An airport lounge — with out the safety screening or boarding move.
Bank card firms American Categorical and Chase are more and more waging their luxurious lounge wars exterior the airport. From an air-conditioned retreat in the midst of the desert at Coachella to an unique athlete meet-and-greet on the Paris Olympics, these firms are investing massive in premium hospitality areas to win over prosperous cardholders.
“It’s totally costly, however I feel what’s taking place is that the issuers are discovering that this can be a premium differentiator,” stated Donald Fandetti, managing director of shopper finance fairness analysis at Wells Fargo. “It is all about offering these providers and experiences that make it value it to the cardholder to pay these annual charges.”
American Categorical’ Platinum and Chase’s Sapphire Reserve playing cards — the main premium playing cards out there — each upped their annual charges final yr. The Amex Platinum now carries a payment of $895 a yr, and the Sapphire Reserve has a payment of $795.
The perks related to these playing cards, like eating credit, resort upgrades and digital partnerships, assist offset the price. It is all an effort to seize and retain the best spenders. Amex and Chase have jockeyed for years to be the popular card for the American elite.
Increasingly, entry is making the distinction.
“Bank cards [with] increased charges, it is going to ship a sure sign. However what we actually should be ensuring is that we’re understanding the psychology of exclusivity” stated Dan Bennett, head of behavioral science at Ogilvy Consulting. “It is easy to say, ‘I’ve numerous assets.’ It is tougher to say, ‘I’ve sufficient social capital to earn my means into areas.'”
Past the airport
Among the occasions that American Categorical Platinum cardholders had lounge entry to in 2025 embody the US Open tennis match; Stagecoach music pageant in California; and a number of System 1 races worldwide.
In the meantime, lounges for Chase Sapphire Reserve clients have been current at Chicago music pageant Lollapalooza; Miami Artwork Week; Sundance Movie Pageant; and the PGA Tour.
Whereas some lounges and model activations are open to all clients and even all attendees at an occasion, many of those areas are completely reserved for premium cardholders.
“We discover this buyer to be very engaged,” stated Laura Picciano, normal supervisor of Chase Sapphire. “When you get their enterprise, there’s numerous loyalty there. And they also’re an essential phase to proceed to nurture.”
Sundance Movie Pageant 2026.
Courtesy: Chase Financial institution
Whereas non permanent bank card lounges are popping up at festivals and sporting occasions, they’ve additionally turn into common, everlasting fixtures inside stadiums and arenas.
American Categorical has partnerships with greater than 20 venues world wide. Eight of them at the moment have lounges, together with Arduous Rock Stadium in Miami and the O2 area in London, with a brand new location set to open in New York Metropolis’s Barclays Heart this yr.
Bess Spaeth, government vice chairman of worldwide model administration and experiences at American Categorical, stated components like footprint, capacity to supply meals and beverage and viewing capabilities are all issues within the determination for which venues get lounges.
“It is an actual puzzle that we attempt to have a look at all of the items and give it some thought holistically by way of how we will greatest serve our members in these areas,” stated Spaeth.
The Chase Lounge at Madison Sq. Backyard.
Courtesy: Chase Financial institution
Chase has constructed out lounges at Madison Sq. Backyard and the Chicago Theatre which are open to all of its clients, although Madison Sq. Backyard has a devoted area for Sapphire Reserve cardholders.
“Lounges are actually attention-grabbing as a result of economists would consider these as extra of a community good,” stated Chenzi Xu, assistant professor of economics on the College of California, Berkeley. “These lounges turn into notably useful when there is a set of them which you can entry in quite a lot of totally different locations … not simply in an airport maybe, however at one other unique occasion.”
Attracting excessive spenders
Chase and American Categorical are courting rich clients who will not be solely keen to pay the rising annual charges but in addition rack up increased balances on their playing cards.
These with a credit score rating of 720 or above, which is usually required to get authorised for a Sapphire Reserve or Platinum card, spend greater than double the typical of these inside a rating between 660 and 719, in response to information from the Federal Reserve Financial institution of Philadelphia.
