Revolut to open its own airport lounges from 2027, sort of...

Watch out, American Express, there's a new kid on the block.

Revolut has just thrown its hat into the airport-lounge-ring as it were, and it's doing it in typically bold fashion. The bank is calling the project "Revolut Lounge": a network of its own branded, premium airport lounges, kicking off at Copenhagen Airport in 2027.

The plan, by the sounds of it, is for the Copenhagen lounge to become the biggest shared-access lounge anywhere in the Schengen zone, and it's working with the Plaza Premium Group, the world's biggest independent lounge operator, to help run it.

It's worth saying upfront: this is very much a "watch this space" story. Revolut has kept a lot of the practical detail under wraps for now, who gets access, how, and what it'll cost, if anything.

What exactly is Revolut Lounge?

For a long time we have had a sushi conveyor belt set-up of card schemes that all lean on the same pool of third-party lounges and it really boils down to a handful of the same names over and over again: Amex, Priority Pass, LoungeKey, and DragonPass.

The latter three will be the lounge memberships you'll be most familiar with, as most banks and cards that offer "lounge access" are really just buying entry into somebody else's scheme rather than building anything of their own. Revolut is doing just this with its £55-a-month Ultra plan, with its included LoungeKey membership, but this is clearly not enough. It's gone "hold my beer" and are now designing, building and branding the room itself, but not running it day-to-day. This makes sense, as Revolut can stick to what it knows best, branding and satisfying its customer base, whilst Plaza Premium can run the bitty day-to-day ops.

The details: Copenhagen, 2027

Copenhagen Airport is the confirmed launch site, with an opening pencilled in for 2027. Once built, Revolut says it'll be the airport's standout new facility, and, on paper, the single largest common-use lounge anywhere in the Schengen area (common-use lounge simply means an airport lounge that is open to all, in theory, regardless of airline or frequent flyer status).

The build itself is a joint effort with Plaza Premium Group to run the day-to-day, with good reason, as Plaza Premium's own lounge brand has picked up Skytrax's award for World's Best Independent Airport Lounge every year between 2016 and 2025. Aka, they're bringing in the big guns!

But why Copenhagen first, rather than a bigger hub like Heathrow or Amsterdam? The reasoning Revolut has given comes down to two things: the city's design credentials fit the brand's ambitions, and it's trying to grow a Nordic customer base that already sits at 2 million and is expected to pass 3 million by the end of the year.

Why is Revolut bothering with lounges at all?

This sits inside a much bigger pattern. Earlier in the year, Revolut confirmed plans for its first physical retail store, in Barcelona, proof that the "digital-only" identity the bank built its name on is being retired in favour of something closer to a lifestyle brand with a banking licence attached. In a world of digital "everything", we all crave something a bit more tangible.

There's money behind that shift too, obviously. Revolut's paid tiers (more on this coming soon!) already sell heavily on travel extras, app subscriptions, insurance, fee-free spending abroad, third-party lounge access, as the reason to upgrade from the free plan. Having some ownership of the actual lounge, rather than paying someone else for access to theirs, hands Revolut control over the experience. But the key difference is that Amex built its lounges for customers it already had, while Revolut is building for ones it hopes to win.

How does this compare to American Express?

Amex has spent years building its reputation on premium airport hospitality, with its Centurion Lounges overseas, and here in the UK (you can read our review of the Heathrow Centurion Lounge here). All of these perks are then bundled into the £650-a-year Amex Platinum card.

Revolut Lounge could well be aimed at a different slice of the market. Amex's model is built around exclusivity, access tied tightly to specific premium cards, with a fee attached that keeps the crowd relatively small.

Revolut could offer a point of difference to Amex by operating something closer to pay-per-use or tiered subscription access, open to a much wider pool of travellers rather than reserved for a small club of top-tier cardholders.

Don't get me wrong, I expect and would hope that the top tier of card membership gets unlimited access. But someone on the free card, for example, might get a discounted rate of entry.

Now, all of that is a fairly big "if" though. Right now we have one confirmed lounge, opening in a little over a year, with no confirmed access model, so it's far too early to say whether this sits alongside Amex's offering or could potentially threaten Amex's positioning.

Amex Centurion Lounge Heathrow T3 - Review

As with any business, this whole concept lives or dies by its own numbers, so there's a real possibility this stays a single, striking lounge rather than growing into a sprawling international network.

Our take

For Revolut's sake, I hope it works. Competition is almost always a good thing, especially in the travel world, this is why we're willing easyJet to succeed with their new loyalty programme. I fully believe that airlines, credit cards and lounges are all far too comfortable in their industry position at the moment because there is a serious lack of competition. No one wants to stick their head above the parapet, meanwhile the incumbents are all competing on who can strip away the most benefits whilst retaining their customers. This is my hill, and whilst I won't die on it, someone else might!

For too long, this corner of travel has been the preserve of Amex, Priority Pass, LoungeKey, and DragonPass.

A well-funded challenger with scalability, a serious operating partner in Plaza Premium Group, and an actual reason to make lounges good rather than just adequate can only be a positive for travellers, whether or not you ever bank with Revolut.

We'll keep across this one and update as Revolut confirms more. In the meantime, if you're new to Revolut's rewards side of things, it's a good moment to get up to speed, and luckily for you we've got three dedicated Rev Points (the reward currency of Revolut) guides in the works that had nothing to do with this piece of news, how fortuitous:

1. What are Rev Points? The basics of Revolut's own rewards currency and where it sits alongside the wider points and miles landscape

2. How to earn Rev Points. Which plans and spending categories actually earn you the most, and how to maximise it

3. How to spend Rev Points. Where your points stretch furthest, and how that compares to using your Avios, Virgin Points, or Amex Membership Rewards instead

Keep an eye out for all three!

Helena

Points Well Made is a passion project from Sam and Helena. If you've enjoyed this and want to help us keep the lights on, please consider buying us a Ko-fi or subscribing monthly. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for more of the same. Thanks for reading.