While we’ll have to be patient, American Airlines has officially revealed that it plans to open two new lounges at Philadelphia Airport (PHL) in 2025, including a new Flagship Lounge. Let’s go over the details, though let me say that I’ll believe it when the lounge actually opens, given how delayed this concept has been.
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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 out of New York instead. However, with the American and JetBlue Northeast Alliance having ended, American is once again shifting its focus to Philadelphia.
As reported by Sean Cudahy, American has revealed plans to open a new Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge in Philadelphia in 2025, in the A-West terminal. We have no details on when exactly in 2025 the lounges will open, how big they’ll be, or what amenities will be like. This additional lounge space should greatly help with lounge crowding in Philadelphia, which is currently an issue.
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?
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 has announced plans to open a Flagship Lounge as well as a new Admirals Club in Philadelphia in 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 any timeline. I’ll believe it when I see it.
What do you make of the American Flagship Lounge Philadelphia?
PHL is my home airport. I live in the city and love Philadelphia, but PHL depresses me. It’s hard to see all these other airports get redone and PHL is always so far behind. I was recently in LGA and MCI and everything was so nice, but the PHL improvements are just dripping in so slowly. terminal A is especially lacking in amenities like a decent cafe or restaurant, and the AA lounge there is dark and cramped. Can’t wait for these improvements.
The space for this Flagship Lounge used to be a very good, and very big Admirals Club. It has been closed throughout this 6+ year renovation, which lead to perpetual overcrowding of the B/C Admirals Club. This is taking so long that people are forgetting that PHL once had adequate lounge access.
Since 1989 when I first joined the US Airways frequent flyer program PHL has been my primary international gateway. The lounge in A West for business class was better than any current AA lounge I have visited except for the lack of a shower. CLT is a disaster from a lounge perspective. When I am forced to go through there, I find that it takes a few circuits to find a chair. It did not...
Since 1989 when I first joined the US Airways frequent flyer program PHL has been my primary international gateway. The lounge in A West for business class was better than any current AA lounge I have visited except for the lack of a shower. CLT is a disaster from a lounge perspective. When I am forced to go through there, I find that it takes a few circuits to find a chair. It did not used to be like that. In the past, the side room was a “quiet” room and very comfortable. PHL is almost as bad as CLT. All lounges (F, B/C, and the small A lounge are beat up and overcrowded. I have been eagerly awaiting the Flagship Lounge.
The Envoy lounge at PHL was great back in the day. We also used PHL as our primary international gateway back in the USAir / USAirways days. As *Gold, we could access the Envoy lounge even though we were flying in steerage. Their lounge at LGW (2 levels with friendly staff and free-flowing Champagne) was excellent too.
At least us pax ex-CLT know where our super hub fare tax is going: elsewhere in the network. Still - makes sense given we have no non-AA international options other than LH. No choice = you get what you’re given and you still pay a fortune.
Your super hit fare tax is going to pay for the billions (yes billions) in work being done at CLT. And CLT’s user fees are still lower than just about any other of the AA hubs.
That should be “Super high hub fare…”
Yep - $3.1 billion on a 10 year plan that’s supposed to finish next year (it won’t) and CLT residents pay both city tax and high fares to fund it to keep AA’s CPE at $1.57 (the feds have given some, but it’s around 10% of the overall cost). AA are making off like bandits off the backs of us captive passengers and not funding a single thing to improve the passenger experience. It’s funny...
Yep - $3.1 billion on a 10 year plan that’s supposed to finish next year (it won’t) and CLT residents pay both city tax and high fares to fund it to keep AA’s CPE at $1.57 (the feds have given some, but it’s around 10% of the overall cost). AA are making off like bandits off the backs of us captive passengers and not funding a single thing to improve the passenger experience. It’s funny - we have 3x daily year round full 777-200s to LHR and not all of the J pax can get into the current Admiral’s Clubs. They still sell those seats as Flagship Business somehow.
