“I wish there was room for everyone, but many cardholders have a legitimate reason to use the lounge upon arrival”, according to this article written by Matthew Klint of Live and Let’s Fly. “If AMEX wants to limit ‘camping’ in its lounges, fine. But don’t totally take away arrival access. How about for 1-2 hours after arrival? That seems like a fair compromise that limits ‘abuse’ by cardholders.”
Is Airport Lounge Access Upon Arrival Really Necessary?
The aforementioned statements from Matthew Klint refer to the new policies announced from American Express for access to its Centurion Lounges for holders of certain American Express Platinum cards, which become effective as of Friday, March 22, 2019 and are expected to mitigate overcrowding in the lounges:
- American Express Centurion Lounge access will be limited to up to a maximum of three hours prior to the originally scheduled departure time of a flight
- Centurion Lounge access will no longer be permitted upon arrival
- Children under two years of age will be admitted free of charge — the current policy is that a member is allowed up to two guests, which included including babies
Let me immediately start off by saying that I am not against using an airport lounge once arriving at a destination airport — and I am not counting lounge access at an airport when connecting between flights, as I am unaware of any policy by any airport lounge which does not permit access to qualified members who are connecting from one flight to another…
…but as a person who does not want to waste any time arriving at his final destination, I can only think of a few times when I wanted to access an airport lounge upon arrival. One of those times was actually recently, when I arrived at Barcelona–El Prat Airport earlier in the morning than scheduled; and the counter at which I had a reservation for a rental car waiting for me was not scheduled to open for another couple of hours. I attempted to access an airport lounge — but I was informed that only passengers with boarding passes who were awaiting departure were qualified to use the airport lounge.
I never use lounges to shower, as I prefer to do that in the privacy and comfort of a hotel room once I arrive — or at home, for that matter — so that is not important to me. Perhaps I am hungry and would want to eat something prior to a long road trip upon arrival at the airport; but as I already said, I much prefer to arrive at my destination as soon as possible than defer that goal by an hour or two spent in an airport lounge. I have already been sitting aboard an airplane for hours; so sitting and relaxing in an airport lounge is not exactly at the top of my list of things I prefer to do when arriving at the airport. Rarely do I have work which I need to do that cannot wait until I arrive either at the hotel at which I am staying as a guest or at home.
I can see wanting to grab a quick bottle or can of water or soft drink — or perhaps two — for the road; but many lounges already have a policy with which food or beverages cannot be taken out of the lounge.
As for use of a toilet — well, I am not too good to use a public one at the airport or otherwise. Most are adequate at a minimum for my purposes.
Summary
This article is based solely on my perspective. I am certainly not advocating that additional airport lounges should adopt the policy that they cannot be used by qualified members upon their arrival — although if the lounge does have a consistent problem with overcrowding, I can understand why such a policy would be implemented…
…but I personally would be virtually unaffected by the upcoming policy that Centurion Lounge access will no longer be permitted upon arrival at the airport. Again, that is simply my point of view.
I would like to read the reasons as to why you would use a lounge upon arrival at the airport — as well as why the new policy is considered “fairly draconian” and “absurd”, according to the aforementioned article by Matthew Klint.
All photographs ©2018 by Brian Cohen.
