Philadelphia Airport to Add New AmEx Centurion Lounge

If you fly often and hold an American Express Centurion or Platinum card, you might know about the Centurion airport lounges. Exclusively for cardholders of AmEx’s two most premium credit cards, these lounges are the most luxe and posh of any lounges out there. Good news for folks flying in or out of Philly – American Express is putting a new lounge at Philadelphia International Airport, as well as one in Hong Kong. The new lounges will be the eighth and ninth in the Centurion system, joining lounges already open in Miami, Las Vegas, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York LaGuardia, San Francisco, Seattle and Houston Bush.

Travelers flying out of PHL will soon have access to American Express’s exclusive Centurion lounge… but only if they hold the right credit card.

The Philadelphia lounge will be 6,300 square feet and will feature floor-to-ceiling windows offering dramatic views of the tarmac, dedicated workspaces, a complimentary full bar, and a food menu that is Israeli-inspired. The Hong Kong lounge, being bigger at 8,000 square feet, will additionally offer a private shower suite, and a private area with an a la carte menu that is exclusively for AmEx Centurion cardholders. All Centurion Lounges have dedicated seating for Centurion cardholders. The Centurion card is American Express’s most elite credit card.

The Centurion lounges have proven to be insanely popular – so much so that American Express recently had to make some changes to the eligibility criteria to get in. It used to be that any American Express cardholder could access the lounge; now it’s just for guests with the elite credit cards. As an additional measure meant to prevent overcrowding, each AmEx cardholder can now bring only two guests into the lounge, which raised a minor uproar in the travel community because it meant that families of four could no longer get into the lounge for free. Day passes for additional guests are available for $50 each as space allows.

The Philadelphia Centurion lounge is expected to open at PHL in late October.