There was a post the other day over on Award Travel 101 (formerly Travel Hacking 101) about the American Express Centurion lounge guest policy. Since I seem to be a lightning rod for these types of discussions (given my family of 8), I got dragged in to the discussion and thought it was worth a post on it. Call it a “Friday Firestorm” :-D, since nothing generates angry comments like families traveling with children!
What are people’s views on the Amex Centurion guest policy (ie, 2 free guests)? My family of 4 needed to pay $50 for the extra person. I understand they’re trying to stop the world from coming in, but why penalize a family flying on the same ticket? The lounge agent told me she recently had to charge a lady $50 for her 7 month old baby. Fair or not?
American Express Centurion Lounge guest policy
I have written before about the changes that American Express made to its Centurion Lounge guest policy.
(SEE: Amex devalues Centurion lounge access; sticks it to families )
Previously, you were allowed 2 guests or your immediate family (spouse and children) – now, you are allowed only 2 guests total, with no exceptions for family. So, as mentioned above, if you have a family of 4, your 7 month old baby will be charged $50.
Lounge overcrowding
I do understand the problem with lounge overcrowding. Nobody likes having a crowded lounge or nowhere to sit once you enter. I would imagine that Centurion lounges face this even more than other lounges since they are head and shoulders better than other domestic lounges. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hang out in an Admiral’s Club or United Club if you’ve got access to a Centurion lounge.
I often hear people complaining about two different problems that are similar but not the same
- Lounges are too crowded
- Kids are running around like crazy ruining the vibe for everyone else.
I personally have never seem kids running around like crazy in an airport lounge and totally agree that this is inappropriate behavior. My kids typically either sit down or go into the kids room if the lounge has one.
Are families really the cause of the overcrowding problem?
I maintain that the current implementation is a heavy handed solution that does not address the stated problem. Yes, I do have a family of 8, and so on the extremely rare times that we are all traveling together and happen to be at an airport that happens to have a Centurion lounge, then yes, we receive outsized value compared to most other traveling groups. In the 2 or so years that I’ve had a Platinum card, our family of 8 has visited a Centurion lounge exactly ONCE (at Seattle, before they expanded, and it was crowded). And we would have used it at SFO except Amex changed the rules on us one week before our trip there 🙂 I have also used the Centurion lounges with one guest a few other times – with my wife in the Centurion Lounge in Las Vegas and with my son in Dallas on our trip to Texas.
(SEE ALSO: I am the King of Texas!!)
But who uses the lounge more:
- My family of 8 visiting say 3 times a year – total of 24 person-visits (and again, this is more than we have historically visited)
- The road warrior who travels for work each week and visits the lounge each week on Sunday and Thursday/Friday nights on his or her way to and from work? Say 45 weeks a year * 2 visits = 90 person-visits and that’s assuming no guesting.
I understand that when my family of 8 goes to the lounge, we take up 8 seats. But my 6 kids also don’t eat as much food as 6 adults, and they CERTAINLY don’t drink as much alcohol as 6 adults (I hope? 😀 ). Plus, why do the Centurion lounges even have these kid rooms if not for kids?
That’s also setting aside the fact that while you can tell your buddy – “Sorry, I can’t guest you into this lounge” and leave him to fend for himself in the terminal, most families can’t or won’t do that with their small children! It is galling to me that, as an annual-fee paying ($550 / year!) Platinum cardholder, even a family of 4 literally CANNOT use their Centurion Lounge benefit when traveling together without either a) deciding which of their kids (or spouse!) they like better, or paying an extra $50 per visit.
The Centurion lounges are nice but they’re not THAT nice. Adding authorized users is a possibility but the $175 annual fee on (most) Platinum cards means that you’ll need to have at least 4 lounge visits a year to recoup that, which seems unlikely for most families.
What’s the solution?
I think the clear solution would be to provide either a limited number of guest passes or a limited number of annual visits. To me that solves both situations.
My personal opinion is that Amex took the easy way out and catered to business travelers traveling by themselves, which is fine, since that’s probably their core clientele. My guess, knowing the state of most large company’s IT departments is that although limiting number of visits seems straightforward but would be time consuming to implement and with limited ROI on Amex’s side.
