At the end of our Good Morning Milan, Goodnight Moon trip, I was looking forward to flying out of Philadelphia Airport (PHL), and checking out a couple of lounges that have been on my radar. In the previous installment, I reviewed the Chase Sapphire Lounge, and in this installment, I’ll be reviewing the American Flagship…
Continue reading: Review: American Flagship Lounge Philadelphia Airport (PHL)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Ahh, PHL… the Liberty Bell replica… really compliments the Geno’s in Terminal B.
(They probably should’ve just pulled an LGA, knock down the entire old terminals, started fresh, but… I guess that’s not the plan.)
I presumed Ben was trying to say that he *wasn’t* blown away.
Oof. That shower key. Yikes.
Ben, did you check out the Admiral Club, beside the Flagship Lounge, at PHL? Trying to decide if Sapphire lounge is worth the long walk vs Admiral Club, as I mostly fly AA.
That keychain looks absolutely disgusting. Just looking at it makes me want to wash my hands for an hour.
Like most FLs very quite in the morning and early afternoon but by mid afternoon to evening the lounges become as packed as the ACs. PHL seems to be way too small for the later in the day volume.
The food is just...... depressing. My gosh. That's worse than the current Flagship lounges. What a total disaster.
I went to both lounges shortly after the AA one opened. My take is similar to Ben's, the AA was crowded and not much nicer than a new Admiral's Club. Given the choice and time, I would choose the Chase Club; which was also crowded, but larger.
@ AnAAFlyer -- Good question, sorry, should've mentioned that. I have oneworld Sapphire status through Royal Air Maroc, thanks to a recent status match. So that got me access.
Wife got food poisoning at this lounge on Dec 30. Took them 6 days to reply. Hard pass.
What a disgrace to Philadelphia and amr. Cheap, not even comparable to Polaris up north in ewr and down south to iad.
No damn scrapple on offer during breakfast? No Amish fresh donuts around?
I’ll keep my 1k and stick with united.
Go birds!
Everyone I know who has visited this lounge has been disappointed because it has either been too crowded to get inside (lines of 1 hour+) or they had an uncomfortable experience once inside as they could only find seating at an awkward high top table. It's odd that the newest Flagship seems to be the worst in the network.
@Connor, total disaster? The food looks good to me, it even has an omelet station. What do you normally have for breakfast? Though I would like to see more lunch/dinner reviews but Ben ends up going in the mornings so seven out of his last 10 lounge reviews have been during breakfast time.
I was there Dec 31. I thought it was perfectly nice despite being crowded. The pretzel bites from the à la carte menu were phenomenal and I ate more of them than planned. The ice cream station was also a nice indulgence.
The shower suite I got has both a rain shower and a hand shower on the other side - both could be on at the same time and the pressure was decent (not great, by any means, but way better than ORD FL) - the odd thing was that the fixtures were already loose despite the lounge being so new.
OMAAT readers: In the US and only at a carrier's hubs, is there a carrier's club you find is not consistently over packed or overcapacity on a regular basis? I am asking about those late afternoon and evening departure times.
Neither of them are on par with the Sapphire Lounge. Neither is the Centurion, but the food at Centurion is very good. In that 2 or 3 hour stretch before the BA London flight and the AA London Flight (roughly like 4:30 PM-7:30 PM) Centurion is crowded to the point of being super unpleasant. But if you are flying another time it's usually not overpacked and would be my 2nd choice if you didn't want to go all the way to D.
Lounge is way too small. Seats are uncomfortable if you can find ine. As I live in Philadelphia this was a big letdown.
We were in both in September. To me, the Sapphire lounge is much nicer, but it is definitely a walk and will take time you might not otherwise have if you are flying AA and originating at PHL unless you get there early (which we did deliberately to try both). Flagship lounge was a nice addition (and there was plenty of food in the evening), but I'd still put Sapphire first. I've been to Centurion many times in PHL and while the food is decent, it is often so packed that it is not really a pleasant experience due to its small size. BA lounge next door to Centurion used to be pretty good pre-Covid but now I think it is terrible and if I had no other choices, I still wouldn't go there. I have had good and bad experiences in the Admirals Club at B/C, but generally better than most of the reviews. The old Admirals Club in the basement in Terminal A was, in my mind, undoubtedly the worse of all. Have not tried the new Admirals Club in A yet.
Yes, the FL is small gets crowded in the late afternoon to early evening, but I still enjoy it after the years of the lounge area being closed. The food and drinks are fine and the bubbly is enjoyable. I've also used the Chase lounge. It is nice but way too far from Terminal A to make in convenient if flying international on AA. I liked the lounge better 25 years ago when the food selection was great and there was more seating space. There were no showers and the bar was in the other side but international business got drink upgrade coupons!
it is a nice lounge , but definitely at 6pm was the most crowed flagship lounge i have ever visited, and been to all in usa. The one delight was the ice cream sundae bar.otherwise food and drinks were unremarkable . food did not seem as good as lounges at JFK.
I've had excellent experiences with minimal crowding even at peak times at the Delta SkyClubs in MSP (especially the beautiful new one in the G gates), SEA, and LAX - which is, in my experience, the best regular (non-business class / non-Flagship equivalent) airline lounge in the US.
I really appreciate that American has moved to canned water. I was impressed when I saw it the NY lounges... almost two years ago now.
But, yeah, it looks like the DCA lounge. Which is... fine.
The bathrooms look pretty nice by US standards (why aren't closed stalls the default?!). The lounge itself looks like it was made half of decent chairs and loungers and half of enf-of-season clearance DIY furniture from a budget ikea knockoff...
And American food, well, yeah. Bland and boring at its best. But overall, nice improvement over what is often on offer in US airports.
Yikes. Thats the new version of their flagship lounges? The food is abysmal in Flagship lounges. Id rather go to the Centurion lounge.
We went to this lounge on an international flight and were disappointed. The food selection was. minimal. I've seen better at other Admirals Lounges.