FT Guest xyzpdq

fassy

Also being a citizen (and now even resident again of Merkel's mainly-muslim-refugee wonderland) I do not have any problem with not getting served pork (I usually do not eat it anyway) or not even have to live without alcohol but the halal slaughtering is just not acceptable for me. Interesting enough there are even exemptions from the animal protection acts in place in Germany to allow 'real' halal slaughtering while in other countries it is acceptable to stun the animals for halal slaughtering. I usually boycott places (and yes, that includes the countries in question where this is the law) which force halal on me.

Anyway there are much more pressing issues about 'Wir schaffen das' then halal meals offerings. And quite a lot of people here I know think the same way...

But back to the topic, I do not see any reason for SK to have a non-Schengen lounge. The non-Schengen wing is extremly small, the Schengen-SK lounge just a few meters from the gates and the amount of non-Schengen to non-Schengen traffic probably quite limited. And most probably most people doing that like ORD-CPH-LHR willl have no problem entering Schengen and go to the lounge. Even on busy days immigration in CPH is usually painless and quick. Although the new passport readers made the situation worse. not sure why, for me they work like a charm but it seems a lot of people need a huge amount of time to get it working. I always thought the instructions to be quite straight forward and easy to follow.

GUWonder

Until I get removed or self-removed, CPH-LHR/LHR-CPH is what LGA-DCA/DCA-LGA was for me. And let's just say the time to clear passport control as a US citizen at CPH has gotten awfully variable. Before 2015, I almost never had a delay of longer than 10 minutes to get through. Last year, I had multiple trips where passport control at CPH took me longer than passport control at LHR T5.

But given it's possible from the SK lounge to see if the passport control line is very bad or not when flying * carriers out of CPH on relevant routes, an SK non-Schengen lounge wouldn't be as useful for me as this Menzies non-Schengen lounge.

FlyerTalker01565

I agree with pretty much all of this. What annoys me the most is that they don't have a Denmark / EU line at immigration most of the time and if they do, it's poorly enforced. I'm Danish, in my own country. I shouldn't have to wait in the same line as 300 people coming in from God knows what hellhole.

GUWonder

This CPH airportstill has passport control lines that aren't all always available even to all US passport users at CPH. And by the measure of travel from CPH by people with money, the US seems to be considered anything but a hellhole historically.

CPH's automated passport gates are not enabled for most non-European epassports. And of the remaining staffed passport control counters, they all are not always labeled for all nationalities, even as they can change the signs and process all people in any of the staffed counter lines.

US citizens returning to the US also often have to wait for staffed passport control counters being used by US VWP and even sometimes US visa users. It's really not the end of the world for citizens and foreigners to have to use the same line to enter/re-enter a country, even as some people wanting to feel special is not incomprehensible.

fassy

Yes, the passport reading machines in most EU countries only work for EU passports with chip (not all EU citizens have them yet). But even though the staffed booths say 'EU-passport only' I have never seen that to be enforced like they do at US immigration. If you show up with a foreign passport they won't send you back to the other line. Have seen that dozens of times. Last week I had a large family with small kids from Asia clogging the EU-only line... (and no, they did not had EU passports and no, were not send away)

i do not see a problem with using the same lines in general but quite obviously immigration using a EU-passport takes about 10 seconds while sometimes the passport and immigration procedure for foreigners can take ages (again, double bad for families with kids or even worse single parent with kids). Therefore it makes a lot of sense to have 'will clear immigration in a breeze' and 'need special assistance' lines. Presorting by nationality is the obvious thing even though not always valid...

GUWonder

Well, at least the ordinary Danish passport-using adults can all use the automated passport gates at CPH when they are allowed for use. How well they use them is another matter.

The US CBP at airports of entry often enough don't eject ESTA-users travel party from the lines being used for US citizens. And the co-mingling of ESTA users with US citizens at US airports of entry has indeed sometimes delayed me significantly, more so in the era of automated passport control kiosks.

Some Schengen passport control authorities have made an issue with US passport users for using a line not marked for all nationalities. Fortunately, CPH passport control doesn't tend to be staffed by such authorities and the personnel at CPH don't seem to have ants in their pants and itching for conflict as much as at some other airports; and the staffed counters tend to process people not needing a visa rather quickly.

It will be interesting to see if SAS passengers with some kind of lounge membership will use this new lounge instead of the SAS lounge when flying SAS from CPH to non-Schengen destinations. I may end up doing that if it's possible -- because the CPH passport control lines have become an issue for me.

fassy

Yes, waiting times at European immigration can be as bad as at US immigration at times. Had a very memorable Sunday morning arrival in FRA from JFK where only one booth was staffed... even being German citizen traveling LH F I waited about 45 minutes...

Another time arriving late from PVG in CPH there was no one staffing immigration and even the glass doors where locked. Took over an hour just to get someone to show up and another hour to get through.

the only thing which a lot of European really hate at US immigration and never experience here is that you get asked questions - and if you do not speak English you can have a problem (happened to my dad some years back). But to be fair, US immigration got a lot better last 5 years.

FT Guest xyzpdq

In fact in 2017 there seems to opening not one but two lounges in the non-Schengen area. The before mentioned Menzies lounge and a much smaller one for 60 guest at the D (10X) gates.
http://www.standby.dk/koebenhavns-lu...o-nye-lounger/

This will bring the number of lounges to 6 at CPH (and not 5 as falsely stated in the linked article). The 6th and often forgotten lounge is the Georg Jensen lounge on top of the Georg Jensen store between B and C gates. Rather small, very nice service and drinks. Limited food. Access though invitation only membership card.

GUWonder

To whom (and on what basis) does Georg Jensen give those invitation-only memberships?

CPH-Flyer

Spend enough money on George Jensen shopping.

GUWonder

That was my guess, but now it's a question of how little expense there must be to be that kind of customer. Is it the airport shop that has a bunch of these lounge invites?

FT Guest xyzpdq

Old boys network - only a select very very few get them. No set criteria AFAIK.
Only been there once (in tow).

GUWonder

Did it still look like the following when you were there?

http://my-pleasure.dk/2010/12/pa-bes...nge-i-kastrup/

The above has some mention of there being just about 300 card holders, but I have some doubts about that being the limit.

I guess I will have to see how I can get into there to finish my CPH tour.

FT Guest xyzpdq

Something like that. It is same location and general room-lay out as reported in the article from 2010. The interior design and elements I remember to be slightly updated (furniture - and a more modern B&O TV). I was there 3-4 years ago IIRC.