American Airlines has announced plans to invest in its lounge setup in Chicago, as the airline continues to try to grow there, and make up ground that has been lost to United.
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American plans new 10K square foot Admirals Club ORD
American plans to open a new Admirals Club in Concourse L at Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD), which will eventually replace the existing lounge in Concourse L. The new lounge is already under construction, and it’ll span more than 10,000 square feet.
American shares that the lounge will “feature local design elements that reflect the vibrant community of Chicago, as well as sweeping airside views via floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the runway.” The lounge will be broken up into distinct zones (“neighborhoods”), each featuring their own unique offerings to suit travelers’ needs.
American has three Admirals Clubs in Chicago — in Concourse G, Concourse H/K, and Concourse L — and that will continue to be the case after the work is done, since the new lounge will replace an existing one. This will be the first “new style” Admirals Club in Chicago, and American’s new style lounges are certainly nicer than the old ones.
Here’s how American’s Chief Customer Officer, Heather Garboden, describes this:
“We’re helping customers at ORD connect to the world with more than 500 flights daily and we want to offer a premium experience from start to finish. The new Admirals Club® lounge will offer more seating and upgraded amenities and fully reflect the standards our customers expect when visiting one of our lounges.”
Competition in Chicago is mighty fierce right now
American is currently growing massively in Chicago, and by this spring, the airline will operate more than 500 peak daily departures from the airport. Long story short, in recent years American has lost a lot of ground to United in Chicago, which has continued to grow.
Chicago O’Hare has a unique gate allocation process, whereby the gates that airlines are assigned in the future are based on how much they’ve flown from the airport in the past (with a bit of a delay), so that’s why we’re currently seeing American add so many flights from the airport.
American insists it wants to grow and reverse the trend of losing capacity at the airport, while United CEO Scott Kirby says he’s “drawing a line in the sand” in Chicago, and won’t let American grow. So it remains to be seen how this all plays out, given that United claims it’s profitable in Chicago, while claiming that American is losing massive amounts of money in Chicago.
When it comes to competing on the premium front, American really needs an updated Flagship Lounge at the airport as well, in my opinion, especially given how much better the United Polaris Lounge is. The issue is that in order to renovate the Flagship Lounge, they’d need to close it for an extended period of time, and that would make customers pretty unhappy in the interim.
Bottom line
A new American Admirals Club is coming to Chicago, with construction already underway (though there’s no anticipated opening date yet). The roughly 10,000 square foot lounge will be located in Concourse L, and will replace the existing lounge there.
It’s good to see American investing in its ground experience in Chicago, as this sounds like a nice upgrade. I just wish the main Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge would also eventually get a refresh, especially given United’s much more impressive lounge setup at the airport.
What do you make of plans for a new Admirals Club in Chicago?
There are some really dumpy Admirals Clubs at ORD.
"United claims it’s profitable in Chicago, while claiming that American is losing massive amounts of money in Chicago"
Has AA issued any counterclaim to this?
That’s nice to hear! See, this is something tangible from the alleged ‘turf war’ hype. Without lower fares (or nicer amenities, such as this) it felt a little manufactured. Now, we’re actually getting somewhere… real question, how’s ORD_is_my_second, etc. feel about it?
Ben I get where you are coming from about UA having a superior lounge game in ORD, but I think it's a bit more nuanced as a super regular lounge user at ORD (UA 1K, BA GGL, AA ExPlat).
Is the Polaris lounge better, sure. But the Flagship is significantly more accessible, is a very nice OW J lounge, isn't usually over-crowded, and ^this last piece is huge for me^ has significantly better hours ^and^...
Ben I get where you are coming from about UA having a superior lounge game in ORD, but I think it's a bit more nuanced as a super regular lounge user at ORD (UA 1K, BA GGL, AA ExPlat).
Is the Polaris lounge better, sure. But the Flagship is significantly more accessible, is a very nice OW J lounge, isn't usually over-crowded, and ^this last piece is huge for me^ has significantly better hours ^and^ AA extends lounge hours during irrops while UA doesn't (except if LH is paying for their late flight at the B lounge at the end). This make a big difference when connecting onto a late bank.