American Categorical stated earlier this yr that it shifted advertising {dollars} away from no-fee playing cards to its extra premium choices because it seems to draw extra prosperous cardholders.
American Categorical bank card charges totaled practically $10 billion in 2025, up about 18% since 2024. Chase would not get away bank card payment income.
“Chase is working actually exhausting to compete with [American Express],” stated Xu. “They’re simply making the advantages of getting these playing cards higher and higher for the buyer. That competitors is sweet for the buyer, nevertheless it’s a contest that is solely taking place on the excessive finish, and on the low finish you do not see practically as a lot entry and you do not see as a lot competitors.”
That higher echelon is vital for the credit score firms. A 2025 Mastercard report discovered that prosperous shoppers, outlined as households with an earnings of $200,000 or extra and no less than $250,000 in investable belongings, spend 4.3 instances the overall inhabitants on discretionary purchases.
Based on information from J.D. Energy, cardholders with an annual payment of greater than $500 spent a median of $3,200 per thirty days from Could 2025 to June 2026, up about 17% from the prior 12-month interval.
In the meantime, these with playing cards which have a payment of lower than $500 spent a median of $1,144 per thirty days, up about 6% from the yr earlier.
It is one more sign of what economists generally name a “Ok-shaped economic system” through which excessive earners velocity freely, whereas lower-income shoppers pull again in some areas. It is also placing even larger significance on the upper spenders throughout a interval of financial uncertainty.
“The attract of the premium phase to those card issuers is that you’ve got heavy spenders,” stated Fandetti. “This enterprise takes numerous scale. So it’s important to have a really massive income base to kind of fund all these lounges and rewards and advantages.”
Constructing on manufacturers
Lounges are only one means that the bank card firms leverage their sponsorships with these venues.
Chase’s head of eating and way of life, Paul Needham, stated it additionally affords issues like reward luggage, premium viewing areas, particular entry to merchandise and cash off of meals by its partnerships.
Chase and American Categorical usually provide reductions or assertion credit, too, for purchases at their respective sponsored venues in addition to at sure occasions like music festivals.
“I feel whenever you take that broader image on the sports activities and leisure venues, what we’re actually making an attempt to do is each elevate these moments for our clients, but in addition attain our clients in locations and contexts the place we all know they’re so passionate and so excited to be there,” stated Needham.
Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders get entry to dinner occasions hosted on FIFA World Cup pitches in New Jersey and California. In the meantime, Marriott Bonvoy partnered with American Categorical in April to recreate New York Metropolis’s iconic Rao’s restaurant inside one in every of its lodges for a cardholder dinner occasion. Marriott has lengthy partnered with each American Categorical and Chase for its co-branded bank cards.
This class of playing cards, which additionally contains co-branded choices from Delta Air Traces and Hilton, accounted for a few quarter of American Categorical cardmember spending in 2025, in response to an Amex report.
Bennett of Ogilvy Consulting stated one of many key issues for bank card firms to be in a few of these bodily areas is whether or not they can play an genuine position on the occasion in query. He stated American Categorical at Coachella is an efficient instance, as a result of it gives an area to chill off in the midst of the desert warmth.
“You possibly can’t simply arrange these form of company fortresses precisely the identical in every place. That is not going to chop it. What will minimize it’s actually understanding the wants of the shopper at every of those locations,” stated Bennett.
Spaeth says elements of the American Categorical technique has been leaning into fandoms, starting from collaborations with music artists like Harry Kinds and Olivia Rodrigo to the NFL and System 1.
A normal view of the American Categorical Lounge throughout the System 1 Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix 2026 Preview Day at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit on March 2, 2026 in Melbourne, Australia.
Josh Chadwick | Getty Photographs
American Categorical’ partnership with System 1 kicked off in 2023 and marked its first new sports activities sponsorship in additional than a decade. A yr later, it additional expanded the deal and began rolling out new fan perks like trackside lounges.
“Our hope is that you simply interact with these moments, deepen the emotional connection that you’ve got with American Categorical and that basically raises the American Categorical card to the very tippy high of your pockets,” stated Spaeth.