While I think the solution I suggested is reasonable, I’m not holding my breath that it’s implemented. Plus, it’s all but impossible to separate your suggestions for lounge access from your personal situation.
- People with large families infrequently visiting the lounge like mine would prefer the old policy
- The single guy or couple with no kids laments the “breeders” and doesn’t want to pay for people who “choose to procreate” (seriously this is the language I often see from some people)
- The family of 4 thinks this policy is fine but wants it changed so you can include a spouse and 2 children
- The woman with young kids thinks children under a certain age should be allowed in for free
I get that
Dare I ask you to leave your thoughts in the comments? Donning my flame-retardant suit in 3… 2… 1… 🙂
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
If you want your litter to visit a lounge, the easy solution is to pay up. If you don’t like it, go sit at the gate. Simple.
This isn’t the 9th Century – don’t need a litter to help on the farm. #contraception.
WTF is wrong with you. His family his choice. A litter. Who even talks like this? You must be a real joy in real life. Why do you even read this blog? It’s “crew” focused and you don’t appear to believe in procreation which is fantastic for society considering your attitude.
As to the topic at hand, I say leave it to the discretion of the lounge attendant. It’s full, no guests. Empty, bring in your family.
Regardless of your opinion on this article, that’s just rude.
The true target market of Amex (i.e. high spenders, not churners) prefers ease of use. Most of their benefits are based around that. They’d rather have someone know that they can enter the lounge with 2 guests every time rather than “oh, I get x number of guest passes per year. Did I use the last of them 2 weeks ago or do I still have some left?”
Limited number of annual visits would be even worse for Amex, especially as it would likely be based on cardmember year to evenly disperse demand. Does Amex really want to tell someone they can’t come in b/c they’ve used all of their passes, just a couple weeks before that person decides whether to fork over another $550 annual fee? Sounds horrible for retention.
2 guests is easy for people to remember and consistent for Amex, as it is what they do with Priority Pass and Escape Lounges as well. Delta is the exception, but that appears to be an issue from Delta’s end rather than Amex.
I agree that solution has problems too – all your points there are great. At most Priority Pass lounges I’ve been to, we have not been charged for kids. The one kid room picture in this post is at the Alaska board room where our family of 8 got in with Priority Pass and we were not charged extra
I’ve traveled all over. I don’t see too many kids in the lounges. I’m not entirely sure they’re the problem vs full grown adults groups of 10 or adults who allow their kids to run around
You made good points then lost me at calling the Amex policy galling.
Pay up for more use seems fair.
Many heavy biz travelers also have big families like you.
I don’t understand the sense of entitlement with the fee. You paid $450 before now its $550 with a new limit. Up to you whether you want to continually doing business with them.
But again, as I mention in the article, my family of 8 uses the lounge maybe 3 times a year (24 total person-visits). A road warrior uses it twice a week for 45 weeks a year (90 person-visits). Who should pay up for more use?
Plus as it stands now, I literally CANNOT use a Centurion Lounge benefit if I’m traveling with my family unless I want to pay an extra $175 for more Authorized User cards or spend $250 for 5 day passes! THAT is the part that I find galling.
As you mention, it’s up to me whether I want to continue doing business with them
Good math there Dan. But one seat used at a time is very different than 8 seats used at a time. That’s what they are trying to combat. One person twice a week is a very different situation than 8 people at a time regardless of how many visits. I get what you are saying, but it’s not a total visits per year that has affected the experience. I’ve been in Centurion lounges where they were largely empty due to the timing. I’ve also been in there many times where it was crowded I couldn’t wait to leave.
I do still believe that those who choose to bring in several people really should expect to pay more. If you go to Disney World they are going to charge for your children to enter and not give free passes. It’s really the fair way. Other members should not be subsidizing those who choose to bring more in.
My comments were nice and pleasant weren’t they? 🙂
I agree that Amex did this to streamline the guest policy. 2 guests total makes it simple. Sure, people with the 2nd kid gets hosed, but as a poster above pointed out, Amex’s target market isn’t the cardholder trying to maximize value, they want the people who just pay the $175 for the additional cardholder and don’t balk at the price.
