American Express and Chase move luxury lounge wars beyond the airport

An airport lounge — without the security screening or boarding pass.

Credit card companies American Express and Chase are increasingly waging their luxury lounge wars outside the airport. From an air-conditioned retreat in the middle of the desert at Coachella to an exclusive athlete meet-and-greet at the Paris Olympics, these companies are investing big in premium hospitality spaces to win over affluent cardholders. 

"It's very expensive, but I think what's happening is that the issuers are finding that this is a premium differentiator," said Donald Fandetti, managing director of consumer finance equity research at Wells Fargo. "It's all about providing these services and experiences that make it worth it to the cardholder to pay those annual fees."

American Express' Platinum and Chase's Sapphire Reserve cards — the leading premium cards in the market — both upped their annual fees last year. The Amex Platinum now carries a fee of $895 a year, and the Sapphire Reserve has a fee of $795. 

The perks associated with these cards, like dining credits, hotel upgrades and digital partnerships, help offset the cost. It's all an effort to capture and retain the highest spenders. Amex and Chase have jockeyed for years to be the preferred card for the American elite.

More and more, access is making the difference.

"Credit cards [with] higher fees, it's going to send a certain signal. But what we really need to be making sure is that we're understanding the psychology of exclusivity" said Dan Bennett, head of behavioral science at Ogilvy Consulting. "It's easy to say, 'I have lots of resources.' It's harder to say, 'I have enough social capital to earn my way into spaces.'"

Some of the events that American Express Platinum cardholders had lounge access to in 2025 include the US Open tennis tournament; Stagecoach music festival in California; and multiple Formula 1 races worldwide.

Meanwhile, lounges for Chase Sapphire Reserve customers were present at Chicago music festival Lollapalooza; Miami Art Week; Sundance Film Festival; and the PGA Tour.

While some lounges and brand activations are open to all customers or even all attendees at an event, many of these spaces are exclusively reserved for premium cardholders. 

"We find this customer to be very engaged," said Laura Picciano, general manager of Chase Sapphire. "Once you get their business, there's a lot of loyalty there. And so they're an important segment to continue to nurture."

While temporary credit card lounges are popping up at festivals and sporting events, they have also become popular, permanent fixtures inside stadiums and arenas.

American Express has partnerships with more than 20 venues around the world. Eight of them currently have lounges, including Hard Rock Stadium in Miami and the O2 arena in London, with a new location set to open in New York City's Barclays Center this year.

Bess Spaeth, executive vice president of global brand management and experiences at American Express, said factors like footprint, ability to provide food and beverage and viewing capabilities are all considerations in the decision for which venues get lounges.

"It's a real puzzle that we try to look at all the pieces and think about it holistically in terms of how we can best serve our members in those spaces," said Spaeth.

Chase has built out lounges at Madison Square Garden and the Chicago Theatre that are open to all of its customers, though Madison Square Garden has a dedicated space for Sapphire Reserve cardholders. 

"Lounges are really interesting because economists would think of those as more of a network good," said Chenzi Xu, assistant professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. "These lounges become particularly valuable when there's a set of them that you can access in a variety of different places ... not just in an airport perhaps, but at another exclusive event."

Chase and American Express are courting wealthy customers who are not only willing to pay the rising annual fees but also rack up higher balances on their cards.

Those with a credit score of 720 or above, which is typically required to get approved for a Sapphire Reserve or Platinum card, spend more than double the average of those within a score between 660 and 719, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

American Express said earlier this year that it shifted marketing dollars away from no-fee cards to its more premium offerings as it looks to attract more affluent cardholders.

American Express credit card fees totaled nearly $10 billion in 2025, up about 18% since 2024. Chase doesn't break out credit card fee revenue.

"Chase is working really hard to compete with [American Express]," said Xu. "They're just making the benefits of having these cards better and better for the consumer. That competition is good for the consumer, but it's a competition that's only happening at the high end, and at the low end you don't see nearly as much entry and you don't see as much competition."

That upper echelon is key for the credit companies. A 2025 Mastercard report found that affluent consumers, defined as households with an income of $200,000 or more and at least $250,000 in investable assets, spend 4.3 times the general population on discretionary purchases.

According to data from J.D. Power, cardholders with an annual fee of more than $500 spent an average of $3,200 per month from May 2025 to June 2026, up about 17% from the prior 12-month period. 

Meanwhile, those with cards that have a fee of less than $500 spent an average of $1,144 per month, up about 6% from the year earlier.

It's yet another signal of what economists commonly call a "K-shaped economy" in which high earners speed freely, while lower-income consumers pull back in some areas. It's also putting even greater importance on the higher spenders during a period of economic uncertainty.

"The allure of the premium segment to these card issuers is that you have heavy spenders," said Fandetti. "This business takes a lot of scale. So you have to have a very big revenue base to sort of fund all these lounges and rewards and benefits."

Lounges are just one way that the credit card companies leverage their sponsorships with these venues. 

Chase's head of dining and lifestyle, Paul Needham, said it also offers things like gift bags, premium viewing areas, special access to merchandise and money off of food through its partnerships.

Chase and American Express often offer discounts or statement credits, too, for purchases at their respective sponsored venues as well as at certain events like music festivals.

"I think when you take that broader picture on the sports and entertainment venues, what we're really trying to do is both elevate these moments for our customers, but also reach our customers in places and contexts where we know they're so passionate and so excited to be there," said Needham.

Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders get access to dinner events hosted on FIFA World Cup pitches in New Jersey and California. Meanwhile, Marriott Bonvoy partnered with American Express in April to recreate New York City's iconic Rao's restaurant inside one of its hotels for a cardholder dinner event. Marriott has long partnered with both American Express and Chase for its co-branded credit cards.

This category of cards, which also includes co-branded offerings from Delta Air Lines and Hilton, accounted for about a quarter of American Express cardmember spending in 2025, according to an Amex report.

Bennett of Ogilvy Consulting said one of the key considerations for credit card companies to be in some of these physical spaces is whether they can play an authentic role at the event in question. He said American Express at Coachella is a good example, because it provides a space to cool off in the middle of the desert heat.

"You can't just set up these kind of corporate fortresses exactly the same in each place. That's not going to cut it. What is going to cut it is really understanding the needs of the customer at each of these places," said Bennett.

Spaeth says parts of the American Express strategy has been leaning into fandoms, ranging from collaborations with music artists like Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo to the NFL and Formula 1.

American Express' partnership with Formula 1 kicked off in 2023 and marked its first new sports sponsorship in more than a decade. A year later, it further expanded the deal and started rolling out new fan perks like trackside lounges. 

"Our hope is that you engage with these moments, deepen the emotional connection that you have with American Express and that really raises the American Express card to the very tippy top of your wallet," said Spaeth.