For the last portion of my two times to Latin America review trip, I had a layover at Sao Paulo Guarulhos Airport (GRU) prior to my Copa Boeing 737 MAX business class flight to Panama City.
Continue reading: Review: Amex Centurion Lounge Sao Paulo Airport (GRU)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
My experience in Latin America is the lounge is for people who don't know locals. If you are well liked,someone will insist in driving you to the airport and entertaining with a nice meal before dropping you off. Hotel managers have refused to take my money to compensate for the trouble.
The lounges at GRU are best described as "mid." The bar at this Centurion usually does a pretty good job making cocktails. The real play at GRU is the PP restaurants, which I'm sure you'll be reviewing soon.
"What I found interesting was that unlike Centurion Lounges in the United States, the food and drink selection was virtually identical to what was found in the Espaco Banco Safra Lounge."
Because the food probably comes from the same contractor.
Is it really accurate to claim any more that Amex lounges in the US have local chef-driven offerings? I'm pretty sure all of the ones I've visited lately have virtually the same food lineup and it's good but it's nothing like it was in the early days of Centurion lounges.
I'm not sure if you have visited a Centurion lounge in the US recently, but the food offerings are certainly not much better than that and are way down hill compared to the first few years. And I would even say that the one in Sao Paulo has more choices than the typical one in the US.
I was just here like two weeks ago. I'm not sure how much value is in offering a review of an empty lounge at 5am or whatever because when I was here (7pm-ish on a Thursday) this place was an ABSOLUTE FRIGGIN' ZOO!!!! Screaming kids, used dishes everywhere, incredibly limited seating, and no signs of even attempting to abate overcrowding (people were still flowing in once I left for my gate.) I think there Centurion Lounge (and access thereto, particularly in US airports) is a scam all in an effort to bilk $700 a year out of cardholders.
"local chef-driven offerings..." Rolling on the floor laughing out loud! Surely Ben was jesting.
I have only been to two Centurion lounges in the US - SFO and JFK - and GRU's look much better than both, in terms of food, seating and comfort.
I don't understand why anyone would be surprised that a lounge open to virtually anyone who can pay a relatively modest annual subscription would be no better than a facility operated by a leading wealth management company. The comparison between AMEX in Brazil and AMEX in the USA is, if course, perfectly relevant, but drawing a comparison between the lounges of two financial institutions that operate within different market niches doesn't come across as very useful, particularly when the expected clientele isn't taken into account.
Now that anyone can get into an Amex lounge, the quality has also deteriorated, just like the patrons...
huh??? So they are going to take you to the food court in the check in area? No thanks. Or you mean entertain you before your flight? Well you still need to arrive about 2-3 hours early for international, so what do you do once you clear immigration and security?