or whatever bullshit Aeroplan is going to turn into after they lose their partnership with AC. (And let’s be real, Air Canada is the one demanding absolutely bonkers fuel surcharges on award tickets booked through Aeroplan, so I’m not really holding my breath that their new program is going to be especially generous.)

In other words, this was probably inevitable, but I’m still mad that Lying Blue is kicking me in the nuts and telling me why I should enjoy getting kicked in the nuts while they do it. At least smear some avocado on your shoes before you do it, you dicks.

You liked this post enough to read to the end, but did you like it enough to give me money? If so, check out my Patreon page.

Quick background here: I wrote the below post back when Flying Blue announced the details of their new program, but then I deleted it, because I thought it was a little over-the-top, even for me. Flying Blue is back in the news lately now that they’ve released new information about the changes they’re making on the redemption side. As expected, they’re getting rid of award charts, which pretty much means that all bets are off in terms of how much awards are going to cost tomorrow, let alone a year from now. Anyway, reading about the changes reminded me how annoyed I am at them not only for their changes, but also for the disingenuous way they’re pitching those changes to their customers. It seemed like a good time to revisit my post from last fall, so with a few edits to rein it in a little, here you go…

This is a rant. If you want to read the specifics of how Lying Blue just sodomized the idea of a loyalty program with an iron rod, there are other sites that cover this in greater detail. I’m going to use this space to vent about how pissed off I am about their “enhancements.” Oh and to try to coin “Lying Blue.”

Maybe I shouldn’t be so upset. I mean, Lying Blue has never been a great program to begin with; between their fuel surcharges, phantom availability, buggy website, and overzealous fraud department, it was always kind of a pain in the ass to book tickets with them. And even in cases where everything went right (you were able to transfer in miles without your account getting shut down, the availability you found was real, etc.), there was still a 50% chance that the site would error out when you tried to confirm your purchase, requiring you to start over.

Here’s what bugs me so much, though – there’s clearly a marketing executive at Air France (unfairly or not, I associate all of these negative changes with Air France and not with my beloved KLM who would never do something like this to me) who read the word “millennial” in an industry whitepaper and decided that everything the airline did from this point on had to appeal to millennials in the most ham-handed way possible. First it was JOON, the astonishingly misguided airline for millennials… because nothing gives a millennial a fifteen foot boner like flight attendants wearing Keds. (In case you weren’t aware, I’m not being sarcastic. One of the things Joon touted when it launched was that flight attendants would wear Keds.) Seriously, dangle some Keds in front a millennial, and they will buy whatever you tell them to. Smear some avocado on there and you could convince them to go fight ISIS.

Cut to this week, when the revamped frequent flyer program they just unveiled just smacks of “well we have to figure out a way to appeal to millennials” — I mean, look at the stupid website they launched to try to convince you that the new program will be better, not worse:

Look at her – she’s using a tablet to book her flights. A tablet! She’s not going to tolerate some shitty loyalty program that requires her to use a… ugh… a computer. She may not even know what a computer is for chrissakes. Isn’t that what grandpa uses to do his crossword puzzles?

And that same annoying marketing executive went to some dumb industry conference where a bunch of MBAs talked about how millennials don’t want to be told what to do — they may want to use their miles for flights, but they may also want to use their miles for “experiencing experiential experiences” and if you don’t offer that to them, they’ll go find other miles that will. So instead of offering frequent flyer miles that you can only use for fuddy-duddy grandpa things like taking plane trips, now you can use them to go to your Skrillex concerts or whatever else you kids are into these days.

Just like JOON, the predominant idea here is that if you smear enough millennial-baiting jism over your fundamentally bankrupt ideas, your customers won’t notice, because they’ll be so excited about a company that finally gets them.

Hence, the big unveiling of the reinvented Flying Blue program – “more simple, more clear, more flexible.” (As an aside, I think the phrase “more clear” tells you all you need to know. “Clearer” would be too clear, of course.)

I feel like there’s invariably going to be some pedantic shithead in the comments who accuses me of being entitled… AKA “You want business class seats, then pay for them – the airline isn’t obligated to make business class awards available to you just because you want them.” And while that’s true, I’m really just trying to call out the absurd logical contortions programs like this (and Delta, of course – let’s not forget Ed “Millennials want to redeem miles for a haircut” Bastian in all this) go through to convince you that they aren’t shitting right into your mouth.

