The old “The Club” lounge space at the Phoenix airport has been renovated and enlarged and is now two separate lounges with a shared entrance and separate reception spaces. It is an American Express Centurion Lounge and also an Escape Lounge. And they’re both now open.
- The Centurion Lounge is open to American Express Platinum and Centurion cardmembers and up to 2 guests (or immediate family for Centurion cardmembers). For Platinum customers this is a departure lounge only, accessible within 3 hours of flight.
- The Escape Lounge is also open to Amex Platinum and Centurion cardmembers (and two guests), as well as being a pay-in lounge costing $45 at the door or $40 when booked online at least 24 hours in advance.
Centurion Lounge and The Club Entrance Rendering, Credit: American Express
Centurion Lounge Reception Photograph, Credit: American Express
The lounge was supposed to open in 2019 and missed it by mere days.
The Centurion lounge offers buffet and bar and floor-to-ceiling windows “with expansive internal and external views.” American Express previously shared that the lounge has a shower.
Both lounges feature Mexican-inspired food from Chef Doug Robson of Phoenix Mexican restaurants Gallo Blanco and Otro Cafe. This includes “eggs and chorizo, tortilla soup, pollo asado with a tamarind glaze, roasted cauliflower with harissa and a masala galam yogurt sauce, and more.”
American Express Centurion Lounge Photograph Credit American Express
American Express Centurion Lounge Photograph Credit American Express
The Escape Lounge will also offer a shower, as well as complimentary bar and buffet, plus they previously shared:
- “Silent digital library, with noise cancelling Bose headphones and free access to over 7,000 publications from over 120+ countries courtesy of PressReader”
- “Children activity packs, including Escape Lounge’s Kids Crew puzzles, coloring book and crayons”
Escape lounges are quite nice. I was super-impressed by the Escape Lounge at the Reno airport. It was stylish with surprisingly good food (though no restrooms inside that lounge).
Escape Lounge Entrance Rendering, Courtesy American Express
Escape Lounge Bar Rendering, Courtesy American Express
Having both spaces will help on crowding, though this is a small lounge. The two lounges combined are 9532 square feet which is more lounge space than old 2500 square foot The Club Priority Pass lounge in the terminal, which I’ve used when flying American Airlines. Still this will be the second smallest Centurion lounge, behind only Seattle.
In addition to American, terminal 4 houses Air Canada, British Airways, Condor, Southwest, Volaris, and WestJet.
Terminal 4 is the busiest terminal at PHX with all of the AA and SW flights. I’ve been flying Delta more and they have a nice lounge in Terminal 3. Terminal 3 was recently redone and it is very nice.
I’ll be curious as to how busy the Centurion lounge will get.
No restrooms inside OAK Escape lounge either. On the plus side, there is almost a permanent Groupon offering for OAK Escape lounge passes at $24-29 per head so hopefully that will come to PHX as well.
Gary,
Did you hear what the hours of operation are for the new A/E lounge?
What gate in Terminal 4 is the lounge closest to?
Keep up the good work.
Thank you,
Ted
Nice new lounge for us here in PHX but sadly now no Priority Pass lounge in any of the PHX terminals. Hopefully as terminal 3 continues its renovation PP will associate with one of the lounges.
Will BA continue to use this lounge for it’s first and business class customers or will we have to use one of the three AA clubs?
The Reno Escape lounge is one of the best kept secrets when traveling to Lake Tahoe or Reno. Always an excellent selection of food and an attentive and friendly staff. And their is a well maintained restroom about 50 steps from the entrance.
How much of this did you write?
I ask because within minutes you and Ben posted darn near identical items. Same photos. Same bullet points. Some slight differentiation in wording.
It’s almost like this was a copy/paste/edit of something your sponsor sent you.
@Ex-UA Plat – I received an embargoed press release. The post, thoughh, I wrote 100% on my own simply citing a few facts from the release. The images were provided with the release. (Although I used some older images as well)
It’s sad to say but this Amex lounge will be useful for maybe the day it opens, then it will be overstuffed with visitors and basically useless. I will take a look next week when heading LHR but I am guessing I will be back in the Admiral’s Club in the next wing down.
By my observation, Amex should limit access to the cardholder and maybe one guest max. Their lounges aren’t configured to support much more. In DFW, a lot of load is from extended families travelling on the Latin American flights where a multitude enters with the cardholder.
Although… the AA Flagship Lounge at DFW is getting much the same since they are apparently letting the hoy polloy from other airlines in.