In May, LAX saw the biggest terminal shift ever, as dozens of airlines had to change terminals. The actual transition happened surprisingly smoothly, though airlines are having to do a lot of work to update their operations to get them up to speed. Before these changes, American operated out of LAX’s Terminals 4 & 6 (plus a remote terminal), while after the changes they’re operating out of Terminals 4 & 5 (plus a remote terminal). So this change was good news for American, as it meant their gates were closer to one another.
Equally exciting is that American took over the former Delta Sky Club in Terminal 5. Previously American had an Admirals Club in Terminal 4 and one in the remote terminal, while soon they’ll have three Admirals Clubs at LAX.
With that in mind, American opened their new Terminal 5 Admirals Club earlier this month. Long term this will be a secondary lounge for the airline, though temporarily it’s the primary one, as American has closed their Terminal 4 Admirals Club. That’s because American is trying to speed up the construction of the new Flagship Lounge and Flagship First Dining, which will be in the Terminal 4 lounge. That should open by the end of the year, and I’m very much looking forward to that, if it’s anything like what they have in New York.
Last week I had the chance to finally check out the new American Admirals Club in Terminal 5, so I’ll be reviewing it in this post.
I cleared security in Terminal 4, where the club was completely “boarded up.”
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 4 exterior
To get to Terminal 5 from there, you just take the tunnel, the entrance to which is near the center of the concourse.
Underground walkway between LAX Terminal 4 & 5
When you take the escalator up to the Terminal 5 concourse, hang a sharp right and you’ll see the elevator and stairs to the Admirals Club. The entire walk took me maybe five minutes, so it’s pretty easy to access no matter where your flight is leaving from. The club is one level above the main concourse, on Level 4. The Admirals Club Terminal 5 is open daily from 5AM till 1AM.
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 entrance
The lounge has a bright new entryway with individual desks at which agents sit. I just presented my boarding pass, as I have Admirals Club access through the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Legend Mastercard®.
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 reception
The password for the Admirals Club changes every month, and there were little business cards at reception with the passwords. The Wi-Fi in the lounge was fast.
Admirals Club LAX Wi-Fi password
The first thing I was thrilled about was that the lounge wasn’t overcrowded. The Admirals Club LAX Terminal 4 has been under construction basically all year, and I don’t remember the last time I actually used it. Every time I’d walk in I would leave right away, as there was basically no seating, and sitting in the terminal seemed more comfortable. Much to my surprise, the Terminal 5 lounge wasn’t full.
I had been to the lounge back when it was a SkyClub, so the “bones” of the lounge are the same.
Inside the entrance is a large circular room with high ceilings.
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 seating
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 seating
Off that area was a smaller sitting area, which also had my favorite type of Admirals Club furniture (the semi-private chairs).
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 seating
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 seating
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 seating
One thing I appreciated about all the seating was how many outlets there were everywhere. Just about every seat had four outlets, including two 110v outlets, and two USB outlets.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 power outlets
Then across from reception was another small seating area, with a couple of dozen chairs.
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 seating
Further into the lounge was a dining area, with a couple of dozen tables with two chairs each (or one chair and one seat along a bench).
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 dining area
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 dining area
Next to that is the bar, where house drinks are complimentary, or you can purchase premium drinks (and unlike at Delta Sky Club®, you can’t redeem miles for them).
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 bar
Across from that was the buffet, along with a few high-top tables, which would be my last choice for seating, given how busy that area gets.
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 buffet
Then past the buffet and bar is the second main seating area, which is near the windows. In addition to standard lounge seating, there’s a TV area, some high-top seating along the window, and some tables with seating for one.
Admirals Club LAX Terminal 5 seating
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 seating
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 seating
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 seating
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 seating
One complaint I have about the lounge is the lack of a business center. It’s not that I want a PC or anything, but rather I like having a cubicle from which to work, and this lounge doesn’t have any of those. The business center here is limited to a single PC and printer underneath the TV, which seems like a really dumb place to put it, both in terms of noise and privacy.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 business center
On the wall across from the TV was a large rack with magazines and newspapers.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 magazines & newspapers
In terms of views, the lounge has obstructed views of the Terminal 5 & 6 apron.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 view
Now let’s look a bit at the food selection. The buffet was back in the center of the lounge across from the bar.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 buffet
In terms of self serve drinks, there was one of those fancy Coke machines and La Colombe coffee — the espresso machine was out of service.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 Coke machine
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 coffee
Also near the bar was ice water, flavored water, and iced tea.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 water & iced tea
In terms of food, this Admirals Club had the typical cookies and brownies, fresh whole fruit, and three types of snack mix.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 cookies & brownies
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 snack mix
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 fresh fruit
However, the fresh selection was significantly better than what I’ve seen in other Admirals Clubs. There were several types of fresh veggies, pasta salad, quinoa salad, several types of finger sandwiches, cubed cheese, edamame hummus, and a small salad bar with shredded chicken.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 fresh food
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 fresh food
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 fresh food
On top of that there were two types of soup — Mediterranean white bean soup, and potato cream soup.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 soup
To complement that there were croutons, bacon bits, etc.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 soup accompaniments
In the afternoons American often also has a made-to-order guac station, which I love, though it wasn’t available when I was there.
So overall the Admirals Club food selection was significantly better than usual. It wasn’t as good as you’d find in a Delta Sky Club®, but the difference wasn’t as big as normal.
One thing I appreciate about Admirals Clubs (especially in comparison to United Clubs) is how most of them have showers, including this lounge, which has four shower rooms.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 showers
The shower rooms were beautiful — they were spacious, modern, and the showers themselves were large and had great water pressure. Toiletries were from CO Bigelow.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 shower room
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 shower room
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 CO Bigelow toiletries
The main restrooms in the lounge were nice as well.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Terminal 5 bathroom
The one last thing I want to briefly talk about is the service. Some of you may remember my post regarding the customer service I experienced with Delta in Seattle, when I asked if my expectations of airline customer service have just gotten too low. As I wrote (in part) at the time:
There were two customer service agents standing around in this area chatting, and as I approached to ask for help, they stopped their conversation, looked at me, and said “hi, can we help you?”
I was so caught off guard by an airline agent trying to help that I assumed they weren’t talking to me. Usually the response is more along the lines of this:
Well the latter was sort of the situation here. The two agents were sitting there and had nothing to do. So they were having a conversation with one another, which is fine, but I feel like when a guest approaches they should be acknowledged in a timely manner. I’m not asking them to stop mid-sentence, but when I got to the desk the agents kept having a personal conversation and didn’t acknowledge me. So I gave it a moment. After they had five more interactions back and forth about something not at all related to work, I said “excuse me, would it be possible to get a shower?”
I know it’s minor, but it just grinds my gears, and further contrasts to the better experiences I’ve had with other airlines.
Admirals Club Los Angeles Airport bottom line
For the past several months, the Admirals Club situation at LAX has been a complete mess. So to have a nice new Admirals Club that isn’t overcrowded is fantastic. Best of all, this is only the beginning. Hopefully within the next few months American opens their Admirals Club, Flagship Lounge, and Flagship First Dining at LAX Terminal 4.
When all is said and done, American will have three Admirals Clubs, a Flagship Lounge, and Flagship Dining at LAX, so that’s really something to look forward to. While Admirals Clubs still aren’t as nice as Delta Sky Club®, this is a very nice for an Admirals Club, and American will also have more premium offerings, as they introduce the Flagship Lounge. Overall, this is a very nice option to have at LAX if you have a credit card with lounge access.
If you’ve visited American’s Terminal 5 Admirals Club at LAX, what was your experience like?
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