LAX Showdown: American Flagship First Dining Vs. Qantas First Class Lounge

The problem with that lounge is that you have to be on American metal and their 777 first class product us one of the worst in the world. I guess this helps make up for it. This gives them a huge edge over the competition on domestic legs to JFK. Delta/United do not even have international departure lounges at LAX. United Club/Sky Club are not even close to competitive for Int'l or transcon journeys.

I don't think you can say it enough Lucky but if you were told five years ago that American Airlines would have the best lounge food in LAX you would have laughed. Kudos to American for getting something right!

Ben, although I have yet to visit the new AA facility, I really have to disagree (and I have last visited it in absolute peak hour for both transcon AND international departures) with your perspective that the QF F lounge can, even at times, be a "zoo". I truly feel that there really is no F lounge amongst any of the majors that ever really descends to that level either. The AA FFD would though, I'm sure, be more "calm", however.

Perfectly entitled to your opinion of course, but just chiming in with mine.

Lucky - I asked us in the other thread about FF Dining - but any idea if a LAX-JFK-MIA and on itinerary would give access to dining at all 3 airports if LAX-JFK is in first? The rest are in premium cabins on 2 class planes - curious how this may work

Hopefully they can keep these lounges listeria-free.

So I'm a bit confused now... I am traveling LAX->PEK on AA on the 31st in business. It's a 787 with no 1st and I'm ExPlat (and Admirals Club member). Noted above it says access to the Quantas First lounge for AA ExPlats is for select intl flights. Am I covered to go there? By my reading I would not have access to Flagship Dining while in the past I would still have had access to the Flagship Lounge in the old configuration. Can anyone help straighten me out?

@Scotes: Yes, you can go to the Qantas First Class Lounge (make sure you don't go to the Business Class one). You won't have access to the Flagship Dining unfortunately.

@Angel - Thank you. Is what I thought but wanted to check here. At least the Quantas lounge is actually pretty close to T4 through the new hallway so not that bad of a walk.

Am kinda bummed about not getting to try the Flagship Dining - the HND and NRT routes I usually fly have gone business only so not even an opportunity to use my eVIPs....

@scotes - You can access QF F and the AA Flagship Lounge - No Flagship Dining though. Limited to 3 Class aircraft

A table would be helpful.

American will surely expand entry eligibility to include more of their own crowd to make it a viable lounge. That will relieve pressure on the Qantas lounge, which will be a good thing. Also a good thing, would be to deny those eligible for the new AA lounge from the Qantas lounge. I wonder if this is a consideration, as the current overcrowding lessens the premium feel the lounge strives for.
Oh, looking at the sample pics of what is on offer in the new AA lounge, personally I would head for the Qantas lounge every time for F & B. When Americans try to do 'fancy food' it just turns out weird.

@Scotes. It is Qantas, not Quantas!

@CoolHandLuke - Autocorrect... I blame autocorrect...

I have had the food in the Qantas 1st lounge before and did think it was pretty good. We were actually quite surprised.

Food aplenty on the premium class flight. Showers with hot water is a priority not the food. I do have a 4 hour layover in SIN next month and will be flying Singapore Airlines First and so will partake in the lobster.

Ryan: United elites do have access to the Star Alliance lounge which, I think, is far nicer than the Qantas business lounge but is a 20 minute hike from United’s Terminal 7. They also have access to the Air Canada lounge in Terminal 6. So United competed at business level but doesn’t really have anything at first class level like Flagship Dining.

@Lucky I didn't quite understand what you meant by this: "However, given the volume of passengers this lounge serves, I just don’t find the quality to be quite as good." Do you mean that it's the volume that drives the quality down? Or do you think that if it had fewer people then the lower quality wouldn't matter as much (which is how it reads)?

Justin,

Yes, the Star Alliance lounge at LAX is actually managed by Air New Zealand, and is pretty good as a result

Can I access this lounge traveling in Business on JFK-AKL or Dfw-akl? There's no first class on these planes but the ticket is marked as Flagship.