Most articles about marketing to millennials conclude with some variation of the idea that millennials value authenticity… yet somehow we end up with shit like this, where the marketing is an almost-comical bucket of lies. Nothing says “authenticity” like lying through your teeth, right?

So, if I understand it correctly, miles will be harder to earn, worth less, and you’ll never know how many miles you need for a flight, since it will depend on the price of a ticket. But you’ll be able to use them on any flight, so it’s okay! Except you already CAN use miles on any flight, which is what a Flex award is. It’s not like saver/standard awards are some convoluted scheme unique to Flying Blue, yet they act like the current program is a byzantine maze that stymies any attempts to get value out of it.

The slow decline of aspirational redemptions just sped up a little bit, I guess. For now, there are plenty of great programs still available, but this kind of shit does not bode well for future developments, such as Air Canada’s forthcoming in-house program, or whatever bullshit Aeroplan is going to turn into after they lose their partnership with AC. (And let’s be real, Air Canada is the one demanding absolutely bonkers fuel surcharges on award tickets booked through Aeroplan, so I’m not really holding my breath that their new program is going to be especially generous.)

In other words, this was probably inevitable, but I’m still mad that Lying Blue is kicking me in the nuts and telling me why I should enjoy getting kicked in the nuts while they do it. At least smear some avocado on your shoes before you do it, you dicks.

CPH is a pretty nice airport. I like that the entire thing is connected airside, there are some neat stores, lots of Danish gin & whisky available in Duty Free, and it’s a goldmine for Priority Pass members. There are a couple things that can get annoying though, such as the long security lines and the fact that services after passport control are limited. The first time I flew through CPH, I was flying SAS business class, and I was really excited to go to the SAS lounge. SAS operates a combined first/business lounge (well “first” is for Star Alliance Gold people — I’m not sure if there are actually any departing first class seats offered by Star Alliance carriers), although both sections are pretty similar. At least, that’s what I’m to understand from reading other reviews, since I’ve only visited the business class part. I wrote a little review as part of a longer post about SAS’s longhaul business class, but if you don’t want to read that whole thing, the bottom line is that this lounge isn’t that good. CPH is one of SAS’s primary hubs, so you’d think their lounge here would be top notch, although in actuality it’s pretty boring. They’ve been improving some of their other Scandinavian lounges (such as Oslo), so hopefully CPH will get a revamp soon. Until then, you may actually be better off at one of the other lounges.

In the Schengen area, there are two contract lounges that accept Priority Pass, both located in Terminal 2 between the A and B gates — the Aspire lounge and the Aviator lounge. They’re pretty similar, with almost identical food and drink options, but I give the nod to Aspire, since the decor is nicer and it’s less crowded. I get the sense that more airlines use the Aviator lounge for their premium passengers (including my Faroese darlings Atlantic Airways who offer lounge access to people who buy refundable tickets), which explains the higher load factor.

We were there during breakfast, and the spread wasn’t that great in either lounge, although I remember Aspire having a pretty good lunch spread the last time we were there. Here are some slideshows that give you a good overview of what to expect.

Aspire:

While Aspire is one long room, Aviator is split into two parts — a large room with lots of seating and some drinks, and a smaller room where the buffet is located.

Overall, the food at the Aviator lounge was little better, but as you can see from the photos, it was fairly crowded. Since neither space was really killing it in the food department, I only spent a few minutes here before going back to the Aspire lounge.

We flew though CPH twice on this trip, the first time to go to the Faroe Islands and then on our way back, en route to London and then home. The second time, we had access to the brand new Eventyr lounge, which is CPH’s only lounge after passport control. British Airways (among others) contracts with Eventyr for its premium passengers, but the lounge also recently joined Priority Pass, so it’s pretty easy to get access. (You can pay around $50 for a day pass as well.)

It’s a really nice space, and I’d consider it one of the better lounges I’ve been to. I’d put it maybe on par with a really nice Delta Sky Club, without as many good food options. It’s pretty large given the limited passenger base it serves, so I’m not surprised that it joined Priority Pass in order to increase the foot traffic. Still, despite the relatively loose access, it was pretty deserted on a Monday afternoon/evening.

It’s up a few floors from the terminal (Justine was super happy that I noticed the elevator after we climbed a bunch of stairs), and the lounge consists mostly of one large circular room. There’s a raised portion in the middle with comfy lounge-y furniture, while the usual cafe seating is around the outer part of the circle. Normally there would be good views, although the weather was so bad that you couldn’t actually see that far onto the airfield.

