On Sunday morning, I flew out of Boston Logan Airport. I’ve already reviewed of the incredible Chase Sapphire Lounge Boston, and in this post I wanted to review the American Admirals Club Boston.
The Admirals Club Boston is an above average Admirals Club in terms of layout, in my opinion, but it’s still not much to get excited about. It pales in comparison to the Chase Sapphire Lounge, in my opinion, though let’s still take a look…
In this post:
American Admirals Club Boston location
The American Admirals Club Boston is located in Terminal B, near gate B4. This is a pretty central location, and it shouldn’t be far from any American Airlines gate. When you clear security, just follow the signage for the Admirals Club, as it’s tough to miss.
American Admirals Club Boston hours
The American Admirals Club Boston is currently open daily from 4:00AM until 8:30PM, covering all American departures from the terminal. The hours do change based on flight schedules, but you can expect that if an American flight is operating, the lounge will be open.
American Admirals Club Boston entry requirements
There are a variety of ways to access American Admirals Clubs, ranging from buying an Admirals Club membership, to having elite status and being on an eligible itinerary.
Personally I access Admirals Clubs using the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review), which is one of my all around favorite airline credit cards. The card has a $595 annual fee, and offers an Admirals Club membership for the primary cardmember. In and of itself that represents cost savings compared to a membership, as the cheapest cost for an Admirals Club membership is higher than that.
This Admirals Club also follows standard oneworld lounge access rules, so if you’re on an eligible oneworld itinerary, you’d get access to this lounge as well.
See my guide to American Admirals Club access.
American Admirals Club Boston seating & layout
The Admirals Club Boston is a pretty good size, and is broken up into a few distinct areas. When you enter the lounge, you can turn left to access most of the lounge, while to the right is a small area with a business center and some day beds. Let’s start by looking at what’s to the left.
As you enter the lounge and turn left, there’s a small buffet with some light snacks, as well as a few dining tables and communal tables.
Then there are dozens of seats along the lounge’s main hallway, arranged in rows facing one another. There are outlets at virtually every seat, so keeping electronics charged should be easy enough.
Off to the side of this main sitting area is a TV room, with around 10 seats facing two TVs.
Then in the back of the lounge is the main dining area, consisting of a couple of dozen tables near the main buffet. This is also where the lounge’s bar is located.
There’s a bit more seating in the back of the lounge, which also has the best views of the apron.
Back in the front of the lounge, if you enter and turn right you’ll find yourself in a much smaller area, containing a business center with two iMacs, a few booths for sitting, a couple of private phone booths, and also a quiet room with a few day beds of sorts.
Unfortunately the lounge doesn’t have American’s new Admirals Club design template, which is a huge improvement over what’s currently offered. I’d say the Admirals Club Boston feels fresh, though the decor definitely feels a bit sterile otherwise.
While I’d say this is a slightly above average Admirals Club, keep in mind that American has some premium flights out of here, including flying A321Ts to Los Angeles, and flying Boeing 777s to London. So this isn’t nearly as nice as the Flagship Lounges you’d have access to at some other airports.
American Admirals Club Boston food & drinks
While American recently started refreshing catering at Admirals Clubs, this lounge has the new catering yet. I visited the Admirals Club over breakfast hours, and the selection was rather lackluster.
The main buffet had greek yogurt, a fruit salad and whole fruit, hardboiled eggs, bagels and muffins, a few types of cereal, oatmeal, an egg scramble, and bacon.
In terms of drinks, there was a Coca-Cola soda fountain, some containers with water and orange juice, La Colombe drip coffee, and an espresso machine.
Impressively, both the soda fountain and coffee machine were working. I thought American had a policy that at least one or the other always had to be broken, based on how often I see the “out of order” sign. 😉
The lounge’s second buffet was near the entrance, and had coffee, fruit, and bread.
Admirals Clubs have complimentary house beer, wine, and liquor, available at the bar. On top of that, there are a variety of food and drinks for purchase, and you can find the menu below.
American Admirals Club Boston bathrooms & showers
The American Admirals Club Boston bathrooms were located about halfway down the lounge and to the right. The men’s room four sinks, four stalls, and three urinals, and seemed to be pretty well maintained.
The Admirals Club also has two shower suites, which were spacious. Showers is an area where Admirals Clubs have the edge over United Clubs and Delta Sky Clubs, as they’re more consistently available, in my experience.
Bottom line
The American Admirals Club Boston is a perfectly nice lounge. As far as Admirals Clubs go, I’d say it’s one of the better ones, but that’s not exactly saying a whole lot. The decor feels well maintained but sterile, the lounge does have showers and decent bathrooms, and the food and drink selection is better than nothing, but not much more than that.
What do you make of the American Admirals Club Boston?
I often use this lounge due to frequent Boston travel on Alaska Airlines and my premium Alaska Lounge membership. At times, my stay is long due to aircraft delays. This lounge is comfortable with nice views of the airport, a friendly staff, and reasonable lounge food.
It looks like you missed the afternoon guacamole. This is always a treat. And their menu various quite a bit and has included things like delicious pulled pork sliders.
Marshall
The fact that this lounge was recently renovated has its pros and cons—the pros are that it’s an above-average AC imo but the cons are it’ll likely be one of the last clubs (at least in cities where AA has a large presence) to get the new look.
United’s new lounge in Denver is amazing but falls short with no showers just like ORD’s. Why they didn’t make it like EWR’s is probably a Scott’s idea.
American will always be one step ahead with that feature as you never know when you really need to get the grime of a flight off of you.
