The credit card lounge battle at American Express and Chase is moving beyond the airport

Airport lounge – without security check or boarding pass.

Credit card companies American Express and Chasing They are increasingly waging luxury lounge wars outside the airport. From an air-conditioned retreat in the middle of the desert at Coachella to an exclusive sporting meet at the Paris Olympics, these companies are investing heavily in premium hospitality spaces to attract wealthy cardholders.

“It’s very expensive, but I think what happens is issuers find this to be a premium differentiation,” said Donald Vanditti, managing director of consumer finance equity research at Wells Fargo. “It’s all about providing those services and experiences that make it worth it for the cardholder to pay that annual fee.”

American Express’s Platinum and Chase’s Sapphire Reserve cards — the market-leading premium cards — raised their annual fees last year. Amex Platinum fees are now $895 per year, and Sapphire Reserve fees are $795.

Perks associated with these cards, such as dining credits, hotel upgrades and digital partnerships, help offset the cost. It’s all an attempt to attract and retain the highest spenders. Amex and Chase have competed for years to be the card of choice for America’s elite.

More and more, access is making a difference.

“Credit cards [with] Higher charges, it will send a certain signal. “But what we really need to make sure of is that we understand the psychology of exclusivity,” said Dan Bennett, head of behavioral sciences at consulting firm Ogilvy. “It’s easy to say, ‘I have a lot of resources.’ It’s hard to say, ‘I have enough social capital to make my way into space.’”

Some of the events where American Express Platinum Cardholders will be able to access the lounge in 2025 include the US Open Tennis Championships; Stagecoach Music Festival in California. And many Formula 1 races around the world.

Meanwhile, Chase Sapphire Reserve customer lounges were in attendance at the Chicago music festival Lollapalooza. Miami Arts Week; Sundance Film Festival; And the PGA Tour.

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

“We found this customer to be very engaged,” said Laura Picciano, managing director of Chase Sapphire. “Once you get their business, there’s a lot of loyalty there. So they’re an important segment to continue to nurture.”

While temporary credit card lounges appear at festivals and sporting events, they have also become very popular, permanent installations inside stadiums and arenas.

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

Factors such as footprint, food and beverage capacity and viewing capabilities are all considerations in deciding which venues get lounges, said Bess Spaeth, executive vice president of global brand management and experiences at American Express.

“It’s a real puzzle to try to look at all the pieces and think about them holistically in terms of how we can best serve our members in those places,” Spaeth said.

Chase has built lounges at Madison Square Garden and the Chicago Theater that are open to all of its customers, although Madison Square Garden has a designated space for Sapphire Reserve cardholders.

“Lounges are really interesting because economists might think of them as a good network,” said Chenzi Xu, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. “These lounges become especially valuable when there is a collection of them that you can access in a variety of different places… perhaps not just at an airport, but at another exclusive event.”

Chase and American Express are courting wealthy customers who not only want to pay increased annual fees but also want higher balances on their cards.

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

American Express said earlier this year it was shifting marketing dollars away from no-fee cards and toward 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 does not distribute credit card fee revenue.

“Chase works hard to compete with him [American Express]“They just make the benefits of having these cards better and better for the consumer,” Shaw said. “That competition is good for the consumer, but it’s competition that only happens at the high end, and at the low end you don’t see as much entry and you don’t see as much competition.”

This higher level is key for credit companies. MasterCard’s 2025 report found that affluent consumers, defined as households with income of $200,000 or more and at least $250,000 in investable assets, spend 4.3 times as much as the general population on discretionary purchases.

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

Meanwhile, those with cards with fees of less than $500 spent an average of $1,144 per month, up about 6% from the previous year.

It’s another sign of what economists often call a “K-shaped economy,” where high-income earners pace freely, while lower-income consumers pull back in some areas. They also place greater importance on high spenders during a period of economic uncertainty.

“The appeal of the premium segment for card issuers is that you have heavy spenders,” Vanditti said. “This business requires a lot of scale. So you have to have a very large revenue base to fund all these lounges, rewards and benefits.”

Lounges are one way credit card companies profit from their patronage at these places.

It also offers things like gift bags, premium display areas, special access to merchandise and food cash through its partnerships, said Paul Needham, president of Chase’s food and lifestyle division.

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

“I think when you take that broader picture of sports and entertainment venues, what we’re really trying to do is elevate those moments for our customers, but also reach our customers in places and contexts that we know they’re very passionate about and very excited to be in,” Needham said.

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

This category of cards, which also includes co-branded offers from Delta Airlines and Hiltonwill account for about a quarter of American Express card members’ spending in 2025, according to an Amex report.

One of the key considerations credit card companies have to have a presence in some of these physical places is whether they can play a real role in the event in question, Ogilvy Consulting’s Bennett said. The American Express show at Coachella is a good example, he said, because it provides a space to cool off in the middle of the desert heat.

“You can’t create these kind of corporate fortresses in exactly the same way everywhere. That’s not going to cut it. What’s going to get in the way is understanding the needs of customers in each of these places,” Bennett said.

Parts of American Express’ strategy have been leaning toward the fandom, from collaborations with musical artists like Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo to the NFL and Formula 1, Spieth says.

American Express’ partnership with Formula 1 launched in 2023 and marked its first new sports sponsorship in more than a decade. A year later, it expanded the deal and began offering fans new perks such as trackside lounges.

“Our hope is that you engage with these moments, deepening the emotional connection you have with American Express, and that’s what elevates the American Express Card to the top of your wallet,” Spaeth said.