An airport lounge — with out the safety screening or boarding cross.
Bank card corporations American Specific and Chase are more and more waging their luxurious lounge wars outdoors the airport. From an air-conditioned retreat in the course of the desert at Coachella to an unique athlete meet-and-greet on the Paris Olympics, these corporations are investing huge in premium hospitality areas to win over prosperous cardholders.
“It’s extremely costly, however I believe what’s occurring is that the issuers are discovering that it is a premium differentiator,” mentioned Donald Fandetti, managing director of shopper finance fairness analysis at Wells Fargo. “It is all about offering these providers and experiences that make it price it to the cardholder to pay these annual charges.”
American Specific’ Platinum and Chase’s Sapphire Reserve playing cards — the main premium playing cards out there — each upped their annual charges final 12 months. The Amex Platinum now carries a payment of $895 a 12 months, and the Sapphire Reserve has a payment of $795.
The perks related to these playing cards, like eating credit, lodge upgrades and digital partnerships, assist offset the associated fee. It is all an effort to seize and retain the very best spenders. Amex and Chase have jockeyed for years to be the popular card for the American elite.
Increasingly more, entry is making the distinction.
Past the airport
Among the occasions that American Specific Platinum cardholders had lounge entry to in 2025 embrace the US Open tennis match; Stagecoach music competition in California; and a number of Components 1 races worldwide.
In the meantime, lounges for Chase Sapphire Reserve clients had been current at Chicago music competition 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 solely reserved for premium cardholders.
“We discover this buyer to be very engaged,” mentioned Laura Picciano, basic supervisor of Chase Sapphire. “When you get their enterprise, there’s plenty of loyalty there. And they also’re an vital section 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 in style, everlasting fixtures inside stadiums and arenas.
American Specific has partnerships with greater than 20 venues around the globe. 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 Middle this 12 months.
Bess Spaeth, government vice chairman of world model administration and experiences at American Specific, mentioned components like footprint, skill to offer meals and beverage and viewing capabilities are all concerns within the choice 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 are able to greatest serve our members in these areas,” mentioned 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 can be open to all of its clients, although Madison Sq. Backyard has a devoted house for Sapphire Reserve cardholders.
“Lounges are actually attention-grabbing as a result of economists would consider these as extra of a community good,” mentioned Chenzi Xu, assistant professor of economics on the College of California, Berkeley. “These lounges turn into notably invaluable when there is a set of them that you may 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 Specific are courting rich clients who are usually not solely keen to pay the rising annual charges but additionally rack up larger 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 knowledge from the Federal Reserve Financial institution of Philadelphia.
American Specific mentioned earlier this 12 months that it shifted advertising and marketing {dollars} away from no-fee playing cards to its extra premium choices because it seems to be to draw extra prosperous cardholders.
American Specific bank card charges totaled practically $10 billion in 2025, up about 18% since 2024. Chase would not escape bank card payment income.
“Chase is working actually arduous to compete with [American Express],” mentioned Xu. “They’re simply making the advantages of getting these playing cards higher and higher for the patron. That competitors is nice for the patron, but it surely’s a contest that is solely occurring 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 corporations. A 2025 Mastercard report discovered that prosperous shoppers, outlined as households with an revenue of $200,000 or extra and no less than $250,000 in investable belongings, spend 4.3 instances the final inhabitants on discretionary purchases.
In response to knowledge 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 12 months earlier.
It is one more sign of what economists generally name a “Okay-shaped economic system” by 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 section to those card issuers is that you’ve got heavy spenders,” mentioned Fandetti. “This enterprise takes plenty of scale. So it’s important to have a really huge income base to form of fund all these lounges and rewards and advantages.”
Constructing on manufacturers
Lounges are only one method that the bank card corporations leverage their sponsorships with these venues.
Chase’s head of eating and way of life, Paul Needham, mentioned it additionally provides issues like present luggage, premium viewing areas, particular entry to merchandise and cash off of meals via its partnerships.
Chase and American Specific usually supply reductions or assertion credit, too, for purchases at their respective sponsored venues in addition to at sure occasions like music festivals.
“I believe 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 additionally attain our clients in locations and contexts the place we all know they’re so passionate and so excited to be there,” mentioned 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 Specific in April to recreate New York Metropolis’s iconic Rao’s restaurant inside considered one of its lodges for a cardholder dinner occasion. Marriott has lengthy partnered with each American Specific 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 Specific cardmember spending in 2025, in response to an Amex report.
Bennett of Ogilvy Consulting mentioned one of many key concerns for bank card corporations 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 mentioned American Specific at Coachella is an efficient instance, as a result of it offers an area to chill off in the course of the desert warmth.
“You’ll be able to’t simply arrange these sort of company fortresses precisely the identical in every place. That is not going to chop it. What’s going to reduce it’s actually understanding the wants of the client at every of those locations,” mentioned Bennett.
Spaeth says components of the American Specific technique has been leaning into fandoms, starting from collaborations with music artists like Harry Kinds and Olivia Rodrigo to the NFL and Components 1.
A basic view of the American Specific Lounge in the course of the Components 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 Specific’ partnership with Components 1 kicked off in 2023 and marked its first new sports activities sponsorship in additional than a decade. A 12 months later, it additional expanded the deal and began rolling out new fan perks like trackside lounges.
“Our hope is that you just interact with these moments, deepen the emotional connection that you’ve got with American Specific and that actually raises the American Specific card to the very tippy high of your pockets,” mentioned Spaeth.
