Review: AMEX Centurion Lounge Los Angeles LAX Airport

How to access AMEX Centurion Lounge Los Angeles LAX

I visited this lounge before my SWISS Business Class flight to Zurich, during my New Year road trip on California’s Highway One.

Travellers can access this lounge if they hold an American Express Platinum or Centurion charge cards.

During my visit, I could bring along 2 guests for free, but that has changed for US Platinum cardholders. Now, cardholders can only bring 2 additional guests if they spend at least US$75,000 in a calendar year. If not, guests can pay US$50 per entry (not worth it).

AMEX Centurion Lounge Los Angeles LAX

Getting there

American Express The Centurion Lounge LAX is located on the 4th floor, just after security, in the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT).

The lounge is also connected (airside) to terminals 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Click here to view the map of the lounge’s location.

General areas

The lounge felt like a long underground tunnel with about 4 sections and there was hardly any natural light.

It was really crowded during my visit and the only seats available were in the dining area.

Unfortunately, the showers were under maintenance during my visit.

Food & Drinks at AMEX Centurion Lounge Los Angeles LAX

The lounge offers high-quality hot food from the buffet, but it was lacking in variety.

Guests can also order unlimited drinks, including alcoholic, at one of two bars in the lounge.

Top complimentary amenities at AMEX Centurion Lounge Los Angeles LAX

• WiFi
• Drinks (incl. alcoholic)
• Hot food
• Computers

My ratings

Best Cards in Singapore for Free Airport Lounge Access

Additional notes:

• Priority Pass:
  • Citi Prestige: Unlimited visits, +1 guest
  • Citi PremierMiles: 2 visits per calendar year
  • DBS Altitude: 2 visits per card membership year
  • Standard Chartered Journey: 2 visits per card membership year
  • DBS Vantage: 10 visits per card membership year
• DragonPass:
  • HSBC TravelOne: 4 visits per calendar year

💡 Click on + Card Summary below to view key details like pros & cons, miles/cashback details, annual fee, income requirement, and more.

Citi Prestige

12 free airport lounge visits per year, 4th night free on hotel bookings

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🎁 Sign-up bonus

+ Card Summary

More information on the

Citi Prestige Mastercard

Suitesmile rating:

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✍️ Short summary
This card gives you an uncapped earn rate of 1.3 miles per dollar on SGD spending and 2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spending.

Having many transfer partners and miles that don’t expire gives you fantastic flexibility.

Cardholders are also entitled to 12 free airport lounge visits per calendar year (via Priority Pass) and 4th Night Free on prepaid hotel bookings made through the Citi Prestige Concierge.

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💸 Annual fee
$651.82
(Strictly no waiver, always comes with 80,000 points, equivalent to 32,000 miles)

💼 Income requirement
$120,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

🛋️ Airport lounge access
12 free lounge visits per calendar year
(via Priority Pass)

⏰ Points expiry
Points earned on this card never expires!

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Infinity MileageLands, Executive Club and more!

💯 Transfer ratio
2.5 points = 1 mile

🧮 Transfer block
25,000 points (10,000 miles)

💲 Transfer fee
$27.25 per transfer

🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card cannot be combined with those from other Citi cards and can only be transferred out separately.

❓ How/When points are credited
Base miles are credited immediately when the transaction is posted.

📜 Terms & conditions

HSBC TravelOne

Earn 1.2 mpd on local spend, 2.4 mpd on foreign currency

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🎁 Sign-up bonus

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HSBC TravelOne Mastercard

Suitesmile rating:

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✍️ Short summary
This card gives you an uncapped earn rate of 1.2 miles per dollar on SGD spending and 2.4 miles per dollar on foreign currency spending.

This is a great backup card, if you have exhausted all your specialized cards with better earn rates.

Having many transfer partners gives you fantastic flexibility. However, this card has a poor transfer ratio to KrisFlyer, a great frequent flyer program for travels to regions like Australia, New Zealand, Mainland China, India and Istanbul.

Cardholders are also entitled to 4 free airport lounge visits (via DragonPass) per calendar year. For example, if you apply for the card in March 2023, you will get 4 free visits for the current year, plus 4 more free visits from 1 January the following year.

Cardholders also get complimentary access to the ENTERTAINER with HSBC app, where there are over a thousand 1-for-1 deals on dining, entertainment and hotels.

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💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(Get 25k points (10k miles) when you pay the annual fee from the 2nd year onwards. Get first-year waiver, if you don’t want the sign-up bonus.)

💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

🛋️ Airport lounge access
4 free lounge visits per calendar year
(via DragonPass)

⏰ Points expiry
3 years from transaction
(37 months to be exact)

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partners
Asia Miles, Infinity MileageLands, Executive Club and more!

💯 Transfer ratio
2.5 points = 1 mile

🧮 Transfer block
25,000 points
(10,000 miles)

💲Transfer fee
Free

🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card can be combined with those from other HSBC cards and transferred out together at once.

❓How/When points are credited
Base points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted.

📜 Terms & conditions

Citi PremierMiles

Earn 1.2 mpd on local spend, 2.2 mpd on foreign currency

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🎁 Sign-up bonus

+ Card Summary

More information on the

Citi PremierMiles Mastercard

Suitesmile rating:

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✍️ Short summary
This card gives you an uncapped earn rate of 1.2 miles per dollar on SGD spending and 2.2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spending.

