Earlier, I covered how American is making major changes to the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (learn more), which is also the card that offers an Admirals Club membership. This change is part of a larger overhaul of how American sells Admirals Club memberships, so I’d like to talk about that in this post.
Long story short, American is replacing household Admirals Club memberships with single memberships, while greatly increasing the price for a standard membership with guesting privileges. The goal here seems obvious — to convince more people into applying for the premium card.
In this post:
New American Admirals Club pricing as of August 23, 2026
As of August 23, 2026, American will be greatly updating how it sells Admirals Club memberships:
- American will stop selling household memberships, and will instead start selling single memberships, which allow Admirals Club access just for the member, without any guests
- The cost of a standard Admirals Club membership (allowing two guests or immediately family) is increasingly greatly, from $700-850 to $1,200-1,400
- There will no longer be a difference in membership fees based on whether you’re signing up for a new membership or are renewing
For context, below are the Admirals Club membership costs through August 22, 2026.
Below are the Admirals Club membership costs as of August 23, 2026.
To clarify a few additional points:
- The Admirals Club membership with the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card will continue to offer guesting privileges, so will be equal to a standard membership
- While authorized users on the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card don’t technically get a full Admirals Club membership, they’ll continue to get Admirals Club access with guesting privileges, as before
- There are no changes to the rules associated with Admirals Club access, so it’s not like Delta, where you’re limited to using lounges within three hours of departure, for example
American highlights how it’s investing in its lounge network, including updated food & beverage offerings, and a new design (which is rolling out very slowly).
My take on these American Admirals Club membership changes
It goes without saying that these price hikes are absolutely brutal. A non-elite member renewing their membership is going from paying $800 per year to $1,400 per year, while an Executive Platinum member is going from paying $700 per year to paying $1,200 per year.
We’re talking about overnight increases in fees of up to 75%, which is an absolutely massive change. Sure, American is investing in its lounge network, but I don’t think anyone could argue “yeah nearly doubling rates overnight seems fair.”
With that in mind, I think American’s motivation here is clear — the primary goal is to get more people to sign up for the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card. The card has a $595 annual fee (increasing to $695 as of August 23, 2026), and that gets you a full Admirals Club membership with guesting privileges.
So rather than paying $1,200-1,400 per year, you’ll pay at most $695 per year, and you’ll get a membership plus all the other perks. Of course the goal is that once you have the credit card you’ll also spend money on the card and be more engaged in AAdvantage, so American sees more upside there.
This is something right out of the Delta playbook, where lounges are increasingly an extension of the credit card business, rather than something that’s about building a robust membership base of those outright paying. Heck, Admirals Clubs are even getting Citi branding, which tells you what you need to know about the direction things are headed.
Bottom line
As of August 23, 2026, American is completely overhauling how it sells Admirals Club memberships. The airline will be discontinuing household memberships and will be replacing them with single memberships. At the same time, the cost of an Admirals Club membership with guesting privileges will be increasing massively, by up to 75%.
I imagine American knows that the number of people being willing to outright pay for an Admirals Club membership will greatly decrease, and that’s probably the goal, with the airline trying to drive more people toward the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card.
What do you make of these Admirals Club membership changes?
American deserves a Yowzers response for this one. Oddly, I’m thinking of not renewing my card either.
Ever since LAX T5 was demolished, it’s impossible for me to get to T6 from Amex or AA lounges in a timely manner. Despite the prior increase in fees, I still position AA well below Amex for food quality and flavor… so that lounge membership is gonna go first. And the AS lounge in LAX T6 is...
American deserves a Yowzers response for this one. Oddly, I’m thinking of not renewing my card either.
Ever since LAX T5 was demolished, it’s impossible for me to get to T6 from Amex or AA lounges in a timely manner. Despite the prior increase in fees, I still position AA well below Amex for food quality and flavor… so that lounge membership is gonna go first. And the AS lounge in LAX T6 is basically an AA lounge from 2002… small, cramped and def not worth $695/year.
This is absurd - glad I just renewed but wtf are they thinking - it isn't worth the $$$
American might want to push people to credit cards. Reality is, they push me to fly other airlines, should up to the airport later, and/or just stay home. I have a much better airport lounge at my home. I can put me feet on the furniture, sleep, eat whatever I want, watch any news I want as loudly as I wish, etc. It's paradise.
Great I'm looking forward to the increase. I hope this reduces the crowds at certain airports like Miami and Chicago.
^*pulls up ladder behind him*
Like the Dodo bird and the Carrier pigeon, lounges worldwide are being loved to death. One of the best investments I made decades ago was to purchase a lifetime Admiral's Club membership. $3,000 was a lot of money back then (early 1980s) and American has only offered this option once in the intervening years.
Now there are very few refuges left in lounge world.
Cathay Pacific first class lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3,...
Like the Dodo bird and the Carrier pigeon, lounges worldwide are being loved to death. One of the best investments I made decades ago was to purchase a lifetime Admiral's Club membership. $3,000 was a lot of money back then (early 1980s) and American has only offered this option once in the intervening years.
