Amex Just CHANGED Centurion Lounge Entry Rules….

Now, I love the Centurion Lounge and I've been to multiple Centurion Lounges in the US. But Amex just today brought in two new rule changes that may affect how you use the Centurion Lounge or whether you can get yourself and your guests in or not. We also have your last chance to get a 150,000 point welcome bonus on two special versions of the Amex Platinum. We'll tell you when that ends. Hey Credit Warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, aka The Credit Shofu, and on this channel, I cover US credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe, but let's get into the video. So here is what's happened, and we've known that this change was coming for a while, but these rules were just implemented today. First up, effective July 8th, 2026. During a layover, card members must arrive within five hours of the connecting flight. Same-day round-trip itineraries are not considered connecting flights. So this used to be kind of unlimited when you were on a layover. You could stay in the lounge as long as you wanted, but now that time has been limited to five hours before your outbound flight. So you can't say arrive and go to the lounge first and then go out into the terminal on a six-hour layover. You would have to, you know, do what you want in the terminal first and then wait until it's five hours until your flight and then go to the lounge. And also that means now the total amount of time as well would be limited to five hours or actually less than five hours, because realistically, you're not going to leave the lounge at the exact time your flight takes off. So you're probably actually limited to like four and a half or four and a quarter hours. But to be honest, I think it should be enough. I think for most people, if their layover was longer than five hours, they would actually be looking at other options like leaving the airport and sightseeing or getting a hotel if it was in the evening so they could get some sleep. So I don't think too many people will actually be affected by this, but this limitation is now in effect. So you can take it into consideration if you are planning a flight and you're going to have a layover and you want to use the Centurion lounge. If you are curious how many hours before your flight, Platinum Card members can arrive just before a regular departing flight, not a layover. Here it is. Platinum Card members must arrive within three hours of their departing flight. So on a layover, you do get two hours more than just a regular departing flight. Next change. And this is also kind of affecting people in niche situations. And that is effective July 8th, 2026. All guests must be traveling on the same flight as the card member. Now, in the past, I've done this or I bring friends who are on different flights into a lounge. But that was when I was young, traveling with work colleagues on a business trip to Asia as a family man, now traveling with my wife and kids, realistically, 99.9% of the time we're going to be on the same flight. So these changes are just a few more things that Amex is doing to fight overcrowding in the Centurion Lounge. And I think if this helps, then it is a good move since it's not going to affect the vast majority of people. Although now I've said that Murphy's Law, I will probably find myself on a six hour layover with friends who are all on different flights. Lastly, today is the final day for the 150,000 point welcome bonus on the Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley versions of the Amex Platinum. If you have been thinking of getting either of these cards, I would say apply now, OK, since it will go back down probably to 80,000 points tomorrow, OK? That's what it was before. And high bonuses on these two versions of the card are certainly a lot rarer than on the vanilla version, all right? The vanilla version, that's just what we call the regular version. The advantage of these two cards is that on the Schwab version, you can redeem points for cashback at 1.1 cents per point into your Schwab account, and you get some money off the annual fee depending on how much money you have invested with Schwab. On the Morgan Stanley version, the big advantage is your first authorized user card is free. That saves you almost $200, and you can also redeem points for cashback in your Morgan Stanley account at 1 cent per point. So anyway, get those while you can. I don't have links for them, not sponsored, just search them on Google and you'll find them. Please subscribe to the channel if you're new. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.