Tag Archives for charlotte.
American Airlines is getting a huge new Admirals Club lounge in Charlotte. In fact, it will be the airline’s largest lounge, but it will take a couple of years to come to fruition.
The main American Airlines Admirals Club has re-opened in Charlotte. It was closed for 6 months for renovations. And travelers are wondering what was even accomplished.
There is “nothing planned” for re-opening LAX Flagship First Dining, but American is very close to re-opening the main Charlotte Admirals Club.
I’ve had passengers tell me they’ve arrived at their boarding gate in Charlotte more than 15 minutes to departure only to find their boarding door closed. And I’m told by employees on the ground there that at least some managers are enforcing 20 minute door closes when no more passengers are boarding (even if checked-in passengers haven’t yet boarded).
At a recent internal question and answer session with pilots, Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning Brian Znotins shared how American is thinking about using the Airbus A321XLR in Charlotte and how it will trade off with existing widebody service.
The main Admirals Club in Charlotte is closed for renovations. Some travelers had hopes this would mean improving the club, still in US Airways-style, but it doesn’t. American – which has been somewhat cagey about the work that’s happening – says the updates which will take several months are about bringing the space up to fire code.
Here are permitting details for what renovations will actually be taking place.
With only the smaller B concourse club available for passengers to spend time in while waiting for flights, it’s become overrun. While there have been some members talking about a ‘wait list’ to get in, an American Airlines spokesperson explains, “a representative manages the line outside of the Admirals Club. The rep will let guests in as others leave. First come first serve for our members.”
A woman sitting at near gate E6 for American Airlines flight AA6151 from Charlotte to Fayetteville, North Carolina on Tuesday was wearing a ‘space helmet’ over her mask. Since there don’t appear to be ear loops on the mask, it looks like an N95. That won’t be comfortable on a Piedmont Airlines Embraer ERJ-145 50 seat jet, but it’s just a 118 mile flight. It’s unclear where she may have been connecting from.
Before the pandemic I wrote about how Charlotte desperately needed another American Airlines Admirals Club – or two. American had scaled to 900 flights a day at DFW – and opened a 5th club. Charlotte was up to 700 flights and had just two clubs. And the terminal itself is more crowded than Dallas.
Starting in January Charlotte is going to be down to a single Admirals Club as the main one closes for maintenance and American stands up a ‘passenger service center’ to help with ticketing.
A major water main break has deprived the Charlotte airport of water. Restaurants have to close. People can’t use the restrooms, let alone wash their hands (I seem to remember something about needing to do this frequently and for 20 seconds).
American Airlines is telling passengers that they should use lavatories on board their aircraft prior to deplaning.
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 »
