Jan 6, 2020, 2:05 pm
Last edit by: mia
Discussion of the $50 guest fee which takes effect in 2023 is here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/2037482-centurion-lounge-crowding-platinum-cardholders-may-pay-50-guest-effective-2-1-2023-a.html
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This is a continuation of a four year discussion, which you are invited to review HERE before posting your suggestions to reduce lounge crowding.
Policies already implemented by American Express include limiting guests to two per Platinum cardholder (with no exception for immediate family), eliminating paid guests, and limiting Platinum access to three hours before scheduled departure, with no access on inbound flights (except when connecting).
Ideas already suggested include eliminating or limiting guests, banning guests not travelling in the same flight as the cardholder, limiting the annual number of visits, tieing access to spending on the Platinum card, banning children, etc.
-----------------------
This is a continuation of a four year discussion, which you are invited to review HERE before posting your suggestions to reduce lounge crowding.
Policies already implemented by American Express include limiting guests to two per Platinum cardholder (with no exception for immediate family), eliminating paid guests, and limiting Platinum access to three hours before scheduled departure, with no access on inbound flights (except when connecting).
Ideas already suggested include eliminating or limiting guests, banning guests not travelling in the same flight as the cardholder, limiting the annual number of visits, tieing access to spending on the Platinum card, banning children, etc.
Centurion Lounge crowding (access limited to 3 hours before flight departure)
Jan 2, 2020, 11:43 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: Delta Skymiles
Posts: 1,982
Centurion Lounge crowding (access limited to 3 hours before flight departure)
It would be nice to see a guest policy crafted that mimics the Delta guest policy for example.
- Plat Card Holder (and the AUs with Platinum Cards) guaranteed use
- Guests of any age assessed a fee. That includes AUs who are using a gold instead of platinum card.
As I have said for years I am so flummoxed why Delta and others have figured this situation out, but Amex can’t short of draconian solutions.
- Plat Card Holder (and the AUs with Platinum Cards) guaranteed use
- Guests of any age assessed a fee. That includes AUs who are using a gold instead of platinum card.
As I have said for years I am so flummoxed why Delta and others have figured this situation out, but Amex can’t short of draconian solutions.
Jan 2, 2020, 11:47 am
#2
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,752
I suspect there's a younger generation in Amex who focus way too much on social media's vocal minority. In time, they'll learn to ignore it, just as most of us have.
Jan 2, 2020, 11:48 am
#3
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
Many would consider a fee for guests to be more draconian than the three hour restriction. American Express has data, they know how many visitors, how many guests, approximately how long they stay, etc. We have only anecdotal observations.
Jan 2, 2020, 11:49 am
#4
Join Date: May 2011
Location: NYC (LGA, JFK), CT
Programs: Delta Platinum, American Gold, JetBlue Mosaic 4, Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond,
Posts: 4,894
It would be nice to see a guest policy crafted that mimics the Delta guest policy for example.
- Plat Card Holder (and the AUs with Platinum Cards) guaranteed use
- Guests of any age assessed a fee. That includes AUs who are using a gold instead of platinum card.
As I have said for years I am so flummoxed why Delta and others have figured this situation out, but Amex can’t short of draconian solutions.
- Plat Card Holder (and the AUs with Platinum Cards) guaranteed use
- Guests of any age assessed a fee. That includes AUs who are using a gold instead of platinum card.
As I have said for years I am so flummoxed why Delta and others have figured this situation out, but Amex can’t short of draconian solutions.
The Delta comparison is interesting. Delta eliminated lounge access for one card (Delta Gold), increased fees for other cards that give club access (Delta Platinum, Delta Reserve) and instead added Centurion lounge access. Yet no one seemed to give Delta any grief for limiting access while Amex would get a lot of grief
Jan 2, 2020, 11:52 am
#5
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
They did when Delta originally eliminated free guests:
Delta Skyclub-- no more free guests, effective 5.1.2014
Delta Skyclub-- no more free guests, effective 5.1.2014
Jan 2, 2020, 2:58 pm
#6
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Paris & Scotland (Laird), "Suite on the World"
Programs: Hertz platinum, Bonvoy titanium , Delta flying colonel/platinum/MM, retired old men board member
Posts: 592
It would be nice to see a guest policy crafted that mimics the Delta guest policy for example.
- Plat Card Holder (and the AUs with Platinum Cards) guaranteed use
- Guests of any age assessed a fee. That includes AUs who are using a gold instead of platinum card.
As I have said for years I am so flummoxed why Delta and others have figured this situation out, but Amex can’t short of draconian solutions.
- Plat Card Holder (and the AUs with Platinum Cards) guaranteed use
- Guests of any age assessed a fee. That includes AUs who are using a gold instead of platinum card.
As I have said for years I am so flummoxed why Delta and others have figured this situation out, but Amex can’t short of draconian solutions.
