I just received an invitation to visit the American Express Centurion Lounge at LAS Mccarran Airport, I’m not sure when I will be in Vegas again but if I do decide to pop over there this is certainly on my list of places to check out. The invitation allows me and my family members entry twice between now and December 2013; from what I can gather from other people who have received this invite it seems to be targeted towards those people with Business Open Version of the American Express Platinum.
Also, some people are being granted unlimited access, and some people like me are being gifted a couple of visits. And the good news is that it seems there are more American Express Centurion Lounge ‘s scheduled to open this year, Terminal D in Dallas DFW airport for one. However, the bad news is… after this taster period it is going to cost you $50 per visit unless you are a holder of the Centurion Card (the magical Black Amex that comes with a $5000 signup fee and $2500 per year membership).
Reports in from Yelp and other sources say the lounge in Vegas is excellent quality and the food is on par with what you can get in a restaurant – that is quite a surprise considering some of the crap that is out there in the American Airlines Lounges that I typically haunt!
Keep an eye out for a letter like this one for your Invite, especially if you hold the American Express Platinum.
Personally, I am a little worried about this development in the long term- as an American Express Platinum Card holder I have access to Priority Club and to certain lounges if I am flying on that airline, these are Partnerships. If Amex starts building these American Express Centurion Lounge ‘s throughout the major hubs they could decide to terminate the partnerships as there is no need for Amex to pay these guys when their customers can come to their own Lounge.
The worry aspect is that currently they are offering this for $50 instead of the price of free that I currently pay – so could this be the first sign of the removal of a key part of Platinum Benefits – what do you think?
The update today is that Amex did indeed decide to cut off another Partner, and American Airlines will no longer allow access to the holders of the Platinum card. Though Amex will not be charging the fee to access the Centurion lounges you will have a grand total of 4 to chose from in 2014 rather than every Admirals club…