A week and a half ago I shared a sneak preview of the 8th American Express Centurion lounge in Philadelphia near gate A14 in terminal A-West.
The lounge has officially opened as of 5 a.m. Eastern time this morning.
The lounge offers free hot and cold buffet items and a complimentary full bar in stylish surroundings.
The buffet is a real draw. American Express partners with a local celebrity chef at each to design the local menu. Michael Solomonov is the chef for this lounge. Here’s the Philadelphia lounge’s menu.
This lounge is smaller than other American Express lounges other than Seattle, and as a result there’s no spa or kids room. But there’s a shower.
Generally when American Express has opened a new lounge they have handed out gifts to cardmembers coming into the lounge for the first several days (‘while supplies last’). Here was the lounge opening gift from Dallas:
I asked American Express about what the lounge opening gift for Philadephia might be and they declined to share, offering that they treat “these gifts as a surprise & delight moment for Card Members when they visit the lounge, so we would not like to comment.”
If you’re passing through Philly and have a Platinum or Centurion American Express card check out the new lounge and you might receive a gift to take away, too.
Happened to be connecting in PHL for the first time this morning and had a couple mins to check out the lounge. Really nice but small. No gifts, though. I asked and was told that they were all given out at the media event.
Arrived about 2pm. Centurion Lounge Power Bank charger gift for all, including my 2 guests.
At 2pm opening day Power Bank gift for all.
In the lounge now, the free gift is a Centurion Lounge branded portable USB charger.
Lounge was quite full at 5:45pm, but started to empty out around 6pm. Food was tasty (reminds me of Ottolenghi), and staff are very excited to be here.