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American Express opens a new lounge at Stockholm Arlanda for Platinum cardholders

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You are probably aware of the American Express network of Centurion Lounges. You will find these in various airports around the world, primarily in the US, for the exclusive use of Platinum and Centurion cardholders. We reviewed the only Centurion Lounge in Europe, in Heathrow Terminal 3, last week.

Alongside Centurion Lounges, American Express has an ad hoc network of other airport lounges – I went to one in Mexico City many years ago. They are advertised alongside the Centurion Lounges on the Amex website but are not officially part of the group.

The only European site is at Stockholm Arlanda, and it has just had a major overhaul.

American Express lounge Stockholm Arlanda Airport

Can you access the lounge if flying to London?

The new American Express lounge is at Stockholm Arlanda’s Marketplace in Terminal 5 between gates E and F.

The downside is that British Airways operates from Terminal 2. You can see the list of Terminal 5 carriers on the airport website here. Norwegian and SAS flights to London, and indeed the rest of the UK, depart from Terminal 5 so those passengers can access the lounge.

What’s inside the new American Express lounge at Arlanda?

What makes this different from other American Express lounges is the focus on food. In fact, the lounge is officially called ‘American Express Lounge by Pontus’ after Pontus Frithiof, a high profile Swedish chef who oversees the food.

For clarity, this is not a traditional airport lounge per se. It is basically a smart restaurant where food and drink is free! I’m not sure if there is anywhere to sit if you just want to put your feet up and get your laptop out. Whilst the photo below just shows the bar, it is surrounded by ‘traditional’ restaurant tables.

The new lounge covers 700 square metres, which is double the size of the previous lounge. In terms of design:

With inspiration from Scandinavian nature and simplicity, Maria Whyte and her team have carefully planned every square meter of the lounge to reflect Nordic beauty in everything from design to materials, color choices and furniture. The dynamic lighting in the lounge changes throughout the day and creates a play of light on the walls and ceiling, like the beautiful reflections of the sea. Together with the lighting, the elements of Nordic art, raw slate stone, sparkling crystals, solid oak and carefully selected textiles will contribute to an almost magical and dreamlike atmosphere.

American Express lounge Stockholm Arlanda airport

Frithiof already operates a fine dining restaurant at the airport, La Girafe, and will open an Italian-American themed site called Little Italy later this year. In the American Express lounge he offers local dishes such as traditional shrimp sandwiches and salmon salad, as well as various hot and vegetarian options.

Drinks are ‘carefully selected to complement the menu’ and include local beers as well as wine and champagne.

Before the renovation, the lounge offered a range of free meals with additional upscale options available for cash. There was also a difference between what premium drinks you could order for free if you were Platinum vs Centurion. It isn’t clear if this is still the case in the new lounge.

American Express Lounge by Pontus Frithiof is open Monday to Friday from 5am. It closes at 6pm from Sunday to Friday and at 3pm on Saturday.

You can get access with your American Express Centurion or Platinum card. You are allowed one guest per Platinum card and two guests per Centurion card.

You can find out more on the airport website here.

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Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2025)

Here are the five options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,500 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here.

You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £290 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A good package, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

Got a small business?

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum which has the same lounge benefits as the personal Platinum card:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

You should also consider the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card which has a lower fee and, as well as a Priority Pass for airport lounge access, also comes with Radison Rewards VIP hotel status:

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Category

American Express Platinum card

Comments (33)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Farid says:
    12 May12 May 05:09

    Was there 2 days ago around breakfast time. Pretty mediocre actually. Just a turkey sandwich, a precut fruit and yoghurt delivered to your table like a set meal. No hot options or even the option to have different sandwiches. Some pastries and croissants were there, but they looked like the ones you’d get from Lidl but a few days older.
    I spent 10 mins there, then hopped over to the priority pass lounge and it was much much much better. Nice variety of food, cheese, meat ets. No hot food besides porridge. But got a nice prosecco at 8am and some liver pate and crackers. The view was phenomenal over the apron.

    Expected more from the AMEX platinum lounge as I’ve been to a few of them.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      12 May12 May 10:17

      So you asked the staff and there were no to order options?

      • Farid says:
        12 May12 May 18:47

        Yes.. no order options

        • bernard says:
          12 May12 May 21:04

          not correct. hot drinks to order. vegetarian breakfast options to order

          • Farid says:
            13 May13 May 09:20

            Correct if I’m not vegetarian. Anyway it wasn’t offered or asked. Hot drinks yes. But we were talking food.

            Maybe their mid day meal and dinner is better from the sound of it.

  • mradey says:
    12 May12 May 06:29

    We visited the Centurion section on the 11th April – it is a different room to the ‘Platinum’ lounge. The receptionists ushers you left for the Centurion lounge and right for the Platinum.

