Last stop on my lounge hopping session at Sydney Airport, the American Express Centurion lounge. After having been to the Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines lounges, I still have some time before boarding so I go on with a 3rd lounge hoping that it will be as pleasant as the two previous ones.
You will find all the articles about this trip in Australia at the bottom of the page.
Location of the lounge
The American Express lounge is located in the same area as the two previously mentioned lounges, but while the others are upstairs, this one is downstairs.
So the same comment: from the security checkpoint you will have to go through half the terminal to get to it and when you leave it all depends on your gate: either the plane is right next to it or you may have to go through the whole terminal.
Who has access to the lounge?
The lounge is open to American Express Platinum or Centurion cardholders (not co-branded of course).
Lounge layout
The lounge is composed of a large open-plan space forming an L-shape at the end.
There is a lounge area as such.
Tables and chairs for eating and working.
On closer inspection, not only is the furniture a little tired, but the carpets are covered in stains and there are crumbs almost everywhere on the carpets and benches. Not a very good look.
And then at the very end you find the buffet.
Catering
It’s breakfast time.
The cold offer includes salads, cheese, cottage cheese and fruit.
Hot dishes include scrambled eggs, beans, potato cakes, bacon and sausage.
The kitchens are just behind and you can see the staff bustling about but as you may have noticed this does not help to restock the dishes quickly.
There are also pastries.
For drinks there are the traditional soft drinks, sodas and draught beer. Unfortunately the fountain is out of order and I have to fall back on the few fridges in the lounge.
Finally, there is a station with baristas to serve coffee, but the machines do not work or work badly. They took my order and told me they would bring my espresso to the lounge. 30 minutes later I still had no espresso and I left.
If I look at the offer it is very decent and the fact that the scrambled egg dish is not restocked is something that happens at peak times.
On the other hand, between the soft drinks fountains that don’t work, the coffee machine that breaks down and the espresso that I’ll never get, I can’t say that the quality of service is optimal.
Facilities
The lounge has showers but they were out of order.
The atmosphere of the lounge
If you can’t tell from the photos the lounge was very full, you can see that Amex Platinum is much more popular and common in some areas than in others.
Added to this is the behaviour of people, further proof that these cards are much less elitist than they are made out to be. There were children who were not supervised at all by their parents and who thought they were in a playroom, people making phone calls or video calls with the speakers on full blast…in short, a kind of best of the most detestable behaviour in such a place.
Bottom line
Fountain out of order, espresso not arriving, quite dirty, overcrowded lounge and customers who don’t behave well… I lasted 30 minutes and went to my boarding gate.
Amex is changing its admission rules to restrict the number of guests a person can have with them. This would indeed be an excellent thing.
One of the worst lounges I’ve seen in recent times.
Articles about this trip to Australia
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