PHX is sorta west coast ishh

Agreed. This is a bad move anyway, but at least they’re not expanding it to short haul West Coast domestics (aka free upgrade) crowd. 👍

I don’t think it’s a bad move, these are expensive and long flights that deserve lounge access. Follows their competition also. American is starting to move away from route based lounge access and more cabin based similar to delta

Lounges are too crowded. I don’t want large families with screaming children taking up valuable space on their “once in a lifetime” and “super expensive” (aka $1500 round trip) trip to a leisure destination taking up valuable space.

The Flagship Lounge's very never very crowded pre-COVID.
Also, most of the passengers in the Flagship Lounge's were passengers heading to Asia and Oceania. At this moment, travel to Asia is dead because of border restrictions.
Maybe the MIA and DFW FL's might be crowded when it re-opens, but LAX, ORD and JFK would remain empty for a long time until travel recovers.

Just idle curiosity here, but what has everyone's experience been with FL access when traveling with the family? I am the only one with status (PP) and would be traveling with SO, 13 and 8 year old daughters in Y+. Is that rule stringently enforced?

Oh, I'm aware the lounges are closed right now, this would be next summer and the routing would be AUS-ORD-BCN and back, all on AA metal.

I know many on Flyer talk think you have no chance of getting in, however if your a smooth talker and/or know the lounge agents and all your asking for is extra guests you can get in fairly easily.

Hopefully.

I thought all the Flagship Lounges were closed?

they are, MIA will open in September rest will follow before the new year

Does flying to Africa or the middle east qualify for access?

Glad to hear MIA is first. I like it the best of the three i have visited (ORD and JFK, to round out the list).

Yes, definitely, assuming you have a J/F ticket or the proper elite status.

The FL at MIA was pretty good pre pandemic. The GAs and other services suck big time as of right now and it does not have to do with pandemic stuff. Suffered there in late June with the family. They were also terrible pre pandemic. Mrs. boerne has told me to avoid MIA at all costs. Trending toward UA. In my opinion.....

This has been the case in terms of service at MIA for decades. Nothing new really. Still, the horrible service in MIA looks SQ-esque in comparison to PHL or EWR.