On my outbound flight thru ORD on 08AUG, I was admitted to the Admirals Club, presenting ID etc.; the agent checking me made it a point to tell me she was happy that AA changed their policy to allow non-uniformed military into the Admirals Club;"; having had several experiences where I was denied access, I welcomed the change. Let me point out that I am in the Navy, and we are not supposed to wear our NWUs (the green camo work uniform) while traveling, there are a few exceptions for other uniforms, but generally speaking we aren't supposed to travel in uniform. When I went thru ORD on 12AUG, I was denied access because I was not in uniform; the agent then proceeded to try and sign me up for the AA credit card (this has happened more than once) at which point I asked to speak to a manager. Manager comes down and states that their VP specifically sent out a memo reiterating that they can only admit people in uniform; I then attempted to show her the regulation regarding not wearing uniform while traveling, even presenting a set of orders, but it clearly fell on deaf ears.

I've attempted to raise the issue to AA customer care, only to get a generic "we offer upgrades and free baggage" for military....yet you don't need to be in uniform for those benefits. I can't get an upgrade as PlatPro so not sure how they really upgrade military.

Look I get the issue of clubs being overcrowded and limiting access when busy that's not the part that bothers me. But if I am flying thru a hub at 8PM on a Sunday, I'm not going to dress up in my whites just to gain access and go against policy. I believe that the rule about not traveling in uniform might somehow be tied to the TWA incident where a sailor was killed specifically because he was in the US military and the hijackers singled him out. UA has a more straight-forward policy in that you need to present "one" of the following:
-Dressed in uniform
-Leave orders
-Rest and recuperation papers

I have a UA Club, AMEX/Priority Pass memberships so in most cases I'm inclined to either fly UA anyways or use AMEX in CLT etc. I would be less offended if the AC agents would try and sell me a day pass, but the constant credit card pitch is not making me more inclined to switch my current AA card to get Admirals Club access. I just hope that this "new" policy (which I don't think is actually new, but probably cracking down on agents that let the uniform issue slide) will somehow be modified to not exclude Navy.