Amex's biggest Centurion Lounge is coming to Newark, in 2027
Thirty thousand square feet in Terminal A, the largest in the network — and a year later than announced. Worth knowing, and worth being clear about what it changes for anyone trading a card perk.
In one line
American Express is building a 30,000 square foot Centurion Lounge in Terminal A at Newark — the largest in the network — and it is now expected in 2027 rather than 2026.
What has been announced
- Terminal A at Newark Liberty International. One lounge, in the terminal Amex named.
- 30,000 square feet — described as the biggest lounge in the Centurion network. The plan it replaces was 17,000.
- 2027, not 2026. The opening was first announced for this year and has since moved out a year.
- A 1,400 square foot indoor terrace looking over the airfield and the Manhattan skyline.
- A jazz bar and piano lounge with live music, themed on New Jersey's twentieth-century jazz history, alongside an archival collection of state artifacts.
- A London Centurion Lounge in the same announcement, with no detail attached to it yet.
Worth separating the two kinds of claim there. American Express's own announcement bills this as the largest lounge yet in the Centurion network and pairs it with a London opening — that much is Amex's own wording. The dimensions, the terminal and the move to 2027 come from reporting of that announcement rather than from a line we can quote, so treat the numbers as reported, not as published terms.
What it has not said
Nothing in the announcement covers eligibility. Which cards will admit a holder, whether guests come in free or for a fee, and what any spend threshold will be are all unstated — and since the lounge is more than a year out, the sensible assumption is that today's rules are not a promise about 2027's. Amex has changed Centurion guest terms before, with notice and without much warmth.
We are not going to put numbers on any of that here. When Amex publishes the access terms, those will be the terms.
What it means for a perk traded between members
Honestly: very little, and that is the useful part. Lounge access is the one major card perk that does not detach from the cardholder. A balance of points moves between accounts. A free-night certificate can often be booked in somebody else's name. A gift card is a bearer instrument — whoever holds the code spends it. Centurion access is none of those. It is checked at a door, against a card, with the person it belongs to standing there.
That is why the listing form here files lounge passes under other rather than alongside points and certificates. The passes that genuinely change hands are the ones issued as a countable thing — a sheet of one-time passes, a membership that admits a named guest. Access that exists only while you are holding the card is not an asset you can hand over, and anyone offering to sell you entry to a Centurion Lounge is offering something they cannot deliver.
What a new Newark lounge does change is the arithmetic on keeping the card that opens it. For somebody who flies out of Terminal A regularly, 30,000 square feet is a real improvement to a perk they already pay an annual fee for, and that is worth weighing when the renewal lands. In 2027. Not against this year's fee.
The test, in general
Before listing a perk, ask what the other member would actually receive. A code, a balance, a booking in their name — those arrive. A benefit that checks your card at the point of use does not, however much it is worth to you. More on which perks transfer.
Dates, dimensions and access terms are Amex's and can change without notice — this opening has moved once already. Check it on American Express's own announcement before you count on it.
Card programmes set their own terms and change them without notice. Lounge access in particular is governed by the terms of the card in your own wallet — read those rather than a summary, and do not list a benefit you cannot actually hand over.
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