Originally Posted by scubadu

I think perhaps the easier way to explain this rather than compiling the list (which is available on AA.com), is that it's important to note that the primary cardholder has a "full" Admirals' Club membership, just as if they had purchased membership directly from AA. That means they can access alternate lounges which AA has arrangements with (e.g. Alaska Lounges and Qantas lounges, while traveling in Australia) and they can, for example, book conference rooms in an Admiral's Club,etc.(and authorized user cannot)

Conversely, the authorized user basically only gets Admiral's Club access while traveling on AA. So for example, when I had the card, my wife was an authorized user. When she traveled on AS without me, she did not have access to the Alaska Lounge whereas I did have access when traveling on AS.

That is why only the primary cardholder is annotated as "Admirals Club" it's intentional, to denote full membership vs. AC access only.

Hope that helps.

Regards