Last edit by: mia
Policy Changes effective March 22, 2019
Source: https://thecenturionlounge.com/info/access/
NOTE: FOR PLATINUM CARD MEMBERS ONLY
The Centurion Lounge is a day of departure lounge. We will not admit arriving Platinum Card Members with boarding passes for flights that have just landed. We will admit Platinum Card Members with layovers or connecting flights who produce proof of connecting flight.
We will not admit Platinum Card Members more than 3 hours before the departure time on the Platinum Card Member’s same-day, confirmed boarding pass. This does not apply to Platinum Card Members with a connecting flight.
We will admit children under 2 years of age free of charge, provided an accompanying parent or guardian is able to produce a “lap infant” boarding pass or proof of age
The Centurion Lounge is a day of departure lounge. We will not admit arriving Platinum Card Members with boarding passes for flights that have just landed. We will admit Platinum Card Members with layovers or connecting flights who produce proof of connecting flight.
We will not admit Platinum Card Members more than 3 hours before the departure time on the Platinum Card Member’s same-day, confirmed boarding pass. This does not apply to Platinum Card Members with a connecting flight.
We will admit children under 2 years of age free of charge, provided an accompanying parent or guardian is able to produce a “lap infant” boarding pass or proof of age
Centurion Lounge crowding (2015-2019)
#1486
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: Various
Posts: 2,155
LOL indeed! Sure they did run the numbers, not sure when but you’d hope recently given it’s not the kind of thing you can do once and forget. Though having dealt with some of the AmEx departments over the years, there are certainly many moments of ..., no common sense, left hand not knowing right hand.
The whole thing doesn’t affect me per we as I don’t have any access or seating issues, but it’s clearly a real problem given the multiple thread and hundreds of replies. Its good having this debate though, as many ways to look at this!
The whole thing doesn’t affect me per we as I don’t have any access or seating issues, but it’s clearly a real problem given the multiple thread and hundreds of replies. Its good having this debate though, as many ways to look at this!
#1487
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
That's correct for USA personal Platinum cards $550 base fee, $175 for three supplementary Platinum cards, then $175/each for additional.
However, for USA Business Platinum card the base fee is now $595, and it's $300 for each supplementary Platinum card.
In Canada personal Platinum cards are CAD$699 plus $175 for each supplementary.
In Canada Business Platinum cards are CAD $499 plus $199 for each supplementary.
In Europe, one supplementary Platinum card is typically bundled in the base annual fee.
This means American Express has data, which we do not, on a range of price points, marketing models, utilization rates etc.
Pricing also reflects different competitive environments. $175 for three looks cheap for lounge access, but not everyone who pays $175 activates three additional cards, and lounge access is not the only consideration. Prices don't exist in a vacuum. When looking at competing cards, $175 for one additional card would be high, while $175 for three is competitive. (Citi Prestige has advanced its annual fee from $450 to $495 + $75/each for additional cards. Chase Sapphire Reserve is still $450 + $75 for additional cards. )
However, for USA Business Platinum card the base fee is now $595, and it's $300 for each supplementary Platinum card.
In Canada personal Platinum cards are CAD$699 plus $175 for each supplementary.
In Canada Business Platinum cards are CAD $499 plus $199 for each supplementary.
In Europe, one supplementary Platinum card is typically bundled in the base annual fee.
This means American Express has data, which we do not, on a range of price points, marketing models, utilization rates etc.
Pricing also reflects different competitive environments. $175 for three looks cheap for lounge access, but not everyone who pays $175 activates three additional cards, and lounge access is not the only consideration. Prices don't exist in a vacuum. When looking at competing cards, $175 for one additional card would be high, while $175 for three is competitive. (Citi Prestige has advanced its annual fee from $450 to $495 + $75/each for additional cards. Chase Sapphire Reserve is still $450 + $75 for additional cards. )
Last edited by mia; Jan 20, 2019 at 4:22 pm
#1488
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2000
Location: أمريكا
Posts: 26,763
I don't mind the three hour rule, though I wish AmEx knew how to use technology - they make us scan boarding passes for entry, then rather than automating the flight departure check, the desk agents manually review boarding passes.
