JayTeaBee

Good ole PWM, often mistaken in these parts for "Pay With Miles"

abeightol

Any new news on a LAX Centurion Lounge?

DCFinanceinFlight

Flew out of IAD Sunday. There was a lot of Amex Plat signage. I don't fly out of IAD much so not sure when these signs were put up. They were at the underground train stops leading to to the terminals.

matrixwalker2012

Now, time for one in LAX/ORD/IAD/ATL. Then Amex will pretty much have all the major airline hubs covered. Also need one maybe in a few other JFK terminals.

seacarl

I believe they are working on LAX and ORD. Don't know what IAD or ATL. With the Amex-DL partnership, DL hubs seem lower priority. IAD, where would you put it. With TK and LH in the B concourse, seems less necessary. A nice lounge in C/D would be wonderful but I don't see that happening until a new concourse is built, and I see no signs of that happening.
So far AX seems to stick to a single lounge in each airport, so it isn't always well located. It's relatively easier if an airport is all connected behind security like SEA, but even in places like IAH or DFW it is too far away to access unless you have a very long layover or arrive at the airport well before your flight. At ORD they could put it in Terminal 2, I suppose, making it useful for departing pax on both UA and AA, but too far for most connections. LAX will have a similar issue. If it is in TBIT, which seems likely, then I have timed it as a 25-minute walk to UA's T-7 behind security. It may be faster to exit security and reclear at T7

m.photog

I agree ATL seems unlikely, we were just in the Sky Club in B yesterday evening. Would AMEX actually bite the hand that feeds them in ATL?

krazykanuck

IMO any of the Delta only hubs will be a super low priority, ATL, DTW, MSP, etc. I mean why bother? Anybody with CL access already has access to the Skyclubs. It's rather obvious that Amex has targeted AA and UA hubs with the first wave of Centurion Lounges.

mia

Provided they are flying Delta, but if there is also a Priority Pass (or Airspace or Escape) lounge, there isn't much incentive to open a Centurion lounge so long as Citi and Chase fail to respond.

haddon90

the most convenient would be similar to what UA did with their club. build it on top fo T4, 5, or 6.

worldwidedreamer

There is always the hope that a third-party lounge (i.e. the Escape Lounges) might open. Would not be surprised to see PWM get service to Europe one of these days which a lounge would hasten.

DrivingRain

Buried in here is that Plaza Premium will be awarded a lounge for Concourse A. Eeeeek, their revenue projections appear to be incredibly unrealistic and the investment level (presumably justified by the revenue) seems wildly high too.

mia

You are referring the $9.5 million first year revenue estimate?

seacarl

Perhaps they expect to be the contract lounge for Lufthansa, British, and the like. They have plenty of experience in knowing what the contract lounge revenue is as well as Priority Pass admissions. There are a lot of Priority Pass cards floating around the USA.

mia

In Miami three people were convicted for stealing 20% of an airport lounge's revenue over a two year period (Jan 2012 - Feb 2014). The restitution they were ordered to pay was about $3 million, suggesting gross revenue $15 million for two years. (Read both articles to find all dates and numbers.)

2014 arrest: Trio charged with stealing millions from Miami-Dade Aviation | Miami Herald

2018 conviction: Miami couple charged with skimming millions in airport revenue | Miami Herald

DrivingRain

I hear ya, though I think it can make sense--- just not for that kind of investment. They're building a palace to accommodate a thousand people a day, where if they built a nice-enough lounge to accommodate half that amount then it would have a decent chance of being viable.

My gut tells me this is some sort of combination of Plaza (1) mis-reading U.S. lounge revenue as others have done, and (2) them wanting to break into the US with a splash-- and if it's a loss-leader, then so be it (though they better be prepared to lose a bundle).

It's worth noting too that it will be interesting to see what happens with access. Priority Pass can get very protective of their their subsidiary Airport Lounge Development (aka "the Club at ABC") and those that compete with them on lounge RFPs. Will they give the stiff arm to Plaza Premium at the last minute as they've done to others from time to time?

...and then there's the question of AXP. If im not mistaken AXP has a global agreement with Plaza, but will AXP want to pay significant $$$ out of pocket for Plaza entries when they have their own $10 million asset sitting over in C?

If the answer is no and no, then Plaza could be looking at something closer to 130 customers a day, not 1,300.