Before we get to the review, let me urge all my London-based readers to go visit the Pop-Up Centurion Lounge in Covent Garden this weekend!  It’ll be open until 6pm Saturday and Sunday.

London Pop-up Centurion Lounge in Covent Garden!

To celebrate the forthcoming London Heathrow location of The Centurion Lounge, American Express unveiled a surprise Pop-up Centurion Lounge in London’s famed Covent Garden on Thursday.  Operating 13-16 December from 1100-1800, the Centurion Lounge will be packed with holiday cheer, winter decorations, and give London a taste of the now world famous Centurion Lounge.  Not only are there light bites, tea, and a full bar with complimentary cocktails, American Express has a complimentary gift-wrapping station for all of your Covent Garden shopping, a hot chocolate station to warm your bones, but also an assortment of activities, per the below:

Saturday 15 December
1100-1400: Gingerbread cookie making
1430-1730: DIY in-flight skincare minis

Sunday 16 December
1100-1400: Holiday cracker making
1430-1730: Sleep mask monogramming and customizations

I’m currently not in London but I have a dear colleague who is now based there so I asked her and a friend to be my guest correspondents.  All pictures are courtesy of Corey and Emma, thanks for the assist in covering the event!

Lounge Review

(this is Andy talking) When I was at the DFW Centurion Lounge event on Wednesday, I was speaking with one of the marketing guys helping put everything together.  We were chatting about the London lounge and he said “oh, and I’ve heard that the pop-up lounge they’re doing this weekend is going to be incredible by the way, they spared no expense.”  It looks like they were right!

The entry into the Pop-up Centurion Lounge featured the famous blue doors familiar to frequent Centurion Lounge visitors with a wintry spin on the typical “living wall” backdrop.

Inside of the lounge you could already see that the marketing guy at DFW was correct: American Express did this right.

One of my correspondents described it as such:

The ambience was an awesome cabin in the woods/Christmas ski resort that inspires creativity and connection – fully stoked with with a spiral staircase, two bars and a fake fireplace. There was free WiFi, coffee, and drinks so it was a great place to sit down and chug out some emails or warm up for a cuppa in the middle of your Christmas shopping. Speaking of shopping, they had a fully stocked Christmas wrapping station to make every gift unique and magical!

What a cozy and comfortable environment!  Everything looks so nicely appointed and it looks like everyone was having a great time.

Corey and Emma stopped by the gift-wrapping station, which was very impressive from the looks of it!

There were two bars with, according to my correspondents, “Bottomless wine, champagne, beer, and four exclusive cocktails. One of which, the Blue Door, will become the signature cocktail at all the Centurion Lounges.”

Of course there was also tea available as well, being in London!

The bar areas looked great, with thoughtful use of American Express branding all over the place.

Everyone was having a great time and I just can’t get over how well everything was arranged.  American Express truly rolled out a winter wonderland for its new customers, making the anticipation for the new Centurion Lounge that much greater!

Wrapping up (pun intended)

If you’re in London this week be sure to pop by, it looks like it’ll be worth your time to at least take a brief respite from the busy shopping of Covent Garden during the holiday season!  Congratulations to American Express on a very successful event and another hearty thanks to Corey and Emma for being so kind as to go enjoy the cocktails and snap a few pics for me!