Earlier I wrote about Delta VIP Select, which is Delta’s secret program offering priority ground services for a fee. In this post I wanted to talk about American Five Star Service. Unlike at Delta, this is a published program, and there are some differences between what the two programs offer.
In this post:
How American’s Five Star Service works
American Five Star Service is the Fort Worth-based carrier’s premium ground service package that’s available to select passengers. For those willing to pay, American Five Star Service offers customized service and extra amenities, which should make your ground experience seamless. Let’s take a closer look at how this works.
What does American Five Star Service offer?
American Five Star Service is intended primarily for passengers who are either departing or connecting. When you book American Five Star Service, you’ll receive the following perks:
- Access to Flagship First Check-In, which is American’s exclusive international first class check-in facility; at airports without Flagship First Check-In, you’ll get priority check-in
- Access to American Admirals Club locations
- Priority boarding and re-accommodation status
- Car service coordination, so that you’ll be met when you arrive at the airport
- Personalized service throughout the airport, so that you’ll be escorted every step of the way
Note that officially Five Star Service doesn’t include any car or golf cart transfers within the airport, but rather you can expect to be escorted by foot. Your actual experience may vary based on the airport or the exact situation, as it’s not uncommon to be driven in a golf cart. As I’ll cover below, Five Star Select is more likely to get you this service, and that costs extra.
Who is eligible for American Five Star Service?
American Five Star Service is exclusively available to first and business class passengers, so you can’t buy it when traveling in economy or premium economy. It doesn’t matter if you’re traveling internationally or domestically.
You can use this service if traveling on American, including on itineraries that include travel on select oneworld partners. You’ll have to reach out to Five Star Service to ask about specific eligibility with partners, since it’s all based on whether American agents have the ability to provide this kind of service at a particular airport.
How much does American Five Star Service cost?
American Five Star Service costs $350 for the first passenger, and $100 for each additional passenger. Children up to 17 years old can be added for $50 each.
You can also redeem miles toward the experience, at the rate of one cent per mile (which is less than I value AAdvantage miles). So you could book this for 35,000 AAdvantage miles for the first person, 10,000 AAdvantage miles for each additional adult, and 5,000 AAdvantage miles for each additional child.
When you purchase American Five Star Service, you’re paying specifically for the service at one airport. So if you wanted this service at all points of your itinerary, you’d have to pay the fee separately for each airport. You need to book at least 24 hours in advance for US locations, and 48 hours in advance for international locations.
What airports have American Five Star Service?
American Five Star Service is available at 22 airports, including 16 airports in the United States and six airports abroad.
The following 16 airports in the United States offer Five Star Service:
- Austin (AUS)
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Boston (BOS)
- Charlotte (CLT)
- Chicago (ORD)
- Dallas (DFW)
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- Miami (MIA)
- Nashville (BNA)
- New York (JFK & LGA)
- Newark (EWR)
- Philadelphia (PHL)
- Phoenix (PHX)
- San Francisco (SFO)
- Washington (DCA)
The following six airports outside the United States offer Five Star Service:
- Buenos Aires (EZE)
- London (LHR)
- Rio de Janeiro (GIG)
- Sao Paolo (GRU)
- Tokyo (HND & NRT)
How do you book American Five Star Service?
American Five Star Service is bookable by phone, at 877.578.2702. Alternatively, you can book by email by contacting Five Star Service at [email protected].
American’s uber-exclusive Five Star Select
In addition to Five Star Service, American has Five Star Select, which is an even more exclusive service. What’s the incremental value of this?
- You’ll be driven in a vehicle across the apron or in a golf cart through the terminal, when possible
- You’ll get access to American Flagship First Dining, which is the carrier’s exclusive pre-dining facility, located inside Flagship Lounges; there are only Flagship First Dining facilities in Dallas (DFW) and Miami (MIA)
American Five Star Select costs $650 for the first passenger, and $150 for each additional passenger. Children up to 17 years old can be added to your plan for $75 each. In other words, this costs an extra $300 for the first passenger, an extra $50 for each extra passenger, and an extra $25 for each child.