I do mind the no access on arrival, as grabbing a quick bite or shower after a flight is nice. Of course you can eat elsewhere, but showers are harder to come by.
I do mind the no access on arrival, as grabbing a quick bite or shower after a flight is nice. Of course you can eat elsewhere, but showers are harder to come by.
#1489
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: SEA
Posts: 3,955
I was finally going to bite on one of the Amex Platinum offers - I canceled about 3 years ago, but now live near an airport with a Centurion lounge. No access on arrival is a deal-breaker for me. I don't like getting there early, but I DO like stopping off at the lounge on the way home to grab a snack, maybe wait out some traffic depending on the time of day, shower, whatever.
I do agree on the no guest thing that others in the thread have pushed for - and I say this as someone who travels with my family quite a bit. I'd certainly get an AU card for my wife - my daughter's too young for one though, so I'm not sure how that'd work. Point is, I'd willingly pay for all of us if it meant the crowds were under control, but the last time we used a lounge pre-departure was when my kid was a baby and we needed a clean airport changing table.
I do agree on the no guest thing that others in the thread have pushed for - and I say this as someone who travels with my family quite a bit. I'd certainly get an AU card for my wife - my daughter's too young for one though, so I'm not sure how that'd work. Point is, I'd willingly pay for all of us if it meant the crowds were under control, but the last time we used a lounge pre-departure was when my kid was a baby and we needed a clean airport changing table.
#1490
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Miami, Florida
Programs: AA ExPlat, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Spire, Hilton Gold
Posts: 4,009
I was finally going to bite on one of the Amex Platinum offers - I canceled about 3 years ago, but now live near an airport with a Centurion lounge. No access on arrival is a deal-breaker for me. I don't like getting there early, but I DO like stopping off at the lounge on the way home to grab a snack, maybe wait out some traffic depending on the time of day, shower, whatever.
I do agree on the no guest thing that others in the thread have pushed for - and I say this as someone who travels with my family quite a bit. I'd certainly get an AU card for my wife - my daughter's too young for one though, so I'm not sure how that'd work. Point is, I'd willingly pay for all of us if it meant the crowds were under control, but the last time we used a lounge pre-departure was when my kid was a baby and we needed a clean airport changing table.
I do agree on the no guest thing that others in the thread have pushed for - and I say this as someone who travels with my family quite a bit. I'd certainly get an AU card for my wife - my daughter's too young for one though, so I'm not sure how that'd work. Point is, I'd willingly pay for all of us if it meant the crowds were under control, but the last time we used a lounge pre-departure was when my kid was a baby and we needed a clean airport changing table.
#1491
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Houston, TX, USA
Programs: UA 1K, AA Lifetime Platinum, DL Platinum, Honors Diamond, Bonvoy Titanium, Hertz Platinum
Posts: 7,969
#1492
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
The arrivals use of the lounges is more important to me more often than the use of them for departing flights when I’m flying non-stop to my destination.
But most of the crowding is caused by departing passengers using the lounge and not by those using them for arrivals use. And so for me this feels more like a cost-cutting-/revenue-related move by Amex more than anything that does a whole lot of good for me finding an empty seat or two in the lounges when I’m using them.
But most of the crowding is caused by departing passengers using the lounge and not by those using them for arrivals use. And so for me this feels more like a cost-cutting-/revenue-related move by Amex more than anything that does a whole lot of good for me finding an empty seat or two in the lounges when I’m using them.
#1493
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: AUS
Programs: BAEC Gold, AA PPro, Hyatt Globalist, Amex Plat
Posts: 7,040
I was finally going to bite on one of the Amex Platinum offers - I canceled about 3 years ago, but now live near an airport with a Centurion lounge. No access on arrival is a deal-breaker for me. I don't like getting there early, but I DO like stopping off at the lounge on the way home to grab a snack, maybe wait out some traffic depending on the time of day, shower, whatever.
