For the second year in a row, American Express Platinum Card and Centurion Members can access an ultra-luxe escape in the heart of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The American Express Centurion Suite is a refreshingly modern lounge where Card Members can unwind between matches. While the suite is located in Louis Armstrong Stadium, stepping through the front door will transport you from Flushing, Queens to… Jamaica, Queens. You see, this year’s Centurion Suite offers an inside look at the Centurion Lounge coming to JFK Airport next year.
“We’re opening the JFK Lounge in Terminal 4 in the first half of next year,” said Rachel Stocks, Executive Vice President Global Premium Products and Benefits at American Express. “It’s our biggest lounge ever—15,000 square feet, fitting over 250 people. In the consistency of our airport lounges, we like to include a reminder of the city you’re in. With JFK being such an iconic airport, we wanted to bring something of New York into the lounge.”
The US Open suite mimics the classic airport Centurion Lounge experience, but is hiding that quintessentially New York feature: a secret speakeasy. Just inside the suite’s entrance, you’ll come across a bookcase. Pull the blue Centurion book spine on an upper shelf, and the bookcase slides open to reveal a dimly lit inner chamber.
Inside the speakeasy—named “1850” after the company’s founding year—a Centurion Lounge mixologist can whip up a specialty signature cocktail dubbed “The Centurionside.” Made with Bombay Sapphire gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, mint leaves, and lemon peel, this is the drink you’ll turn to when you’ve reached your Honey Deuce limit.
But if you find, like Cady Heron before you, that the limit does not exist, head back out to the main bar. The Centurion Suite is one of only three locations at the US Open to serve frozen Grey Goose Honey Deuce cocktails. Add in complimentary snacks, small bites, and water plus multiple phone charging stations, and you may never want to leave.
“What we’re always trying to do is bring passion areas that our customers like to explore,” Stocks said. “We like to show them we have places for them to go, to come in and relax. Here it’s about giving them something to eat, some drinks, away from the hustle and bustle, out of the rain, out of the sun.”
Platinum Card Members can bring up to two guests to the suite and will have a two-hour time limit on their visit. Centurion Members can bring two guests—or immediate family—and have no time limit on their stay. Whether you’re seeking a moment’s respite from the heat or waiting out a rainstorm, American Express’s Centurion Suite is the place to do it.
Didn’t make it to the U.S. Open this year? Don’t worry––there are plenty of exciting perks coming up for American Express Card Members. In just a couple of weeks, James Beard Award Winner and Global Dining Collection Chef Michael Solomonov will be preparing a root to stem dinner at 1 Hotel Brooklyn.
“We have over 100 by-invitation-only events every year for our customers,” Stocks said. “And they should be once-in-a-lifetime type events.”
Be sure to keep an eye out for upcoming Centurion Lounges in Phoenix, London Heathrow, JFK, Charlotte, Denver and Los Angeles! If the U.S. Open’s Centurion Suite is any indication, there will be no better place to wait out a flight delay.