You forgot to mention that a “Soup of the Day” option is always Clam Chowda with fresh clams , potato and a rich New England Chowda broth. The other benefit is that you can order a freak lobster roll for $10- cheaper than Legal Seafood in the concourse.
This lounge can get very crowded in the late afternoon. Really crowded.
Good to see the next to useless toilet doors also deployed here.
One of the better domestic ACs and usually not packed to the gills like other clubs.
I know this is kinda moot but the food selection here compared to the delta sky lounges in terminal a is like night and day
I don't know why, but I have always loved this lounge. Food is good enough, clean, nice views, love the showers and not usually too crowded.
The view of this Admirals Club is great compare to some other clubs in the system. the food is reasonably ok for a club that is not in the hub. Clam chowder severed later in the day is very good for lounge soup.
The more available showers and other amenities at AA relative to DL and UA is a reflection of AA's lower penetration of business travelers.
Excellent point, Tim!
This makes absolutely no sense. You're saying that American clubs are more likely to have showers installed because they have a lower penetration of business travelers? So, then, the implication is that showers are an amenity geared more toward leisure passengers?
Michael, are you an idiot? Everyone knows that business travelers don’t shower. Pheromones and odor dominance is a make it or break it in negotiating tough deals. The people in charge of DLs upcoming wide body order haven’t showered in nearly a year as a method to further drive down price and squeeze Airbus and RR for additional concessions.
Hi Tim,
I finally am glad to have the opportunity to comment on one of your comments.
As a business traveler who flies multiple times per week, sometimes internationally, more often domestically, I choose AA for my domestic travel **because** many of the Admirals Clubs I frequent have showers. I often work late and take early flights. It’s nice to roll out of bed in the morning and then catch a connecting flight to an...
Hi Tim,
I finally am glad to have the opportunity to comment on one of your comments.
As a business traveler who flies multiple times per week, sometimes internationally, more often domestically, I choose AA for my domestic travel **because** many of the Admirals Clubs I frequent have showers. I often work late and take early flights. It’s nice to roll out of bed in the morning and then catch a connecting flight to an AA hub with Admirals Club showers and freshen up there. I have OneWorld Emerald thru AA as an EP and Star Alliance Gold through Singapore Airlines. SA Gold affords me access to United Clubs on domestic itineraries, and I fly SA airlines a lot (OW too but not as much) internationally. But domestic I choose AA and one of the primary reasons is because I can freshen up after a 5:30 am connecting flight at a hub airport with showers.
Sincerely,
Frequent Business Traveler
With all of the restrictions governing admittance to Centurion lounges and Sky Clubs now, coupled with the fact that both tend to be ridiculously crowded, I've reached the point where I'd be willing to "trade down" to an Admirals Club if I know I can reliably get access without waiting, not have to deal with throngs of people, and have a peaceful, comfortable environment and some halfway decent drinks and snacks.
I maintain an Admirals Club membership, even though I have the Platinum card, explicitly for this reason.
Frequent Business Traveler - I have the AA credit card w/ Admirals Club in addition to the Amex Plat (and the UA Club card) for similar reason. Though I find myself so seldomly using, or being able to use, Centurion Lounges that I often don't even try anymore and this is probably the last year of the card for me (I get value out of other things like Walmart+, but that's not near enough).
...Frequent Business Traveler - I have the AA credit card w/ Admirals Club in addition to the Amex Plat (and the UA Club card) for similar reason. Though I find myself so seldomly using, or being able to use, Centurion Lounges that I often don't even try anymore and this is probably the last year of the card for me (I get value out of other things like Walmart+, but that's not near enough).
If the lounge is kept up, clean, furniture in good condition, has helpful agents, and food other than just snack mix and cheese cubes, and above all isn't crowded, then I will take it. A good view helps. I'm fond of the Admirals Clubs in places like IAH, TPA, ORD Concourse G.
Given the state of some of the planes, sterile is a good thing!!
'While American recently started refreshing catering at Admirals Clubs, this lounge has the new catering yet.'
This lounge doesn't have the new catering yet or it has the new catering? I guess you meant 'doesn't have' from the description, but not sure.
Also relevant to many readers…there’s a small kids area with a TV and some games. It seemed pretty soundrooof and was a relief to let my son talk above a whisper.
“The decor feels well maintained but sterile, the lounge does have showers and decent bathrooms, and the food and drink selection is better than nothing, but not much more than that.”
And yet it gets 4 out of 5? I agree that Boston’s AC is miles better than the ACs in PHL and CLT, but that is a low bar…
The mysterious and variable star ratings strike again!
@NID - and I'm not comparing the BOS AC to CX's The Pier or something.... I'm comparing it other US lounges. Most ACs should be ranked a 2 (like the A-B club in PHL, or the clubs in CLT). BOS is 3 or. 3.5 at best.
I honestly have no idea why Ben does them? Maybe some SEO thing? I never pay attention to them.
Ben, it would be great if you could provide more lounge reviews at meal times other than breakfast. Breakfast menus aren't representative of the food offerings during the bulk of the day. Thanks in advance.
For OMAAT, getting early lounge pictures right after it opens with no people > just about anything else related to timing.
The line about the lounge being open if an AA flight is operating isn't true. This lounge closed on me an hour before a moderately delayed AA flight last month.
I give high marks to the clam chowder they serve at the buffet later in the day.
The clam chowder they have is probably my favorite airline lounge soup in the US!
I had the clam chowder this past Sunday at this AC, it was delicious, and I added bacon bits from the salad bar, which made it even better. I think this AC is one of the better ones in the system.
Now I'm looking forward to the clam chowder in October when I catch a transcon from BOS to LAX!