Perhaps the thing that American Airlines has been doing best is its international business class. They have great seats on most of their widebody aircraft, and they have much-improved lounges at key hub airports.
American’s Flagship lounges are for international business class, for mid-tier elites and above flying international economy, for ConciergeKey members and for mid-tier oneworld partner elites even when they’re flying American domestically.
These are nice lounges with good food and drink programs. They aren’t generally as nice as United Polaris lounges but United’s lounges are far more restrictive. While Delta’s Sky Clubs are generally nicer than United or American base clubs, Delta does not offer dedicated business class lounges.
So far there are lounges at New York JFK, Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas Fort-Worth. There are still lounges at Philadelphia and London Heathrow left to open. The Philadelphia lounge faced some bureaucratic obstacles at the local level, but is finally underway, and there are renderings available.
I like the bar and buffet areas more in these renderings than I do American’s other Flagship lounges. It strikes me that wall the main lounge area design is straight from the pallet of the other lounges, the dining room is darker and a bit more modern. In some ways it feels more like a Cathay Pacific lounge in those areas. This could be their most attractive Flagship lounge.
Philadelphia, like Chicago O’Hare, will not feature a separate Flagship First Dining room, since Philadelphia doesn’t see American Airlines flights with international first class.
Those overhead lighting fixtures are going to look dated really fast
Like the dark red with the brown on the chairs – like those retro first class seats with the red insert and brown leather
Meh
Aa wouldn’t know high end ngood taste even if it bit them on their @##
One step up from a priority pass lounge at best
“The Philadelphia lounge faced some bureaucratic obstacles at the local level” certainly sounds nicer than “it took a long time to count all the palms that needed to be greased.”
@ Dwondermeant – Totally disagree with that statement. The refreshed Admirals Clubs tend to be comfortable and quiet. Their amenities are actually often time less than that of a priority pass lounge admittedly, but Admirals tend to not be that crowded. Overall I find them a comfortable place to be.
The Flagship Lounges are truly special and by far the nicest domestic lounges around. Even nicer than the Centurion Lounges. The dining choices are almost the quality of Centurion, well not really, but it’s decent. Centurion still takes the cake for food flavor. The Flagship is bright, but not covered in 100 watt flood lights like the Centurions tend to be (no clue why AmEx has in their mind that BRIGHT is what everyone wants in every square inch of their overly bright and loud lounges).
In Miami when flying OneWorld international, I have the choice between a nice newly expanded Centurion or the Flagship. I nearly always choose Flagship as it’s more spacious, quieter, and calmer.
I just wish that AA planes were even half as nice as their lounges. Heck even a base Admirals club in the sky would be a 4 fold increase to their domestic ‘first class’ product. I’m sure most will agree.
Anyone hear an update as to the PHL Flagship lounge opening date? It had only been a few months into construction when the pandemic shut everything down, but I would think it’s back under way for a while now.
Also wondering about a possible 2022 opening?
Any news on a possible 2022 opening?