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Do you know that American Express has a private lounge for cardholders at The O2 arena?

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It turns out that it has been five years since we wrote about the American Express lounge at The O2 arena in London.

I got to visit it for the first time recently (I’m normally hiding away in the Marriott or Virgin Red suites!) when I went to The Killers with my daughter. She insisted on buying standing tickets for cash rather than using points for a suite. Kids today ….

I was impressed by what I found. It’s a far bigger space than I anticipated and very well fitted out. There is a door at the back which leads to a backstage corridor and gets you speedy access to the arena floor. It wasn’t too busy, with my daughter and I finding a sofa to sit on with no difficulty.

How do you get access to the Amex lounge at The O2?

You can’t just turn up unfortunately.

This is the process:

“Present your American Express Card and valid show ticket at The Guests Services Hub under the Outlet Shopping Staircase to secure up to 4 passes per Cardmember. Passes are limited and provided on a first-come, first-served basis, so early arrival is recommended.”

The lounge opens at 5.30pm for most shows and I think passes are made available from that time.

Your passes allow you to use the VIP entry lane although security at The O2 is pretty brisk anyway, especially since the new screening equipment was installed.

The entrance to the lounge is directly in front of you once you have passed through security.

American Express has a private lounge for cardholders at The O2 arena

Get a free drink too!

You will receive a free drink.

The way this used to work is that you showed your American Express card at the welcome desk in the lounge and received a voucher in return. I’m not sure if this is still the case, because I totally forgot it was a benefit and didn’t claim mine – the host at the entrance did not ask me if I had a card.

I assume that – whilst you can get four lounge passes from one American Express card – you would need one card per person for everyone to get a free drink. I am happy to be corrected on this though, and if you scroll down to the comments someone has probably already set me straight!

You will also receive 10% off all food and drink purchased in the lounge if you pay with an American Express card.

More details can be found on this page of the American Express website.


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Comments (33)

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

  • Kavita says:

    Can American Express cardholders access the o2 lounge during a music event even if they dont have tickets purchased through Amex? Or is an Amex-purchased ticket required to use the lounge on the night of the event?

  • Neil says:

    For Entry and also the free drink do you need to show a physical Amex card or do they accept Apple Wallet/Pay cards?

  • MattB says:

    We’ve just gone in before Peter Kay, I had my physical card my wife just a digital card and we both got a free drink.

    So although we got 4 tickets to go into the lounge off 1 card, only cardholders got a drink.

    So if there are any in your party without an Amex you could use both your physical and digital wallets to get a free drink for them. My wife’s glass of wine was over a tenner so not bad for free.

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

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