American Express Centurion Lounge — Local services in Grapevine

I am a frequent traveler and use Amex lounges all around the country. Dallas used to be one of my favorites. Not anymore. For the last 2 years it has consistently been overcrowded, had poor food, had poor service, and had some other technical glitches that show a complete lack of care and concern for card members. This may sound small and like a "first world" problem, but there is a giant air conditioning vent that blows air about 20 miles per hour directly on guests as they wait in line for the food. It is so intense and so uncomfortable that I've seen many guests leave the line and opt to not eat because It feels like going through the line will automatically result in some sort of winter sickness. More concerning, there is a high-frequency noise that emits from something in the lounge that seems to only be audible to children. My children (who are not the sensitive type) refuse to enter the Dallas lounge anymore because they say the piercing noise induces headaches. I asked my son to nevertheless enter the lounge with me today to see if he could find the source of the noise. He said it is coming from these black boxes which I have pictured below, which I believe are speakers but they apparently are also emitting a noise that is inaudible to most adults but very disturbing to children. Finally, the food today was inedible. I happened to be in the lounge during the time when breakfast turned over into lunch. Breakfast was so bad, I opted to wait and try again for lunch, which sadly was no better. One staff member barked at 10 or 15 guests who were waiting in line for the food, which line had gotten very long because there were no plates, forks or spoons for several minutes, so guests were left standing in the arctic blast. She was upset that the long line was blocking entry in-and-out of the kitchen. But instead of simply asking guests nicely, she instead barked in a loud and rude voice. All the coffee machines were broken so there was no coffee. All around, just not a good experience at all. There was one bright spot however, there was a young man at the front desk who was exceedingly welcoming and kind as he checked people in. I wish I had gotten his name so I could commend him. I did get the name of the manager who was on duty while I was there. His name is Carlos Cirillo. He was standing near the front, all smiles as if the absolute chaos and disorder and dysfunction that persisted throughout the rest of the lounge didn't exist. I also wanted to point out that the lounge was not overly busy today as it has been in most of my prior experiences. So it was not the stress of a busy weekend that was leading to the conditions that I describe here. It was just mismanagement. My intention was not to put this feedback on such a public forum but after several browser attempts, I could not find any way to provide feedback directly to American Express. The credit card company's entire marketing strategy is to present itself as a luxury offering. It better take some pretty swift action or I predict that people will flock to the other premium cards, myself included. Lounges are the main perk that keeps me paying the high annual fee...

At one point in time, at it's inception, the Centurion lounge was an experience that I enjoyed and talked about. Now, it has become an exercise in frustration and disappointment.

The worst part of this is due to leadership choices to overleverage the logistics of the offering. It is also the same across all other locations. The same issues plague all of them.

What used to be a small oasis where I might relax for a moment when I returned home, became an exit only lounge. This makes it much less user-friendly, and this change was a relatively recent leadership choice due to overleverage of the asset a few years ago. Simply put, who wants to spend more time in an airport, rather than home, before they leave for distant ports.

Now, it is even worse. Where a patron could bring 2 companions before, now this requires a $50 fee per companion. The free companion perk is now associated with an invite-only card, which change further devalued and overleveraged the asset which was no longer the experience that I lauded years ago.

Finally, the Lounge now requires a wait of inordinate amount, 45 minutes. Not only do I have to plan to leave my house early to experience the dubious, but still positive qualities of the Club, I now can not even access it when I arrive. This precludes use during trips with tight connections, uncertain delays and generally makes the Club Lounge almost unusable in additon to being a less desirable experience, already devalued by overleverage and changes which have reduced patron accommodation.

All of these choices were/are made by a leadership that has lost touch with what the Lounge was to have been for travelers.

I rarely use it these days, where it was a staple of my travel a few years ago.

The personnel, their staff/people, are still excellent. The offering still remains very positive, perhaps slightly beating other lounges. HOWEVER, that is just not enough.

I am not simply disappointed. I feel dismay, irritation and unhappiness. The club has become a thing that I talk down about now, with good reason. Whereas before, I used to talk it up regularly.

I wonder if I did myself a disservice by raising awareness, if leadership is detached/short-sighted or if this is just a natural progression of such wonderful things to dilapidate into decay...

Ever since I knew Centrurion lounges were a thing, I've wanted to experience one. I was finally able to due to a flight delay and missed connection in DFW. I've been in several American Airlines lounges, an aer lingus lounge and a couple united lounges. Perhaps anticipation led me to expect more but I was thoroughly unimpressed by the centurion lounge in Dallas.

So far during my egregious layover in DFW I've hit 2 of the Admirals club lounges here and both were superior. I was able to hit one before they closed to get a shower, grab some coffee and food to tide me threw the night and not a word was mentioned about when my flight was. This morning I hit another Admirals Club because it was open before the Centrurion and I was curious, it was very nice, had breakfast ready and waiting and again no hassle over flight times.

However, upon entry into the Centrurion, the lady at the front desk almost made me leave because I was 9 minutes early for their 3 hour preflight window... what...? The crowd in here is painful to deal with, very, "holier then thou" with an air of not wanting to be troubled by the plebians. Then the spread, nuts, oats and some fruit... I've seen 2 star hotels offer a better breakfast. And this at a place that literally has a sign at the entrance that says they no longer allow you to bring guests without a fee or $75,000 of purchases per guest.... and you're gonna put the breakfast equivalent of cheese and crackers out?

Another unsettling aspect is that the floor/wait staff won't look at you. It's as though they are trained to avert their eyes, because heaven forbid one of "The Poors" should look their betters in the eye.

Very disjointed coffee set up as well. Their self serve espresso machine is quite far away from from the main buffet area, however, all the flavorings and coffee additives are at the buffet...? On top of that, none of their fancy coffee syrup pumps actually work

Altogether a very disappointing experience. I left and went back to the Admirals club.

P.s. I feel bad...