American Admirals Club Tokyo Narita Closing

American Admirals Club Tokyo Narita Closing

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American Airlines has today announced the closure of their only Admirals Club in Asia, and one of their (relatively) few Admirals Clubs outside the US.

American Closing Admirals Club Tokyo Narita

American Airlines has announced that they will be closing their Admirals Club at Tokyo Narita Airport in March 2020. Admirals Club members have access to some partner airline lounges around the world, and the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge at the airport will be added to that list going forward.

Admirals Club Tokyo Narita

This is being done as American is reducing their Tokyo Narita service from three daily flights to one daily flight next spring, as they will only have a single flight from Dallas to Tokyo Narita.

So it’s perfectly logical that they’re not going to maintain an Admirals Club for a single daily flight, especially at an airport where they have partner airlines with lounges.

American Airlines also has premium services agents at Narita, and they will be transferred to Haneda next spring.

Admirals Club Tokyo Narita

Why American Is Reducing Service To Tokyo Narita

American Airlines was recently granted additional slots at Tokyo Haneda Airport. Haneda is the preferred airport for most people headed to Tokyo, given that it’s significantly closer to the city than Narita.

As of next spring, American will offer two daily flights from Los Angeles to Haneda, and one daily flight from Dallas to Haneda. This is made possible because US airlines were granted an additional 12 daytime slots at Haneda Airport (it’s heavily slot restricted), and those were distributed between American, Delta, Hawaiian, and United.

American 777

Bottom Line

American will be closing their Admirals Club at Narita Airport next spring, which is logical enough, given that they are going from three daily flights to one daily flight there. Going forward, Admirals Club members (along with eligible premium travelers) can use the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge.

Similarly, at Haneda Airport Admirals Club members are able to use the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge, though expect it to get more crowded with these additional flights.

Personally I don’t view this as a huge loss given that the Admirals Club Narita wasn’t exactly amazing.

Will you miss the Narita Admirals Club?

Conversations (19)
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  1. ericnyc Guest

    This is sad.

    I always felt this club felt like a throwback to an earlier age of travel...and of AA.

  2. James S Guest

    And the incredible shrinking footprint of Admirals Clubs continues. This makes fifteen gone in the past decade. Hartford, Buffalo, Washington Dulles, Greensboro, San Jose, Seattle, San Juan, Panama City, Santo Domingo, Bogota, Caracas, Lima, Santiago, Frankfurt and now Narita.

    Granted, we got Nashville and Houston re-opened, and a new club in Orlando, but overall there are fewer lounges, and the replacement partner lounges are often sub-par or overcrowded. The remaining clubs all seem to...

    And the incredible shrinking footprint of Admirals Clubs continues. This makes fifteen gone in the past decade. Hartford, Buffalo, Washington Dulles, Greensboro, San Jose, Seattle, San Juan, Panama City, Santo Domingo, Bogota, Caracas, Lima, Santiago, Frankfurt and now Narita.

    Granted, we got Nashville and Houston re-opened, and a new club in Orlando, but overall there are fewer lounges, and the replacement partner lounges are often sub-par or overcrowded. The remaining clubs all seem to have been remodeled with the same chopped-pressed-and-formed 'corporate breakroom' aesthetic.

  3. Eric Guest

    AJ. United operates out of a separate terminal in Narita. Space is no issue for united at narita. They had a united club plus a global first lounge on different floors. The global first lounge will be the Polaris lounge.

    CX makes sense for they space.

  4. BRMM Guest

    Some days it's two flights, right?--one from DFW, one from ORD?

  5. JW Guest

    Man, it's a lost for someone who values a shower and only have short transit period. The JL lou ges perpetually have a queue for showers while the admiral club has it without a queue most of the time.

  6. Jeremy Guest

    I was at this lounge about two weeks ago. I’ve always found the service to be great; as well as no wait for the showers, which was always a nice feature of this lounge. I will definitely miss it after it closes. The bonus was a great view of the apron.

  7. Tony Guest

    @eric - what are you talking about? most AA asian flights that need connections are routed thru HKG, far more CX connection options than via JL at NRT. Nobody flies to HND to connect, they fly to HND because they wanna visit tokyo.

  8. AKTCHI Guest

    I won’t miss it, but this is typical of the new AA.

  9. Ed Diamond

    @eric I’m not sure why you say that. Domestic connections are much better at Haneda. Internationally it’s only really East/south east Asian destinations that matter from a connection standpoint and only Jakarta, KL, and Dalien that have Narita flights but Haneda flights on JL and there’s other American partners that can get passengers there.

  10. Eric Guest

    Why do I think this moving all these flights to HND will end being a disaster? I understanding the connection opportunities at HND are underwhelming so what is AA going to do with the passengers that used to connect at NRT, try to put them on JL?

  11. Ed Diamond

    Not a bad lounge, certainly the best one world lounge that isn’t JAL, which was good when JAL were restricting access.

    It’s probably too big for Cathy to take over given their premium traffic prefers HND. The Qantas lounge is a zoo, but they would also rather shift all their traffic to HND. Not sure who else would want the space. Seems most likely it becomes a pay/credit card lounge like the ones they have in Haneda Dometic.

  12. Trey Member

    Are you kidding, Ben? This is everything! This is a huge loss. This was the epitome of an Admirals Club in Asia! What standard will all other Admirals Clubs be able to look towards?

    Just kidding, I don’t think anyone will miss it. At least people will be transferred over to Haneda.

  13. AJ Montana New Member

    could United use that space for a Polaris Lounge or would they instead build it in Haneda

  14. Laurel Member

    I would really like to see a TK lounge there....fitting in with their trend of building lounges where they don't actually operate flights like the new TK lounge at MIA....would finally give us a good PP option at NRT.

  15. Abidjan Gold

    Agreed with CX lounge idea. Needed, badly.

  16. Chuck Rogers Guest

    Yes I will miss the draft beer bot. Poured the beer down the side of the tilted mug until the last second when it straightened the mug to give it exactly one inch of foam. So cool.

  17. Pierre Diamond

    It probably was the best Admiral's Club in the world, but that was before the Flagship Lounges developed. At any rate, the Narita JAL lounge for First Class always was better.

  18. Mike O. Guest

    Hopefully, this space can be used for a new CX lounge with a noodle bar since CX mentioned that space was an issue at NRT.

  19. Endre Guest

    I flew a couple of times in First class (paid ticket only) from Narita with JAL. Tried the American Airlines lounge once and found it pretty basic. The JAL first lounge although not stellar is the best choice in Narita.

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The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

ericnyc Guest

This is sad. I always felt this club felt like a throwback to an earlier age of travel...and of AA.

0
James S Guest

And the incredible shrinking footprint of Admirals Clubs continues. This makes fifteen gone in the past decade. Hartford, Buffalo, Washington Dulles, Greensboro, San Jose, Seattle, San Juan, Panama City, Santo Domingo, Bogota, Caracas, Lima, Santiago, Frankfurt and now Narita. Granted, we got Nashville and Houston re-opened, and a new club in Orlando, but overall there are fewer lounges, and the replacement partner lounges are often sub-par or overcrowded. The remaining clubs all seem to have been remodeled with the same chopped-pressed-and-formed 'corporate breakroom' aesthetic.

0
Eric Guest

AJ. United operates out of a separate terminal in Narita. Space is no issue for united at narita. They had a united club plus a global first lounge on different floors. The global first lounge will be the Polaris lounge. CX makes sense for they space.

0
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