ARCHIVE: All About AA Flagship Check-In at JFK, LAX, MIA, ORD
Apr 23, 2013, 5:15 am
#151
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The Flagship Lounge at DFW (in Terminal A, you can still see it when you enter the DFW - A Admirals Club - FL to right, Arrivals Lounge to left) was closed some years ago; when Terminal D became the new international terminal AA chose to have a slightly improved Club and not have a FL. (BA uses the sublounges in the The Club at DFW (D21) - they have both a Business and First lounge within.) The demographics just do not call for an AA Arrivals or Flagship Lounge at a captive hub like this; they do call for a Flagship Check-in for those who meet the requirements who are checking in here for AA.
Apr 23, 2013, 5:20 am
#152
Moderator: American AAdvantage, Signatures
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Apr 23, 2013, 6:26 am
#153
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 446
(Speaking of which.....I'm not sure if most of us remember those non-AA OW lounges are there! I fly international long-haul out of DFW plenty, but I haven't bothered going to the BA or QF-operated lounges in many years when flying on eligible routings....do any of you, fellow EXPs, bother? I seem to recall those lounges are small, no wifi, and drinks, though free, must be requested and brought out to you by a server? Are there dragons who give you a hard time these days?)
Apr 23, 2013, 6:33 am
#154
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 446
It would be nice to have a better lounge with a more restrictive access policy, but that would require AA to either build a new lounge, or remodel one of the existing lounges. It would cost a ton of $$, and as others have mentioned it would just be full of EXPs traveling on cheap Y tickets.
Apr 23, 2013, 7:31 am
#155
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: DFW
Programs: AA PLT; SPG PLT
Posts: 326
I was in the BA lounge a while ago. IMHO it is much better than the Admiral's Club. It's fairly small, but the beer, wine, and liqueur was self-serve. There were chips sitting out, but for sandwiches, you had to ask an attendant. I think they even had a small F-Lounge section, but I didn't go in there.
They periodically circulate with small appetizers and champagne, otherwise no meaningful difference from the J side (which is also pretty small and would be pretty darn full with 70 J passengers before allowing any Sapphires in).
Apr 23, 2013, 8:32 am
#156
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 3,513
Flagship checkin is cheap. All they need to do is throw some dividers up around a checkin counter and add some fake trees. The flagship lounge is much much more expensive to maintain.
It would be nice to have a better lounge with a more restrictive access policy, but that would require AA to either build a new lounge, or remodel one of the existing lounges. It would cost a ton of $$, and as others have mentioned it would just be full of EXPs traveling on cheap Y tickets.
It would be nice to have a better lounge with a more restrictive access policy, but that would require AA to either build a new lounge, or remodel one of the existing lounges. It would cost a ton of $$, and as others have mentioned it would just be full of EXPs traveling on cheap Y tickets.
Apr 23, 2013, 8:46 am
#157
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 446
And where do you propose they get the money for that from? If you look at the thread posted earlier about the FL closure, you will see that there is little business justification for having a FL in DFW.
Apr 23, 2013, 8:49 am
#158
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Dallas
Programs: AAdvantage EXP, IHG Spire, Marriott Gold, HHonors Gold, National Executive Elite
Posts: 1,523
off topic, however, I love DFW. I valet my car, walk 20 feet and through pre check and generally have less than 1000 feet to reach my plane. I bet I average 5 minutes from the time I hand the keys to the valet to the time I am through pre-check security. Where else is it that good?
The benefits of living 10 minutes north of the airport and my company reimbursing mileage expense for the dropoff/pickup.
Apr 23, 2013, 9:27 am
#159
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Posts: 3,513
It is a bit embarrassing when u don't have a flagship lounge in ur own hub
Apr 23, 2013, 9:42 am
#160
Moderator: American AAdvantage, Signatures
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: London, England
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As was mentioned upthread, flagship check-in facilities do not have much incremental operating cost, while a flagship lounge has substantial ongoing running costs that do not exist if the lounge doesn't exist. In a captive market like DFW, AA do not need to differentiate themselves against the competition so much, so why saddle themselves with a huge added cost. I have to imagine that the ongoing delay with the MIA FL is at least in part related to this as well (with DFW and MIA being the two cornerstone markets where AA dominates the local market). Compare that to LAX, ORD and JFK, where AA are in highly competitive markets.
Apr 23, 2013, 9:44 am
#161
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Posts: 3,513
As was mentioned upthread, flagship check-in facilities do not have much incremental operating cost, while a flagship lounge has substantially increased running costs. In a captive market like DFW, AA do not need to differentiate themselves against the competition so much, so why saddle themselves with a huge added cost. I have to imagine that the ongoing delay with the MIA FL is at least in part related to this as well (with DFW and MIA being the two cornerstone markets where AA dominates the local market).
Apr 23, 2013, 10:00 am
#163
Moderator: American AAdvantage, Signatures
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Apr 23, 2013, 4:20 pm
#164
Join Date: Sep 2011
Programs: AA SPG Amex
Posts: 4,644
The Flagship Lounge at DFW (in Terminal A, you can still see it when you enter the DFW - A Admirals Club - FL to right, Arrivals Lounge to left) was closed some years ago; when Terminal D became the new international terminal AA chose to have a slightly improved Club and not have a FL. (BA uses the sublounges in the The Club at DFW (D21) - they have both a Business and First lounge within.) The demographics just do not call for an AA Arrivals or Flagship Lounge at a captive hub like this; they do call for a Flagship Check-in for those who meet the requirements who are checking in here for AA.
Apr 23, 2013, 5:54 pm
#165
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: NYC, USA
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I was in the BA lounge a while ago. IMHO it is much better than the Admiral's Club. It's fairly small, but the beer, wine, and liqueur was self-serve. There were chips sitting out, but for sandwiches, you had to ask an attendant. I think they even had a small F-Lounge section, but I didn't go in there.
Were you admitted without a fight? Or did the dragon say you had to use the nearby AC (like MIA Terraces in the old days) until you made a fuss about OW rules?