American’s New Flagship First Check-In Policy

I’d like to think I know the ins-and-outs of American and AAdvantage for the most part, but today I learned something new.

I’ve written about American’s new Flagship Lounges, which opened in New York in May, and will open in Chicago tomorrow. These lounges can be accessed by the following passengers:

• Passengers traveling in oneworld longhaul international first and business class same day
• Passengers traveling in first class and business class nonstop between New York and Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and Los Angeles and Miami
• American Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro, and Platinum members traveling on a longhaul international itinerary, regardless of the class of service
• All non-American AAdvantage oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members traveling on any oneworld flight, even if it’s domestic

Then there’s a Flagship First Dining facility at JFK, which is exclusively available to those flying first class on a longhaul American 777-300ER flight, as well as those flying three cabin first on a premium transcon flight (JFK-LAX, JFK-SFO, and LAX-MIA). Since American doesn’t operate an international first class product out of Chicago, there’s no Flagship First Dining facility, so the next one will open in Los Angeles later this year.

Then American offers Flagship First Check-In, which is their exclusive check-in facility for premium passengers. This is an area that’s partitioned off from the rest of the terminal, you can be seated if you want to, and in many cases it leads to a priority queue. At LAX it even lets you skip the main entrance to the terminal, as it has a separate exterior entrance. It’s not hugely useful, really, but it’s a nice feature nonetheless.

American Flagship First Check-In JFK

It used to be that this facility was just open to those traveling in longhaul international first class, as well as Concierge Key members. However, what I wasn’t aware of is that American recently changed the access requirements for Flagship First Check-In. The following travelers have access to American Flagship First Check-In:

• Passengers traveling in longhaul international first class on American
• Passengers traveling in three cabin first class nonstop between New York and Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and Los Angeles and Miami
• Concierge Key members
• With the exception of Executive Platinum members, oneworld Emerald members flying American on any American flight same day
• Executive Platinum members when they’re flying American same day to Asia, Australia, Central America, Europe, Mexico City, New Zealand, or South America

American Flagship First Check-In JFK

Those last two points represent the policy change. Now non-AAdvantage oneworld Emeralds get access whenever they fly American, and Executive Platinum members get access when they’re flying on select international flights.

American Flagship First Check-In JFK

So this is good news for Executive Platinum members, and something to be aware of. I was confused by American having a Flagship First Check-In facility in Chicago, given that they don’t offer any international first class out of there. However, I guess it now makes sense, and it’s a nice perk for Executive Platinum members and other oneworld Emerald members.

Still, I can’t help but feel like they don’t make this very easy to keep track of — American has separate access requirements for Flagship First Check-In, the Flagship Lounge, and Flagship First Dining.