Sidecar lounges and smaller spaces: Amex's answer to crowding

The big bank lounges have a size problem that no amount of square footage seems to fix. Build a 200-seat Centurion Lounge and the line forms anyway, because the people inside are not leaving. Amex's answer, which opened in Las Vegas on March 4, 2026, is to build a much smaller room and limit how long you can be there. It is called Sidecar by The Centurion Lounge, and it is a sensible idea with one rule you need to know before you walk up.

What a Sidecar actually is

The first and so far only Sidecar is in Concourse D at Harry Reid, near gate D1, next to the full Las Vegas Centurion Lounge. It is about 1,500 square feet with 33 seats, the smallest room in the Centurion network by a wide margin. The regular Las Vegas lounge next door holds around 200.

There is no buffet. You sit down, scan a QR code, and order from a short menu of small plates and cocktails; Amex says dishes arrive in eight minutes or less. The menu draws on its new chef collective, which includes Kwame Onwuachi, Sarah Grueneberg, Michael Solomonov and Mashama Bailey, and rotates. Early reviewers ordered Solomonov's avocado toast on brioche with schug labneh, a cucumber salad with crispy rice, and egg bites, with a house Sidecar cocktail (cognac, Cointreau, lemon) to drink. Seating is a central banquette, a row of solo tables, bar stools and a few low tables, with power at every seat. There are no showers, no quiet room and no real workspace, and the two single-occupancy restrooms are tight; one reviewer compared fitting into the smaller one to a game of Tetris.

Hours are 8am to 10pm daily, shorter than the main lounge's 5am to 11pm, so for a first-wave departure the Sidecar is not an option.

The 90-minute rule

This is the whole point of the format. You can enter a Sidecar only within 90 minutes of your departure. At a regular Centurion Lounge the window is three hours for an originating flight and, since July 8, 2026, five hours for a connection, which used to be unlimited. Ninety minutes, once you subtract walking to the gate and boarding, leaves you about an hour inside.

Amex has been fairly direct about why. Audrey Hendley, the Amex executive who announced it, said a significant portion of Centurion visitors already stay an hour or less. The Sidecar is designed for exactly those people, and by sending them to a smaller room it leaves more space in the main lounge for everyone with a longer wait. There is a digital waitlist if the room is full, though you can only hold a place on one waitlist at a time.

Who gets in: Platinum, Business Platinum and Centurion cardholders, plus Delta SkyMiles Reserve holders when they fly Delta, under the same rules as the main lounge. Guests cost $50 each ($30 for children 2 to 17) unless you hit the card's $75,000 annual spend threshold, and since July 8 guests must be on the same flight as you. Amex does not sell day passes. Our Amex Platinum page covers the rest of the card's lounge access.

Is it any good? Our rating is 3.8, which is lower than the 4.6 for the Las Vegas Centurion Lounge itself. The drinks, service, power and Wi-Fi score well; the restrooms, workspace and seating pull it down. That is the honest trade. With two hours to kill at LAS I would go to the main lounge. With an hour and a gate in the D concourse, the Sidecar is a calmer place to eat than the main lounge at peak.

Where the next one goes

Charlotte is the only other confirmed Sidecar. The airport approved it in the spring, and Amex says it will open in the new Concourse A expansion sometime in 2027, with the same QR ordering and 90-minute window. It will complement the existing Charlotte Centurion Lounge in the D/E connector rather than replace it, which matters, because Concourse A is a long walk from that lounge.

I could not confirm a Sidecar at LaGuardia. LaGuardia's Terminal B has a full Centurion Lounge (rated 4.5), and as of early October 2026 Amex has announced no Sidecar there. Amex's other announced projects are full lounges, not Sidecars: a new two-story Centurion Lounge at Boston Logan, planned for 2029, and a 50% larger Dallas/Fort Worth lounge expected in 2027. Our Centurion Lounge ranking has the full network.

Amex also has a smaller format that predates the Sidecar: the Escape Lounges branded as The Centurion Studio Partner, at around 20 smaller US airports where Amex has no Centurion Lounge. These are not Amex-run and they are not exclusive, since most also admit Priority Pass members and paying walk-ins, but Platinum holders get in free with two guests. The rebuilt one at Cincinnati opened in 2026 and rates 3.5. Think of it as the regional version of the same instinct: something better than the gate, without building a Centurion Lounge.

Capital One Landing: small plates, bigger rooms

Capital One got to the restaurant-style idea first. The Capital One Landing at Washington National opened in November 2024 in Terminal 2's National Hall, about 5,500 square feet with a José Andrés tapas menu ordered by QR code, no buffet, and a grab-and-go counter that opens at 4am ahead of the main room. We rate it 4.2.

The second Landing, at LaGuardia Terminal B, opened in February 2026, and it undoes the "small" part: 12,500 square feet and around 180 seats, at the start of the bridge to Concourse A. It rates 4.6, among the best rooms at the airport. So the Landing is not really a crowding fix in the way the Sidecar is. It is a different idea about food: table service rather than a buffet, in a room that can be as big as a regular lounge.

Access is the Venture X and Venture X Business, within three hours of departure on any airline. Guests are $45 ($25 for children) unless you hit $75,000 in annual spend, and Capital One sells $90 day passes when there is space. You can reserve through the Capital One app, and walk-ins join a digital waitlist. There is no 90-minute rule; the three-hour window is the same as at a Capital One Lounge. Our Venture X page and Capital One ranking cover the rest of the network.

Chase tried it and walked away

Chase's version of the small format was the Sapphire Terrace at Austin, a mostly outdoor deck for Sapphire Reserve and J.P. Morgan Reserve holders that opened in March 2023. It was always billed as a pilot and closed in March 2025, when the space went back to the airport. Chase has not announced another small-format space since, and its own crowding fix in 2026 was to pull every Sapphire Lounge out of Priority Pass instead of building smaller rooms.

Is this the future?

Partly. The three banks are each treating crowding differently. Chase shrinks the audience. Capital One changes the service style and lets you book. Amex adds a second, smaller room next to the big one and caps your stay at 90 minutes. Only the Amex approach really helps the person who arrives with an hour to spare and finds the main lounge full, and that is why I think Sidecars will spread, one busy airport at a time, rather than replace anything. With one open and one coming in 2027, it is a slow rollout.

If you hold a Platinum and fly through Las Vegas, the practical advice is simple: check how long you have before you pick a door. More than 90 minutes, go to the main lounge. Less, try the Sidecar. And if you are timing your arrival around entry windows in general, our guide to how early you can get into a lounge covers every major network. Ratings here follow our methodology.