American Express Platinum Grows its Lounge Network: San Diego

Even though American Express Platinum and Centurion cardholders lost access to American and US Airways lounges at the end of March and lost guest privileges at Delta lounges May 1 (of course many people were cool with this because of credits up to $500 American Express handed out), I continue to find the card very useful for lounge status.

There are at least 5 known US domestic Centurion lounges expected to be open by the end of the year — with Miami, New York LaGuardia and San Francisco adding to Las Vegas and Dallas Fort-Worth.

Priority Pass Select gets you into not just international lounges and Alaska lounges but also into independent lounges like Newark’s Art & Lounge and The Club locations (such as the new lounge in Phoenix).

And Airspace lounges pay-in are accessed complimentary by showing a Platinum or Centurion card.

There’s a brand new one now open in San Diego between terminal 2 East and West.

It’s open daily prior to first Terminal 2 East flight until boarding last departure. (Paid access is $25.)

The San Diego location adds to Baltimore, Cleveland, and New York JFK Terminal 5.

It offers power at every seat, food, complimentary liquor, wifi, and showers.


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 »

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Comments

  1. Are you sure this is accurate? “It offers … at every seat, food, complimentary liquor, …, and … .”

    At BWI Platinum card holders receive a voucher, $10 if I recall correctly, that is good for food OR liquor. There was free coffee, tea, soft drinks and snack mix.

  2. ugh. of course the SW terminal is ghetto and not connected to T2 (or even other parts of T1). so much for trying this one out tomorrow or Sunday

  3. This is great news! I fly frequently out of T2 (Virgin America!) and can make great use of this lounge access. Amex Plat, here I come 🙂

  4. I will be traveling with 4 people. Will I be able to use the Amex Plat in addition to Citi American Executive card for the access to the lounge for all 4 of us? ( 1 non family member)

  5. I was there a few weeks ago. Entry is through the old Admiral’s Club (which is still being remodeled.) Looks like an Ikea store, but pleasant. Anyway, don’t think they had their liquor license yet – no booze, but a fancy bar in place. As I understand it, they will close the current Admiral’s Club side to finish the remodel and AA will use the Airspace Lounge. The United Club in the same terminal is far superior if you have access.

  6. @Iolaire McFadden, here’s what they told me about f&b in response to the followup:

    “About a a year ago, the policy was changed from one-free-premium-item (either food or beverage) to a denominated credit. That denominated credit buys the same amount of product as before; usually leaving an extra dollar or two for the customer to potentially get a discounted second item.

    In addition, San Diego has unlimited complimentary house-level alcoholic beverages for all guests. That is unique for this lounge for now.”

    @Seabird – Citi Exec card doesn’t get access to this lounge.

  7. Gary thanks for the update, “San Diego has unlimited complimentary house-level alcoholic beverages for all guests” is a nice per for some people.

  8. The furniture they have in that new San Diego lounge is very good quality (Im a furniture dealer). And it looks very nice too. I’d have like it if they had a banquette as opposed to the benches have near the bar; but they seemed to want to keep the furniture low-lying to maximize the view, so it sort of makes sense in that context. Overall, this is a high quality lounge for a mid/small market for AA like San Diego.

    But this does bring up a good subject:
    The only true Ikea furniture Ive seen in a lounge is in a generic club in Las Vegas owned by Priority Pass. The food and drink in that lounge was as equally bad. I wish Priority Pass would just hand those lounges to Amex or Airspace or whomever (just not Servisair!); other than when an airport builds it and pays for everything on behalf of Priority Pass/Servisair (i.e. SJC, DFW) their lounges can be awful.

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