After Park Hyatts, The American Express Centurion Lounges are probably my next favorite luxury travel experience. Last summer, we visited The Centurion at Dallas-Fort Worth and were hooked. How could we not be with the complimentary food and spa services? I'm not usually one to get manicures/facials/massages in real life (hello, I sleep in airports for fun!?) but will gladly enjoy those here on occasion. And as far as food goes, lounges like this help us to eliminate food expenses upon arriving or departing from airports as well as layovers.
After camping in the concourse and flying the early morning flight to LaGuardia, a visit to The Centurion was in order. This lounge is located outside of security in Terminal B on the third floor. It is open from 5:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and from 5:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Unlike The Centurion at DFW, this lounge is smaller and does not offer spa services, shower facilities, a family room or locker units.
The bar area looks similar to the one at DFW, was fairly quiet during the morning, and slightly busy in the evening on our visits. Each Centurion has their own food and drinks menu, and the cocktail list for LGA can be found here. Matt enjoyed the "Big Apple" before the departure home.
There are a couple of areas for plane-spotting, a favorite pastime of my husband's.
Comfortable seating can be found throughout the lounge from reclining areas with charging stations to tables and chairs in the dining area.
Oh and the food. Seriously. This has to be my absolute favorite part of The Centurion Lounges as a whole. I do love to eat after all. Breakfast is served from 6am-11am and lunch/dinner are served from 11am-8pm (Sunday through Thursday) and 11am-6:30pm (on Saturdays). The food menu at LGA can be found here.
Personally, my favorite breakfast items were the frittata, the crispy french toast with caramelized apples, and the citrus salad with ginger syrup. The eggs benedict with spinach and sriracha hollandaise looked pretty and I tried it, but personally it was not to my taste and texture preferences. I discovered that after one bite. But those other items, I could eat again and again.
After enjoying the long weekend in NYC, we gave ourselves a a few hours to hang out at the lounge and eat dinner before the flight back. There is something to be said about arriving early to the airport and relaxing before hopping on a plane. We love it, but then again we love the entire traveling process from start to finish.
The lounge was fairly quiet and empty on a Sunday evening. There were 25-30 people there at most, so we had our pick of seats.
We selected one of the love seat loungers in front of a TV to kick back, watch the Packers, and of course, eat.
The meal was one of the best I have ever had in a lounge so far, and a decent salad bar always gets the thumbs up. From me at least.
In contrast, M started with dessert first. I think he had at least two of those chocolate mousse jars and a handful of brownies accompanied by a Boston lager.
For the main meal, I selected roasted baby brussel sprouts with pistachios and basil, fried chicken with a honey lemongrass glaze, ginger rice with green onions and avocados, and Italian burrata on crostini with lemon vinaigrette and basil. It was tasty, especially the burrata on crostini. I put at least five of those things down (I am originally from Wisconsin after all). SO so good... Just thinking about it now makes my mouth water.
Hot chocolate and another helping of the burrata on crostini followed for a scrumptious dessert.
Domestically, The Centurion Lounges cannot be beat, and we highly recommend them, but this one could definitely use shower facilities. The shower facilities or lack there-of were the only disappointment because we were hoping to shower after the overnight in the airport.
Oh for the love of travel and free food... I'm already counting down the days until our next Centurion visit.
Lounge Access: Any American Express cardholder can access The Centurion Lounges with a same day boarding pass. Lounge access is complimentary for Centurion and Platinum cardholders and their accompanying spouse (and children under 18) or two guests. For all other cardholders, there is a $50 one-time pass per person. In our opinion, it wouldn't be worth the $50 per person unless perhaps you have a long layover at DFW and can utilize the meals and spa services. Even so, as much as we love these lounges, for us personally we would not pay the fee. Additional information on accessing these lounges can be found here.
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