Now there are very few refuges left in lounge world.
Cathay Pacific first class lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3, is about as good as it gets. Although the food standard remains fairly good at the Centurion Lounges, one must plan on a waitlist, unless one holds a black card (Amex Centurion). The crowding/wait listing at their international locations is insane right now. Don't even bother.
Depending on how often one flies domestically, an up and coming possibility are the Minute Suites. Do the Math: cost of an Admiral's Club membership for a year versus cost of the Minute Suites visits you'll need over the same time period. If the Admiral's Club "free food and beverage" is a perk you'll use, price out the costs for a wide range of food options and wine shops in the Terminals; add costs for food and drink + Minute Suites to make a closer comparison with Admiral's Club membership.
One last observation: if travel is in the weeds systemwide, due to weather disruptions for example, the Admiral's Club will be your best bet in the terminals wherever you find yourself.
Bon Voyage
We can hope this will reduce overcrowding but it seems other tactics amongst all lounge networks haven't made a dent. Glad to see they're not simultaneously introducing that ridiculous 3-hour rule.
More money for the executive suite ; less money for the customer .
A rare ‘based’ comment, sir.
The better way to price these memberships if by frequency of use. If you're someone who flies twice a year, you're paying $700+ per visit and it's a total ripoff.
If you're EP making two roundtrips a month, then your price per visit falls to roughly $25. That's a deal compared to the price of a single beer in the terminal at Newark.
I just don't know who in their right mind would buy the AA Admirals Club Membership, at any price. These are some of the worst lounges I've seen globally.
If you are a sad domestic OPM flyer who has the misfortune of frequently flying domestic for work, this makes your life slightly less miserable
This is designed to:
1. First and foremost encourage people to get entry through the credit card, which is likely far more profitable for AA
2. Reduce crowding as many business flyers (that don't get club membership reimbursed or only to a certain dollar amount) will take the single membership and when traveling with family just tough it out in the terminal.
Again, if you want to not spend more just get the...
This is designed to:
1. First and foremost encourage people to get entry through the credit card, which is likely far more profitable for AA
2. Reduce crowding as many business flyers (that don't get club membership reimbursed or only to a certain dollar amount) will take the single membership and when traveling with family just tough it out in the terminal.
Again, if you want to not spend more just get the credit card.
All airlines are looking for ways to make clubs more profitable and at the same time reduce crowding.
Crowding? Other than the AC at MIA D30 on a Saturday morning during Caribbean travel season, or either of the tiny ones at PHX, rarely have I witnessed over-crowding at AdmiralsClubs, compared to SkyClubs, where they’ll have a line hundreds long to enter, mostly because Amex oversold access.
MCO, TPA, CLT, PHL, RDU, SNA all get packed to the point there are only a couple of seats left. I'd rather AA not have lines and instead do something to reduce overcrowding.
I’ll be honest, have never flown from SNA, but do have a flight from there… with Delta (facepalm), which has no lounge there…
Yesterday, the main AC at ORD (H/K Concourses) was jam-packed at about 10 AM with barely a seat available, and loaded with families. Yeah, it wasn't SkyClub line out the door, but it was still at capacity. The poky Terminal E AC at DFW yesterday was packed at 4PM, and that place is usually deserted. If this cuts down on the number of people in there, I'll be happy. Of course, I've got the card...
Yesterday, the main AC at ORD (H/K Concourses) was jam-packed at about 10 AM with barely a seat available, and loaded with families. Yeah, it wasn't SkyClub line out the door, but it was still at capacity. The poky Terminal E AC at DFW yesterday was packed at 4PM, and that place is usually deserted. If this cuts down on the number of people in there, I'll be happy. Of course, I've got the card and I don't even mind an extra $100.
We should have known this was coming when AA changed the Admirals' Club wi-fi password to "citiexeccard".
What?! They gave up on ‘Centennial’ already? It’s not even next year yet! Bah…
Looks like single memberships also don't allow access to partner lounges (e.g. Alaska and Qantas), only Admirals Clubs.
So, basically, either get AA Exec, or a card with passes (like Citi Strata Elite), or use both of your two 250K LP choice for a membership, or someone else is paying for that membership (‘business expense’), because otherwise that rate as a personal expense is silly, unless you use it so regularly and have no other options.
Hopefully they increase the food and alcohol quality but that’s probably too much to ask for
Sorry, best we can do is $20 for a quesadilla. It’ll be extra for chicken. —AA probably.
1990 . Spanish punctuation has an upside down question mark before quesadillo , also quesadillo is masculine .
Texting is forcing the tilde and upside down question mark into disuse.
@ Dn10 -- Hah, keep in mind that the food & drink improvements have already been rolled out. So don't expect a whole lot more beyond what we get now.
Yeah, they will. You get your little cubes of 'premium' brand white and yellow cheese, some weirdly perfect baby carrots for dipping, and if you're stuck in Charlotte? A vellum apology letter explaining why none of this applies to you.
‘69, so the CLT rubs you the wrong way…