Mar 9, 17, 7:11 pm
Last edit by: mia
Beginning March 30, 2017, The Centurion Lounge guest policy for Platinum Card Members will change. All Platinum Card Members will be limited to two total guests at no additional charge. One-day passes for any additional guests, including immediate family members, may be purchased.
Centurion Lounge new policy 2 guests ONLY (ends exception for immediate family).
Mar 9, 17, 10:19 am
#16
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: CLT
Programs: US CP, SPG Gold
Posts: 584
I've come down on the side of being granted a number of passes. Each plat card gets, say, 52 passes, enough for a solo traveler to visit once a week. Or I can use four at one time to grant my family access. Or eight and have a work conference. Either way, I'd know what I had to work with for the year and when they're gone, they're gone. Make it a membership year so that the access is staggered across the entire card base and you don't have a zillion people in January and very few in December.
It's silly to be traveling with your immediate family and not have access to a lounge you ostensibly pay hundreds of dollars a year to access.
It's silly to be traveling with your immediate family and not have access to a lounge you ostensibly pay hundreds of dollars a year to access.
Mar 9, 17, 10:31 am
#17
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2013
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, MLife Gold, Marriott Gold, HHonors Gold, Caesars Diamond, Amex Plat
Posts: 5,609
I've come down on the side of being granted a number of passes. Each plat card gets, say, 52 passes, enough for a solo traveler to visit once a week. Or I can use four at one time to grant my family access. Or eight and have a work conference. Either way, I'd know what I had to work with for the year and when they're gone, they're gone. Make it a membership year so that the access is staggered across the entire card base and you don't have a zillion people in January and very few in December.
It's silly to be traveling with your immediate family and not have access to a lounge you ostensibly pay hundreds of dollars a year to access.
It's silly to be traveling with your immediate family and not have access to a lounge you ostensibly pay hundreds of dollars a year to access.
Mar 9, 17, 10:34 am
#18
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: CLT
Programs: US CP, SPG Gold
Posts: 584
Same here. Being in CLT we generally don't connect anywhere, so the few times that we manage to get through DFW or originate in SEA or SFO are the only times this really matters personally to us. I went in a Centurion Lounge less than ten times last year and my family exactly twice.
Mar 9, 17, 10:34 am
#19
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA | CLT, formerly LHR & AMS
Programs: BAEC Gold, Hilton Diamond, BonVoy Titanium, Caesars 7*, Wynn Black, Momentum SOAR, Genting "The Ace"
Posts: 8,156
I've come down on the side of being granted a number of passes. Each plat card gets, say, 52 passes, enough for a solo traveler to visit once a week. Or I can use four at one time to grant my family access. Or eight and have a work conference. Either way, I'd know what I had to work with for the year and when they're gone, they're gone. Make it a membership year so that the access is staggered across the entire card base and you don't have a zillion people in January and very few in December.
It's silly to be traveling with your immediate family and not have access to a lounge you ostensibly pay hundreds of dollars a year to access.
It's silly to be traveling with your immediate family and not have access to a lounge you ostensibly pay hundreds of dollars a year to access.
Of course, you always have the AU cards (but those cost extra in the USA). For European card holders, you get enough cards for the family; so AMEX has built that into the equation (somewhat). For example, NL gets 3 (one AC) Centurion and 4 Platinum Cards. Even Platinum is multiple cards per yearly membership.
Mar 9, 17, 10:39 am
#20
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 19
You cant have a [frequent] business-class traveler [who is] traveling in economy with his family being treated like an economy traveler, says Holi. The next time the frequent business traveler books a flight, which might be the week after he or she traveled with an entire family of young children in coach, that traveler may well remember any poor treatment by the airline in the economy cabin and book business class seats on another airline from then on.
Mar 9, 17, 10:51 am
#24
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: CLT
Programs: US CP, SPG Gold
Posts: 584
The other side of that, is that you are only traveling with your immediate family a few times a year; so it's not a big deal.
