Tag Archives for admirals club.
American Airlines is building is schedule back up domestically for July, re-opening Admirals Clubs, and improving its change fee waiver – while re-asserting one element of restrictions attached to its basic economy fares.
I’ve been consistently hearing from American Airlines employees that several Admirals Clubs are expected to open in June. I’ve heard about major hub clubs, and the dates being offered are late in the month.
Asked about what I’ve been hearing, an American Airlines spokesperson offered “We hope to have more information to share this week.”
Citibank is giving a credit of 50% of the annual fee to AAdvantage Executive cardmembers. This is the card that comes with American Airlines Admirals Club membership.
Citi and Barclays American Airlines companion tickets are also being extended.
American already closed 23 airport lounges including all Flagship lounges and many Admirals Clubs. The airline has been consolidating operations at airports to handle fewer flights, so major hubs still have at least one club.
That will no longer be the case come Thursday.
Minutiae may seem trivial at this time but thinking back on them, I realize how much I’ve appreciated the effort. Mostly though I’ve appreciated the people. The ladies in the Austin club (they’ev all been ladies) have been amazing, taking care of me during the worst of American’s operational challenges.
I haven’t been in during recent days to offer support, and I feel badly about that too. After 9/11 I brought treats to my local United Airlines City Ticket Office to support the employees that I’d gotten to know and had been so helpful to me over the years.
Starting on Monday American is dropping buffets from its lounges. This will be replaced with “individually portioned, covered food items and will shift most self-service beverages to individual portions such as milk cartons or bartender/wait staff service.
There will also be changes to how drinks are service on board.
With the LAX Admirals Club space and Flagship lounge space ‘flipping’ – the Flagship lounge taking the larger club space when it opened – the Admirals Club gets really packed. This additional space, once built, should help alleviate that.
Last month I reported that American Airlines was still considering whether to allow lifetime club members to keep accessing Admirals Clubs when not flying American or its partners same day.
According to spokesperson Leslie Scott, they’ve made the decision to honor access for lifetime members. She tells me, “We are making an exception for lifetime members, we will not require them to have a same-day ticket on American or partner airline in order to access the Admirals Club.”
Chicago O’Hare, Miami, Los Angeles and Dallas Fort-Worth have Impossible Burgers for purchase at $12. There’s also made-to-order ramen (“the Ramen Bowl shredded carrots, green onion, tomato and ramen noodles are prepared in the kitchen and warmed with the vegan lemongrass broth”) and some clubs lave local Destination Dishes on the Food for Sale menu.
The new “build-your-own mac and cheese stations…have a host of topping options, including onions, bacon and crushed chili cheese Fritos.”
Beginning November 1, both United Airlines and American Airlines will follow Delta and restrict access to their clubs to members who are flying the airline or one of its designated partners the same day.
Delta still lets lifetime club members have the access benefit they purchased. United and American have publicly said they will not, adding the new access restriction even for those members. However American told employees they’re reconsidering.
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 »
