New Entry Rules for Amex Centurion Lounges

January 30, 2026

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New Entry Rules for American Express Centurion Lounges

Starting July 8, 2026, American Express is rolling out two changes to lounge access, aimed at reducing the perennial overcrowding issues.

Any guests you bring in (only complimentary for up to two guests if you spend $75,000 a year on your Card or pay $50 per guest) must now be on the same flight as you.
You can enter a maximum of 5 hours before a flight on a layover (no change to the policy of 3 hours before your first flight)

Impacted Cards

According to TPG, which broke this news, the changes don’t affect all Centurion Lounge locations globally, but it does apply to all US locations as well as London Heathrow, Tokyo Haneda, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Melbourne.

Personally, I don’t see this having the impact they hope while the people actually impacted will probably be sufficiently annoyed. Then again, they have the granular data on their lounge guests and I do not, so I guess we’ll see!

Thoughts?

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