Originally Posted by
RedSun
You are totally wrong.
I hold multiple Platinum cards, all under my name and I'm not even using them to get into AmEx lounges. All my family members hold Platinum cards too. I spend more than $3,000 on AmEx AFs. So I won't be paying the proposed $50 regardless. You have no need to mention me personally in your response.
What I see here is that we have some frequent FTers here. Most are probably later mid-aged frequent travelers who mostly travel alone. To those people, the frequent visit to the AmEx lounges for multiple cocktails and meal far worth the money they pay.
This same group of people start to complain about the family travelers who only travel 2-3 times a year. They attribute the crowding to the family travelers. For those families, the total cost to visit the lounge is probably not higher than the AFs they paid. But those frequent travelers cost AmEx much much more above the AFs they paid. And yet those high cost frequent travelers want to kick out those low cost family travelers. This is such an interesting movement.
I'd propose AmEx to issue like 15 or 20 lounge passes each year. So it is fair to any cardholder. Sure a large family can use them up in a single trip, whereas a single traveler can use them over 15 or 20 trips.
So we do not have a group of single frequent travelers who visit lounges 30-50 times a year to complain about a family of 2-4 who only travel 2-3 times a year. That is very ridiculous IMO.
I think you're wrong. You're only looking at the lounge access. The Centurion lounges were never meant to turn a profit by themselves, they're a loss-leader for frequent travelers who put a lot of spend on their Platinum cards. Amex makes way more money on the road warrior frequent traveler who is in the lounge weekly (or more) because that cardmember puts tens of thousands in airline spend on their card every year on close-in business travel bookings and F/J fares, unlike the family that travels together once or twice a year on Southwest. And $50 to access the Centurion lounge is a relative bargain compared to most domestic lounges. Escape lounges are $40-45, and priority pass lounges that sell passes are minimum $30 for guest passes (that's on top of the annual fee if you don't have a card). Admirals Club charges $59 for day passes and is inferior (unless you want a shower).