Delhi Airport wants to be a hub, but it can’t catch a break with having everything working smoothly for the customers. On the one hand, the airport continues to grow in the number of passengers. Still, on the other hand, there needs to be more facilities being provided by the airport to the customers, especially as the peak season for travel is just getting started.
Delhi T3’s American Express Lounge Shuts down
American Express is the only bank in India that has been able to offer its own stand-alone lounges. In a country which has airport operators getting into the lounge business and with massive queues outside contract lounges due to the complimentary lounge access offered by almost all debit and credit cards, the USP of American Express is the part where they have exclusive lounges for their cardmembers in Delhi and Mumbai for domestic transit passengers. They also have a network of global lounges accessible to Platinum and Centurion Cardmembers.
American Express re-opened the Delhi T3 Domestic Centurion lounge after significant renovation in March 2021. Since then, traffic at Delhi Airport has peaked, and from time to time, lounges have been shut. For instance, the Plaza Premium Lounges at Delhi Airport were shut (pretty unceremoniously), and Vistara’s customers were left to eat at an eatery in the airport till Encalm opened a lounge.
Now, Amex customers have received messages announcing that the Amex Lounge at Delhi T3 is shut till further notice.
This message was sent out to customers on September 30, 2023, late into the night.
Unfortunately, with no reason given around the shutdown of the lounge (Only the couches needed repair the last time I visited a few days ago), it has me fearing for the worse that it was asked to go so that the current lounge operator can get their stronghold at Delhi T3. It all started with the shutdown of the Vistara Lounge, then the Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines Lounge, and then the Plaza Premium Lounge.
By some narrative, there is a cordoned-off section in the Encalm Lounge at T3 Domestic for Centurion customers. Otherwise, the lounges open at Delhi T3 Domestic currently are:
- Encalm for Credit Card based lounge access
- Encalm for Priority Pass / Vistara customers / American Express
- Air India Lounge for Air India customers and Star Alliance Gold customers
Bottomline
The Centurion Lounge at Delhi Terminal 3 has been shut down without any explanation about how long it will be shut for, or if the lounge will return in the near future. For the time being, customers can head to the Encalm Lounge as a replacement to the Amex Centurion Lounge.
What do you make of the sudden closure of the Amex Lounge at Delhi T3 Domestic?
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Delhi Airport limited is behaving very cheap and unhospitable with the lounge situation. Why is it that inspite of getting huge in market size, the Indian aviation keeps dragging and lacking in excellent service delivery in some cases. They keep running behind small change at the expense of brand value.
visited the airport and had a good 1.5 hrs to kill.. headed to the amex lounge and to my utter disappointment it was closed.. with a small note stuck asking to move on to the encalm lounge. Did not even bother to go there..as firstly, the encalm lounge is on the 1st floor at one side of the airport.. an extra 5 mins. to get to it. Amex was perfectly located and one could move to their gate at the last moment.
Secondly, the rush at Encalm – even with the cordoned space- there isnt enough space to avoid feeling like a fish market personally. So sat sipping my coffee instead.
In one of my recent visits I remember the staff mentioning an increase in the size of the Amex lounge at Delhi is in offing. Not sure if its true though.
It has always been crowded 🙁 never had the chance to use in my last 3 visits.