If you have one of the following AMEX cards, this news affects you:
That’s because these cards come with the ultra-rare benefit of free access to AMEX Centurion airport lounges, widely considered the best domestic airport lounges in existence. And the number of lounges is steadily growing! AMEX Centurion Lounges offer:
- Hot buffet-style meals
- Premium alcoholic beverages
- Showers
- Conference spaces
- Reliable Wi-Fi
And beginning March 22, 2019, it will become more difficult to enter!
New AMEX Centurion Airport Lounge Rules
The new rules taking place in late March are as follows:
- You won’t be allowed in unless your scheduled departure is within 3 hours, or unless you can provide proof of your upcoming connecting flight
- If you have arrived at your final destination, you can NOT enter the Centurion Lounge
- You can bring children under 2 years of age for free (and they won’t count toward your 2 free guests), as long as you can prove their age or show a “lap infant” boarding pass
The reaction this news evokes will vary wildly, depending on who you are.
While it sounds like bad news (you can now enter less frequently), this hopefully means the lounges will be less crowded, which has been a big complaint of late. You won’t be able to freshen up at a lounge at your final destination before you leave the airport, but your pre-departure experience should be a lot more enjoyable.
As a reminder, you can find AMEX Centurion Lounges in:
- Charlotte (coming soon)
- Dallas-Fort Worth
- Denver (coming soon)
- Houston Intercontinental
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles (coming soon)
- New York-La Guardia
- New York – JFK (coming soon)
- Miami
- Philadelphia
- San Francisco
- Seattle-Tacoma
Let me know what you think of this change! And read my post on the top cards for airport lounge access if you’re looking to make your next trip more comfortable.
I just ran head long into the 3-hour departure commissar at the Miami Centurion lounge while trying to go standby in a much earlier flight. Pretty amazing that for my $550 annual fee plus the 2.5%-3.5% merchant fee that American Express is unwilling to increase their budget for club operations/real-estate and increase club capacity so they can sweat my equity for a few extra hours. Doesn’t really fit in with the concept of American Express’ brand.
The rule changes make the value of the Platinum card much less than before. For a 200k per year business traveler it will probably make me reconsider having the card…what business traveler is getting to their departure airport with time to hang out in a lounge?! I have used the lounges almost exclusively upon arrival to have a meeting or freshen up before heading out….bad rule, bottom line
I agree the arrivals are the most important for business travelers. I often fly in early to SFO and go straight to work. Now I am not able to change and get ready for early work meetings. Also am going to reconsider.
Roger,
I wholeheartedly agree. I’ll certainly miss the flexibility of visiting a lounge on arrival, having the convenience of being able to grab a quick bite to eat before resuming on the rest of my trip, etc.
No Access upon arrival is the toughest pill to swallow. My husband and I are both platinum members and we do not bring guests because they normally have their own lounges they get into or we travel just the two of us. We go to Vegas at least once every two months to check on our business there and it sucks that we now dont have a place to grab a quick drink and a snack before heading out. On another thread people were saying to just go home…..ummm sure if we lived in Vegas. And Chicago which is our home city doesnt have amex so we cant enjoy it upon departure. We fly non stop so no chance of ever going to an amex lounge unless we take a trip somewhere else. Very stupid rule. I personally would rather see guest passes ( 4 per year) at 2 guest minimum. Speaking outside of families if you seriously need more than 4 passes for friends, etc then your friends need to go get their own memberships. I mean you xant be the only person that has access to a lounge …give me a break.
and * seattle * airport lounges CLOSED for month of March.
hello amex ?
I understand that, yes they tend to get crowded, but a good majority of the people who lounge are the guests. Maybe Amex should start by restricting guests to maybe 1 or maybe none, instead of cutting access to actual card members who pay the hefty annual fee plus the thousands of dollars charge to card. Apparently there’s only 12 lounged in the US, so having access to these lounges is a huge and unique benefit of having the card, especially for Platinum members. Amex should build more lounges across the nation! So the question is, if Amex proceeds with this new rule for Platinum members, will they make the exeption if we pay for entry like the non platinum members?