American Express is opening a new lounge at the Seattle Airport next year. But it won’t be a Centurion lounge as we’ve come to know them. Instead it’s a Centurion Studio.
Here’s what American Express shared with me,
(W)e are opening a new Card Member space in Seattle-Tacoma Airport – it’ll be an extension of the Centurion Lounge but in a smaller footprint. We’ll have the amenities Card Members tell us are most important when they’re on the road: comfortable seating, charging stations, fast and free WiFi, and complimentary healthy snacks and drinks.
There are Centurion Lounge locations currently in:
The Centurion Lounges feature outstanding food and drink, and some locations include showers, kids room, and even a spa.
Access for Centurion and Platinum cardholders is free for the member plus their spouse and children or two guests. Other American Express cardholders may pay $50 per adult with children complimentary.
I asked American Express where this new Seattle lounge would be located and American Express let me know “It’ll be right off the Main terminal towards concourse B, post-security and easily accessible to all terminals.”
I also asked whether the smaller footprint of this lounge is a function of available space, or a smaller cardmember base in Seattle?
They explained,
We’re taking advantage of available space at Sea-Tac. The right space for a lounge isn’t always available but we still want to be where our Card Members are.
Already American Express Platinum and Centurion cardholders receive Priority Pass Select membership, which provides unlimited visits to participating lounges for the cardmember (guests ae charged). That includes access to the Alaska Airlines Boardroom in Seattle. So this is simply another option for American Express cardholders at the Seattle airport. Of course once the American Express lounge project is substantially rolled out, it wouldn’t surprise me if they decided the Priority Pass membership was duplicative. It might not last forever.
What I wanted to know from American Express is: do they plan to replicate elsewhere? And I suspect the answer is, it depends on what space they can gain access to at each airport they want to be in.
So without a lot of space available that made sense where their location could be accessible to members, but with a desire for a presence in Seattle, they went for a smaller space. Rather than a ‘Studio’ I almost wish American Express had called this “Centurion Lounge Express.” That’s travel-industry speak for fewer frills, right?
I’m really looking forward to the Miami lounge opening in the first half of 2015… and to learning what other locations will come next!
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