Favorite Flagship Lounge? (Discussion and Poll)
 

I have been to the FLs in ORD, NYC, DFW and LAX. and I would rank them
ORD-Best food displays and best overall for seating, food, beverage and staff
DFW-New clean lounge with the best liquor options
NYC-best hidden lounge spot with tacos
LAX-hmm least favorite can't remember anything remarkable...

Other opinions?

I agree that ORD has the best food/seating. Also agree that LAX was my least favorite. Last 2 times there the food was not so good - had clearly been sitting out too long.

DFW to me seems cold, and the food options are not great...
ORD is very nice...
have not been to the others.

Actually, the JFK is my favorite. LAX the least. In terms of the FFD dining however, LAX is the winner..

I like JFK followed by ORD. Haven't been to many others.

The only one I've not been to is DFW.

JFK has to be my favourite, although it is my home base. I always head to the Bridge section and whilst the F&B in there isn't quite as good as it was when it opened the service and ambience is still a step up, in good part because of Eric...he recognizes me (and my wife) as we walk in and remembers and/or makes up our favourite drinks proactively....or at least he did until he got promoted to supervisor on the other side last month! If you've been in the Bridge section more than once you'll almost certainly know him. Tall, slim, short/shaved head...a real star!

No love for MIA I see

The layout of MIA is really random, with a giant hole in the middle.

The Bridge at JFK is my favorite....as mentioned above the staff are amazing

Rightly so. ORD is the strongest imo because AA actually has to compete with UA's Polaris Lounge.

I was there once about 4 months ago and then recently and walked into the bridge and the guy recognized me and remembered I had order the tacos... yes great service...

I liked the DFW the most, I don't know why maybe it's because it was recently renovated or something. It's quite ample, the food is fine and quite the open bar.

I like that ORD flagship is usually not crowded, easy to find quiet place to sit and food is usually decent.

PHL leaves a lot to be desired.

Has the PHL Flagship Lounge opened yet? I thought it was another year? On the website, it says, "sometime in 2020."

Having been to the Envoy Lounge at PHL, I would definitely rank it higher than any of the Flagship Lounges I've visited (JFK, ORD, or LAX), with the exception that the Envoy didn't have showers. It was also a departures-only lounge, so when you arrived back from Europe, you were relegated to the B-C lounge (or perhaps the F lounge!). While not quite up to par with the LH Senator lounges at MUC or FRA, it wasn't too far behind (how I sometimes miss the days of US and Star Alliance).
But alas, someone decided to dismantle the Envoy lounge and make it into an ordinary one...only to now turn it into a Flagship Lounge.

I'll be the contrarian and say that LAX is my favorite, because it's the one that is the greatest improvement over the previous/current Admirals Club. MIA is my least favorite. I haven't been to JFK yet but that'll be remedied next month.

I haven't been to ORD. I find the food at DFW and LAX to be a step down from JFK and MIA. I like MIA's ring layout. It's easier to stroll around and stretch your legs.

The diversity of opinion on this thread makes it clear that this truly has a lot to do with personal preference.

Ignoring FFD: I find the food and exhibition station in LAX to be excellent, with MIA tied. I have always found the JFK buffet to be sad, but the Bridge menu options make up for it, and then some. ORD usually has nice food, but I have never been there when the exhibition station is open (does it ever open?). I find the DFW buffet to be the worst of all of the clubs.

JFK can be very crowded in the main area, but the mini-booths are nice, and the Bridge is usually nice and quiet, if you're looking for that. I like the seating options at LAX and MIA a lot. The option for places to eat at DFW are poor IMHO, but the places to sit to relax/work are great. I would prob say ORD has the best collection of seating options -- nice calm places to sit and eat and areas with lots of different levels of activity to sit and work. I don't like that LAX and ORD don't have computers in the FL (and I'm not sure about JFK, but I don't think they do, but I could be mistaken).

For FFD: I had great experiences in LAX, with excellent food was great and service . Same at my one time at JFK. At my one time at DFW, service was very unpolished (but polite and friendly and she "tried hard") but if you really care about service, this is not for you. However, I had my best FFD meal at DFW (the ribeye was excellent, even by "high end steakhouse" standards, and it was nicely sized, and the fried oysters entree was on point...and appetizers were also good). In MIA I have generally had wonderful service and food experiences, but I had an experience with very poor service and only OK food.

MIA is the best if you're looking for newspapers to grab for your flight :)

The only time I've been there it was open (midweek early evening).