Is American Five Star Service worth it?
Admittedly everyone values their time and minor incremental convenience differently, though personally I have a hard time getting excited about the value proposition of Five Star Service. $350 is a lot to spend for a little hand holding at the airport, especially if you already have Admirals Club access:
- You’re unlikely to be driven on the apron to or from your aircraft, but rather you’re typically just escorted
- Flagship First Check-In might save you a few minutes, but if you have TSA PreCheck, I can’t imagine it’ll make much of a difference
- I suppose some might be able to justify this for a very special occasion, if a loved one who doesn’t travel often is flying (and you want to make their journey easy), or if you have a tight connection and it’s very important that you make it
Just as a point of comparison, I’d consider Delta’s equivalent service to be a better value. If you’re connecting, you’ll typically be driven across the apron to both your arriving and departing flight, and you won’t have to wait in any line to get into a Sky Club.
As far as Five Star Select goes, you’re basically paying an extra $300 to be sure you won’t have to walk, and to get access to Flagship First Dining. I think there are much better dining experiences that can be had for that kind of a premium outside of an airport. But that’s just me.
Bottom line
American Airlines Five Star Service is the carrier’s paid VIP service, intended to take any hassle out of the ground experience. For an extra $350 (for one person) you can be looked after from the curb to the gate, and get access to the Admirals Club. Then for $650 you can buy Five Star Select, which offers the incremental value of being driven through the airport, and also getting access to Flagship First Dining.
I wouldn’t consider any of this to be a very good value, but I figured it’s at least worth covering…
What do you make of the value proposition of American Five Star Service?
I've used Five Star a number of times pre-covid. Just starting international travel next week, landing at LHR on AA T-3 with a short connection leaving out of T-5. On the reverse the transet time is just over 2hrs. My wife (serious broken leg this year) can not walk 'fast'. I'm going to call now to book, and cross my fingers. (EXP, Clear, usually Pre).
Hi David.... How did your experience with Five Star Service at LHR go? I have a tight T3-T5 connection upcoming ... do they just walk you to the terminal transit bus... or do they use other means? Is it worth it? Thx
I used it at LHR in Feb to transfer from AA to a BA connection to CDG. It was seamless and had a private car transfer from T3 to T5, escorted through security and right up to the lounge and then to my gate. Seamless and pleasant. Would do it again.
David: Was curious how you Five Star experience on AA was at LHR for the T3-5 connection. I have a very tight connecting upcoming .... do they just escort you to the terminal bus... or do they find other ways ? Is it worth it?
Ben, will Five Star service accompany and transport a passenger from one terminal to another? I may be changing terminals in London from Iberia to British Airways. Does Five Star service help with going through customs and changing terminals? I want to check my bags all the way through from Lisbon to New York, but that may not be possible if I have to go through customs at LHR.
If Five Service helps with this, it's worth the extra money.
Sounds like you're going LIS-MAD-LHR-JFK? You won't need to clear customs at LHR and will just stay within flight connections between terminals.
We have used 5 Star service connecting through Miami coming from the Caribbean 3 or 4 times over the years. We now use it only when we have a tight connection during the holidays. I am booking it this December as my flight out of MIA is the last flight of the day and during the holidays there are very few first class seats available if we have to be rebooked if the flight is delayed.
how tight do you consider worth it? I thikn we have plenty of time at 2 hours but flying into MIA from a snowy state so there is every real possibility that we will be delayed getting to MIA
I would saw this could be worth it if you have an elderly parent or grand parent flying alone. IDK about the “select” service, but the standard service would be very easy for my mom for instance. Will definitely consider in the future.
I’ve used this service in tight connections at LAX and it’s worth the $350, would do it again in a heart beat, takes all the stress away, non plus about the lounge access it’s all about making the connection in time for me.
In very rare situations would it be worth paying for this service....
The correct spelling is “São Paulo” not “Sao Paolo”.