This is a great backup card, if you have exhausted all your specialized cards with better earn rates.

Having many transfer partners and miles that do not expire gives you fantastic flexibility. Because of these 2 key factors, I recommend using this card over other General Spending cards with similar earn rates.

Cardholders are also entitled to 2 free airport lounge visits (via Priority Pass) per calendar year! For example, if you apply for the card in March this year, you will get 2 free visits for the current year, plus 2 more free visits from 1 January the following year.

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💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived, get 10,000 miles with subsequent annual fee payments)

💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

🛋️ Airport lounge access
2 free lounge visits per calendar year
(via Priority Pass)

⏰ Points expiry
Miles earned on this card do not expire!

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Infinity MileageLands, Executive Club and more!

💯 Transfer ratio
1 Citi mile = 1 mile

🧮 Transfer block
10,000 miles

💲 Transfer fee
$27.25 per transfer

🤗 Points/Miles pooling
Miles from this card cannot be combined with those from other Citi cards and can only be transferred out separately.

❓ How/When points are credited
Base miles are credited immediately when the transaction is posted.

📜 Terms & conditions

DBS Altitude

Earn 1.3 mpd on local spend, 2.2 mpd on foreign currency

Apply

🎁 Sign-up bonus

+ Card Summary

More information on the

DBS Altitude Visa Signature Card

Suitesmile rating:

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✍️ Short summary
This card gives you an earn rate of 1.3 miles per dollar on SGD spending, and 2.2 miles per dollar on foreign currency transactions.

Other great features include 2 free airport lounge visits per year (Visa version only) and that the miles/points earned on this card do not expire.

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💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived, always request for a waiver after that)
Note: Annual fee payments come with 10,000 miles (not worth it)

💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
AMEX: 3%
Visa: 3.25%

🛋️ Airport lounge access
2 free lounge visits per card membership year
(Visa version only, via Priority Pass)

⏰ Points expiry
Points earned from this card do not expire!

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Qantas Frequent Flyer

💯 Transfer ratio
1 point = 2 miles

🧮 Transfer block
5,000 point (10,000 miles)

💲Transfer fee
$27.25 per transfer

🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card can be combined with those from other DBS cards and transferred out together at once.

❓How/When points are credited
Base points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted, while bonus points are credited around the middle of the following calendar month.

📜 Terms & conditions

Standard Chartered Journey

Earn 3 mpd on groceries, 1.2 mpd on local spend, 2 mpd on foreign currency

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🎁 Sign-up bonus

+ Card Summary

More information on the

Standard Chartered Journey Visa Card

Suitesmile rating:

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✍️ Short summary
Cardholders can earn 3 miles per dollar on groceries, food deliveries and ride-hailing, up to $1,000 per statement month.

For other spending categories, this card gives you an uncapped earn rate of 1.2 miles per dollar on SGD spending and 2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spending.

Cardholders are also entitled to 2 free airport lounge visits (via Priority Pass) per card membership year.

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💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived, get 10,000 miles with subsequent annual fee payments)

💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.5%

🛋️ Airport lounge access
2 free lounge visits per card membership year
(via Priority Pass)

⏰ Points expiry
Points earned on this card never expire!

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer and Asia Miles

💯 Transfer ratio
2.5 points = 1 mile

🧮 Transfer block
25,000 points (10,000 miles)

💲 Transfer fee
$27 per transfer

🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card can be combined with those from other Standard Chartered cards and transferred out together at once.

❓ When points are credited
Base points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted.

📜 Terms & conditions

DBS Vantage

Earn 1.5 mpd on local spend, 2.2 mpd on foreign currency

Apply

🎁 Sign-up bonus

+ Card Summary

More information on the

DBS Vantage Visa Infinite Card

Suitesmile rating:

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✍️ Short summary
This card gives you an uncapped earn rate of 1.5 miles per dollar (or 1.5% cashback) on SGD spending and 2.2 miles per dollar (or 2.2% cashback) on foreign currency spending.

This is a great backup card, if you have exhausted all your specialized cards with better earn rates.

Like the entry-level DBS Altitude card, this card also gives you a fantastic 6 mpd earn rate on air tickets on selected airlines (e.g. Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Finnair and more) and hotels booked via the dedicated Expedia link, up to $5,000 per calendar month.

Cardholders receive Accor Plus Explorer membership, which comes with 1 complimentary hotel stay in Asia Pacific and up to 50% off dining in Accor properties.

Cardholders are also entitled to 10 free airport lounge visits (via Priority Pass) per card membership year!

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💸 Annual fee
$599.50
(Strictly no waiver. Comes with 12,500 points, equivalent to 25,000 miles)

💼 Income requirement
$120,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

🛋️ Airport lounge access
10 free lounge visits per card membership year
(via Priority Pass)

⏰ Points expiry
3 years from transaction

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Qantas Frequent Flyer

💯 Transfer ratio
1 point = 2 miles

🧮 Transfer block
5,000 points (10,000 miles)

💲Transfer fee
$27.25 per transfer

🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card can be combined with those from other DBS cards and transferred out together at once.

❓How/When points are credited
Base points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted, while bonus points are credited around the middle of the following calendar month.

📜 Terms & conditions

Bottom line

Due to overcrowding, AMEX Centurion Lounge LAX is not a conducive environment to be in, prior to your flight. However, if you’re up for a light meal and some drinks, you’ll be pleased with what’s on offer.