    In the Centurion it’s mainly restaurant style tables, with some booths. We commandeered the only casual sofa / table section for drinks, which was fine for laptop work and perusing the weighty tomes occupying the table.

    Food – all prepared to order. Breakfast was excellent quality. Scandinavian with a modern twist. No ‘Full English’ or pancakes etc.

    Service was very attentive.

  • Tim says:
    12 May12 May 06:48

    The platinum lounge – visited last month – is excellent. Very good food, I had a mound of crayfish which was amazing. If you’re in the terminal and have access it’s a must go.

  • John says:
    12 May12 May 07:31

    Has anybody used Amex Platinum card to access fast track security at Aranda?

    • rtid says:
      12 May12 May 07:53

      you can’t use it to fast track security at Arlanda. Also fast track security at Arlanda isn’t great – its just another entrance to join the exact same security queue as those not on fast track.

      • DanielD says:
        12 May12 May 09:50

        Either I have just been lucky, but I have done so several times, with the last time being about 3 weeks ago.

      • Sean says:
        13 May13 May 15:26

        You can use fast track with that card. The screen shows it as you enter.

    • DanielD says:
      12 May12 May 08:14

      Yes – on a number of occasions.

  • DanielD says:
    12 May12 May 08:13

    I visited last month and did some work for a while after eating (as were others), even though it is restaurant-style. The food in the new ‘lounge’ is quite an upgrade on both the old lounge and the temporary one. I had an excellent asparagus dish.

  • G says:
    12 May12 May 08:13

    Does Finnair fly from this terminal?

    • Tomas Eriksson says:
      12 May12 May 13:08

      Finnair ARN-HEL is also T2, same as BA and the other Oneworld airlines that fly from ARN, with the exception of widebodies. So Finnair’s flights ARN-DOH which they do on behalf of Qatar, departs from T5, where the Amex lounge is.

  • John says:
    12 May12 May 08:49

    I don’t know if this has changed because I haven’t been in a while.

    But this lounge used to serve 100% convenience food. Often times, you could tell from the food and plate temperature the food had been reheated. At times, I’ve also received a pasta dish or the like 3 min after ordering. Hardly possible this was cooked fresh, especially in light of the scale of the restaurant.

    I know, it’s at the airport, so what do I expect other than catering service? Yeah, true. Just stating it’s marketing hype in case anybody does not realize it. Fine-dining restaurant LOL.

    Of course, some of HfP’s revenues are related to such marketing hype so they’re incentivized to join in the chant.

    • JDB says:
      12 May12 May 09:35

      Some people’s food expectations seem very low as they refer to the Ivy as ‘fine dining’ when it too, like many lounges, is simply a reheatery, with the food cooked offsite which limits the scope and quality of what can be offered to M&S levels.

      The Centurion landside lounge at MEX T1 however, does real food freshly prepared to order so you can choose more or less what you want with the online menu just a guide. You can also get your hair cut, nails done, massage, shoes polished, shower etc. so generally a much superior option to the US or UK lounges (although MEX like LHR T3 has no windows). At EZE, the food options aren’t great but the lounge is huge and lots of light.

    • Rob says:
      12 May12 May 09:50

      Eh? Where is it called a ‘fine dining’ restaurant? You are literally making things up just to have a pop at HfP.

      We said it was ‘smart’ (which it clearly is, from the pictures) which is the extent of the praise we give it, as we haven’t been.

      • JDB says:
        12 May12 May 10:04

        @Rob – I was referring to @John post above, not your article. I don’t have ‘pops’ at HfP because I greatly respect what you do, even if I sometimes disagree with the content of some articles. As a generality, and it comes more from comments rather than articles, so many lounges are over hyped (eg LHR T3) that we then read of people being disappointed to discover that they aren’t up to expectations.

        • Rob says:
          12 May12 May 10:09

          I was replying to John, not you! I know you don’t have a pop at us 🙂

          Whilst my comment appeared under your comment, I don’t see that when replying to comments via the admin area.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          12 May12 May 10:23

          Ivy absolutely isn’t fine dining with you all the way there. The food is pretty average but the setting / experience is better than average as are the drinks.

          I’d say that’s what some of these lounges are like people going thinking it’s going to be some sort of high end restaurant or bar are crazy but I think Cathay and Qantas are both very good places to relax and get a decent bite to eat we also shouldn’t underplay they invest wisely.

          Has anyone been the the Amex club/restaurant in NYC yet that is meant to be nice?

  • Revs says:
    12 May12 May 09:24

    For what is generally quite a neat and tidy country, I was surprised at what a dump most of Arlanda actually is.

    • Andy says:
      12 May12 May 10:05

      Nothing like Hounslow.

      • Hugo says:
        12 May12 May 12:41

        Hounslow is nothing like as bad as you think from somebody that works there – the people are nice and it does not feel unsafe

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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