The oneworld alliance has started the process of opening its own branded lounges. We recently saw the first lounge open at Seoul Incheon Airport (ICN), and we’ve now seen the opening of the second lounge.
In this post:
Details of the Amsterdam Schiphol oneworld lounge
As of Thursday, February 22, 2024, we’ve seen the opening of oneworld’s newest lounge location, at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS). To cover some of the basics:
- The lounge is open daily between 5:30AM and 10PM
- The lounge is 473 square meters (5,091 square feet), with seating for 118 guests
- The lounge is located in the space of the former British Airways Lounge, which closed back in 2022, and has undergone a major renovation
- The lounge is located in the non-Schengen part of the terminal, on level three, in the space of Lounge No. 40
- The lounge features a self-serve buffet, a full service bar with cocktails and barista coffee, shower suites, and more
- The lounge follows standard oneworld lounge access policies, so is open to oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members, as well as oneworld first and business class passengers
Below are some pictures that have been shared of the new lounge…
This is a logical airport for oneworld to open a lounge
Amsterdam Schiphol is a logical location for oneworld to open a lounge. Keep in mind that the intent of the oneworld lounge network is to offer lounges at airports where oneworld carriers themselves don’t operate lounges, but where there are a significant number of oneworld carriers with lounge needs.
Amsterdam is of course a huge hub for SkyTeam member KLM, which dominates the airport. Meanwhile Star Alliance operates its own lounge at the airport, and now oneworld is operating its own lounge there as well.
The airport is served by a variety of oneworld airlines in the non-Schengen area, including American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, and Royal Jordanian. Finnair and Iberia fly to the Schengen area of the airport, so passengers on those airlines wouldn’t have access to this lounge.
I recently had the chance to check out oneworld’s new lounge at Seoul Incheon, and I’ll be reviewing it soon. In terms of soft product, I’d definitely recommend managing your expectations with these lounges, as I didn’t find the lounge to be much better than your typical contract lounge in terms of food and drinks, aside from bartender-made cocktails.
The alliance has also certainly chosen a memorable design for its lounges, for better or worse. I still can’t decide whether I love it or hate it.
Bottom line
Amsterdam Schiphol is the second airport to get a oneworld lounge. The alliance is planning on opening lounges at several airports with a oneworld presence, but without lounges operated by oneworld carriers. That’s why Amsterdam is a logical location, given that several oneworld carriers fly there, without any oneworld airline operating a lounge.
What do you make a oneworld lounge in Amsterdam?
Would be great to get one of these lounges in Jakarta too!
Might Paris CDG be the next location???
followed by FRA?
The design makes me want to claw my own eyes out, frankly. I think they’ve got a bit too experimental. It’s probably not easy to design a neutral space for a group of airlines rather than one branding scheme, but Aspire and No.1 lounges have managed it without making themselves look like a dystopian Kubrick film set.
I guess it’s a positive development given the lounge situation at Schipol, but I’m not sure I wouldn’t...
The design makes me want to claw my own eyes out, frankly. I think they’ve got a bit too experimental. It’s probably not easy to design a neutral space for a group of airlines rather than one branding scheme, but Aspire and No.1 lounges have managed it without making themselves look like a dystopian Kubrick film set.
I guess it’s a positive development given the lounge situation at Schipol, but I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather just head to a cafe with less punishing design before my flight…
Video is out of the new OneWorld lounge Amsterdam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqHPDlE_e60
Enjoy!
The only problem with this lounge is that it's in Amsterdam. Ha.
The entrance looks like some sort of dystopian futuristic portal. The inside looks nice enough though.
I've been trying to find some reviews on the OW lounge at Incheon but so far, all I've seen are those press releases from multiple websites. Will wait for your review.
The aspire lounge is the only non-skyteam lounge in the non-Schengen part of the terminal. If that were to be taken over by oneworld there would be no lounge options for *A in that area. The Star Alliance lounge is only accessible when flying within Schengen.
So..flying UA to the US means no more lounge access at AMS? Or TK to IST. And a few more that I can’t think of probably..
