Is American Airlines finally opening a Flagship First lounge at Heathrow?

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• Smid says:

  27 Jan27 January 09:21

  This is a bit disingenuous(and also a bit wrong). In the US there are Flagship lounges (and have been a while, LA was definitely open circa 2015, but has been refurbed) with self pour champers, free bar and buffet, and Admiral Clubs with a few premium drinks tokens, but you do get house wine and I think well spirits for free, nuts and crisps was the only food.

  However, what was in London was neither of these. The Business lounge had a better breakfast buffet (never visited lunch so can’t say) than BA Business, and the First had pretty decent buffet and table service food, you did get free drinks on request, including champagne. So not dissimilar to the Flagship lounge in the US. Of course, compared to the likes of Cathay Pacific, it wasn’t a place I went (I visited back before either Cathay Pacific and Qantas had their lounges, and BA First wasn’t as good as AA First).

  So renaming it Flagship doesn’t do much here (apart from presumably self pour champers, which was why we went back to BA First), it’s the Flagship dining which would be different, and I believe that’s only certain times of day, or was in the US which would be geared towards feeding you well before your eastbound evening flight.

  • Rhys says:

    27 Jan27 January 10:07

    Clearly they aren’t just renaming the Heathrow lounge, or they would have done so years ago.

    (In fact they actually renamed all the lounges to ‘International First’ in 2016/2017 prior to the rollout of the new Flagship concept, to avoid confusion.)

    • Smid says:

      27 Jan27 January 10:13

      Well, as said, the International AA lounges in Heathrow are NOT Admiral Clubs or Flagship lounges, so they would not have done it years.

      Indeed, I do not expect them to ever rename the business lounge in LHR to Admirals club, unless they make them really shit to match them.

      • Rhys says:

        27 Jan27 January 11:01

        That’s my point – they chose not to rename the Heathrow lounge Flagship – possibly until the refurbishment is complete!

• Pete says:

  27 Jan27 January 09:34

  +1 for the Cathay First lounge in T3, though the best table service we’ve had was in the AA lounge, they were practically forcing the champers on us, never was there an empty glass and the banter was spot on.

• lumma says:

  27 Jan27 January 10:12

  I like the AA lounge in T3, it’s huge and usually quiet, self serve booze (although the beer selection is terrible, Bud or Carlsberg), decent breakfast buffet and best of all, self serve pick n mix sweets.

  I don’t like Qantas, bar is always full of people ordering coffee, buffet food is awful and they once put pickled onions on my cooked breakfast!

  • Michael AC says:

    27 Jan27 January 13:14

    When I did a lounge hop before my Luxembourg flights I’d go to the lounge just to get some sweets! I remember the staff at the door telling me not to bother visiting the lounge and to go to Cathay or Qantas instead.

    • Charles Martel says:

      27 Jan27 January 13:29

      Are you able to use the airside buses to get from T3 to T5 (or vice versa) to access the different lounges?

      • john says:

        27 Jan27 January 14:54

        Aren’t they only no the arrivals side, so no?

      • SamG says:

        27 Jan27 January 15:48

        No

• VSCXfan says:

  27 Jan27 January 10:59

  Flagship at JFK T8 was excellent (space, comfort, catering, service) when I was there in 2019; but even if they replicate that at LHR T3, it won’t won’t approach the standards of the CX lounge.

• Chris says:

  27 Jan27 January 11:00

  on a comments section that’s full of people complaining this may be my favourite complaint ever
  “bar is always full of people ordering coffee” 😂

  • lumma says:

    27 Jan27 January 22:19

    To be fair, you can wait for ages to get a drink when you’ve got half a dozen people ordering “barista made” coffees before you

    • Lady London says:

      27 Jan27 January 23:15

      Could be worse. Could be Gatwick No.1 Lounge Bar. The one which actually counts how many drinks you have, and in actual fact gives you one.

      • Lady London says:

        27 Jan27 January 23:16

        As in, only one.

• Littlefish says:

  27 Jan27 January 11:28

  There was a window when the AA F lounge in LHR T3 got a refresh and a good Table Service menu together with a couple of excellent staff; I think timeline was similar to when the broader Flagship updates were going on from 2017 and LAX and JFK AA F lounges got noticeably more consistent and improved food/drink. ORD was decent too and I waited and waited for PHL but it never quite happened.
  I’ve lost track now though of what the ‘concept’ is and if/when AA will complete the roll-out. Certainly the LAX AA F-lounge footprint is still there and from earlier this week back to being separate from the Admirals Club (same upstairs area in LAX T4 but opposite sides of building). The showers remain closed though.
  When I was travelling mostly Oneworld the AA lounges and access were a huge part of what Oneworld did well on the transatlantic routes. Sounds like things might return to those standards in next 12 months …. as long as the newer planes arrive and route network returns all will be well!

• Paulie says:

  27 Jan27 January 14:34

  When I transconned MIA to LAX on 30 September with AA Flagship First they had just that day re-opened the First Class dining room in MIA and had re-opened the Flagship Lounge a couple weeks prior. It was spacious, there was a staff member offering bubbly as you walked in, the usual layout of cold and hot foods buffet style, and a self-serve cocktail area. The First class dining room only open to first class passengers was a nice touch before boarding the 777-300. I would imagine they would equal that or better it for LHR with the One World expectations. Thanks for your continued articles!!!

  • Mikee says:

    27 Jan27 January 20:26

    I’ve used the MIA Flagship lounge about 6 times in the last few months and everytime it has been excellent. Access has been thanks to my BA Silver (O/W Sapphire) card and each time I have been travelling domestically on a cheap AA ticket.
    Food has included a Chef Station with cooked to order omlettes in the morning and seafood paella in the evening. Plenty of free-flowing drinks along with champagne on arrival. Overall a really nice lounge and way better than the Admirals Clubs.
    I can confirm that even though I’m now also O/W Emerald (through the Finnair promotion), I wasn’t able to use the First Dining area – that’s just for ticketed First pax.

  • HBommie says:

    28 Jan28 January 01:35

    Another vote for the MIA Flagship lounge, used it a couple of times in 2019 and again last Nov, very nice experience on all occasions.

• Clayton says:

  27 Jan27 January 14:49

  I strongly encourage fans of the AA T3 Lounge to use it all the time.

  Keeps the seating free for Green Ant Gin at the QF lounge and the Dan-Dan Noddles turning up quicker in the CX.

  The service in Qantas is infinitely better imho, if you only have access to CX’s J lounge ( I think because it’s provided by Accor and run as a hotel bar/ restaurant service wise rather than as a lounge). The buffet is for sure the weak link but I always just order ala carte if eating in there.

  For those complaining about the # of people ordering coffee in there. Whilst I tend to agree it can be annoying, the Aussies are known to take the stuff quite seriously so it’s to be expected.

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