American Express Centurion lounges can have long waits to get it, although the amount of time you’ll expect varies by lounge, day of the week, and weather. Philadephia at peak times has interminable waits because the lounge is so small (and there’s not much great inside, anyway).
(Credit: TravelZork)
(Credit: TravelZork)
We usually don’t see these long lines anymore because digital waitlists have replaced physical queues. However, American Express Centurion (Black Card) cardmembers don’t wait at all. They skip the queue completely, and there’s generally even a separate dedicated check-in line once inside. (Even when it’s your turn to enter the lounge as a Platinum member, there’s still often a line to check in.)
Once inside, Centurion cardmembers have reserved seating. There’s even better champagne behind the bar for them most of the time, although in some lounges better booze is in their separate section of the lounge.
Here’s the reserved section for Centurion cardmembers of the New York JFK lounge. It’s not one of the better space in the lounge. It’s a similar setup in Las Vegas, too.
There’s a discussion on Reddit on ‘just sitting in the Centurion section’. Often nobody will say anything. You’ll see in the JFK lounge photo there’s a stand for an employee who might check credentials, but it’s unmanned. There’s no such setup in many of the other lounges. Some just have reserved signs on tables, but nobody checking.
This doesn’t mean nobody will check on a given visit. Someone reports being kicked out of the Black Card seats in Seattle. And another reports monitoring in Tokyo but Japan is a completely different issue.
You should not sit in the Black Card section if you are not a Black Card customer. That’s simply the deal. If you’re in the lounge because of your Platinum card, you wait in line and you scavenge for tables like the commoner you are.
But it’s a really interesting phenomenon that:
- this is mostly based on norms and rule-following, and not enforcement
- and that works because most people comply
- which is why a few people can get away with it.
What’s always struck me as odd is that Chase and Capital One lounges don’t offer priority for the best customers. J.P. Morgan Reserve cards are supposed to be limited to private bank customers. Private Bank ostensibly requires a minimum of $10 million on deposit with the bank (in practice you can get in for much less, but the average customer’s balance is much higher). Yet they’ll turn those cardmembers away from lounges.
Capital One doesn’t have an ultra-premium card above Venture X, but they certainly have customers pushing seven figures of spend on cards. It seems like you’d want to make sure they were accommodated the one or two times a year they show up at a Capital One lounge. They’re happy with their Capital One relationship, excited to finally try the lounge, and they learn it’ll be an hour to get in. What does that do to the spend relationship?
The Chase part of this makes no sense. It’s like they are too big to connect the dots. Maybe they thought their private banking clients would spring for the private area of the LGA lounge. Would love to know what the actual usage of that space is. Can’t imagine it is high.
Meanwhile Chase Travel continues to be terrible. Got waylaid for two days because of the blizzard. My preferred hotel via Chase travel was “sold out”. Amex – no problem! Enjoyed my room upgrade and $100 credit.
So yeah, Amex lounges are packed, but overall they have the best and most consistent product.
Actually a server ushered me into the reserved seating area.(no black card) I gave her a tip when leaving.
I have seen people kicked out, so you may get away with it but not always.
Cancelled my AMEX card last month. Not worth the cost. Everyone has one and AMEX has outsourced so much to call center that are ineffective.
When you have to wait in line and desperately search for a seat, the lounge has failed and lost its appeal. AMEX needs to fix this.
AMEX lounges have always terribly overrated. Access to them is worth about 50 cents.
At SFO, the Centurion section in the temporary lounge is a roped off seating area near the entrance. Weird that it wasn’t closer to a window, but at least in this location you can flex where EVERYONE can see. Kind of like boarding most narrowbody planes, you have to go through the F section so you can see the poors as they enter if that amuses you too. /s The chance of a Platinum squatter would be very low since it’s also in full view of the check-in agents.
What I don’t understand is why Ritz Card is higher priority to enter a Chase Sapphire Lounge vs. CSR cards. Did Marriott carve out some exception?
AMEX could fix the lounge overcrowding problem very easily by raising the minimum annual spend for free visits to something like $200k. Everyone else with a platinum card spending less must hand over something like $50 or $75 per person per visit without exception. Overcrowding would vanish overnight under such a scheme. AMEX won’t do this, however, because it’s more profitable for them to continue with this whole ruse that anyone willing to fork over $800 a year (or whatever the current number is) will have lounge access at the airport. Astonishingly, this remains very effective for them. But it is a total scam, and everyone with a brain knows it — especially the AMEX leadership.
Gary Leff is correct regarding overcrowded AMEX lounges. Here is my pro tip: If you’ve just spent an hour in line to enter the American Express Centurion Lounge at PHL, LAS, or DFW only to discover there’s not a single table left, and Platinum card squatters have filled the Centurion card member reserved space, take a page from college students on spring break. Claim your own patch of plush AMEX lounge carpet and eat while sitting on the floor. Extra credit for stringing up low-voltage tiki lights (available at Party City) plugged into the nearest cell phone charger, so everyone knows exactly where the party’s at. Bonus points if you bring a tiny inflatable flamingo as your AMEX lounge mascot.
OH MY GOD! WHERE’S ICE WHEN YOU NEED THEM!?!
askmrlee – I was thinking about closing my RITZ card and applying for AMEX BRILLIANT, in order to get Bonvoy Plaitnum status.
But I did not realize that RITZ card has priority over CSR at Sapphire Lounges, which I feel are the best airport lounges, except for the tiny size and long waits.
After the January 2026 changes, does RITZ still have entry priority over CSR?
Do Centurion card holders even use the lounges? It seems like they would be a reason not to pay that fee.