Tag Archives for admirals club.
Two birds walk into the Philadelphia airport Admirals Club bar. They sit down and the first bird asks the bartender, “you got any bread?” The Admirals Club bartender replies, “No, sorry.”
The second bird then asks, “Have you got any bread?” And the bartender starts getting angry: “we haven’t got any bread, what do you think this is a Delta Sky Club?”
American Airlines said last month that all Admirals Clubs except Honolulu were said to re-open ‘by August’ while Flagship lounges and First Dining would begin with Miami in September.
American now tells me they’ve already re-opened 35 of 40 Admirals Clubs. The five that are still closed will open in August.
American Airlines is re-opening its Flagship international business class lounges and most of its Flagship First Dining this fall, starting with Miami. They’re also re-opening all of their Admirals Clubs except Honolulu this summer. And they’re going to introduce a new way for premium passengers to access Flagship.
That’s wonderful because these lounges were fantastic. United’s Polaris lounges were probably a step above American’s Flagship lounges, but Flagship lounges were open to many more people and nicer than anything American had ever done before. American’s Flagship First Dining product was nicer than anything any U.S. airline has done in recent years, period.
Two premium services updates: American Airlines has no plans to return meal service up front to the way it was before the pandemic, instead working on “meaningful changes.” There are, however, 3 Admirals Clubs that will re-open in the next month.
I’ve heard from several Executive Platinum passengers recently who have received texts from Admirals Club agents shortly before they arrived at the airport. These usually welcome them and let them know the status of the club and Covid procedures. The texts aren’t from an automated system – they’re from an agent in the Admirals Club, which I think is a really nice touch.
And it’s gets better.
There are fewer of these passengers today, with borders closed and testing requirements in place. Furthermore there’s very little international business travel. And frequent flyers with club memberships have been flying less as well.
So the real fight is for leisure passengers, many of whom haven’t been frequent flyers, and they’re mostly traveling to close-in destinations like the Caribbean and Mexico. And American is expanding airport club lounge access as a result.
Three more Admirals Clubs have re-opened – Tampa, Raleigh, and Orange County – joining 21 clubs that had already re-opened. (Two additional airports have service centers to assist Admirals Club members with their travel, Pittsburgh and Atlanta.)
That brings the total list of re-opened clubs to 24 across 20 airports.
During the month of October American Airlines will re-open 7 more Admirals Clubs expanding beyond hub locations, They’re also bringing back cheese cubes, avocado toast, and guacamole and chips.
In re-opened clubs a full bar is offered where permitted by local regulation, and packaged snacks are offered. They’ve added plexiglass shields at reception and at service desks, and in some cases foot-operated door openers for restrooms. There are also hand sanitizer stations and floor decals to promote social distancing.
American Airlines lounges will re-introduce hot food August 12 and food for sale August 19.
On June 22 American Airlines opened 11 Admirals Club and 13 Service Centers where club members can get help with their travel itineraries. Now they’re re-opening 4 additional clubs, including one that was just a service center previously. All re-opened clubs are at American Airlines hubs, while service centers are now strictly at outstations.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
