We’ve known for some time that American Airlines plans to open two new lounges at Philadelphia Airport (PHL) in 2025, including a new Flagship Lounge. While we still don’t have an exact opening date, we do have a better sense of the timeline, as American has revealed that these lounges will open in summer. Let’s cover the details.
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American Flagship Lounge Philadelphia plans
Flagship Lounges are American Airlines’ premium international lounges. In line with oneworld lounge access policies, they’re open to both oneworld first and business class passengers on select itineraries, plus oneworld Sapphire and Emerald members on select itineraries.
Currently American has Flagship Lounges in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York (well, the one in New York is technically branded as the Greenwich Lounge, but for all practical purposes, it’s a Flagship Lounge).
As you can tell, there are some major gaps in American’s Flagship Lounge network, in particular in Philadelphia. Initially American’s plan was to open a Flagship Lounge in Philadelphia back in 2020, though the pandemic caused that project to be put on hold.
Even as travel demand increased after the pandemic, American seemingly wasn’t committed to the Flagship Lounge Philadelphia, as the airline first focused its international operations in the Northeast on New York instead. However, with the American and JetBlue Northeast Alliance having ended, American has been shifting some focus to Philadelphia.
American plans to open a new Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge in Philadelphia in the summer of 2025, in the A-West terminal. We unfortunately don’t know exactly when that will happen, though. Hopefully it’s in the earlier part of summer, given the peak season demand across the Atlantic. But I suspect that might not be the case, or else it would be described as a spring opening (since most of June is still spring, technically).
This additional lounge space should greatly help with lounge crowding in Philadelphia, which is currently an issue. While we’ll see if this materializes, American has also emphasized that it intends to continue investing in building the Philadelphia hub.
Design wise, the only thing we know is that “the opening of the new Flagship Lounge and Admirals Club lounge will continue to create a harmonized design experience across all newly opened lounges that customers will instantly recognize.”
That should mean that the Flagship Lounge Philadelphia will look significantly different than the existing Flagship Lounges, since American has updated its lounge design since all the current locations opened. The Admirals Club Washington National was the first lounge location to feature the new design, but we’ve since seen lounges with the design open in Denver and Newark.
What about Charlotte and Phoenix Flagship Lounges?
People often wonder why American doesn’t have Flagship Lounges in Charlotte and Phoenix. After all, these are two huge American hubs, and there are no plans to have Flagship Lounges there. Why? Well, it probably comes down to a couple of factors:
- Charlotte and Phoenix are heavily focused on domestic and short haul international connectivity, so they don’t have all that many long haul flights
- Often airlines feel they don’t have to compete in fortress hubs that aren’t major international gateways; for example, United also doesn’t have a Polaris Lounge in Denver, while Delta hasn’t announced plans to open a Delta One Lounge in Atlanta, Detroit, or Minneapolis
So as nice as it would be, expect that once the Flagship Lounge Philadelphia opens, that’ll be the extent of the network. Well, at least for now, until American shifts its strategy yet again.
Bottom line
American plans to open a Flagship Lounge as well as a new Admirals Club in Philadelphia in the summer of 2025. Both lounges will feature American’s new lounge design, so this will likely be the nicest Flagship Lounge there is, in terms of design.
Philadelphia desperately needs more lounge capacity, so this is a positive development. However, the Flagship Lounge Philadelphia has been delayed by so many years that I’m not counting on the timeline sticking. I’ll believe it when I see it.
What do you make of the American Flagship Lounge Philadelphia?
I just heard from the BA first class lounge at PHL that they announced internally March 18th opening for the new flagship lounge. Let’s see… Stoked.
I flew to DUB from PHL in biz back in December. I was surprised to see that despite BA having a lounge there, they had closed it up before a lot of the nighttime Europe departures. Feels like it would have been lucrative for them to keep it open in the absence of another business class lounge, or indeed a lounge at all in Terminal A West, and collected those fees from AA
There are rumors of a new and large AC coming to CLT. I wonder if we will see a FL in CLT. PHX unfortunately is a lost cause.
Forget a Flagship Lounge, I just wish Terminal 4 at PHX was a quarter as nice as T3. My wife always flies United just because T3 is such a better experience.
The Flagship is much needed in Philly. But what I can't understand is why AA cancelled its mid-afternoon flights from DCA to PHL, as well as PHL to DCA. These were the prime flights for connecting to some of AA international flights like to AMS in the summer. This means you have a 6 hour layover if flying AMS-PHL then to DCA. If you book this route - they show you double connecting flights as...
