American Express announced on Tuesday that it will be expanding its high-end Centurion airport lounges to a new location. The credit card company will unveil the new lounge at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday.
“The Centurion Lounge is one of our Card Members’ favorite travel benefits, and the new location at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport offers Card Members the premium amenities they love in an airport they frequently travel through,” said Audrey Hendley, president of American Express Travel, in a statement.
According to the Department of Transportation, Reagan is the country’s 24th-largest airport by passenger enplanements. This location will feature the 15th Centurion lounge that AmEx has opened in the U.S.
The lounge is exclusively available to holders of the company’s Platinum and Centurion cards, with the Centurion being the so-called “black” card. The new lounge will offer a menu curated by three award-winning chefs, along with amenities such as a meeting room, a shower suite, and an art collection featuring a ceiling sculpture made of 260 lanterns shaped like D.C.’s original boundaries.
Facilitating access to luxury experiences and amenities plays a significant role in how American Express markets itself to its cardholders. This strategy was highlighted by its $400 million acquisition of the restaurant reservation management company Tock last month. At an aviation conference hosted by Skift last year, AmEx executive Manisha Jain noted that the Centurion lounges have become increasingly important over the past decade.
“We always hear from our customers that they arrive early if there’s going to be a Centurion Lounge there,” she said.