Of course, you always have the AU cards (but those cost extra in the USA). For European card holders, you get enough cards for the family; so AMEX has built that into the equation (somewhat). For example, NL gets 3 (one AC) Centurion and 4 Platinum Cards. Even Platinum is multiple cards per yearly membership.
Of course, you always have the AU cards (but those cost extra in the USA). For European card holders, you get enough cards for the family; so AMEX has built that into the equation (somewhat). For example, NL gets 3 (one AC) Centurion and 4 Platinum Cards. Even Platinum is multiple cards per yearly membership.
Mar 9, 17, 10:58 am
#25
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Programs: Piggly Wiggly "Shop the Pig!" Preferred Shopper
Posts: 55,818
I've been suggesting this for some time. I'm not sure what the right number of passes should be, but that seems to me the simplest and fairest way to reduce the crowding.
Mar 9, 17, 11:05 am
#26
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: AUS
Programs: BAEC Gold, AA PPro, Hyatt Globalist, Amex Plat
Posts: 6,606
This is the policy, it's now been confirmed by Amex reps:
http://thepointsguy.com/2017/03/cent...amily-members/
They waited a long time to make a change on this front, they probably considered several possible options to select from, but this is the one they chose. Which "side people come down on" is largely irrelevant now. Some will be happy, some will be sad. Life will go on.
Regards
Mar 9, 17, 11:06 am
#27
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: LAX, LGB, SNA
Programs: AA EXP OWE, DL DM ST+, AS MVPG, UA, BA, WN CP, Hyatt E, Ritz Plat, HH GM
Posts: 3,185
I, for one really like their new policy of 2 guests only. I wouldn't even mind of it was 1 guest only. And the new increase in AF works for me since I use uber every other week.
Mar 9, 17, 11:06 am
#28
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: SFO
Programs: AY Plat, LH FTL
Posts: 7,214
I generally travel with my wife and 2 kids.
I was thinking of dropping our cards (plural) due to the annual fee increase and the constant overcrowding of lounges, but if this guest rule change means less crowded lounges, I think I'm up for sticking around even at the higher cost.
On more than one occasion, I have found Sky Clubs and even Admiral Clubs more relaxing than the Centurion lounges due to the over crowding.
I also would be supportive of an annual cap on visits...
I was thinking of dropping our cards (plural) due to the annual fee increase and the constant overcrowding of lounges, but if this guest rule change means less crowded lounges, I think I'm up for sticking around even at the higher cost.
On more than one occasion, I have found Sky Clubs and even Admiral Clubs more relaxing than the Centurion lounges due to the over crowding.
I also would be supportive of an annual cap on visits...
Mar 9, 17, 11:15 am
#29
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: CLT
Programs: US CP, SPG Gold
Posts: 584
And yet, it's the one Amex explicitly chose NOT to implement. People in the Amex forum spend a lot of emotional energy determining "which side they come down on" with all the armchair ideas, without acknowledging that it's largely irrelevant.
This is the policy, it's now been confirmed by Amex reps:
http://thepointsguy.com/2017/03/cent...amily-members/
They waited a long time to make a change on this front, they probably considered several possible options to select from, but this is the one they chose. Which "side people come down on" is largely irrelevant now. Some will be happy, some will be sad. Life will go on.
Regards
This is the policy, it's now been confirmed by Amex reps:
http://thepointsguy.com/2017/03/cent...amily-members/
They waited a long time to make a change on this front, they probably considered several possible options to select from, but this is the one they chose. Which "side people come down on" is largely irrelevant now. Some will be happy, some will be sad. Life will go on.
Regards
I am aware that several Amex folks read this forum, and a group of cardmembers spurred on by these forum posts to suggest their preferences to Amex could also be useful. It may turn out to be irrelevant, sure, and that's the probable conclusion, but I think there's value in community feedback.
