OneWorld Welcome: American Airlines Flagship Lounge New York

"On the whole the Flagship Lounge can’t compete with top first class lounges, though as a business class passenger entering based on status, it’s pretty tough to beat."

Conflict of interest or not - that's a pretty fair assessment of the JFK Flagship Lounge.

That said - my opinion - the LHR Virgin Lounge or the AKL NZ Lounge are the hands down Biz Lounge Winners.

I recently took advantage of the low business class fares from NYC-IPC. I'm on Lan for my MIA-SCL segment, codeshared by AA. I'm also an AA Gold. Will I be able to access the Flagship in JFK?

@Mark No, you have to be AA EXP or OW Emerald to get access to the Flagship Lounge.

Does Amex platinum card give me access there? Thx.

So...if the Flagship Lounge is a nice business class level lounge, how bad is the Admirals Club?

Pasties or Pastries?

Cayanne or Cayenne?

@nyc6035 : ever tried all the HKG CX lounges ?

@Jack yes...they are pretty nice lounges. That said:

I've grown tired of The Wing - if you don't eat noodles there isn't much to it - although the espresso bar is nice. The Cabin has a good breakfast - but no showers. The Pier is nice enough with showers - but I don't recall the food as being memorable.

I may not be being completely fair to CX as I've recently been on the F side of both the Pier and Wing - and I find the F Lounge Services - VERY nice...the new F Wing is in some ways better than the TG F Lounge - particularly if you're not into message services.

The Virgin Lounge as a Biz Lounge by comparsion has a sit down menu; a champagne bar; pool table, message services & a haircutting facility. The NZ Lounge has a fairly good buffet and a great selection of NZ Wines (thinking about it more - the Virgin Lounge wins over the Virgin Lounge).

"the Virgin Lounge wins over the Virgin Lounge"

Huh?

@ nyc6035 -- I paid for this ticket, not sure what conflict of interest I'd have?

@ Mark -- You'll have Admirals Club access and not Flagship Lounge access, unfortunately.

@ Lantean -- Nope, that gets you access to the Admirals Club.

@ wwk5d -- The Admirals Club is on par with other domestic US lounges, which is to say it's uncompetitive with business class lounges of foreign carriers.

Qf first lounge in Syd and mel is where it's at

@Lucky: Apologies - I thought this was a continuation of the 'free' AA Biz Clas trip JFK-LHR you described earlier in the week. FWIW - I was trying to point out no matter what anyone may think of the 'subsidy' - your review was absolutely spot on and fair - IMHO. Keep on doin' what you do.

@wwk5d: ...opps - over the NZ Lounge."

Re conflict of interest discussion from the other post, I feel like commenters have a conflict of interest themselves because, as internet commenters, they must always be way up on their high horse. So I don't feel like they are good evaluators of whether someone has a conflict of interest because they are biased.

Many kooks on here

If one thinks it through a bit, DEPARTURE Lounges are a bit silly. Regardless of cabin class, most pax can arrive for check-in in a clean and well-fed state. Where the lounges are of true benefit is at en-route airports (think layover) and upon arrival. In the last two cases, when flying in a coach seat, I've been known to PAY $$ for lounge access. A coach seat plus a lounge fee is nearly always less costly than is a better class cabin for the flight itself. I've never heard you mention this option - OK, I know - you almost never have to fly coach... Some of us do. Please share your thoughts. Thanks. -C.