It’s a great day for American Airlines at Philadelphia Airport (PHL), as the oneworld airline has just opened a massive new dual-branded lounge complex as of today (Thursday, May 22, 2025). These new lounges will likely be the best Flagship Lounge and Admirals Club in the system.
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American opens new lounges in PHL A-West Terminal
American has just opened a new Flagship Lounge and Admirals Club in Philadelphia, in the A-West Terminal. This additional lounge space should greatly help with lounge crowding in Philadelphia, which has long been an issue.
Both lounges share an entrance, on the mezzanine level, between gates A15 and A16. They’re also both open daily from 4:30AM until 10:30PM. Here’s what we can expect in terms of the sizes of the lounges:
- The new Flagship Lounge will be 13,750 square feet, with seating for 200 guests, and six shower suites
- The new Admirals Club will be 11,000 square feet, with seating for 181 guests, and two shower suites
Below is a fact sheet about the two lounges, plus a map.
Basics of the American Flagship Lounge Philadelphia
Flagship Lounges are American Airlines’ premium international lounges. In line with oneworld lounge access policies, they’re open to both oneworld first and business class passengers on select itineraries, plus oneworld Sapphire and Emerald members on select itineraries.
Currently American has Flagship Lounges in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York (well, the one in New York is technically branded as the Greenwich Lounge, but for all practical purposes, it’s a Flagship Lounge), so this is the sixth lounge in the network.
What’s exciting is that this is the first Flagship Lounge to feature American’s updated lounge design concept. The Admirals Club Washington National was the first lounge location to feature the new design, but we’ve since seen lounges with the design open in Denver and Newark.
What’s also noteworthy about the new Flagship Lounge is the updated culinary concept. The American Flagship Lounge Philadelphia culinary concept will be driven by James Beard Award Chef Randy Rucker, who is behind River Twice and Little Water.
As it’s described, “expect dishes that highlight the rich, seasonal ingredients of the region, with each plate designed to please both the adventurous foodie and the traveler simply looking for a delicious meal.” American shares some of the dining that passengers can expect, ranging from action stations, to a la carte dining, to grab-and-go snacks:
- The lounge features dishes like salted caramel budino, whipped ricotta and blistered tomato toast, Maryland-style crab soup, and cauliflower vichyssoise
- The lounge has a la carte dining via QR codes, with items like the shore start breakfast sandwich with pork roll and tomato jam, a Danish pancake with maple cream and apple compote, a tofu truffle “cheesesteak” with cashew cheese and black garlic aioli, and a signature ribeye cheesesteak with tartufo provoleta and pickled long hots
- The lounge has action stations with customized dining throughout the day, including a morning omelet bar, a build-your-own roast pork sandwich station, and an evening Boardwalk Water Ice and Gelati bar
- The lounge has a Reading Terminal-inspired candy bar with saltwater taffy, butterscotch candies, peppermint puffs, and more
- The lounge has grab-and-go snacks, like Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels and Alter Eco Sea Salt Truffles
With the Flagship Lounge also having a proper bar (the first in the network to have such a feature), we can expect a new selection of signature cocktails, like the Broad Street Old Fashioned, Schuylkill Sunset, Berry Coconito, and Dream of ’76.
I’ve gotta say, this all sounds quite impressive, much better than other Flagship Lounge locations. Of course let’s see what it’s actually like, now that the lounge is open.
Bottom line
American has just opened a new Flagship Lounge and Admirals Club in Philadelphia, in the A-West Terminal. Both lounges feature American’s new lounge design, so this will certainly be the nicest Flagship Lounge there is, in terms of design.
The Flagship Lounge in Philadelphia also features an updated food and beverage concept, with a full bar boasting signature cocktails, live cooking stations, a la carte dining via QR codes, and more. Philadelphia desperately needed more lounge capacity, so this is a positive development. Between this and the recently opened Chase Sapphire Lounge, talk about quite an airport glow up when it comes to lounges!
What do you make of the American Flagship Lounge Philadelphia?
Meh called and said it was closed when it was supposed to be open this weekend… fail
While it’s good to see American investing in modern, world class lounge spaces, it would’ve been better to hear that they’re upgrading their domestic fleet with a similarly elevated hard product. As it stands, AA domestic first class isn’t comfortable or competitive enough to consider, given the choice among AA, DL or United.
This looks way nicer than the Flagship lounges at DFW and ORD.
Thank god the Flagship Lounges no longer look like hospital waiting rooms
Being a former Philly native, and having flown out of PHL quite a few times after moving away, this is shockingly impressive! Those who know PHL know that it's a crap airport overall, so this is a VERY pleasant surprise!
I'll visit this AC today. It's a tough call between this and the Chase Sapphire lounge. Nice dilemma to have for once at PHL!
It's nice for sure. I just find it hard to get excited about AA offerings though. They just come so late to the game all of the time.
I also still think this lags Polaris and D1 lounge concept for proper business class. Flagship lounges are basically top tier status lounges for the US, but from a business class perspective, not good enough.
Having gone to the ones in places like DFW and LAX, I...
It's nice for sure. I just find it hard to get excited about AA offerings though. They just come so late to the game all of the time.
I also still think this lags Polaris and D1 lounge concept for proper business class. Flagship lounges are basically top tier status lounges for the US, but from a business class perspective, not good enough.
Having gone to the ones in places like DFW and LAX, I can't say I'm impressed compared to what Delta and UA have created. Of all the upcoming lounge projects, I must say I'm the most excited for the SEA D1 lounge, given how nice LAX and JFK have turned out.
AA hardly came late to the premium lounge game, they had 4 before UA opened even their first and FL Dining was an innovation. This is starting the next generation, PHL and JFK now have the best international lounges in the network and maybe as good or better then DL (very late to the game) premium lounges.
Now, if they can publish a schedule of when the other 50 AC and FL will be...
AA hardly came late to the premium lounge game, they had 4 before UA opened even their first and FL Dining was an innovation. This is starting the next generation, PHL and JFK now have the best international lounges in the network and maybe as good or better then DL (very late to the game) premium lounges.
Now, if they can publish a schedule of when the other 50 AC and FL will be refreshed and renovated that would be great! Also expand PHX high A and add another to CLT PLEASE!!!!
NOTE: AA was also first and years again with Premium Economy and lay-flat with single aisle access across their widebody fleet / and a premium transcon service which is also about to go to a next gen with he XLRs. Following. . .hardly!