![]() There are currently Centurion Lounges located in Charlotte, Dallas, Hong Kong, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York La Guardia, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, and San Francisco.Īll are currently closed due to the COVID-19 situation, and will be expected to reopen once travel demand picks up. In particular, the Centurion Lounges definitely provide a nice setting to chill and relax prior to your flight. For starters, many airlines have unbundled lounge access and made it a separate service - with an annual fee, of course - even for those with an elite status.One amazing perk of holding the Amex Platinum Charge Card is access to Amex Global Lounge Collection. He said even some frequent flyers might find that lounge access isn't the panacea it used to be. I asked Andrew Lock, a frequent traveller who produces The Travel Pro Show, an online program about travel, about the value of airport lounges as Year 3 of the pandemic approaches. ![]() If you're a frequent air traveller and can afford it, the answer is yes - but not always. The bigger question here is whether lounges are worth the cost of a credit card with a pricey annual fee or through Priority Pass, which costs anywhere from $US99 to $US429 ($A138 - $A599) annually and offers access to a network of about 1,300 lounges. Passengers can pick up the order or have it delivered to their table. It allows visitors to see a lounge-specific menu and make their selection by scanning a QR code or tapping a wireless communication device on signage at each table or seat within the lounge. For example, it recently introduced a contactless ordering service at the Club JAX at Jacksonville International Airport in Florida and the Club Aspire Lounge at London Heathrow's Terminal 5. She says the most significant change lounge visitors will notice is a move to contactless options. "It's growing at a healthy rate," says Nancy Knipp, president of Airport Dimensions' Americas division. In terms of traffic, they're getting about three-quarters of the visitor numbers as they did in 2019. Airport Dimensions, which operates lounges globally, reports that 18 of 21 facilities in the United States have reopened. The lounges are not quite as crowded as before the pandemic, according to operators. "The only concession to COVID-19 that I observed was that apples were individually wrapped in plastic." "Breakfast consisted of self-brewed Starbucks coffee, a cup of self-poured orange juice and a wrapped sausage biscuit," he says. The lounges seemed as full as ever, and the food was similar to pre-pandemic offerings, according to McCloskey, a retired journalist from Bethesda, Md. Other than that, the service levels seemed unaffected, which is exactly the point.īill McCloskey recently stopped by the Delta Sky lounge on a flight from Washington to Indianapolis via Atlanta. There were hand-sanitising stations, and staff members wore masks. A plastic panel separated the receptionist from visitors. However, there were signs that this was not quite business as usual. It felt as if this was a place to escape the airport employees and security officers constantly reminding travellers to wear a face covering. Some people had masked up, but many hadn't. When I arrived at about 2 pm, there were only a few empty seats in the lounge, and there was a line at the buffet. What does that mean, exactly? On a recent visit to the Centurion lounge in San Francisco International Airport, I experienced a situation similar to the one Ein had at the Delta lounge. "We adapted our amenities for the safety of our card members," he says. The menus feature either "pre-portioned" dishes or self-service offerings, according to Pablo Rivero, vice president and general manager of global lounge experiences at American Express. The Amex mobile app also displays lounge capacity, so airport visitors know when they can safely access a facility. Specifically, that means new contactless check-ins at the American Express Centurion lounges. "We had to ensure consistent service delivery and safer, more frequent interactions with travellers," she says. For example, the company introduced a special dashboard for lounge managers to monitor cleaning processes. More than 90 per cent of the facilities are now back in business.Īrica Booker, senior director of facilities management for Sodexo Live, says that although customers may not notice much of a difference in how a lounge operates today, the reopening process was complex and labor-intensive. ![]() As air travel returned, the company gradually reopened them. Sodexo Live, which operates more than 100 airport lounges around the world, reports that more than 80 per cent of its facilities closed during the pandemic. To get an idea of how much, you have to talk to the company that manages them. ![]() And it has changed airport lounges in big and small ways. ![]()
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