‘At least us pax ex-CLT know where our super hub fare tax is going:”
My point is that it is not going elsewhere in the system. It is staying in CLT. PHL residents pay high city taxes and also pay higher fares (than says JFK, and probably CLT). CLT residents are getting screwed because AA would rather funnel connecting pax through CLT at a low cost than have the airport raise user fees even more to address your concerns.
There is barely any originating traffic at CLT or PHX. An airline isn't going to spend tens of millions to invest in a place where passengers run to get $50 bucks worth of "value" during their relatively short layovers. CLT is a hell hole and I dislike that airport very much. I transfer through there to go to Munich and Zurich and it's progressively a worse experience. Not to mention the staff there seems to...
There is barely any originating traffic at CLT or PHX. An airline isn't going to spend tens of millions to invest in a place where passengers run to get $50 bucks worth of "value" during their relatively short layovers. CLT is a hell hole and I dislike that airport very much. I transfer through there to go to Munich and Zurich and it's progressively a worse experience. Not to mention the staff there seems to be committed to not helping any passengers with anything. Food service is the worst in the nation IMHO.
no one flies CLT-ZRH…
But why let facts get in the way of a rant?
There is no flight from Charlotte to Zurich LMFAO.
You lied. You're just looking for excuses to bash on Charlotte for no good reason, and I don't even live there!
Agreed PHX gets basically no longhaul traffic w/ PHX-LHR being it, but Charlotte has LHR, CDG, FRA, MAD, MUC, DUB, maybe a couple others I’m missing, and US Airways ran flights to GRU & a couple others before the merger. CLT also looks ridiculously crowded & could certainly benefit from a Biz lounge
PHX will never see a FL. At best we can hope AA takes over some of the office space and expands the low A lounge. It's surely needed. CLT I doubt and again not sure where the space would come from. Maybe once the new terminals get built out.
AA has made the strategic decision to make CLT and PHL international hubs. Whether or not we agree with that decision (and how we might characterize it), it is what it is. However, unless and until AA commences transcon service from CLT and PHL to LAX and SFO with T-Birds or XLRs, I would never consider for myself or recommend to a West Coast person any routing that includes them.
I’ve mentioned this before, but hope this starts a bit of a shuffle in A West. Would be ideal if BA closed their small Galleries lounge and sent pax to Flagship instead.
The tiny tiny (but great!) Centurion Lounge is directly above the BA one. A bit of remodeling and closing in the existing stair/elevator to the Centurion Lounge would make for an easy expansion, almost doubling the space
And as Eric mentioned,...
I’ve mentioned this before, but hope this starts a bit of a shuffle in A West. Would be ideal if BA closed their small Galleries lounge and sent pax to Flagship instead.
The tiny tiny (but great!) Centurion Lounge is directly above the BA one. A bit of remodeling and closing in the existing stair/elevator to the Centurion Lounge would make for an easy expansion, almost doubling the space
And as Eric mentioned, the long delay for this lounge isn’t all on AA. A West is located in Delaware County. Any work in that terminal requires permits from there plus City of Philadelphia. Took years to get new ones after the 2020 ones expired
The delay is entirely on AA. Stop with the permitting issue… First, permits are only required from Tinnicum Township, where the construction is taking place. The City of Philadelphia owns PHL, but does not need to issue a permit for work done in Tinnicum.
Second, while permits expiring (during Covid) may have led to a short delay, it is not the cause of a 4.5 year delay. That is entirely on AA waffling on...
The delay is entirely on AA. Stop with the permitting issue… First, permits are only required from Tinnicum Township, where the construction is taking place. The City of Philadelphia owns PHL, but does not need to issue a permit for work done in Tinnicum.
Second, while permits expiring (during Covid) may have led to a short delay, it is not the cause of a 4.5 year delay. That is entirely on AA waffling on whether it even wanted a FL given its changed focus on the NEA and JFK. Only after the NEA went away did AA decide to start with the FL again.
Third - regardless of whether the lounge sits in two jurisdictions (pretty sure it doesn’t), permits could have been obtained from both Tinnicum and PHL had there been a desire to get started. Obviously the lounge was started, and then stopped because of Covid. The permit(s) was acquired in a timely manner for the initial construction; it could have been again. The initial delay in permitting was due to issues with CBP and the fact...
