Originally Posted by
danielonn
Agreed they should have mad it an entire AMEX Lounge and then add an Escape Lounge for Southwest Airlines in the C/D Concourse and perhaps at other Terminals like 1,2,3. It confuses me as to why would you want to have two lounges with shared space. Makes no sense. Would a Hilton Hotel share their lounge with the Doubletree next door?
Actually, shared hotel common spaces such as lobbies, pools, and airport shuttles happen more and more often nowadays. The Hyatt House and Hyatt Place Charleston have connected lobbies, shared drive circle, shared pool/gym, etc.
The only shared front-of-house area is the check-in area (and there are different stands for each lounge). There is a dining room between the two that can be for either, but is partitioned off so only one lounge can access it at a time.
Can someone here entertain me on what are the differences in Alcohol Offerings/ Food Offerings between the Escape/AMEX Lounge.
As I mentioned above, the food is essentially the same except the Centurion lounge does a traditional family-style buffet and Escape has their buffet as small plates you can grab. The Escape one is presented slightly better, but the Centurion is definitely the preferred choice for someone who is hungry. I did notice a basic charcuterie tray at the Escape lounge that the Amex lounge lacked.
Alcohol: Escape has a basic level for most people (standard lounge fare - Jack/Bacardi/Walker Red/etc.) and then more premium labels that as of Wednesday are free for Amex cardholders (Basil Haydens, Makers, Ketel One, Hendricks, etc.). There is a bottle of Walker Blue Label there that is free for now, but I do not expect that to ever be re-ordered. Centurion has a standard line of alcohol as premium as other Centurions, but doesn't feel as wide a selection as others and the wide shelves for alcohol behind the bar are a little sparse. The selection between the two is more of a Venn Diagram where there is a small amount of overlap but not a ton, but the premium-ness is about the same. Examples: Escape has Basil Haydens and Makers, Centurion has Knob Creek and Bulleit. Escape has Ketel One, Centurion has Grey Goose.
The bartender indicated that they want to keep some variety between the two, but I can't say for sure how long that will last.
The Escape should join Priority Pass and make it exclusive to Priority Pass and keep the AMEX Lounge for AMEX Cardholders. The AMEX Lounge is already small so if it were me I would make it all the AMEX Lounge.
As mentioned above, it needed to have a public aspect for it to work.
Who is manning it to make sure there are no crossover people?
There's an attendant at the top of the stairs next to the Centurion to police who goes where (technically one for Escape as well, but that was empty when I was there, and you have to go past the Centurion person to enter the Escape lounge).