Travel has always been at the heart of the Amex Platinum cardholder experience. In fact, it was always hard to justify carrying the $550 a year card if you didn’t.
Covid-19 changed that, with Amex introducing a variety of perks you can enjoy from home to make up for lost travel but when travel does return, Amex also appears keen to make the experience better than ever.
American Express has been operating at a fever pitch recently to reopen Centurion Lounges in airports across the United States, and even open new spaces including the massive new lounge at New York JFK Terminal 4. Why stop there? Amex just signed on to double the size of its San Francisco lounge.
Amex Centurion Lounge Expansion
Amex Centurion Lounges, a perk of Amex Platinum and Centurion card membership, effectively set a new bar for US lounges when they launched some years ago. The new spaces are one of at least 18 reasons its easy to justify these premium credit cards.
US airline lounges typically lagged behind top offerings in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, so Amex setup shop with something better, regardless of what airline you were flying, or what cabin.
Over the years they’ve expanded to 13 spaces, and many have reopened after brief closures due to the global pandemic. The lounges are stellar, but with few exceptions, space has always been a concern.
It turns out there are a lot of people with Amex Platinum cards, and they all love to travel. It’s one of the reasons the new JFK lounge at T4 is so massive.
Continuing that trend, Amex just signed an agreement to double down in San Francisco quite literally, by doubling the size of the current lounge. The Centurion Lounge located At SFO Terminal 3 will become an impressive 16,000 square foot space, with a new menu from Ravi Kapur, one of San Francisco’s most celebrated chefs.
And yes, most Centurion Lounges that have reopened haven’t skimped out on the good food or the curated wine and cocktail menus of times before covid-19 either. With more space, it’ll hopefully be even easier to enjoy them.
Good Times For Lounges?
A global slowdown in travel has many airlines and airline alliances reconsidering how they do business, and that includes consolidating spaces to save money. As new space in airports pops up, it’s an opportunity for credit card companies like Amex to come in and improve existing spaces, or create bigger, better new ones.
With Capital One planning to enter the airport lounge game this year, a bit of friendly competition between travel rewards cards competitors is sure to benefit customers, as each tries to one up each other.
Plus, there’s a new bonus worth up to 225,000 points to join the Platinum Card club.