Speaking of the weather, I noticed at one point that as people left, the attendant asked them if they were on such-and-such a flight and then informed them that the flight was delayed due to visibility. There are departure boards in the lounge, so it’s not like folks were dependent on the attendant for this info, and I thought it was a nice service-oriented touch that you don’t often get in contract lounges.

The only big downside with the food was the really bad dessert situation — just some shitty little mini-muffins. I ate enough junk food on this trip, though, that I should probably appreciate the Eventyr lounge looking out for my overall health. Despite that, the food was pretty good, and I especially liked the multiple beers (and wines!) available on tap for free.

As far as the facilities go the bathrooms are basic and antiseptic (which is probably a good thing for a bathroom), and there are shower facilities for people who, like me, are on long layovers but who, unlike me, aren’t too lazy for some basic personal hygiene. I know, I know: shut up and post the pics already.

The biggest downside to the non-Schengen area at CPH is that individual gates don’t open until the flight is ready to board, which leads to a bunch of people sitting on the floor around each gate. We left the lounge when the display board said “go to gate,” but we were too early and ended up having to wait for a while until we could board. Lesson for next time — stay in the lounge until the last second before the aircraft door closes.

Overall, the Eventyr lounge is definitely my favorite lounge at CPH*, and even if you have access to the SAS lounge, I’d recommend Eventyr instead. Given the long wait times at passport control, having a lounge located near the international gates is a pretty great feature (otherwise, you risk either cutting it close with your flight or having a bunch of time to kill in a pretty boring part of the airport). Plus, the food, decor, and facilities are all as nice as or nicer than the SAS lounge. Maybe this will change when SAS eventually updates the lounge, but for now I’d say Eventyr has them beat pretty solidly.

*Over the course of gathering information while I wrote this post, I realized that there’s a fourth Priority Pass lounge at CPH: the Primeclass lounge, also located after passport control. I’m mad at myself for not knowing this during the trip, since I had a ton of time to kill and would have liked to check out a new lounge. From the pictures, it doesn’t look as nice as Eventyr, but I’d prefer to know first-hand.

There’s also the brand new “Atelier Relaxium” (a name so ridiculous it must have been dreamt up by the same person who came up with the World of Hyatt tier names). Have you ever wanted a lounge where you could sit in a section whose color matched your mood? (This sounds dumb to me: if I’m irate that the airline lost my bags, why would I want to sit in an all-red room?) It’s located right next to the Aspire lounge, but it’s only open to Air France, KLM, and Finnair business class passengers or paid access. I love my blog readers, but not enough to spend $30+ to review a lounge for you.

What’s everyone’s feeling about CPH airport? You know what, feel free to post your general feelings about Danish people too, if you want.

You liked this post enough to read to the end, but did you like it enough to give me money? If so, check out my Patreon page.

CPH is a pretty nice airport. I like that the entire thing is connected airside, there are some neat stores, lots of Danish gin & whisky available in Duty Free, and it’s a goldmine for Priority Pass members. There are a couple things that can get annoying though, such as the long security lines and the fact that services after passport control are limited.

The first time I flew through CPH, I was flying SAS business class, and I was really excited to go to the SAS lounge. SAS operates a combined first/business lounge (well “first” is for Star Alliance Gold people — I’m not sure if there are actually any departing first class seats offered by Star Alliance carriers), although both sections are pretty similar. At least, that’s what I’m to understand from reading other reviews, since I’ve only visited the business class part. I wrote a little review as part of a longer post about SAS’s longhaul business class, but if you don’t want to read that whole thing, the bottom line is that this lounge isn’t that good. CPH is one of SAS’s primary hubs, so you’d think their lounge here would be top notch, although in actuality it’s pretty boring. They’ve been improving some of their other Scandinavian lounges (such as Oslo), so hopefully CPH will get a revamp soon. Until then, you may actually be better off at one of the other lounges.

In the Schengen area, there are two contract lounges that accept Priority Pass, both located in Terminal 2 between the A and B gates — the Aspire lounge and the Aviator lounge. They’re pretty similar, with almost identical food and drink options, but I give the nod to Aspire, since the decor is nicer and it’s less crowded. I get the sense that more airlines use the Aviator lounge for their premium passengers (including my Faroese darlings Atlantic Airways who offer lounge access to people who buy refundable tickets), which explains the higher load factor.