There are similar comps to be made UA Club vs Admirals Club there. I tend to like the atmosphere of the UA Clubs (especially their bars) better but AAs food and hours are now better, and generally they are less crowded.
Do I miss the old intimate OWE K lounge, absolutely...hint hint AA . But to write off AAs offerings is a bit too much. I think AA has a credible, if uphill, case in ORD and am absolutely loving the competition for premium developing.
Maybe the UA club hours will extend when the late bank is added this year?
I sure hope so...I still miss the pre-COVID 10-11pm late UA regional bank
Maybe one more reason about the poor offerings at flagship lounge is that American is too generous for flagship lounge entrance requirements that barred them from generating economic benefits without cutting the service. They allow foreign airlines' sapphire and own platinum in when flying long-haul. While UA only allows *A business (not even own 1K when flying long-haul Y or PY) and DL only allows close partners' business.
I am down for FL asking...
Maybe one more reason about the poor offerings at flagship lounge is that American is too generous for flagship lounge entrance requirements that barred them from generating economic benefits without cutting the service. They allow foreign airlines' sapphire and own platinum in when flying long-haul. While UA only allows *A business (not even own 1K when flying long-haul Y or PY) and DL only allows close partners' business.
I am down for FL asking for emerald to enter. would still be the most generous one even after.
The Flagship Lounge is following standard OneWorld access rules for business class lounges, which allows OW Sapphires access (with the carve out for requiring international long haul for AS and AA Sapphires).
@Samar
Then you can ask why Qatar doesn’t open up its Al Mourjan and Al Safwa lounges to status holders.
Alliances are not as strong as before, and that’s why Oneworld no longer gatekeeps their emerald status. Meanwhile, AA always has a choice to define Club as business lounge and Flagship as premium lounge.
I hope this inspires United to improve their (non-Polaris) United Clubs at ORD. There's currently only 1 lounge in the updated style (in Concourse C) and the remaining lounges in B and Terminal 2 are showing their age and the food and beverage options vary by location, which is annoying. In any case, all of the food at United Clubs in Chicago is horrible...so improving that alone would be a massive benefit.
Ironically (don't tell...
I hope this inspires United to improve their (non-Polaris) United Clubs at ORD. There's currently only 1 lounge in the updated style (in Concourse C) and the remaining lounges in B and Terminal 2 are showing their age and the food and beverage options vary by location, which is annoying. In any case, all of the food at United Clubs in Chicago is horrible...so improving that alone would be a massive benefit.
Ironically (don't tell Tim D), I believe Delta actually has the nicest regular lounge at ORD (excluding Polaris given access limitations) with their newish one in Terminal 5. I haven't been but the pictures look great and Delta's food is certainly better than that offered in a United Club...
I love the DL lounge at T5. I’ve been to all the AC lounges, including Flagship, and UC lounges at ORD and DL is by far the best and it’s not even close. The food, drinks, decor, and amount of space is leaps better than AA and UA. That being said, I haven’t been to the Polaris lounge at ORD so maybe that is better than DL but I won’t know till I try it.
Don't worry. I know about the ORD Sky Club.
DL's food in SkyClubs is always better than AA and UA's standard clubs.
And the DL ORD club was built to serve alliance partners in Terminal 5.
specific to AA, as I have said all along, AA is in ORD to stay and they believe they can not only withstand whatever UA throws at AA but AA can also inflict a lot of pain on...
Don't worry. I know about the ORD Sky Club.
DL's food in SkyClubs is always better than AA and UA's standard clubs.
And the DL ORD club was built to serve alliance partners in Terminal 5.
specific to AA, as I have said all along, AA is in ORD to stay and they believe they can not only withstand whatever UA throws at AA but AA can also inflict a lot of pain on UA who thinks that AA is just going to roll over and walk away.
Competition is good and no metro area needs it more than Chicago.
Honestly surprised by the design direction here. It felt like American had finally landed on a cohesive, elevated language for its new lounges—DCA being a great example of something warm, refined, and genuinely sophisticated. By comparison, these Chicago renderings read more like a Brooklyn pizzeria than a flagship airline lounge, which only reinforces the lingering sense that AA still isn’t quite sure what it wants to be.