Lounge on the Go: €500 in Food Credit Instead of a Lufthansa Lounge

Twelve days after word got out that American Express is dropping the Lufthansa lounges on 1 October, the replacement is on the table. It is called Lounge on the Go, and it is not lounge access. It is a food and drink credit.

For Centurion members that means 10 x €50, redeemable from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027 at more than 30 partners at Frankfurt and Munich airports. €500 nominal.

What has actually been announced

• 10 vouchers of €50 each, redeemable between 1 October 2026 and 31 March 2027
• Up to two redemptions per day
• More than 30 partners at Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC)
• Primary and supplementary cards share the credit — one pot, not one allowance per card
• Redemption runs through the Experiences App: open the voucher, have the QR code scanned, done
• Available from 1 October — the exact day lounge access ends

Which partners those are has not been published. Or rather, it has been decided but will only surface in the app at launch. Terminal restaurants and cafés are the obvious assumption, and until October that is all it is.

What Platinum gets

Considerably less, and for most readers that is the real news: Platinum and Business Platinum holders receive 6 x €20, so €120, over the same window, at the same partners, under the same shared-pot rule for supplementary cards.

That is roughly four to one in Centurion's favour. On a benefit that only works at two airports anyway, it is the clearest line Amex has drawn between the two cards in Germany in a long time — see also the honest comparison of the two.

The arithmetic you have to run

€500 sounds like a lot. Two things cut it down.

First, frequency. Ten vouchers across six months means you need to pass through Frankfurt or Munich roughly ten times in that window, and want to eat while you're there, to capture the nominal value. Anyone departing FRA every other week does that without trying. Anyone flying six times in half a year leaves €400 on the table. The benefit scales with how often you fly, not with which card you hold.

Second, the expiry. There is a redemption period written into it, and it ends on 31 March 2027. Whether anything follows is stated nowhere. Lounge access was a permanent state; this is a six-month programme. Until an email says otherwise, I would read it as a bridge, not as a new standing card benefit.

One detail that matters in practice: €50 per redemption is generous. A meal with a drink in the Frankfurt terminal rarely costs that much. Travelling as a pair, one voucher realistically covers both of you — convenient, given the supplementary card draws from the same pot anyway.

What is really being traded here

The honest comparison is not "€500 versus nothing". It is "€500 versus the First Class Lounge".

In the First Lounge the food was à la carte, the staff knew your departure, and the room was quiet. No voucher buys a quiet room in a terminal. The value of lounge access was never only the plate — it was sitting somewhere before a flight where nobody else gets to sit.

Lounge on the Go inverts that: you get money, and you sit where everyone sits. For short connections that is honestly more practical — 40 minutes at the gate, one voucher, no trek across the terminal. For anything longer it is a step down.

If you still need the quiet room, in Frankfurt that means the Fraport VIP Service, included several times a year in Centurion membership, or Priority Pass — a class below, but unlimited. What else works at Frankfurt is in the premium guide to the airport.

What is still open

Four points the announcement does not answer, and they decide what this is worth day to day:

• Landside or past security? More than 30 partners across two airports sounds like both. If a meaningful share sits landside, it is useless to departing passengers.
• Does the credit require a boarding pass? Not mentioned, but customary.
• What happens on 1 April 2027? Extension, successor, or nothing — open.
• What about cardholders who don't fly FRA or MUC? Anyone departing Düsseldorf, Hamburg or Berlin loses lounge access and gets exactly nothing back. That is the quiet group in this announcement.

What to do now

Install the Experiences App before you need it. The voucher exists only there, and 1 October is a bad day to reset a login at a gate.

And use what is still there. Until 30 September the Centurion Card still opens the First Lounges in Frankfurt and Munich regardless of the class booked. That is a little over five weeks.

My verdict

Amex moved faster than expected, and the size of the Centurion allowance is respectable — €500 is not a fig leaf, and the gap to Platinum is unusually wide.

It still fits the pattern of the last two years: what disappears are benefits with a fixed place in the real world. What arrives are credits you open in an app, scan, and burn inside a time window. Cheaper to run, and easier to withdraw again.

If you held the card for lounge access, run the cost calculation again anyway. €500 of food credit in half a year is a good consolation prize. It is not a replacement.

Sources: American Express notice to Centurion members, August 2026 (Centurion terms); travel-dealz.de for the Platinum terms.