We were there during breakfast, and the spread wasn’t that great in either lounge, although I remember Aspire having a pretty good lunch spread the last time we were there. Here are some slideshows that give you a good overview of what to expect.

Aspire:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

While Aspire is one long room, Aviator is split into two parts — a large room with lots of seating and some drinks, and a smaller room where the buffet is located.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Overall, the food at the Aviator lounge was little better, but as you can see from the photos, it was fairly crowded. Since neither space was really killing it in the food department, I only spent a few minutes here before going back to the Aspire lounge.

We flew though CPH twice on this trip, the first time to go to the Faroe Islands and then on our way back, en route to London and then home. The second time, we had access to the brand new Eventyr lounge, which is CPH’s only lounge after passport control. British Airways (among others) contracts with Eventyr for its premium passengers, but the lounge also recently joined Priority Pass, so it’s pretty easy to get access. (You can pay around $50 for a day pass as well.)

It’s a really nice space, and I’d consider it one of the better lounges I’ve been to. I’d put it maybe on par with a really nice Delta Sky Club, without as many good food options. It’s pretty large given the limited passenger base it serves, so I’m not surprised that it joined Priority Pass in order to increase the foot traffic. Still, despite the relatively loose access, it was pretty deserted on a Monday afternoon/evening.

It’s up a few floors from the terminal (Justine was super happy that I noticed the elevator after we climbed a bunch of stairs), and the lounge consists mostly of one large circular room. There’s a raised portion in the middle with comfy lounge-y furniture, while the usual cafe seating is around the outer part of the circle. Normally there would be good views, although the weather was so bad that you couldn’t actually see that far onto the airfield.

Speaking of the weather, I noticed at one point that as people left, the attendant asked them if they were on such-and-such a flight and then informed them that the flight was delayed due to visibility. There are departure boards in the lounge, so it’s not like folks were dependent on the attendant for this info, and I thought it was a nice service-oriented touch that you don’t often get in contract lounges.

The only big downside with the food was the really bad dessert situation — just some shitty little mini-muffins. I ate enough junk food on this trip, though, that I should probably appreciate the Eventyr lounge looking out for my overall health. Despite that, the food was pretty good, and I especially liked the multiple beers (and wines!) available on tap for free.

As far as the facilities go the bathrooms are basic and antiseptic (which is probably a good thing for a bathroom), and there are shower facilities for people who, like me, are on long layovers but who, unlike me, aren’t too lazy for some basic personal hygiene. I know, I know: shut up and post the pics already.

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The biggest downside to the non-Schengen area at CPH is that individual gates don’t open until the flight is ready to board, which leads to a bunch of people sitting on the floor around each gate. We left the lounge when the display board said “go to gate,” but we were too early and ended up having to wait for a while until we could board. Lesson for next time — stay in the lounge until the last second before the aircraft door closes.

Overall, the Eventyr lounge is definitely my favorite lounge at CPH*, and even if you have access to the SAS lounge, I’d recommend Eventyr instead. Given the long wait times at passport control, having a lounge located near the international gates is a pretty great feature (otherwise, you risk either cutting it close with your flight or having a bunch of time to kill in a pretty boring part of the airport). Plus, the food, decor, and facilities are all as nice as or nicer than the SAS lounge. Maybe this will change when SAS eventually updates the lounge, but for now I’d say Eventyr has them beat pretty solidly.

*Over the course of gathering information while I wrote this post, I realized that there’s a fourth Priority Pass lounge at CPH: the Primeclass lounge, also located after passport control. I’m mad at myself for not knowing this during the trip, since I had a ton of time to kill and would have liked to check out a new lounge. From the pictures, it doesn’t look as nice as Eventyr, but I’d prefer to know first-hand.

There’s also the brand new “Atelier Relaxium” (a name so ridiculous it must have been dreamt up by the same person who came up with the World of Hyatt tier names). Have you ever wanted a lounge where you could sit in a section whose color matched your mood? (This sounds dumb to me: if I’m irate that the airline lost my bags, why would I want to sit in an all-red room?) It’s located right next to the Aspire lounge, but it’s only open to Air France, KLM, and Finnair business class passengers or paid access. I love my blog readers, but not enough to spend $30+ to review a lounge for you.

 

 

What’s everyone’s feeling about CPH airport? You know what, feel free to post your general feelings about Danish people too, if you want.