Revolut is launching its own airport lounge

The fast-growing fintech is going head-to-head with Amex

A surprise announcement that was fifteen months in the making, or perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise at all. In the UK we already have an Amex lounge at Heathrow, and a number of other card issuers offer lounge access without having their name on the door. What should make Revolut’s new airport lounges different is what’s inside them.

What’s been announced?

Revolut is launching its own airport lounges, starting first with Copenhagen Airport. The space is described as “unique, gutsy and super cool” which hints at the space being more interesting than your typical lounge. It sounds more like the Virgin Clubhouse than a BA space, but are yet to find out.

Copenhagen is expected to be the first of many. “More will come soon” is the official line, but there’s no indication which cities are on their roadmap. What we do know is that this project started at least fifteen months ago, and on LinkedIn the executive in charge commented that “you’ll need to be a bit patient; roll-out of multiple lounges won’t happen overnight”.

Copenhagen might seem an odd choice for a London-headquartered fintech, but they have around two million customers across Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland and are on track to grow that to three million by the end of this year. The Revolut Lounge will be the largest non-airline lounge in the Schengen area. Their competition at the airport is the free-to-access (and very Danish) Carlsberg lounge, an Aspire lounge, a Pearl lounge and another Financial Services-run lounge (the Danske Bank Aviator lounge)

The operational side of this lounge will be run by Plaza Premium. These are still Revolut lounges, and they will look like Revolut wants and have the facilities that they choose. The operational side of running a lounge – which is not light – will be managed by an operator with experience. There aren’t many third-party operators out there with a pan-European, never mind global, reach, so the choice of Plaza Premium was an obvious one.

Why are they doing this?

Revolut already have a number of travel perks with their cards. The most obvious is the collection of RevPoints that you can transfer to a number of airlines including BA, Qatar, KLM and Turkish Airlines. I wrote more about Revolut’s cards in my guide to which UK cards earn you airline miles.

There are also, on the more premium cards, travel insurance and e-sim perks, as well as no FX fees. Travel and financial services are becoming more intertwined, and it’s clear that customers are happier to pay higher fees for cards if they come with valuable perks that make their holidays, or business travel, better. That’s why you see the likes of Capital On Tap, Amex and Barclaycard offering lounge access, travel insurance, hotel status and the all-important points.

What Revolut does not have (and to be fair neither does Capital On Tap) is the holy grail: the travel voucher. Amex have their companion voucher, and Barclays has its cabin upgrade voucher. Both card issuers use it as a way to get a higher level of spend on their cards; the monthly or annual fee you pay only gets your foot in the door.

When will the Copenhagen Revolut Lounge open?

2027, say Revolut. Lounges aren’t normally big or particularly complex on paper, but when you’re creating something inside an active airport, it can really stretch out the timeline. Revolut will also be doing this for the first time, meaning that they will want this space to be perfect. That leads to design changes mid-project because things don’t look the way you expected in the plans.

The Plaza Premium partnership will no doubt make this project run more smoothly, but when you’re looking at a roadmap of lots of lounges, you want your design language to be perfect on the first one.

Who can access Revolut lounges?

The specifics on entry are still to be announced, but they are expected to be tied to membership tiers. The more expensive upper tiers on both the business and personal Revolut cards come with lounge access. I would expect these to offer free access to the Rev Lounge. I wouldn’t be surprised if lower tiers could enter for a fee, or just a limited number of times per year.

Right now only the top-tier personal card (Ultra, £55 a month) includes free lounge access. The two tiers below (Metal, £14.99/mo, and Premium, £7.99/mo) allow you to pay a discounted rate to access lounges.

What will be inside the lounges?

Aside from the “unique, gutsy and super cool” description, little is known about what you’ll find inside the lounge. There may, and probably should, be a link between the space and their products.

Revolut already has a number of tie-ins with brands that could exist as permanent concessions or pop-ups. That includes travel-related brands such as e-sims, travel insurance and Uber. Headspace and Sleep Cycle could lend themselves to relaxation areas or pods. Their WeWork tie-in could link with workspaces in the lounge.

Where could Revolut launch?

It feels like launches will be in markets where they see growth. In the UK, that will likely mean London, although finding the space needed inside Heathrow or Gatwick will be difficult. London City has just announced its first lounge, and it feels unlikely they’ll be able to find room for any more.

Manchester feels like both a great choice (for me) but also a challenging one. Yes, the airport had a lack of lounges, but with three opening, or due to open this Summer, and another one expanding, it doesn’t feel like it’s a sensible option. I’m also not sure whether Manchester is really a tier-1 option for them, but then again Copenhagen wouldn’t have been top of my list.

The US presents the most interesting opportunity for them, but it will also see them going head-to-head with Amex, Capital One and JPMorgan Chase who all have their own airport lounges. It is a market that spends a lot of time in airports and on planes.

Thinking about where Revolut currently offers cards, aside from the US, Europe, and the UK, they also have operations in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, and Brazil. Emerging markets, and those that can deliver significant growth, will likely be top of the list.