American Airlines has business class lounges at New York JFK, Los Angeles, Chicago O’Hare, Miami and Dallas – Fort Worth. They’ve been promising a lounge for their primary transatlantic gateway, Philadelphia, for many years and it’s finally in sight.
- Construction was set to begin in 2019 for a 2020 opening but was delayed by the pandemic.
- Philadelphia was slot to rebuild, first because Europe remained closed to most Americans and because that slowed even the return of Philadelphia’s domestic flights (since they weren’t feeding transatlantic departures) and then because American retired too many planes during the pandemic to take advantage of the boom in Europe travel.
- However I wrote exclusively last summer that the Philadelphia Flagship Lounge project was green lit to return.
American has announced that the space on the Philadelphia A West concourse taken offline half a dozen years ago will become the Flagship Lounge and an Admirals Club next year.
The new lounges, in American’s trans-Atlantic gateway, are thoughtfully designed to allow our customers to rejuvenate and feel their best ahead of their flight.
The new space continues the airline’s reimagined premium design standards, including the overall aesthetic with warm finishes and fireplaces that evoke a sense of home. The opening of the new Flagship® Lounge and Admirals Club® lounge will continue to create a harmonized design experience across all newly opened lounges that customers will instantly recognize.
There’s a sense in which this may be worth the long wait. They were going to design the space in the old Flagship template which is… ok… while the 2018-era Admirals Club aesthetic is best thought of as modern hospital.
Instead, here’s a rendering of the entryway to the Flagship and Admirals Clubs showing that they’re in the new design template – which have made for truly special spaces at Washington National (E Concourse), Denver, and Newark.
Flagship lounges are for customers flying long haul business class or first class on American and its oneworld partners; American Airlines Platinum members and above flying international regardless of class of service; and for oneworld sapphire members and above (from airlines other then American and Alaska) and American Airlines ConciergeKey members even when flying domestically.
Passes for Flagship lounge access are available as choice benefits for achieving various loyalty point thresholds each year, and will be available as an ‘Enhance With Miles’ redemption option.
With the new design template, the Philadelphia Flagship lounge will depart from all the rest of the American Airlines business class spaces – and will be a more elevated experience. The A West Admirals Club will similarly be the nicest at the airport, and one of the four nicest in the system. The only other announced ‘new template’ club is Austin, but that one is no longer even slated to be in the same location in the airport – and the new portion of the terminal isn’t even built yet.
Why is there no AA business class lounge at CLT? Plenty of international flights, and OW elites passing through.
I’m sure the new Philly lounge will be nice. However, the effort to create this lounge is really indicative of American’s failed strategy to retreat from key NY and northeast markets. They continue to double down on killing their business in Critical NY markets.
As I’ve posted before, JFKs terminal 8 is a ghost town. AA management should be embarrassed about how they continue to chase away NY and northeast travelers.
@BOB I believe CLT has 2 American lounges.
@Bob — Amy is correct, there are two Admirals Clubs at CLT — one in the B concourse, and the other in C. But since I’ve always landed in the E concourse and flown out of the A concourse with only 40 minutes between flights…who cares? ;^)
@bob,Amy,JBL: There are two Admirals Clubs at CLT, but no Flagship Lounge (aka “business class” lounge). Flagship lounges are MUCH nicer than Admirals Clubs.
Yes, CLT has 2 AC lounges: one so crowded and tiny you must wait forever to enter, and one from the 1980s, which is also crowded, and a dump, like the rest of CLT, so no surprise.
It just seems to me that AA is missing an opportunity to add much needed business class services at CLT, given that CLT has non-stop flights to Europe, the Caribbean, and Mexico, and none of those passengers have a chance for a pleasant lounge stay before their flights, with good food and service.
I must admit that a bias, as my standard for lounges is very skewed, since I mostly fly out of JFK, and connect in HK, Tokyo, BKK, and Doha when flying international. But CLT should be able to provide something a tiny bit better than the dumps that they have now.
The Flagship lounge really sucks at LAX.The people that staff it are mostly unfriendly
Tons of attractively presented food thats mostly below the quality of a bad chain restaurant low end buffet with bizarre preparations and flavors.A ham sandwich would be a culinary masterpiece to their slop
I can’t imagine the Philly location will be any better with AA never going for great
3rd party lounges with priority pass have better offerings and thats hardly a compliment as they are mediocre too.Note to self dine prior to arrival to any AA lounge or flight
At least the facility looks like an improvement if nothing else
Is there any possibility that a transcon flyer in business from LAX-PHL could gain access to the PHL Flagship Lounge like they do at JFK?
AA needs this as phl is the nastiest airport I have ever seen. Waiting to board flight to dfw was the worst nightmare ever. All packed it, no where to sit or barley stand and miscreants everywhere. Sick