I get your kid’s don’t eat/drink as much as adults….but what happens when they are all between the ages of 12 to 17? They might eat as much as an adult. I also get that you might only travel w/ the whole clan 2 or 3 trips a year. But I bet there are several families of 6 to 8 in the airports everyday that have the Plat card.
I also see your point on the roadwarrior who might access the lounge 90+ times in a year. But I would bet the avg road warrior puts a big amount of their travel spend on the card, which is what actually brings Amex revenue.
I could get behind the extra guest passes per year, but would limit it to around 5. IF it was more, I think it would actually lead to overcrowding. I’m single, and rarely use the guest privileges. But was in Vegas about a year ago for a bachelor party. We all took the same flight home and I went into the lounge with a few of the guys. If I had 20 guest passes, I would have used 12 right there. I imagine that everyday there are big groups of colleagues. I could see one guy with a Plat card guesting in his entire work group.
It’s been awhile since they’ve instituted the changes and I feel like I haven’t seen as many big groups/families. I think it has helped alleviate some crowding, of course my sample size is small. Although the policy probably doesn’t work for all, I think it is about as fair as can be.
Singles may have more travel spend, but large families will have spending in clothes, groceries, school supplies etc that singles don’t have. Even school lunch is going to credit card as more and more schools do online payments. Families use credit cards – just in different ways.
Overcrowding is not about the amount of food & beverage consumed, it’s about space. There should be some kind of capacity control but it should also be appropriately priced. I’m sure their geniuses can figure out pricing for kids under a certain age who as you said wont consume as much food but will still take up space.
The bottom line though is the lounges aren’t publicly available amenities for everyone’s use. They are businesses that are allowed to set their own rules. Either you play buy (pun intended) them or you make other choices.
I totally agree but you’re missing my point. If it truly is an overcrowding issue, then the road warrior who visits the lounge 90 times a year is the one Amex should go after, not the family who visits 3 times a year with 8 people.
One seat at a time versus 8 seats at a time. Big difference during peak hours.
I like a 2 tier card.
Level 1: as is or lounge access for the card holder only/all guests pay fee
Level 2: no lounge access.
The simplest solution would be to have different pricing. Additional guest, beyond the first 2, with same last name (immediate family), pays $20-$25. All other additional guests pay $50…. $20 is not a lot for avoiding having to choose your least favorite kid (or spouse!).
Good Stuff. Glad you wrote it.
However, behind all this is sheer speculation about WHY AmEx cut off the benefit. They don’t do these things willy nilly. A bunch of employees had to look over the numbers and decide this was a necessary change. That means some people were abusing the benefit a lot (and I mean REALLY abusing, not some blogger showing up in Seattle with his 6 kids. That is not abuse).
You seem to spend a lot of what you wrote proving that what you did is not abuse. I remember reading the original posting that started this, and with the exception of a few idiots posting really inflammatory anti family comments, ok, we all agree you are not the abuser.
AmEx is not trying to cut you off, they are trying to eek out more revenue from you.
Yeah I know. I actually sent a couple of feelers out to see if I could get an interview from someone at Amex to talk about this, so we could see if we could get any more information on why they changed the policy and what they may be doing going forward.
My thought would be the main people they were looking at were people bringing in friends / extended family / random strangers in and saying they were immediate family.
There is no speculation about why they did it, at least according to them. They actually said, in their own marketing materials, that it was to alleviate overcrowding.
There is little doubt in my mind, based on the clientele I have seen in their lounges, and simple logic, that this was a lie. It makes no sense that a family of 8 would use the lounges often enough to be the cause of overcrowding. There are not enough of them and most do not have sufficient means to travel often enough to create an overcrowding issue. I took my family of 6 into centurion lounges 4 times over 2 years and also visited by myself probably another half dozen times, and I never saw another family that exceeded 2 children in my 10 visits. I note families like mine that are now considered large, just because we are so unusual.
