Airport Lounges Reviews

American Express Centurion Lounge LAX Pop-Up

We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Monkey Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.


American Express Centurion Lounge LAX Pop-Up

Since 2015, it’s been pretty widely reported that Amex was going to put one of their Centurion Lounge at LAX. Most information points to that lounge being somewhere between terminals 6 and 7, but there hasn’t been a whole of status updates published since the news was reported in 2015. Well, back in December Amex surprised everyone and debuted a Centurion Pop-up lounge at LAX in Tom Bradley International. I recently in TBIT while laying over and visiting the Korean Air SkyTeam Lounge and decided to check out this American Express Centurion Lounge Lax Pop-up.

There isn’t really much to it

It’s essentially a collection of tables and chairs, some places to charge a device, and nothing having to do with food, beverage, or other Amex Centurion lounge amenities. It’s almost like this is a 3D poster…
american-express-centurion-lounge-lax-pop-up-2-of-4

There are some renderings of what the lounge may or may not look like…I’m assuming these renderings are for the LAX lounge, but there isn’t anything that states that. american-express-centurion-lounge-lax-tom-bradley-pop-up-3-of-4

Overall:

We’ll see how long the pop-up lasts in it’s current state. I think the idea has some potential, but I think they need to have more “wow” factor. They have the space, why not do some pop-up food and beverage events, or free massages. Market some of the fantastic amenities that members enjoy in a normal lounge to the general public. Do some manis and pedis…get a hashtag or something going…They could have priority lane for current Plat/Cent members, and everyone else gets to try it too. Combine that with some amazing sign-up offers and I think it could be a good buzz-worthy event until the new space is completed. Just an idea.

american-express-centurion-lounge-lax-pop-up-4-of-4


This review is a part of the Trip Report: Miles Traces his roots in Southeast Asia

 Affiliate link via Card Ratings

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based. 

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

4 Comments

  • Luke Vader December 31, 2016

    A follow-up comment… I live near Dulles airport, and it’s disappointing that Amex doesn’t have a Centurion lounge at IAD or DCA (or BWI). As an Amex Platinum holder, no D.C. area Centurion lounges makes it harder to justify keeping the card an additional year (with the $450 annual fee).

    Some pop-up lounges like this at Dulles and Reagan would give flyers a taste of lounge benefits. (There are Priority Pass lounges at Dulles but the hours of service are limited.)

  • Luke Vader December 31, 2016

    Agree with your (food/beverage, massage and hashtag) marketing ideas for this pop-up lounge. At present, it looks more like a Priority Pass (than Centurion) lounge. Some wrapped finger sandwiches, bottles of water and fruit yogurt cups at the table side of the mini-lounge would be a step up (without taking up too much space).

    If they just want to stick to the tease mode, they could replace the brown rectangular (3′ x 8′ ?) table with one with a large embedded flat screen that displays colorful pictures of sushi and other VR culinary delights that might someday be served at a Centurion lounge there.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.