I’ve long complained about overcrowding in American Express Centurion lounges. But now I’ve found the key to avoiding any crowds.
I spent 30 minutes in the San Francisco Centurion Lounge last week…and it was virtually empty. That’s unheard of for a lounge in which just a few weeks prior I left because I could not find a single seat. But it’s all about the time.
I was there from 10:30-11:00PM…and that made all the difference. Most food is taken away at 10:00PM and the bar shuts down at 10:30PM. All that is left is soup and salad plus coffee, tea, or water. A bowl of tomato squash soup and green salad hit the spot for me as I sate in the dining room…alone. Literally alone.
This sort of trend is true for every lounge to some degree: there’s always peak and off-peak hours. But I just could not believe it for a lounge that has tried several measures to reduce overcrowding and continues to fail.
I actually prefer the food in this lounge over the Priority Pass restaurants in the terminal (Yankee Pier and Giant’s Clubhouse). I’d still go here first if the crowding wasn’t so bad. But I’m done with standing around like a fool waiting for a seat when there are plenty of comfortable seats and fast wi-fi in the public gate areas.
Anyway, I was pleased to find the lounge so empty I had to pass on the goods news. If you want to avoid the crowds at the American Express Centurion Lounges, show up very late.
> Read More: American Express Centurion Lounge Crowding Getting Worse
> Read More: Photo Tour of American Express Centurion Lounge at SFO
image: American Express
Ok other than the soup and salad how does this compare to sitting at the gate? 30min of wifi?
A bit tongue in cheek?
oh boy…
This is similar to: How to avoid the travel stress during the holidays. Stay home. While technically correct, this is not helpful at all. Neither is this article
Actually, scheduling redeyes to avoid the stress of crowds in the lounge is not a bad idea. But the title was accurate.
My home is a smaller city in the Midwest that has one daily flight from SFO that leaves at 10:3o almost always from one of the gates near that lounge and lands in my city around 6:30 AM post red-eye. Even from 9:30-10, although the lounge isn’t a ghost town, it is pleasantly less packed.
I’m holding out that, someday, United will allow access to the Polaris lounges for 1Ks. I guess I’m a dreamer.
This. 100%. Kinda opposite you, though, flying up/down the coast is great later in the evening, say SFO-LAX/SAN, for the exact same reason. Yeah, I get home “late”, but I’ve been fed and watered – and maybe even bathed if I allotted time – and can go right to bed. The lounge is nearly empty, or at least pleasantly active but not crowded.
Did you get paid for letting us know this blinding flash of the obvious?
The scheduling nuances may not be obvious to folks who haven’t done it a whole lot. And with the sheer volume of flights that make the trip down that corridor, it can be tempting to take an earlier flight to get home/wherever earlier. But they’ll experience an overly crowded lounge at those peak flight times and likely feel shortchanged on the experience. If they’d wait a bit, they’d have full access to the lounge’s amenities and still arrive at their destination at a fairly reasonable time. So your painfully poor attempt at bitchiness and sarcasm is misplaced, Ira. Get a life.
I actually agree with AR — I do SFO to LAX very regularly and would rather relax at AMEX, eat, drink, shower, read, then return home when there is no traffic. I don’t think he was trying to state the obvious (ie, that crowds diminish later in the evening). He was pointing out a counterintuitve practice that leads to higher quality of life.
Agreed JBM, The United Club Card should offer 2 Polaris Longue passes each year as well.
Thanks Matthew. I recently also left because the place was zoo. I felt so sorry for that very nice lady who works the floor and tries to find everyone a seat. She was really stressed. I fin d the SFO lounge to be one of the most crowded AMEX lounges, although I was in HKG a month ago and that place was also packed.
I give AMEX a lot of credit for doing what they can to reduce the crowds, however it has not helped much. I am of the opinion that the only way they can effectively deal with the crowding is do two things: 1. Limit guests or possibly no guests; 2. reduce/cut back or otherwise limit the food and booze.
The food is wonderful, but the place has turned into a human food drinking and grazing parlor.
Thanks again for another good article.
So, the lounge isn’t as busy when there’s no more free food (except salad) or booze…
Genius!
Lol. Convenient, isn’t it?
You know, Amex Platinum eliminated the Priority Pass restaurant benefit. That certainly exacerbates the crowding issue at Amex lounges. I’ve been a loyal Amex customer for decades; shame on them for doing this!
I still say that Amex should just let people take food to go, and it would alleviate like 80% of the problem. Look, there are people who will fight to stand in a crowded lounge with some old food just because, you know, it’s their privilege (guilty as charged right here). As such, if Amex just throws something their way make them feel like they get their “money worth,” they won’t bother with sweating in the lounge. Simple! It doesn’t need to be much, frankly. An ok ok sandwich, some coffee/tea, maybe some alcohol (small liquor bottles like they hand out onboard?) would be sufficient. That much probably costs like $15 in airport, due to prove inflation there. So, the leeches go else where to enjoy their spoil, and people who need to work can work. Simple!
@Magice – good point and suggestion!
Great Article Matthew.
Personally, the crowdness makes the lounge miserable and does not recommend anyone to try the lounge.
AMEX needs to reconsider the entrance policy as this issue keeps happening everywhere; strong signal that there is something wrong.
I’m going to tentatively venture to aver that for most people, their flight time dictates lounge time. “Showing up late in the evening” isn’t actually an option.
But when flight time is flexible, like it is for me, I choose late night flights. I was honestly surprised at how empty it was.