American Airlines doesn’t just have a new business class Flagship lounge in Philadelphia, they have a refreshed Admirals Club, too, in their spiffy new design template.

Located in terminal A West between gates 15 and 16, it shares an entrance with the Flagship lounge. There’s even a space behind the reception desk that connects the two and that can be locked/unlocked on either side to create overflow seating for one or the other.

Walking up to the lounge entrance there’s a sign on the terminal level that says they aren’t accepting day passes. This currently applies to both the Flagship and Admirals Clubs, but they can be talked into it in non-busy periods with a little bit of polite pushback.

You don’t actually need to stop at the desk. The Flagship lounge is to your left and the Admiral’s Club to your right. This is American’s first lounge with “e-gates” that will check your eligibility to enter based on your boarding pass. That saves labor (fewer staff) but also reduces bottlenecks getting in.

You’ll still need to visit, of course, if you aren’t accessing based on the itinerary (such as an international trip and status, or business class international) or lounge membership or status tied to the frequent flyer number in your reservation.

For instance you might have an Admiral’s Club membership tied to your AAdvantage account, but you’re flying on American with an Alaska Airlines-issued award ticket and your Alaska Mileage Plan number in the booking. The e-gates won’t know to grant you access.

I actually visited the lounge twice over a couple of weeks – the second time after 5 p.m. where crowds were at peak. There weren’t many seats, but there were a few seats. You had to dodge and weave around people and bags to move around the lounge. On my early visit to the Flagship side the week before the soda machine was spitting out carbonated water rather than soda, and that was my experience on the Admirals Club side on that second visit. And the wifi in the Admirals Club was practically unusable from the strain of everyone in the club at the same time online.

However the space is beautiful and it would be very comfortable when not packed.

And – a surprising highlight – the cole slaw was amazing! I never expected to find proper New York deli-style cole slaw in an Admiral’s Club. It wasn’t quite as good as the best cole slaw. It could have used a bit more horseradish. But it was legit!

Here’s the buffet.

There’s a phone room and a business services area. Those are nice to haves, I suppose, but in a packed lounge I’m not sure how many people will get the private box, or how much work will get done in this corner.

The kids room, on the other hand, was ironically maybe the most peaceful spot in the lounge. There were no kids there or anyone inside the Admiral’s Club on either visit.

There is a door marked ‘private’ that was unlocked on the Admirals Club side that anyone could have entered through. It takes you to the ‘swing space’ behind the check-in desks that can be used as an extension for either Flagship or the Admiral’s Club. It was connected to Flagship while I was there, but anyone could have gone between the two at-will.

You’ll exit, by the way, through those same automatic gates. Most people don’t walk up close enough to get them to open, and have to be told to walk closer.

Ultimately, American Airlines now has (4) really nice Admirals Clubs: Washington National E Concourse, Newark, Denver, and Philadelphia A West. However, this club just isn’t large enough. They should have made the whole thing Flagship (since the Flagship side can’t support passenger volume before the evening transatlantics) and kept the A East Admirals Club open. Perhaps they’ll ultimately renovate that space and we’ll have both a nice Flagship lounge and a large enough, nice Admirals Club in Philadephia as well.