Uniquely Horrible: Amex Centurion Lounge Los Angeles (LAX) Review

Worth Coming to Airport Early For: NO (seriously, what is Amex doing here?)

Better Than The Terminal? NO (just watch planes from your gate and call it a day)

Introduction

There is a simple marketing theory around high-fee, luxury travel cards:

1. Offer the mirage of “exclusivity”, “prestige”, perks, and credits to consumers
2. Capture high-spend, affluent customers (who are the disproportionate amount of consumer spend in the US), and make money off their consumption via interchange (% cut of every transaction) and cross-selling other financial products. Some customers end up not using card perks (“breakage”), which can make the annual fee itself profitable.

Now that the Amex Platinum annual fee is a hefty $895 per year, you’d expect that this lounge would be pretty nice (see HERE for my recent review of this card post-fee hike). However, upon stepping in here, you’ll realize the Amex marketing machine is working perhaps too well in Los Angeles, where their Centurion Lounge is about as peaceful as the DMV and their food is about on par with Chipotle. Honestly, that’s probably an insult to Chipotle – their food is actually decent, albeit a bit salty.

Anyways, this lounge is a complete disgrace, almost comically so, and I would advise against ever visiting here until Amex does a complete remodel / rip-and-replace of this lounge. Amex has become a victim of its own success and popularity here, where overcrowding is a complete detractor of any semblance of making this lounge a peaceful place to hang out pre-flight.

As critical as I am though, I do love my Amex Platinum card and plan on holding it forever in its current shape, as the most recent refresh firmly solidifies this as one of the best keeper cards out there in the credit card game (*if and only if* you can utilize the credits easily – more on that in my post HERE).

In this post, you’ll find:

Some Background on This Lounge & Competition

This lounge opened in March 2020 (crazy timing for a new airport lounge…). For a lounge that’s not that old, it’s kind of surprising how bad it is. However, to be fair, it’s also a testament to how much the bank-run lounge game has evolved in the US in the past 5 years. Chase and Capital One continue to innovate and bring top-quality spaces to US airports, so Amex’s first-mover advantage is definitely starting to wear off. For example, see the Capital One Landing DCA Lounge below:

While quality of their lounges nowadays is lacking, one area Amex competes extremely well in is their lounge network size. For any bank-run lounge operator, they still feature the largest network of lounges in the US, with locations in the below airports in the US (plus more internationally). This makes it valuable for anyone who values a broad network for a quick utility snack / coffee (corporate road warriors). Outside of that, however, it’s not a destination in and of itself, unlike other lounges nowadays. Here’s a list of Amex’s US lounge network:

1. New York City – LaGuardia (LGA) – see my review here
2. Washington, D.C. – Reagan National (DCA) – see my review here
3. Atlanta (ATL)
4. Charlotte (CLT)
5. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
6. Denver (DEN)
7. Houston (IAH)
8. Las Vegas (LAS)
9. Los Angeles (LAX)
10. Miami (MIA)
11. New York City – JFK
12. Philadelphia (PHL)
13. Phoenix (PHX)
14. San Francisco (SFO)
15. Seattle (SEA)

Upcoming (U.S.): Newark (EWR) – expected 2026. This one I’m pretty excited about, since Newark in general is kind of a dead zone for any good airport lounges.

My Trip & How To Find This Lounge

I was in LA to start my quick round-the-world business class trip to Singapore. After getting a quick breakfast in Santa Monica with some friends, I was off to LAX to check out both this lounge and the OneWorld Business Lounge ahead of my Japan Airlines business class flight to Tokyo Haneda.

This lounge is located in the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) at LAX on level 4.

Security in precheck was a breeze today, and I was through in 2 minutes:

Immediately after security, you’ll see signage for the Amex Centurion Lounge. It’s a bit tucked away and requires an elevator ride, but as long as you follow the signage you’ll be all set:

Access Rules

Standard Amex Centurion Lounge entrance requirements apply for this lounge, which will require you to have one of the following cards:

1. Amex Platinum Card (personal or business)
2. Amex Centurion Card
3. Delta SkyMiles Reserve (personal or business, and only if flying on Delta the same day)

This lounge is currently open:

6am – 10pm, everyday (subject to change and holidays)

As long as you have a same-day boarding pass and are visiting within three hours of departure time, you’re good to access the lounge.

I scanned my boarding pass and showed my card at the check-in area, and I was good to go.

Lounge Review and Amenities

I visited this lounge at noon on a Monday and it was absolutely slammed. It was legitimately difficult to find space, plus dodging crowds of people and crying babies. A true airport oasis. Design-wise, this lounge is a bit buried under TBIT. There’s some ambient natural light in some areas, but much of the lounge is completely underground with fluorescent lighting.

This lounge is 13,900 square feet, with capacity for up to 530 people (although I’m guessing that’s the max for fire safety – there was seating for far less than 530 in this lounge). While being on the larger size for Amex’s lounges, it’s definitely not big enough for the demand it now receives at LAX. In terms of amenities, this lounge features the usual food and drinks spread, plus some showers and a small business center.

Here’s the main bar at the lounge:

The food spread was pretty lackluster:

A lot of the drink machines were out of order when I visited as well, so no espresso for me:

The lounge sprawls a bit outside the main buffet area, with smaller seating areas and a small side bar:

Conclusion

All in all, this lounge is the worst I’ve visited yet within Amex’s network. At most, this lounge is only worth it for a quick coffee and snack, although the food did not look appetizing when I visited and the coffee machine was broken, so I just skipped it entirely. After 10 minutes, I decided to pack up and head over to the OneWorld Business Class Lounge ahead of my Japan Airlines flight. This lounge was much quieter and more relaxing, although still nothing special.

The TBIT terminal at LAX though is pretty nice, with a good duty-free area and lots of cool plane spotting by the gates.