To kick off my whirlwind Aeroplan adventure, I flew Austrian Airlines business class from Chicago to Vienna. Austrian, and most Star Alliance airlines departing from Terminal 5, use the SAS Lounge as their contract lounge at Chicago O’Hare Airport.

On the plus side, the SAS Lounge Chicago has modern Scandinavian decor, great airplane views, and lots of natural light (well, as much natural light as one can expect in Chicago in January).

Unfortunately other than that, the lounge sucks — it’s tiny (way too small for the number of passengers it’s supposed to accommodate), and it doesn’t even have bathrooms. But that’s not SAS’ fault. With the exception of Delta’s new presence there, Terminal 5 at Chicago has to be the worst international terminal in the country.

The lounge situation is uniformly horrible, and that’s not the fault of airlines, as there’s simply not enough available lounge space, so airlines have nowhere to expand to. I previously wrote about the Swissport Lounge Chicago, which I consider to be the worst lounge in the United States. Now let’s take a look at the SAS Lounge (which, in fairness, is like the Lufthansa First Class Terminal by comparison).

SAS Lounge Chicago location

The SAS Lounge Chicago is located in Terminal 5, by gates M19-20. After clearing security, turn left and walk down the main terminal corridor.

After walking for a couple of minutes, you’ll see the entrance to the SAS Lounge on the right.