There’s still an Aspire lounge in the non-Schengen part of Schiphol. That one was closed for remodeling as well and got opened today right after the oneworld lounge.
The lounge situation is pretty dire at Schiphol. The Aspire lounge was pretty terrible and overcrowded, and the only lounge available for non-Skyteam lax flying non-Schengen. More lounges are desperately needed there, so this is a great development.
I just hope there will be no mice walking the window sill like in the KLM Crown Lounge near Gates F last Sunday.
That is yet another reason to avoid AMS - apart from defunct and very inefficient immigration processes and a terrible appearance otherwise.
(Two immigration counters were staffed, with a very long queue, 8 immigration officer were chatting in the room next door, e-gates were closed, when I asked a poor guy...
I just hope there will be no mice walking the window sill like in the KLM Crown Lounge near Gates F last Sunday.
That is yet another reason to avoid AMS - apart from defunct and very inefficient immigration processes and a terrible appearance otherwise.
(Two immigration counters were staffed, with a very long queue, 8 immigration officer were chatting in the room next door, e-gates were closed, when I asked a poor guy managing the line what those 8 are doing he just replied „working for the government“…..
When I asked one of the officers why the e-gates are not open he said that they have not enough staff! Funny guy. Half of the line would have been processed in a matter of minutes without the need for any staff.
#avoidAMS!
Good news. Here's to more OW lounges.
Amsterdam was original planned as first opening, they want to open it a while ago but just before opening they found out they forgot the Fire suppression system open in 2 weeks told me at Schiphol
One thing I don't get about you Ben is then when you are traveling and in Europe, how are you able to wake up and start publishing posts at 6am local time. You just arrived in Europe, so I presume your body clock is still on EST. And you have stated before that you have a really early bedtime (I'd presume between 6-8pm), and you generally start publishing posts around 5-6am EST. So how are...
One thing I don't get about you Ben is then when you are traveling and in Europe, how are you able to wake up and start publishing posts at 6am local time. You just arrived in Europe, so I presume your body clock is still on EST. And you have stated before that you have a really early bedtime (I'd presume between 6-8pm), and you generally start publishing posts around 5-6am EST. So how are you able to stay awake and publish articles when it is midnight at home? (It's 2:40am here right now, but this article was published 2hrs ago)
It's called a delayed post. You can set when the post goes "live", which is (usually) at the same time each day.
@ AJO -- Fun fact, I actually don't schedule any posts. I know that's what most people do and I probably should, but I publish all my posts "live." :-)
@ W -- Hah, you're very observant. The short answer is that I really suck when sleeping while traveling. I'm in Amsterdam at the moment, and slept last night from 12AM until 5AM (which is actually pretty good for me). When I'm staying at a hotel for one night, I always get up very early (as I do at home), so I can photograph the property, be the first person at breakfast (to take pictures), etc. Pure glamour, eh? ;-)
Ouch! Do you ever travel with any sleep meds? I think some non-habit forming one's would be good every once in a while if you have a very long day coming up the day after.
I appreciate your response. It's actually really interesting to learn about this. I started reading your blog as a teenager, and I was always so jealous of your travels and lifestyle. As I've grown older, I've of course seen the...
Ouch! Do you ever travel with any sleep meds? I think some non-habit forming one's would be good every once in a while if you have a very long day coming up the day after.
I appreciate your response. It's actually really interesting to learn about this. I started reading your blog as a teenager, and I was always so jealous of your travels and lifestyle. As I've grown older, I've of course seen the good and the bad, but I still find the beauty in your lifestyle. Honestly, even after learning about what your true lifestyle is like, it's still alluring to me. I think I could and would do it. But thats cause I'm a huge avgeek in my early 20s and I love airline products just as much as you!
Whether or not I could be a successful blogger and writer is another question though, to which I don't currently have the answer ;)
The other EU OW carriers fly there too (IB, AY). Would be very nice to have a OW alliance lounge.
@ digital_notmad -- Added that to the post for clarity, thanks.
IB and AY are not very relevant since the lounge will be in non-Schengen part of the terminal. You can go there of course, if you don't mind passing through passport control twice (it's usually a breeze for EU citizens) but most people don't do it.