The Flagship is much needed in Philly. But what I can't understand is why AA cancelled its mid-afternoon flights from DCA to PHL, as well as PHL to DCA. These were the prime flights for connecting to some of AA international flights like to AMS in the summer. This means you have a 6 hour layover if flying AMS-PHL then to DCA. If you book this route - they show you double connecting flights as quicker - like AMS-PHL-BOS-DCA or PIT. I have even seen TPA and MIA come up as connections for AMS to DCA.
Once this is open, what will happen to the smaller BA lounge in Terminal A? Given currently only one flight per day (it was 2) and given its small size it does not seem to make much sense once the new American lounge opens
Wow - much better opportunity for the rats stuck invading the old AAdmirals Club!
Wow - much better opportunity for the rats stuck invading the old AAdmirals Club!
It will be highly welcome at PHL. I do wonder if they’ll ever refresh the B/C lounge.
PHL is in the design phase of a LGA-style total airport rebuild (excluding the int’l terminal). Draft plans call for that to start in 2030.
@Lou - Can you share a link regarding the design phase of the PHL rebuild? This is the first I've heard of it.
Not a fan of PHL but the only way to ZRH. I’d rather fly BA from IAH to ZRH via LHR with zero chance of an upgrade. As an American fanboy I don’t fancy PHL. DFW and LAX are my go to AA hubs.
"Don't spend a (dollar) that you don't have to," Robert Isom.
I can guarantee you the CFOs of Delta and United don't go around saying "Please spend a dollar more than you have to"
The PHL FS will open around Sep 15, allowing AA to say they still nailed it by opening during the summer.
For context, CLT will have 10 daily transatlantic flights to 8 cities over the summer. PHL will have something like 19 to 17 cities.
I think you underestimate the importance of CLT in AA's network. For those of us coming from the west coast (other than LAX), unfortunately CLT is a major hub for connections to both Europe and the Caribbean. Consider: there are literally 5x as many nonstop AA flights from SEA and SAN to CLT as there are to MIA.
I count up to 10 daily flights from CLT to 8 different European cities in summer. And...
I think you underestimate the importance of CLT in AA's network. For those of us coming from the west coast (other than LAX), unfortunately CLT is a major hub for connections to both Europe and the Caribbean. Consider: there are literally 5x as many nonstop AA flights from SEA and SAN to CLT as there are to MIA.
I count up to 10 daily flights from CLT to 8 different European cities in summer. And even though summer its low season for the Caribbean I count at least 33 nonstops from CLT to island destinations (not including Cancun and Mexico), and considerably more in winter.
I do my best to avoid connecting in CLT, but a Flagship Lounge would lessen the annoyance.
As a PHL-based flyer, I don't begrudge CLT-based flyers for making this case. But the reality is CLT doesn't have enough transatlantic flights with $6k+ business class fares to warrant a FL. Those are the only people accessing the lounge based on ticketed class of service. The number of Caribbean destinations is completely irrelevant, as booking business class on these flights wouldn't get you FL access even if such a lounge existed.
This is...
As a PHL-based flyer, I don't begrudge CLT-based flyers for making this case. But the reality is CLT doesn't have enough transatlantic flights with $6k+ business class fares to warrant a FL. Those are the only people accessing the lounge based on ticketed class of service. The number of Caribbean destinations is completely irrelevant, as booking business class on these flights wouldn't get you FL access even if such a lounge existed.
This is not about the PHL local market either. The only reason for AA to do this in PHL is to accommodate people connecting to places like LHR, ZRH, DOH, etc. from the rest of their network with expensive business class fares. There is currently NO airline lounge at all besides the small BA lounge in the international terminal at PHL.
Hi Ben, what are your thoughts on the status of the LHR Flagship Lounge? I know that's another major market without one - do you still think that, for instance, the planned co-location at T5 is delaying this?
You can’t compare Charlotte and Phoenix in terms of international travel. It is apples and oranges. During the peak summer travel season, there are 10 flights a day from Charlotte to Europe. This represents about 400 daily Business class seats. Maybe this is not enough for a flagship lounge, but I would hope it would at least be enough for an upgraded lounge compared to the dreadful C/D lounge for premium passengers.
Way nicer than a SkyTeam lounge
The British Airways lounge has been a nice substitute in Philly. But they tend not to admit AA passengers until the BA flight has left, at which time they quickly pull the dinner buffer.