I will say this about the changes, it will reduce the amount of congestion. Frankly as a QF Gold, I'm sick and tired of heading to an Admirals lounge when flying AA or AS domestically in economy and seeing the lounge chock-a-block with people who hold status or have a special card. Frankly those of us who earned status the hard way, by flying deserve to be rewarded here! I know these changes won't impact AA right now, but I reckon if DL notices improvements in the lounge experience, don't think for a moment that UA or AA won't follow suit (indeed DL usually leads and the other airlines follow in that respect).

A similar thing I notice visiting the Centurion lounges at SFO and LAX, both were busy (albeit SFO was way busier) it's good to see that AmEx will prevent US cardholders from bringing in guests to reduce congestion so that us Aussie cardholders can enjoy the lounge and bring in guests of our own!

-RooFlyer88