Third - regardless of whether the lounge sits in two jurisdictions (pretty sure it doesn’t), permits could have been obtained from both Tinnicum and PHL had there been a desire to get started. Obviously the lounge was started, and then stopped because of Covid. The permit(s) was acquired in a timely manner for the initial construction; it could have been again. The initial delay in permitting was due to issues with CBP and the fact that construction impinged upon the Customs walkway from international gates.
Fourth: Use Google and ask PHL based passengers before you spout off next time. It's easily found info that A-W terminal is infact in a different township and also that any construction there DOES have a history to taking longer due to the "waffling" of those cities departments.
Not sure who you are responding to, but I said the FL is in a different township. “Waffling” had no bearing on a 4.5 year delay. A few months yes. Not 4.5 years. Completely on AA
So glad to hear this. Fly out of PHL enough to care. Hopefully this lightens to capacity issues at the Centurion Lounge if nothing else
CLT has a good number of long haul flights, though some are seasonal. The total AA portfolio there is LHR, MAD, CDG (seasonal), FRA, FCO (seasonal). The LHR + MAD routes justify a small Flagship Lounge and CLT should have one. PHX, not needed.
AA also operates a year-round flight to MUC and a seasonal flight to DUB from CLT. There are three daily flights to LHR. So, depending on the time of year, that's up to nine daily flights qualifying for Flagship Lounge status from CLT.
Wow! A whole 9! That's like 100-150 qualifying passengers for less than half of the year! Yes AA, please spend $50 million on a lounge for those people, I'm sure we all wouldn't mind forking over another $100 bucks per flight until y'all recoup that! (500k one way flight passengers)
Wow, you are in a good mood.
The bigger issue is that there is currently no space at CLT for another lounge.
Good point about the lack of available space.
There are plans (maybe very speculative) to add a mezzanine over the Concourse D Admiral's Club and the D-E connector area. This addition includes 40,000 square feet for an "airline club".
It seems that someone who hates CLT so much would support the addition of a Flagship Lounge there. The current lounges stay packed.
Not too sure about your math. The 777s that AA uses for these routes have 37 J seats. I can't remember the last time I saw an unused J seat on these flights. The J passengers total 333; all eligible for the FL. Add in the AA PPs, EPs, and OW Emeralds not in J, and the total can approach 500.
Great News!
US Airways had a Envoy lounge in A-west pre merger. Now thst space is part of the Admirals Club and this new Flagship lounge is in a new location.
Philadelphia is a part fortress hub and part competitive market depending on where exactly you are. The pharma companies in New Jersey are the competitive clients that are in between Newark and Phillie, big spend in business class and big spend in...
Great News!
US Airways had a Envoy lounge in A-west pre merger. Now thst space is part of the Admirals Club and this new Flagship lounge is in a new location.
Philadelphia is a part fortress hub and part competitive market depending on where exactly you are. The pharma companies in New Jersey are the competitive clients that are in between Newark and Phillie, big spend in business class and big spend in cargo.
There is also a small British Airways lounge and an Amex Centurion lounge that are both better than the current Admirals club offering. Long overdue to bring back a lounge for business class flyers, and different challenges such as space and liquor licenses (a west is in a different city) have held this lounge back.
“US Airways had a Envoy lounge in A-west pre merger. Now thst space is part of the Admirals Club and this new Flagship lounge is in a new location.”
No, what was the Envoy lounge is being split - half is becoming the new FL and half is becoming an AC.
Nope. You went up the long escalator and to the left was the Envoy and Lounge and to the right US Airways Club. Then it was combined to a single club before closing.
PHL is a decent gateway airport, especially if AA actually opens a Flagship Lounge. The Centurion Lounge is chronically overcrowded, as is the one at the abysmal CLT airport.
Again, not sure if you are responding to Eric or me, but the new FL is not in a new space - it is in what was the Envoy and the the Envoy / AC and then just an AC space.