SFO777

One of the best bargains on the past year was American's Seoul-NYC First Class "sale", Round trip TPAC First Class on Japan Airlines and roundtrip transcon First Class on American, with stopover, all for $2,800. I'm using my LAX-JFK segments tonight for my quarterly trip to Montreal. Not much traffic to LAX this afternoon and I made the 59 mile trip from Orange County in an hour.



Even though I had my boarding pass, I used the The Flagship First Check-in which is reserved for International and JFK First Class passengers.



Pics from last month. Comfy seating for those waiting for others and if by chance there was a queue to check in.





The Flagship greeter/porter escorted me to the elevator. Like last month, not sure if he would have escorted me just to PreCheck or all the way to the lounge but I declined further assistance and thanked him.



Upstairs, once again there was absolutely no one in line at PreCheck.



The LAX Admirals Club and the Flagship Lounge are under renovation, with the temporary Flagship Lounge an utter embarrassment and not even close to being ready for prime time.















The entrance is the only part of the Lounge that seems finished. Inside not much different from 6 weeks ago.







Although the monitors were plugged in and working tonight.









Really?



While AA is promising fine dining after the renovations are completed, they offer a weak serve yourself buffet.















And if anything looks good to you, you can eat in in the elegant Flagship First dining room. LOL.



After my 5 minute spin around the lounge, I thanked the lounge staff and headed to TBIT and the Qantas First Class Lounge.

SFO777

After my tour of the joke that is the temporary Flagship First Class Lounge, I headed over the the Bradley Terminal and the best lounge in the US, the Qantas First CLass Lounge at LAX.



Great plane-spotting from the T4-TBIT connector... tonight a couple of Norwegian 787s.



Pretty quiet tonight at the main Bradley TSA security checkpoint.



And just at the end of the connector, maybe 6-7 minutes from the Admirals Club/Flagship Lounge, is the Qantas First Class Lounge, the best airline lounge in the US.







Pics from my visit last month.













Decisions, decisions... Dine on board AA or eat in the Qantas Lounge. LOL. That one was easy. But first, a glass of the always excellent Nicholas Feuillatte Rosé.





What a great menu...







I started with the Salt and Pepper squid with green chili dipping sauce and aoili.



Delicious!





And a small second starter of the Slow cooked lamb barbacoa in chile adobo and rice.





For my main, the sensational Herb and Parmesan Chicken Schnitzel with Italian style coleslaw...



And to finish, the hazelnut cream profiteroles with dulce de leche and raspberries.



Simply divine.



Although I'd already had three glasses of the Nicholas Feuillatte Rosé, one of the servers was making the rounds with custom champagne mixes. Do I dare and still be able to find my way back to T4?



So hard to resist.



Wow, what a great meal and now if I can find my gate, I'll sleep all the way to New York.

offerendum

A new one

P.S: I of course would use the Flagship Lounge - I have to loose weight and like lousy decor

JALlover

Great report! And thats bargain for all those trips together!!

Did you get into the QF lounge with your status or the F class boarding pass?

milesaddict

Great report SFO777 as always. The QF Lounge in LAX is stunning. Looking forward to your trip.

Loose Cannon

I saw your Trip Report for the LAX-JFK segment. Did you really risk getting kicked off the flight for wanting to keep your window shade open?

50ae

Great report and much agreement on the LAX lounge. I was there last week and things are moving at CalTrans speeds. ORD seems to be improving at a much faster clip which makes it confusing as I never know what section is going to be changed when I get there

nequine

Great start and looking forward to reading more!

JMurray

I had those profiteroles a couple of months back...oh dear lord. Divine.

DetailsIM

I've been wondering when we were going to get a new thread from you.^

And now this weekend I'll have to pick up a bottle of Nicholas Feuillatte Rosé. We really enjoy their Brut.

SFO777

LOL. Perhaps AA has had enough of the trying to stay open during construction as they are closing the entire T4 Admirals Club/Flagship lounge in a couple of weeks to try to finish renovations.

Thank you JALlover. LAX-JFK First gets you access to the QF Lounge.

Thanks very much milesaddict.

I was being mostly facetious. That FA had an attitude from the start and telling passengers to close their shades (because it will be sunny in NYC when we arrive) while we were taxiing out for takeoff at LAX was ridiculous. I was technically disobeyed instructions so if she wanted to get her jollies, who knows what she might have done.

Thank you 50ae. Yeah, there seems to be no end in sight. Hopefully temporarily closing the lounge will speed up the completion of renovations.

Thanks nequine.

Thanks very much JMurray.

Sounds like a great plan. Thank you DetailsIM. We just finished moving so it's been hectic and put a damper on travel and even posting. Playing catch up now. And Sunday I'm back in the saddle with a whirlwind tour of all three ME3 A380 First Class products.

PoincianaKings

SFO777 having read the full report on your site (shame you can't comment over there)- excellent report as always. It does smart a little bit when you always refuse to try the Chiroulet white on the wine list. Granted it's not first class quality but if you knew the background story to M. Chiroulet you would.

He is a true small time producer, based in a tiny hamlet just outside Montreal-du-Gers in South West France. The most generous of men, my wife's family have known him for well over thirty years. It is quite unbelievable that he has managed to take his wine, which in reality is only known within a 30mile radius of his farm (given the sheer number of vineyards in that part of the world) and get it placed on an airline like American.

In a similar vane is M. Grassa of Tariquet (who first invited my now wife to try wine aged 9 at a fete), his family now provide Armagnac to AF For first class and business. Do try it next time you are flying AF in F.

Gig103

Is it the restaurant-quality dining and wine selection that makes the Qantas lounge 'the best' in your eyes? Those are definitely great, judging from the photos, and set it apart from other lounges, but the rest of the lounge seating looks so-so and possibly not as many places to charge your phone.

abeyro

Great to hear from you after a hm...time. :-)
It could be anywhere, as you wrote at some earlier report, but it's Manhattan??
The Paris concept is over, I understand?

HaaZe

The requirement to close window shades on the ground is a new one to me. Most airlines I have flown have required the window shades to remain up for taxi, take off and landing so as to provide outside visibility.

Maybe I'm missing something (also I have never flown AA).