After Spain and Germany, American Express also "restricts" lounge access to Canadian Platinum holders

Lounges are becoming increasingly crowded and one of the reasons is, no doubt, the Increasing spread of "all you can visit" cardholders such as Priority Pass, Dragonpass or Lounge Buddy.

As I have already explained in several articles, lounge accesses depend on several factors, but these cards make it possible to remove Status and travel class from the equation, opening doors not only to independent lounges but also to official lounges.

At first it was the States

The first limitation came in the U.S., the pricipal market for Amex. In 2021 it had been Introduced a spending constraint for Platinum Holders to enter, in the Centurion Lounges, only those who reach a annual transaction of at least $75k can continue. to take advantage of the free host.

An attempt to restrict access and respond to the atavistic problem of overcrowding and queues. Obviously a restriction valid only for U.S.-issued cardholders.

The European precedent

Last year it had been to German and Spanish users, holders of American Express Platinum (both personal and biz), starting in 2025 have had a limit imposed on the number of accesses in Priority Pass lounges.

The limit is set at 50 accesses (between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31), a specific restriction on the use of PP lounges, but which did not affect access to other lounges com Plaza Premium, Centurion, Lufthansa or Delta.

Now it's Canada's turn

The news, As Prince of Travel reports, it is still a different solution, as if Amex was looking for a perfect recipe and was doing different tests and then finding a common line.

The change, however, is one destined to make real noise since it there is talk of a limit at 6 (six) inputs/year between Priority Pass and Plaza Premium. Not only that, the additional cardholder goes from infinite access, like the primary cardholder, to only 2 accesses per year.

There is, however, one condition for avoiding the trap, That is, to spend at least 20 thousand Canadian dollars each year, that is, with a transacted amount of about 1020 euros per month, you can get the unlimited accesses.

In conclusion

Increasing monthly fee, shrinking services. This seems to be the leitmotif of recent years at American Express, impossible to know if and when these changes will come to the Italian market, certain is that competition from products such as Revolut, in the European market, should make Amex realize that it cannot sleep soundly.

• Priority Pass