American Express Adds Lufthansa Lounge Access Benefit to Platinum, Centurion Cards

by Gary Leff

Back in September American Express added a Lufthansa lounge access in Munich as a benefit for their most premium cards.

At the time I wrote this meant business and senator lounges in Munich (terminal 2 satellite) when flying Lufthansa, Swiss or Austrian and first class lounge access for Centurion cardmembers.

Already there were Priority Pass lounges in terminal 1, but lounge access in terminal 2 was new for American Express cardholders.

American Express has now made the benefit official, expanded it, and clarified access rules. Effective June 1, Platinum and Centurion cardmembers have access to Lufthansa lounges in Munich and Frankfurt when flying on Lufthansa, Swiss, or Austrian.

  • Frankfurt access is available through March 31, 2019 (presumably the contract could be revisited and extended) at Lufthansa Business lounges and also Senator Lounges if flying business class in terminal 1 concourse B.

  • Munich lounge access is available through May 31, 2019 at Lufthansa Business lounges and also Senator Lounges if flying business class in terminal 2 satellite.

In addition Centurion (Black Card) cardmembers get access to Lufthansa first class lounges in the Satellite area of T2 in Munich Airport, and T1 Concourse B in Frankfurt Airport and also nearby Senator lounges regardless of class of service.

Also new is that some Lufthansa lounges will sell guest access to cardmembers though American Express hasn’t specified which lounges or when. Until we learn more assume that access is for the cardmember only, another reason I suppose to add additional cardmembers to an account.

This does not apply to other Lufthansa lounges, notably it doesn’t include other lounges in the United States, Germany, or anywhere else — just these specific lounges. Lufthansa has been monetizing lounge access — including first class lounge access — since last summer.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. International lounges are great but AMEX really needs to figure out its domestic US lounge strategy…how many international lounge visits are we talking about here?

  2. Who needs Star Alliance Gold status anymore when the credit card crowd can get the same benefits? Huge slap in the face to SENs

  3. ” Frankfurt access is available through March 31, 2019 (presumably the contract could be revisited and extended) at Lufthansa Business lounges and also Senator Lounges if flying business class in terminal 1 concourse B.
    Munich lounge access is available through May 31, 2019 at Lufthansa Business lounges and also Senator Lounges if flying business class in terminal 2 satellite. ”

    The caveat of “if flying business class” defeats most of the incremental benefit of this. Unlike US3, LH Group carriers allow some lounge access even flying in short-haul Euro J :

    https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/Lounge-types-and-access

    realistically, it’s more of a lounge “upgrade” benefit (from LH Biz to LH Senator) than an “access” one.

  4. “Frankfurt access is available through March 31, 2019 (presumably the contract could be revisited and extended) at Lufthansa Business lounges and also Senator Lounges if flying business class in terminal 1 concourse B.
    Munich lounge access is available through May 31, 2019 at Lufthansa Business lounges and also Senator Lounges if flying business class in terminal 2 satellite.”

    The caveat of “if flying business class” defeats most of the incremental benefit of this. Unlike US3, LH Group carriers allow some lounge access even flying in short-haul Euro J :

    https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/Lounge-types-and-access

    realistically, it’s more of a lounge “upgrade” benefit (from LH Business to LH Senator) than an “access” one.

  5. Gary are you certain about the Centurion benefit for Frankfurt in the first class lounge? It doesn’t show that in my app (when selecting FRA) but does show the Munich first class option when selecting MUC

  7. I just tried to buy my way into the MUC business class lounge yesterday . Unfortunately I was on Eurowings which didn’t sell a biz ticket on the route. Having to mingle with the great unwashed made my skin crawl. Usually, I’m the only one who’s unwashed.

  8. @ keitherson

    Never flew Lufthansa or alliance or payed for one hotel night in years (points on CC spend and signup bonuses) but next month I will have a likely suite upgrade on a Marriott (I’m 5 for 5) this year and now I’ll get lounge access on my FRA/BOS flight, all from a free AMEX plat Ameriprise

  9. So confused. If I’m flying regular business class via a United award ticket I get what?

  10. @Dan-me too. If I fly business to MUC or FRA on any of those airlines I already get lounge access. If I fly United or any of the airlines listed, I also get lounge access in the LH lounge from the U.S. and in those 2 airports.
    The way I’m reading what Gary wrote is that I will now have access to LH first class lounge in MUC and FRA by carrying the Amex Platinum Card, which I do.

  11. Correction, Gary wrote that access to LH first class lounge in MUC and FRA will come by carrying Amex *BLACK* Centurion Card (not Platinum).

Comments are closed.