Where exactly was the PHL FS Lounge located that you visited and rate ? :confused::confused:

Hard to tell yet. ;)

I'm sure that my preferred order is skewed by my always using the QF FC at LAX for the better food offerings, since by the time I head over to the FL for the LAX-HKG flight, I've already eaten, and it's late, so the food is old and dried out. So, LAX doesn't make it for me. JFK has been my favorite because the food selection there has been the one I've enjoyed the most. The FFD at JFK was also pretty great. To me, the ORD FL was boring and the food didn't meet my expectations, though that may have been the fact that I've only been there once since the changeover, and I really miss the shrimp platter in the old FL. I just missed trying the new DFW lounge, but will probably give it a try sometime soon.

Right by gate A27.

I miss the old US Airways Envoy Lounge. At the time, it had to be the best international business class lounge any of the US airlines operated. Somehow it managed to hang around for a while after Parker took over but that didn't last, of course. It was actually the first lounge I visited after college heading out for my first business trip. I naively thought all domestic lounges would have pour-your-own top flight liquor, quality wines, and a nice food spread. Silly me. It will be great to have something comparable returning with the flagship lounge (just hope they get it done in time for next summer--not holding my breath, though).

JFK has been my favorite so far.

i would say LAX and the JFK. But only been to 3.

I voted for MIA!

Safe Travels

1. I voted for Miami. Food is fresh, and when they have scallops, it rivals (but does not surpass) the QANTAS LAX scallops.

2. JFK High turnover insures fresh

3. DFW. Still trying to figure it out, but improving each time

4. ORD. The food and choices were better ( especially the sushi) when they were out at the end of K (?)

5. LAX. Don’t know what they are so proud of. DrAAgons guard food, that if it were a Chili’s, you’d send it back. QANTAS worth the walk. Better food, better service, and better attitude IMHO.

YMMV

Fly safely.

I've found the DFW spread really poor the last two times through there.

Best buffet to me has to be ORD / MIA. Morning omelets at MIA are wonderful. JFK has the FL Bridge which is great and has great staff as others have noted. LAX is middle of the road IMO.
So i'd rank (1) MIA / (2) ORD / (3) JFK / (4) LAX / (5) DFW at least in my experiences. Haven't gotten to try FFD. MIA and ORD are both huge and even at peak times aren't as swamped as JFK gets, so they get the slight nod

What do you mean by “guard food”?

Poor choice of phrase. Perhaps better would be: Guard the door, and defend the interior.

Sorry for the confusion.

Continue to fly safely.

Yes, this certainly applies. And at ORD, I’ve also noticed that if you don’t come off the elevator waving your invitation, they start in with their aggressive “this is not the AC” pitch.

Really? You must have been in another airport. There is no Gate A27 at PHL.:D

How sad that what should be AAs crown jewel of Flagship Lounges at their home airport is getting such bad comments and reviews.

ORD
MIA
LAX

Have not been to any others - MIA has been improving food wise lately and might surpass ORD. I have only been in LAX late evenings - so my view might be skewed.

I like MIA FlagShip First Dining in MIA the most.

For me JFK and ORD are tops. I have not been to LAX yet. DFW is by far the worst for me. It gets very crowded, the food wasn’t as good as others and the seating options didn’t impress. I think I expected it to be fantastic because it is home base for AA.

I've had the best experiences at ORD. I actually really like the fact that the FL is on its own level. On longer layovers, I've headed up to the AC to check things out, kept my invitation, and later headed down to the FL. The layout is nice, buffet is done nicely, drinks are well-stocked, staff are friendly (granted I recognize many of them from the past decade of flying through ORD), and I don't think I've ever seen it more than about 2/3 full.

LAX and JFK have been simply too overcrowded for my tastes, perhaps because I've always been there in the evening. They also don't seem to keep the buffets and bars stocked properly when items run out.

I probably haven't really been through MIA enough to give it proper review, but the last time I was there around 7 AM (lots of South America connections, perhaps), it was actually a bit tough to find open seats, but it seemed alright otherwise.

I'm not sure what the deal is with DFW. I've had only neutral or poor experiences there so far. The staff seem cold and unfriendly, and I have witnessed them being downright rude and unprofessional. It's as though they don't consider that the passengers in the lounge are potentially some of AA and OW's best customers. I have not witnessed this sort of behavior at other locations. I also haven't done FFD there yet, but the reviews seem to be mixed, with multiple service-related complaints. When the "fancy" toilets are the star of the show, it's time to re-think things.

Now, how about PHL 2020, CLT 2021, and PHX 2022? :D

I mean, when there is a thread about just the FL, you will definitely get the positives and negatives. Heck, I can name a few negatives about the QR Al Safwah FC lounge too. I wouldn't characterize this discussion as "bad comments and reviews"

Since I didn’t actually give a ranking in my recent post, it would be:

1. ORD
2. MIA
3. JFK
4. LAX
5. DFW

DFW actually has the most potential to improve, but man, their execution has been quite flawed so far.