American Airlines is getting an Admirals Club in San Antonio. It’s the first new airport they’re adding to the lounge network since Houston Intercontinental in 2017. And it’s one of only a few in the pipeline.
- They announced a new Admirals Club in Austin in fall 2021, then didn’t actually lease the space that was announced, shifting discussions to the new West Infill space that hasn’t been built yet.
- Philadelphia’s Flagship lounge is finally coming and the years-long delay means it’ll get the new design motif instead of the 2017-era ‘modern hospital’.
San Antonio is building a new terminal Southwest Airlines is refusing to sign the new airport lease, even as the largest carrier there by market share. They have six gates today, want 10 in the new terminal, it appears to keep other carriers from growing. They haven’t announced what service they’d add if given the space, and the airport hasn’t bene inclined to do so. Delta, by the way, also goes into the new terminal and plans to build a Sky Club.
Southwest, for its part, thinks they should get the new terminal and also that it shouldn’t have lounges.
Southwest thinks that’s “out of step” with what San Antonio travelers want, Perry said.
“They’re kind of targeting what we would see as like an elite customer, and that’s … not reflective of what we’ve known from that airport for the 53 years that we’ve been operating there.”
I asked American for details on their planned lounge, and was given these words instead.
American Airlines intends to be a signatory airline on San Antonio International Airport’s new Airlines Use and Lease Agreement. San Antonio is an important market for American and we remain committed to providing great service to customers in the Alamo City. This includes our continued partnership with the airport and the City of San Antonio as we work to secure direct access to DCA and our nation’s capital – adding to our more than 25 daily departures from SAT to seven cities across the U.S.
United Airlines has a United Club in San Antonio, a throwback to Continental days, and isn’t moving as part of the new terminal plan.
According to MSNBC, United is going to enlarge their existing lounge (it’s quite tiny) when the new terminal gets built. Sometime in the next 10 years, Terminal B (where United is now) will get demolished and replaced.
SWA has been promised $200M for renovations to the terminal they currently inhabit. That terminal will be demolished and rebuilt in phases over the next 20 years. The current SAT Terminal A is awful — very narrow, not many concessions, super-duper crowded.
The new terminal is 17 gates — 6 of which are designated international gates / wide body gates. SWA doesn’t fly to any international destinations out of SAT. Delta and AA are going to occupy some of the other 11 gates and build new lounges. SWA states they want 10 gates in the new terminal but have revealed no plans to expand service in SAT.
To say that there shouldn’t be lounges because “it’s never had them before” is asinine. San Antonio recognized that to attract world-class businesses and to become a world-class city requires a world-class airport. They have a plan to build one. This nonsense from WN is posturing for some benefit that isn’t clear to me. It’s like saying Austin should have kept the old Mueller airport with its 6000-foot runway and crappy facilities because that was the way it had always been.
Currently, AUS gets a lot of the traffic that would otherwise go to San Antonio or traveling on to the Hill Country due to more flights and a better airport. I think a better airport would clearly help San Antonio grow. It’s a great but under appreciated city.
“Delta, by the way, also goes into the new terminal and plans to build a Sky Club.”
Thank god. Some loser can keep one of his top 3 talking points about how many bare toes can Delta possibly fit into the most lounge space of any airline
It seems odd that SAT doesn’t have an AC. This is a great decision. I hope it moves fast.
The new lounge at PHL is long overdue. I have been to the current one. All I can say is if Sprit or Frontier had a lounge at PHL it would be the Waldorf Astoria compared the the AA lounge at PHL
I’d love to see an admiral’s club in San Antonio! I fear that I will never see its completion.
While it’s always good to see a new AC I would think there are more pressing club needs. Expanding the overcrowded CLT and PHX clubs or in the case of CLT a third club. The re-opening of E at MIA (which was being renovated pre COVID). Hopefully AA will move into the new terminal at TPA and build a bigger club there.
LAS certainly has the flight volume but there may be other factors stopping the building of a club at that airport. The Aspire lounge that AA contracts with at SAN is god awful but supposedly that facility will be taken over by AS and expanded.
Gary, AA is axing all non hub flights out of Austin. Will you drive yo San Antonio?
Does SW understand San Antonio is one of the 10 largest cities in the US (not metro area but in city limits – check it if you don’t believe me). To somehow think lounges that appeal to “elite” travelers is out of step with the city is crazy. I lived in Houston and Dallas areas but spent a lot of time in San Antonio. Also, one of the companies for which I was the CIO owned one of the largest hospital systems in the city. I’ve not only seen some of the luxuries available for tourists but also interacted with business leaders who certainly appreciate the finer things in life. Guess SW is just afraid when everyone else has a lounge it will be even more obvious how 2nd rate their product is.
They need to expand SAT to accommodate all the illegals
We’ve been begging for some lounges for years! And yes, lots of people go to AUS because their facilities at this point are superior.
Funny how many comments on here are based on generic ideas and not from actual folks who have lived in San Antonio for decades and seen the broken promises of most of the major airlines the city is now coveting. American is currently in the newest terminal at San Antonio and decided NOT to build an Admirals club. Delta flat out told airport officials that the city is not a focus for them (see Austin growth), but were enticed to agree to build a lounge and bring some “international” routes by giving them gates in the new Terminal C that will be built. Southwest, which is by the largest airline at SAT, and flies to the most non-stop destinations from SAT (with non-stop flights a focus for the airport). This was a situation of bait and switch and Southwest got slapped due to higher level power brokers (the same ones who put the nail in the coffin for a larger SA airport at Kelly field, because it was on the south side of town). This reeks of bad faith by the city and unfortunately the citizens of the city will suffer the consequences.