Good Morning and Happy Holidays from London. Last night I flew in from Miami after a slew of delays. I was originally planning to fly on British Airway’s in World Traveler Plus but with an imminent misconnection , AA took over my ticket and upgraded me into Business class to get me to my connection, more on that flight later though.
This was my first time departing out of Miami on American Airlines on an international flight in quite some time and thus my first time visiting the newish Flagship Lounge. The lounge has been open for a little over 1 year its located next to gate D30. I’ve tried the Delta Sky Club and United Polaris Lounges and was curious how this would stack up. As it turns out it falls right in the middle of the two
The Good
- Massive 29,000 Sq Ft space
- Good food selection
- Local Craft Beer
- “Action” food station
- Quiet Spaces
- Unique Seating Options
- Multiple power ports per seat including USB ports
- While I didn’t get the opportunity to dine, the lounge does offer private Flagship dining room. It is only accessible to customers flying in first class on a one world carrier.
The Bad
- Overcrowded in the evening, lots of premium heavy overnight flights departing for South American and Europe
- This is the one place American really fell short for me, there was no bartender. Just open alcohol. Even Delta Skyclubs have a bartenders
- American’s solution to the bartender problem is overly sweetened pre-mixed cocktails, not a great solution
- Even with the massive buffet of food, they are still pushing over cooked slow cooker soups and curries. Why?
Overall
American did a great job make these lounges feel different from Admirals clubs. They are more spacious, more modern, and have mostly good food offerings. That being said they still have room for improvement. While Delta SkyClubs come in at the bottom of this list to put American Airlines Flagship lounges on the same level as United Polaris lounges, American needs to have a bartender mixing drinks and have Flagship dining open to anyone in the lounge. I guarantee that most people still wouldn’t take advantage even if they had access. American Flagship lounges can be found in Chicago (ORD), Miami (MIA) , New York (JFK) , and Los Angeles (LAX) . American Airlines is constructing lounges in Dallas (DFW), Philadelphia (PHL), and London (LHR) which will hopefully open soon.