I would settle for a two star service from AA, that would provide: (1) AA employees don't yell at you unprovoked, (2) probably no meals or snacks, but if there are then they are edible, and (3) a minimum of one smile of at least one second's duration every three hours.
I would love to hear how the service works when flying internationally back to the US. My wife and I are traveling home from Italy in October (MXP-JFK-DFW), and it sounds like it could be very beneficial clearing customs and getting to the lounge before our next flight. We both have Global Entry as well. I may splurge for it just for fun to see how it works.
If you’re paying $20k for two business class ticket to Asia or Australia via DFW it might be worth it to get the extra service to avoid being delayed. If you’re going for 10 days then it could be said that the ticket is $2k per day. If you pay $450 to “save” $2k (or more) that’s worth it.
I’ve also noticed that AA can offer some very tight timelines. I’d always leave plenty of time but I know some people as so busy that they can’t leave 5 hours to hang out in DFW.
Completely agreed on tight timelines. I just saw [SFO -> LAX -> HND/NRT -> TPE] with a 3 hour and 20 minute connection between NRT and HND. You'd need a Harry Potter Flying Ford Anglia to make that happen, even with Japanese transportation efficiency.
How about kids flying alone? How does their handling compare?
I once flew alone as a kid. There was a flight cancellation and I got a hotel voucher even though I was less than 10 years old. Nobody escorted me. I just followed the other passengers getting vouchers.
I also flew with a relative who delivered me to the destination then flew home.
Another time, a summer camp chartered a plane so I might have...
How about kids flying alone? How does their handling compare?
I once flew alone as a kid. There was a flight cancellation and I got a hotel voucher even though I was less than 10 years old. Nobody escorted me. I just followed the other passengers getting vouchers.
I also flew with a relative who delivered me to the destination then flew home.
Another time, a summer camp chartered a plane so I might have technically flown alone but, in reality, there was supervision for the whole 30-some seat plane.
I booked it for my wife and I last year flying DCA-LGA-JFK-CDG. It was a milestone birthday, so wanted to do something special. Car service coordination and met at the curb by an agent and then getting walked to the front of the PreCheck line was entertaining, I guess. As luck would have it, our flight to Paris was delAAyed. Our rep kept us informed throughout, and even coordinated a ride across the ramp for...
I booked it for my wife and I last year flying DCA-LGA-JFK-CDG. It was a milestone birthday, so wanted to do something special. Car service coordination and met at the curb by an agent and then getting walked to the front of the PreCheck line was entertaining, I guess. As luck would have it, our flight to Paris was delAAyed. Our rep kept us informed throughout, and even coordinated a ride across the ramp for us. Turns out we didn’t need that as we were swapped to an aircraft steps from the Flagship lounge. Walked us to the gate, handled all the passport scan stuff for us and walked us to our seats on the plane. Would I buy it for every trip? No. But it was worth it to me for a 50th birthday treat.
I will add, I use this service quite a bit (Five Star Service) exclusively during connections. The service is excellent they take great care of you (they are waiting the second you jump off the plane with your name printed on a card). Moreover, every single time I've been driven via ConciergeKey golf cart, so it may not be officially listed but on connections it is almost guaranteed.
It boils down to what you...
I will add, I use this service quite a bit (Five Star Service) exclusively during connections. The service is excellent they take great care of you (they are waiting the second you jump off the plane with your name printed on a card). Moreover, every single time I've been driven via ConciergeKey golf cart, so it may not be officially listed but on connections it is almost guaranteed.
It boils down to what you value that service at, for me personally convenience is everything.
Service in DFW was perfect due to the vast size of the airport (especially for connections). MIA and ORD were excellent as well.
As for Five Star Select, I haven't used that but I find it very difficult to justify $650 for that service.
COVID precipitated the death of AA's partnership with Blade at JFK, which was a Five Star option. And, the special international arrivals program at LAX, with which one had private Customs clearance. Curiously, FF Dining at LAX was to be permanently closed. Yet, it remains listed. I would guess that when Flagship Business Premier is unveiled next year, the facility will reopen.