American Express has a Centurion Lounge popup in London for two weekends: Friday, November 24th through Sunday the 26th and Friday, December 1 through Sunday the 3rd.
It will be held at The Hospital Club, 24 Endell St, London, WC2H 9HQ from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. Platinum and Centurion cardmembers are welcome each with two guests.
Credit: American Express
They’ll be offering snow globe making, make your own home fragrance, beauty services and brunch with Santa Claus on Saturdays taking photos with guests and handing out gifts. There will be a gift wrapping service with personalized calligraphy tags, photo booth, family area with movies and games, and semi-private work space with wifi.
In addition they will be serving food and drink all day, with cocktails and canapes from each of the chefs of the U.S. Centurion lounges: Cédric Vongerichten (Las Vegas and New York LaGuardia); Dean Fearing (Dallas Fort-Worth); Daniel Patterson (San Francisco); Michelle Bernstein (Miami); Justin Yu (Houston Intercontinental); Michael Solomonov (Philadelphia).
American Express will also provide talks on:
- “What To Wear This Festive Season”
- “Top Gifts To Buy This Christmas”
- “How To Dress You Home At Christmas”
Does This Mean London Will Be Getting a Centurion Lounge?
Sometimes popups give us a clue where American Express will be placing a lounge. There was an LAX popup and then the airport confirmed a Centurion Lounge coming between terminals 6 and 7. However that deal stalled on the airport side.
There was a popup at O’Hare but we haven’t seen a lounge there yet.
On the other hand sometimes it’s just about being where premium cardmembers are like Deer Valley. In that way it’s similar to the United Club popup at the Mall at Short Hills, New Jersey given the airline’s hub at Newark.
Deer Valley Popup Was Mid-mountain Near the Empire Canyon Lodge & Montage Hotel. Credit: Empire Canyon Lodge
London Heathrow makes huge sense for a Centurion lounge. There are 8 Priority Pass lounges at the airport already to be sure. However the argument for Hong Kong was that it’s such a premium market, with a heavy concentration of cardmembers. London, Tokyo, and Shanghai seem like no brainers as well.
The problem with an Amex lounge in LHR is that it has the most segmented terminals in the world (between geographic separation, complicated terminal transfers, and vigilant security). You would assume they would put the lounge in T5, but in that case, anyone not flying BA would be out of luck.
Given I use at least three different terminals at LHR each month, where would an Amex LHR lounge make sense for me? BA T5 is the place where I’d least need it, even as that is the LHR terminal that represents a plurality of all my LHR lounge visits.
Of course this is not the first Centurion lounge in London. During the 1980s Amex had a Centurion Club lounge above its shop on Haymarket which could be used during the day, and before theatre, by premium Gold cardholders (believe this was before either the Platinum or Centurion cards were issued). It was like having your own club in the city to drop into for afternoon tea (complementary of course): Membership did indeed have its privileges. This was back in the days when Amex had offices in most major European cities where travelers could have mail sent to them for pick up and card members could cash their Amex travelers cheques.
My guess is that Amex would consider lounges in any terminal except 3, as they try not to compete with their partner Delta. Also if they continue their relationship with BA in the U.K., that would likely mean focusing on T2 for a future lounge.