Can’t imagine they maintain the fabulous quality that’s currently on offer. I loved dining there before the flights. Really special, great food, great booze, great staff.
Did FL F in MIA last year and nothing special. If I'm getting on a transcon or International flight I really don't have the desire to stuff my face at a lounge just to stuff with an extensive meal service a few hours later. Having FL access is nice for domestic flights where there may not be a meal service or for flights under 1.3K miles in which the meal is limited.
Well,,,, the point is the you dine in there lounge to maximize rest or productivity onboard your flight…. You don’t have to eat just because there is food available ….
Bad news for me. Parents booked in F ex-MIA early next year and I was going to join them in J and have them guest me into FFD. Sounds like we will have to wait in line with everyone else if there’s no priority for international F passengers and their guests.
Also, looking closely at the menu, it really looks like they've reduced the budget for the food. These look barely better than Cheesecake Factory-level entrees (which are "solid" but certainly not "luxurious") compared to what they had previously.
Well that's a natural adjustment given the horde of biz pax that will be descending on the place. I'd expect that everything will ultimately decrease in quality to business class level, rather than first class.
If it's any consolation, your parents will be in J also, not F... The international F product is discontinued as of November 2026.
home base is dfw. have eaten at the first class flagship dining a couple times. quite good actually. service was also excellent. wine as well. i do wonder if the product will get diluted with increased numbers of clients.
Not allowing access to OWE status holders is ridiculous. We should reciprocate in Sydney at the Qantas F lounge and not allow those flying AA SYD-LAX the ability to have ala crate dining - just sit in the corner and have some nuts and lollies. I understand there is limited space for Flagship dining but there is nothing premium about it
"and (to a lesser extent) at some Delta One Lounges"
Except all Delta One lounges except for JFK are full service a la carte?
Both LAX lounges, SEA, and BOS are 100% sit down dining. So there's not much in the way of demand exceeding capacity.
They're going to have to renegotiate with BA, because the idea that you don't get access to dining at JFK if flying transcon is just not competitive compared to DL and UA. They just need to reclaim the room all the way at the right for dining (the one past the brewery) - there's actually a separate door to that room as well on the right of the Greenwich check-in desks (that you can currently exit through, not enter).
As a stop-gap, they should at least grant EP/PPro access to Soho on transcons if flying business.
Envisioning herds of business class fliers sitting in the Flagship lounge waiting for their buzzer to go off.
This is a genuinely good improvement from American. My only question is whether a dining room designed for a relatively small number of first class passengers can cope with an entire business class cabin. If the waitlist regularly becomes longer than the average connection, the concept may prove rather more aspirational than practical.
Last month, MIA flagship lounge had five tables just outside of the flagship first dining room, with "QR codes" where business class passengers could order food from FSF dining. Waiting to get a table, and when I finally did, the QR code ordering system was down and lounge attendant said "there's nothing we can do" to put in an order for us.
I got to eat in the Flagship First dining JFK in February 2020, as I was flying on the 321T to LAX. The food was good, with a memorable duck dish, the champagne Krug, and the view from my table overlooking the tarmac very nice. Only a handful of other guests came in during the roughly 90 minutes I took to enjoy my meal. I arrived extra early at JFK just so I could enjoy the lounge.