AMEX Black with family. VS PE
 

doing some research for a friend. flying ATLl/LHR (stopever) LHR/JNB/LHR/ATL in VS PE. He has the black card. wife has plat. with two young children. between the comped DL status, the rules of the VS/DL agreement (not skyteam), the amex agreements and the priority pass agreements, he has no clue what lounge benefits he may or may not have at departure or arrival.

he's centurion, but never travels. thanks for any info.

I wonder what the difference in his cost was flying DL from ATL>JNB>ATL, instead of taking all that extra time flying VS from ATL>LHR>JNB>LHR>ATL? They must need the VS miles instead of DLs perhaps? Then again it also depends how long of a stopover on the outbound leg that they are taking! Would a stopover at LHR still be bookable on the same PNR if the stopover is more than a certain # of hours?

What is their actual DL status?

It's that what matters not what credit card they may have got them via.

Based on flying PE they will have access to the PE check-in desks and priority boarding but not club house / lounge access.

makes perfect sense actually. and no additional cost. DL comfort is an absolute joke compared to VS PE. flying with two little girls, DL 1 or VS UC is tricky. plus a five day stop in london enroute to JNB.

So assuming that the Amex Centurion card doesn't allow free SkyClub guests, there's how things would work:

ATL:
-SkyClub: He and one child get in free with SkyTeam Elite+ lounge access. His wife gets in free with her Platinum card. He pays $29 for the other child.
-The Club at ATL: They all get in free with the included PriorityPass memberships.

LHR:
-No1 Lounge or Club Aspire Lounge: They all get in free with the included PriorityPass memberships. (No1 Lounge is probably better). No arrivals lounge access at LHR.

JNB:
-Collection of various PP lounges in the international terminal. Same PP access rules.

Make sure that he registers for PP memberships on both cards. No need to wait for physical cards. He can put the digital membership cards into his iPhone's passbook, or access it directly from the PP app.

All of this presumes that he has set up his PP account and carries his physical or digital PP card. If not, no PP benefits/access. If he doesn't fly often and doesn't make use of this benefit, he might not otherwise know this.

Hopefully the question is about future travel, not about current travel. Although I don't think it takes long for the PP registration to go through.

OP mentioned it specifically, so I hope the traveler is aware.

I believe the Amex Black Card (Centurion Card) gets the holder Delta Platinum Medallion status, right? That is sufficient to get access to the Virgin Clubhouse for the member and 1 guest only at LHR.

If his wife does not have Delta status (Amex Platinum Card does not give Delta status) then unfortunately they could only get 2 people into the lounge though, so unless they want to split up, they should go to one of the Priority Pass lounges where everyone can get in.

(I'm also not 100% sure if they'd be able to get into the Virgin Clubhouse when flying LHR-JNB since the Delta access benefit is primarily for flights between the US and UK. Virgin also has a Clubhouse in JNB but Delta elite status does not get any access to that location unfortunately.)

Also, I believe in order for everyone to get into the Priority Pass lounges for free, they would need to make sure they split the entrances across both his and her PP memberships -- Amex gives you the member plus 2 free guests on each PP card, so if all 4 people entered on one PP card, it would cost $27 for the fourth person. (Assuming the Centurion card PP membership isn't any better than the Platinum card PP membership, which may be incorrect.)

AmEx Centurion means PM on DL for the cardholder.

AFAIK the PP memberships that come with AmEx Plat (and Centurion???) do not give free guests unless this has been changed recently. A guest results in a charge of about $30 to the AmEx card.

We're assuming that the family is flying in coach.....

As the OP stated and subsequently discussed again, the whole family is flying in PE.

Amex PP gives 2 free guests now. Changed a couple of months ago.

Aren't VS PE passengers allowed to pay for VS lounge access (but not the arrivals lounge)?

Only on a space available basis so not guarenteed plus it's £67 a head (according to the Virgin Holidays website who also sell admission but only as part of a holiday package)

Minor nit: VS is not SkyTeam, so assuming ATL/LHR is on VS metal access is via the JV agreement, not STE+.

Good point. IIRC lounge access for coach passengers requires PM/DM rather than just GM+ status.

GM on VS gets the No1 lounge ex-LHR