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American Express has a cardmember lounge at Wimbledon – what’s inside?

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American Express has teamed up with Wimbledon again to offer a variety of amenities during the 2022 tournament, which started yesterday.

This includes a members lounge. You can see the details on the Wimbledon website here.

I need to thank reader Alex for the photographs in this article which he took for us yesterday. Shame about the weather …..

Visit the American Express Wimbledon Cardmember Lounge

The biggest benefit is the members lounge, located in the Southern Village by Court 3.

Any American Express cardholder can enter the lounge, irrespective of the country where their card was issued.

Each cardholder can take up to two guests into the lounge.

Even though Amex has, perhaps deliberately, kept publicity about the lounge low key this year, there were still modest queues to enter yesterday:

Note that the lounge does not have any toilets. You have to leave the lounge and rejoin the queue to get back in, which is clearly not ideal.

You get a great view over the outside courts (rain permitting):

Here are a couple of interior shots:

and

Whilst the lounge has a bar and serves snacks, these are not free. You can pick up some free Amex goodies – a radio to listen to match commentary, water spray and branded fans.

An exclusive £20 cashback offer

There’s also a special cashback offer for purchases on site.  If you spend £120 or more in the grounds during the tournament on your card you’ll get £20 back.  You can only get the cashback once per card.

Annoyingly, you must register for this offer on site at either the Amex lounge or one of the Amex stands arounds the grounds.  You CANNOT register online.

Historically this offer has also been available to holders of non-UK American Express cards.

Conclusion

Amex spends a lot of money on its Wimbledon lounge but it never fully delivers, in my view. I can only imagine that the lack of publicity this year is an attempt to reduce queueing.

It’s a shame that food and drink is not free, but then it would only encourage more people to visit and to stay longer so it may end up being self defeating. I would have been tempted to offer fast track entry to Platinum cardholders, or at least a free drink voucher.

That said, if it is crowded in the grounds – which it usually is – then this is a decent spot to get out of the sun / rain and watch the play on the outside courts from the balcony.

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Category

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Comments (31)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Sean C says:
    28 Jun28 June 11:21

    So the main selling point of the lounge IMHO, the terrace overlooking courts 4-11 is shut due to “Media commitments” – got my free radio and water spray though!

  • Brian78 says:
    28 Jun28 June 11:28

    “ If you spend £120 or more in the grounds during the tournament on your card you’ll get £20 back.”

    £120 gets you three strawberries and a grape at Wimbledon doesn’t it?

    • Rob says:
      28 Jun28 June 11:32

      Strawberries and cream is £2.50 at Wimbledon, price has been fixed at that level for 10 years.

      Pimms is £9.50 though.

      • David says:
        28 Jun28 June 12:59

        Or free if you have a HSBC or First Direct account and collect a voucher from outside Court No. 1 by showing your card!

        • Rob says:
          28 Jun28 June 13:26

          Are they still doing that?! May give it a go tomorrow. See if I can have two for being Jade 🙂

          • David says:
            28 Jun28 June 13:59

            Yes, it’s a great perk. I did ask if Premier’s got anything extra, and the answer was no.

      • Doommonger says:
        28 Jun28 June 16:14

        The Pimms they provide is weak as pi$$. Better to sneak your own neat pimms in a 1 litre coke bottle and then keep topping up your glass, works a treat.

        • Brian78 says:
          28 Jun28 June 16:45

          It’s pretty easy to sneak in booze to most sporting events as “security” barely check what you’ve got in your bag (as long as it’s at the bottom).

  • Carolyn says:
    28 Jun28 June 18:38

    Does anyone know if blue badge holders still have to queue? Thanks

  • David says:
    28 Jun28 June 21:52

    I visited yesterday and was surprised that several, seemingly invited, guests walked straight to the front of the queue and into the lounge which was advised to the queue as being ‘full’. After waiting c. 35 mins in the queue (in the rain) we found around 20 spare seats available and many of these remained during our visit. The invited guests didn’t appear to need to pay for food/drink and, offered in front of other guests, this gave the impression of a two-tier lounge.

    The lobby area appeared poorly utilised with a large reception-type desk that couldn’t even be used to check us in because the system had failed. Subject to room capacity, perhaps this space could have been used to shelter the queue from the rain with a much simpler check-in facility at the lounge door on the first floor.

    The lounge itself is pleasant enough, despite the artificial flowers. As well as the items mentioned in the article, there are some places to charge your phone and a sachet of sun cream was also offered alongside the other gifts. There is also a machine that can take a photo of you overlooking the courts and send it by email.

    I agree that a complimentary drink and snack voucher for Platinum cardholders would be welcomed. Fast-track entry would likely make the lounge impossible for other cardmembers to access, so I can understand that difficulty.

    The queue got quite long behind us (some way outside of the roped area). There was a lift available to access the lounge. We enjoyed our visit but were in no rush to revisit later in the day. I hope it returns in the future with a few tweaks to improve the offering.

  • Roy says:
    29 Jun29 June 09:28

    Hi, does anyone know where I can get tickets for this year, for the last 7 years I normally get tickets from Ticketmaster not doing this year don’t know why, I have been going for around 35 years. Collected around 150 ticket stubs., at 70 can’t wait in queue legs not too good. If anyone has any ideas please email me, I’m not looking for free tickets willing to pay, well not in the £1000s .
    Regards
    Roy

  • Patel says:
    29 Jun29 June 19:04

    Is it free or do I need to get the ticket to enter Wimbledon?

  • Patel says:
    29 Jun29 June 19:33

    Do I need the Wimbledon ticket to get in first?

  • EnviroBK says:
    29 Jun29 June 20:46

    After paying good money to get tickets, why would I waste an hour in line to get into the club? We were at Wimbledon for 2 days and the long line both days kept us (and probably others) away. We did get into the Amex club 2 years ago with a 15 min wait. It was nice to stop by for a quick drink, but this week, Wimbledon looked like Disneyland at Spring Break: a wall-to-wall sea of people, you could barely breather. Once in center court or court 1, it was much more manageable. Perhaps the Amex club would be easier to get into after 3 or 4 pm, but by then, we were having high tea at ‘the lawn.”

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