I find American Express very dishonest in many of their dealings and when this policy was introduced, I cancelled my platinum card, not because of the policy, which I rarely used, but because of the dishonesty that accompanied it. If you don’t want children in your lounge, that is your right as a company, but don’t lie to me and tell me it is to alleviate overcrowding.
As a business traveler who often takes my niece and nephew on trips (so can sympathize with “breeders” to some level), the problem really isn’t children being in the lounge. It’s the abysmal way parents often allow them to act. I’m sure you’re the exception but the exposure to poorly behaved children and parents’ inability to control them is really the root of any problem folks have with the old policy. Perhaps also the hesitation flight attendants and lounge staff have in addressing this with parents also plays into it.
I do believe it should be fair – allow 2 guests (so their target market can do business with colleagues as designed) and then offer another half dozen passes or so…perhaps another few passes for a nominal fee if purchased in advance. But catering to the market that generates their revenue is the smart move. Acknowledging that a good chunk of that market does occasionally travel with family is also important.
And that’s fine but that’s a totally separate problem. I feel the same way about behavior in hotel lounges – if you’ve got a problem with behavior, then address THAT problem, not with a blanket ban on kids, especially under the fake guise of overcrowding
Agreed – bad behavior should be addressed either way. But often, parents are defensive and not receptive to it or just ignore the request to control their children. It’s that sense of entitlement and defensiveness that might make it easier just to say “no kids”. But note that Amex did not ban kids nor was that my suggestion.
From my personal experience in the span of a month…
LGA Centurion Lounge – family of 6 / children literally jumping on sofas
DFW Centurion Lounge – children occupying meeting room eating pizza and “camping out”. Since parents these days can’t or won’t discipline their children – a trend we can fully expect to continue – it will become necessary to impose a strict “one member-one guest” rule.
I rarely bother with lounges anymore, since most are horribly oversubscribed and often function as a day care or a family reunion center. Better to get a cuppa java, find a relatively peaceful inactive gate area and wait it out.
We’ve much more often seen overcrowding simply due to supply and demand. And I’ve also witnessed the worst behavior by “business” travelers like the sales guy in FLL who loudly, on his phone, bragged about his strategy with a hesitant customer to a fellow sales guy-people 30 feet away heard every word.
I’m canceling my Platinum for this reason! I use Centurian lounges maybe 2-3 times per year. I’ve never brought more than two guests, BUT next week I’m traveling through Vegas with a long layover and my family of four. We had planned to use the lounge, but we don’t drink so there is no way I’m paying $50.
AMEX basically just told me that they don’t want my business anymore, so I will certainly not be paying their annual fee again.
Yeah last year I tried to bring my family in – my sister, mom, and partner and was told I had to pay for one of them. I ended up getting that $50 refunded after I called and pointed out if I had 5 kids and a partner there would have been no fee. They definitely need to make it fair but usable for everyone.
I still believe there should have been an exception for kids under a certain age (6, or 12, or whatever).
Charging for infants is just ridiculous, why not have the same exemption as Airlines at least, lap infants are not counted in the 2 guest number.
The kids rooms in the lounges are clearly designed for younger kids and my toddler has literally been the only kid in the room anytime we’ve been in DFW or Vegas.
Of course I suppose they could have more seating if they tore those out…
It’s going to be a close decision on if I choose to renew my card this year or not.
Yes – I’ve never seen another kid in the “family rooms” at any lounge I’ve ever been to. Again, all the comments are talking about how families are just overcrowding the lounges but most people (myself included) instead report that when they visit lounges, it’s almost completely full of adult travelers.
It’s really simple. They offer a fantastic lounge and as a Platinum member, you get entry for yourself and up to two additional guests. It’s rather generous. It stops there. If you want more, you pay more. There is no law that stays you must carry this card. If it doesn’t work for you, then simply close the account.
What if lounges handled guests the same way airlines do fares? Guests are cheaper (perhaps even free) when the lounge is fairly empty, and more expensive if the lounge is busier. Each lounge would have to establish various benchmarks of persons in the lounge for each price level. I do acknowledge that this proposal would seriously complicate matters and make planning difficult, but would be the fairest system that best balances everyone’s needs.