The new American Express Centurion Lounge opened its doors at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 3, for the first time, in 2021. It is the first of its kind in Europe and marks a major milestone for Amex’s lounge network.
The lounge offers amenities such as complimentary Wi-Fi, gourmet food an exceptional drinks selections, shower suites, workstations, and more. In addition to a wealth of opportunities for relaxation and productivity, the new Centurion Lounge also has some great staff who are always eager to help.
Even compared to first class lounges, the Centurion Lounge is easily the best lounge available in Terminal 3. It does have one drawback, however. Read below to find out more.
Lounge Location
Ah, yes – as this lounge is relatively new, they had to find space for it away from all the other lounges.
If like me, you just went straight to the lounge area trying to find the Centurion lounge, you’ll end up going around in circles and waste precious minutes.
Instead, to get to the lounge, walk all the way through the duty-free shop area, then turn left when you get to the main seating area. Once you’re there, you will be able to spot the large blue American Express signage.
You then need to take the stairs or lift one floor up.
You can also look for the “A” lounge, which corresponds to the Centurion lounge and is away from all the other Terminal 3 lounges.
Lounge Access Criteria
So how do you gain entry to the Centurion Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3 in London?
You can get in if you hold any of the following cards:
- American Express Centurion Card
- American Express Platinum Card
- The Business Platinum Card from American Express
- Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express Card and Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business American Express Card (both only when you book your Delta flight with either of these cards).
- And that’s it.
Overall, the access criteria are pretty tight.
American Express went ahead and tightened the access requirements even further in February 2023. Any USA Cardholders of the Amex Platinum Card now have to pay $50 for any guest they want to let into the lounge.
This probably makes sense as the majority of USA-bound flights (except British Airways) depart from Terminal 3.
Luckily, cards issued in the UK are exempt… phew! I was reassured the last time I went that if I wanted to, I could even take in two guests free of charge!
You can also enter the lounge up to 3 hours before your flight’s scheduled departure time.
Food & Beverage
They were still serving breakfast when I arrived the last time, and when I decided to take these photos.
The food selection was pretty amazing and is what I would expect more from a hotel executive lounge, rather than an airport lounge.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised.
The Full English Breakfast selection tasted as good as it looked. Rather than the watery scrambled eggs and rubbery bacon, you might find in other third-party lounges, the food here actually tasted great.
There was also a really good Shakshuka dish!
The pastries section was perfect too, and I also had one of the best Pastel de Natas. Very crunchy and delicious, only outdone by the ones served in Lisbon!
With breakfast, there was also a salad and fruit salad section where you could also make your own muesli.
Finally, here were the sweet pots.
Unfortunately, I had to leave on this occasion once lunch started being served, but I did catch the lunch dessert trays which even featured macaroons and ice tea sachets. The macaroons went very quickly though!
Overall, the American Express Centurion Lounge at Heathrow is definitely one of the best new additions. It has now even made me want to route as many of my outbound flights as possible, through Terminal 3.