We have covered the saga surrounding the Amex Centurion Lounge at Los Angeles LAX Airport extensively and the company has now leased an alternative space while repair works at the original lounge continue.
A recent LAX meeting report revealed that the lounge can’t be used because of jet fumes entering the facility and the HVAC system requires replacement for that reason.
American Express has started to look for an alternative location to at least provide their members something as the frustration is growing following a full year of the Centurion Lounge being closed.
Remember that this lounge was advertised with big fanfare and used as a selling point for LAX-based customers to sign up for the Platinum card (not that the LA market isn’t well saturated with Platinum and Centurion cardholders already).
The new space they have leased from LAWA (Los Angeles World Airports) is the former Etihad Lounge at Tom Bradley International Terminal, Main Hall, located on the mezzanine.
You can access the temporary lounge information here on the Centurion Lounge site.
The Centurion® Lounge at Los Angeles International Airport is temporarily closed due to building repairs. A temporary lounge space with limited seating will be provided for Card Members as well as grab-and-go pre-packaged food and non-alcoholic beverage options to enjoy on the 6th floor from 6 am – 2:30 pm.
Head towards the Great Hall. Take the elevator up to Level 6, proceed past the Star Alliance Lounge.
TBIT is accessible airside from Terminals 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
- Overground passage between Terminal 4 and the Tom Bradley International Terminal
- Underground tunnel between Terminals 4, 5 and 6
- Above-ground walkways between Terminals 6, 7, and 8
- Accessible from Delta Terminal 2 and 3 via airside bus
- 5-8 minute walk between each terminal
Hours: 6 am – 2:30 pm
So the new option is open until 2:30pm in the afternoon and nothing thereafter? Interesting, yet confusing concept. Although that covers most of the flights to Asia and Europe even though there is an evening departure bank as well.
I would definitely not hike through the entire LAX airport which is massive just to consume some Grab&Go items on Amex’s dime at TBIT.
This was the most recent development concerning the jet fumes:
According to the meeting summary I linked in the article, American Express has leased the space of the former Etihad lounge until September 30, 2022. It remains to be seen if the work at the original lounge can be completed by then.
They have been offering these Grab&Go Snack Boxes before and I first wrote about it two months ago in March:
The American Express Centurion Lounge Service At Los Angeles Is Now Offering Grab & Go Snack Boxes
The information currently given on the Amex site is exactly the same as it is right now. They are running quite a strange operation there at LAX I have to give them that.
For now, American Express card members have only one other lounge option when departing from LAX which is the Delta Skyclub and any of the cardmembers’ guests incur an additional charge.
Since there is no timeline for when the Centurion lounge will open again except for the expectation based on the temp space lease duration that by late September / early October it should be fixed up, it might be best to consider this ahead of time and make other arrangements or arrive as late as possible for your flight. TBIT has other lounges that the individual airlines provide when flying in their premium cabins or with an eligible loyalty tier.
This entire LAX venture has been a disaster for Amex and I feel sorry for them. This isn’t their fault and I’m even more confused about the company footing the bill for all the repairs as well as the lease of the temporary space at TBIT. The terminal is almost a ghost town with a lot of concessions closed. LAWA should provide this for free!
Conclusion
The Centurion Lounge at Los Angeles International Airport is still closed due to building repairs which began in June of last year. Amex representatives promised that the facility would be reopening in “late 2021” which obviously didn’t happen. Now they are giving out snack boxes at a leased space in the former Etihad Lounge of TBIT – it’s a complete joke!
Until the meeting report came out no details have been given on what caused these alleged repairs or when the facility will finally reopen. In mid-January I just stopped by there for a minute to take a picture. In the meantime, some other guests walked by and were quite upset about the lounge being closed showcasing that customers are really becoming irritated. Not sure this new stop-gap measure is doing much to gain sympathy.