Jan 2, 2020, 3:14 pm
#7
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Philadelphia
Programs: Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 1,787
It would be nice to see a guest policy crafted that mimics the Delta guest policy for example.
- Plat Card Holder (and the AUs with Platinum Cards) guaranteed use
- Guests of any age assessed a fee. That includes AUs who are using a gold instead of platinum card.
As I have said for years I am so flummoxed why Delta and others have figured this situation out, but Amex can’t short of draconian solutions.
- Plat Card Holder (and the AUs with Platinum Cards) guaranteed use
- Guests of any age assessed a fee. That includes AUs who are using a gold instead of platinum card.
As I have said for years I am so flummoxed why Delta and others have figured this situation out, but Amex can’t short of draconian solutions.
Amex is in the business of selling credit cards, which provide lounge access as a benefit.
Profitable Delta customers are by definition those who fly a lot and therefore frequent lounge users, but I don't think it's true for Amex. Frequent travel is not necessarily correlated with higher spending, but having to pay a guest fee to use the lounge would be a big turn off.
I would cancel my card if I have to start paying for guests because that would just limit how often I use the lounge. I don't go into the Delta lounge if I'm flying with other people. It would certainly help with crowding, but Amex would also lose customers which is the main reason for their existence.
Last edited by SP03; Jan 3, 2020 at 3:17 pm Reason: typo
Jan 2, 2020, 9:03 pm
#8
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Newton Centre, MA, USA
Programs: DL 2MM Gold, AA Plat Pro; Hilton Lifetime Diamond, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium (via SPG), IHG Plat
Posts: 2,192
They did when Delta originally eliminated free guests:
Delta Skyclub-- no more free guests, effective 5.1.2014
Delta Skyclub-- no more free guests, effective 5.1.2014
The moral is, sometimes if you push back against a big company, you win. (Although in this case it was mostly because of some words Northwest used back in the day.)
Jan 3, 2020, 6:43 am
#9
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Paris & Scotland (Laird), "Suite on the World"
Programs: Hertz platinum, Bonvoy titanium , Delta flying colonel/platinum/MM, retired old men board member
Posts: 592
Delta also backtracked on the lifetime members. (We still get to bring guests in and do NOT need to by flying on Delta.)
The moral is, sometimes if you push back against a big company, you win. (Although in this case it was mostly because of some words Northwest used back in the day.)
The moral is, sometimes if you push back against a big company, you win. (Although in this case it was mostly because of some words Northwest used back in the day.)
Jan 3, 2020, 6:44 am
#10
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Paris & Scotland (Laird), "Suite on the World"
Programs: Hertz platinum, Bonvoy titanium , Delta flying colonel/platinum/MM, retired old men board member
Posts: 592
I would cancel my card if I have to start paying for guests because that would just limit how often I use the lounge. I don't go into the Delta lounge if I'm trying with other people. It would certainly help with crowding, but Amex would also lose customers which is the main reason for their existence.
Jan 3, 2020, 6:52 am
#11
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,752
LOL...of course not.
A lounge only Plat cardmember's annual profitability is at most $200, once you take into consideration all the tricks to minimize the various credit breakage. Compare that to a cardmember who charges per year "XXX,XXX" whose transactional revenue will exceed many multiples of $200. If I were running Amex, I'd surgically isolate & purge all those Plat cardmembers who fall into the following: 1) never or barely charge on my network, not even with other Amex products; 2) utilizes my lounges with guests an inordinate amount; 3) maximizes every credit; and 4) calls every year wasting my frontline employees times with threatening to cancel and insisting on retention offers.
A lounge only Plat cardmember's annual profitability is at most $200, once you take into consideration all the tricks to minimize the various credit breakage. Compare that to a cardmember who charges per year "XXX,XXX" whose transactional revenue will exceed many multiples of $200. If I were running Amex, I'd surgically isolate & purge all those Plat cardmembers who fall into the following: 1) never or barely charge on my network, not even with other Amex products; 2) utilizes my lounges with guests an inordinate amount; 3) maximizes every credit; and 4) calls every year wasting my frontline employees times with threatening to cancel and insisting on retention offers.
Jan 3, 2020, 10:07 am
#12
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 600
At DFW Centurion Lounge right now and plenty of seats available.
Jan 3, 2020, 12:30 pm
#13
Join Date: Jan 2014
Programs: Delta
Posts: 61
I just called to cancel my Platinum AMEX card and expressed my dissatisfaction at the lack of lounge access and the airline credit perk being too difficult to use. They gave me a $500 annual fee credit to shut me up...
Jan 3, 2020, 12:47 pm
#14
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: UA Plat MM, CM Plat, Amex Plat, Hertz CP, Hyatt Globalist, SPG Gold, Vons Club
Posts: 6,851
Curious what’s your approximate annual spend? Nice job!