Regards
#1494
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,752
The topic is about overcrowding. Do you think eliminating guests would increase, decrease, or have no effect on the crowding?
Sure, if you want to look at revenue balanced by the crowding issue and to what extent it's tolerable, is an entirely different issue. Speaking of revenue driven decisions, Amex can easily surgically isolate all those Plat holders who spend nothing, guest tons into the lounge, churn cards, and just categorically fire them, which they easily would have done once upon a time.
Sure, if you want to look at revenue balanced by the crowding issue and to what extent it's tolerable, is an entirely different issue. Speaking of revenue driven decisions, Amex can easily surgically isolate all those Plat holders who spend nothing, guest tons into the lounge, churn cards, and just categorically fire them, which they easily would have done once upon a time.
#1495
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Miami, Florida
Programs: AA ExPlat, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Spire, Hilton Gold
Posts: 4,009
#1496
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,752
That’s the point: You and @RichardMannion seem convinced that increasing the population of Plat cardholders by ~50 percent — for free — would somehow “eliminate guests.” I bet Amex not only believes otherwise, but knows otherwise.
I'm speculating that the majority of those who have been paying for Plat/Cent AUs have been doing so for reasons that may include lounge access, but certainly isn't based purely on it. That, if this $30 charge regime is implemented, guests policy reduced, those cardmembers who cancel purely because of the change are the very cardmembers that Amex is better off without, including those who pay for AUs exclusively for the purpose of lounge access and the additional 2+ guests.
And, regarding the free AUs...
I'm not suggesting Amex offer up free AUs. My agreement, where I may have misread the post, was that it was stupid to allow, for $175, 3 AUs who may freely guest in 2 guests each.
Last edited by Visconti; Jan 21, 2019 at 9:17 am Reason: Addition...
#1497
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: Various
Posts: 2,155
That’s the point: You and @RichardMannion seem convinced that increasing the population of Plat cardholders by ~50 percent — for free — would somehow “eliminate guests.” I bet Amex not only believes otherwise, but knows otherwise.
If you've got 10 million Platinum card holders, they could bring 20 million guests in for zero extra cost - for a total of 30 million. If you change it to zero guests for free, but change it that each main cardholder gets one free supplementary card, you're at up to 20 million potential lounge visitors before any extra revenue.
#1498
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Miami, Florida
Programs: AA ExPlat, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Spire, Hilton Gold
Posts: 4,009
Reducing free guests for Plats to zero undoubtedly would cause a decrease in total lounge visits. Creating a new population of millions of free AUs who could now use the lounges when traveling apart from the primary undoubtedly would not.
The number of people whom the average Plat cardholder would trust with a free AU card is assuredly higher than the number of people with whom the average Plat cardholder regularly travels.
The number of people whom the average Plat cardholder would trust with a free AU card is assuredly higher than the number of people with whom the average Plat cardholder regularly travels.
#1499
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
An amusing aspect of these discussions is that they invariably occur immediately after American Express announces a policy change, rather than some months after that policy change has been implemented, when we might be able to anecdotally observe a change in crowding. American Express practice frequently deviates from written policy. At this stage we do not even know how American Express' contractor will actually implement the rules for originating vs connecting vs arriving passengers.
What do you mean by crowding, specifically? Is it only when the lounge turns away cardholders because it has reached legal capacity, or is it (example) when you cannot find a seat without sharing a table?
What do you mean by crowding, specifically? Is it only when the lounge turns away cardholders because it has reached legal capacity, or is it (example) when you cannot find a seat without sharing a table?
#1500
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,752
Here's how I define it, which actually happened. Every table occupied including the ones designated as "reserved" by Cent members, staff opening up because of peak demand, poachers, or combination thereof; whereupon, a Cent member is faced with two equally unpalatable choices, (1) leave, or (2) accept staff's offer or request non-Cent members sitting in prior designated reserved tables be removed. In addition, while others may disagree, I find having to share a table with anyone I'm not acquainted with to be overcrowding.