golfmad

AA have recently opened a small Flagship Dining section in the D concourse AAdmirals Club next to D21 in Dallas. The door to the relatively small room is manned by a 'guardian' and you need an invitation (issued in the lobby) to get in.

Flagship entry rules appear to be the same as others such as LAX and JFK and it's open to BA Gold / Oneworld emerald even on domestic flights.

There's a small selection of food and also some self service wines and champagne.

corporate-wage-slave

At the risk of making an achingly prosaic comment, DFW is the inter-galactic headquarters of the biggest commercial airline in the history of the planet. And they're not short of space in that lounge either. Still it's good to get it (or rather, get it back).

golfmad

In the interests of setting expectations, it really is very very small.

sebastiansw3

And really not that exciting or tempting.

brit44

It's very awkward to be honest. Tiny room and feels like you are ushered in and out due to the lack of space. It is definitely for dining only, not for lounging around.

On a side note I was there for the first official day traveling domestic economy on AA. Lounge agents downstairs said I wasn't eligible but a male customer service rep upstairs (can't remember the name) confirmed that Gold's do indeed have access so be prepared to be persistent if needed.

Sadly nothing to write home about when inside but something different from the Centurion lounge where the menu tends to stay the same.

golfmad

I'm en-route to my hotel in San Bernardino, CA with a meeting tomorrow in Redlands so I'll take non-exciting thanks. What is the world coming to

britsv

I was there the other week and they asked me if I was traveling internationally. When I said no they wouldn't give me the magic card. As I only had about 10 mins to wait after my incoming flight was late, I didn't make a fuss. But good to know that insisting will get you in there.

msm2000uk

The Centurion lounge at DFW is arguably the best lounge at the airport. It is accessible for Amex Centurion and Platinum cardholders.

darthlemsip

And all other Amex card holders for a fee too (subject to capacity)

I'd say it's worth it if you're there for a while, all the OW lounges in DFW are very meh

golfmad

Just sitting in the LAX Flagship lounge and there's a sign here saying that Flagship Dining is coming to LAX in 2017 too. Didn't really want to start a new thread and I'm sure there's something in the AA forum on this already but thought I'd tag it on here.

lotus918

I stopped in the DFW Flagship dining lounge a few weeks back, and honestly it's a little disappointing. The two staff in the room while helpful stood around looking at their phones most of the time, and the food was just your usual lounge stuff. Room was at capacity which was ~20 people and it's a very small space to begin with.

The AA gate dragons (at the main entry to the AA lounge) asked me to produce my BA Gold card despite it saying OW Emerald all over the boarding pass, and then gave me a hard time when the one I had in my bag expired the year before. Still, it all worked out and while disappointing, it's still better than hanging out at some fast food joint.

golfmad

Don't forget you can always pull up your current status card on the BA app.

ChrL

It is small and awkward. There was an elderly gentleman giving tech support to his wife by phone one time when I was in there. Everyone in the room could hear the name of the bank (Fidelity), the username and about three or four passwords he was trying to get her to try. He was chatting away when I arrived in the room and still at it 20 mins later when I left. To be fair: he was getting very annoyed with his wife towards the end, he was probably more annoyed at her than I was at his noise.

I do recognize some of the food from the normal lounge. Eg) Flagship dining had exactly the same soup as the Austin AA lounge just that in the FL it was in a "Le Crusset" pot rather then the normal soup cauldron.

They had run out of the salted caramel desert last time I was there so I asked about it. I was told that the chef would "make some" more for me. He did turn up a few minutes later with a plate that had 5 squares of desert on it.

All in all I think it is a nice little addition to DFW.

dylanks

At most times, I would prefer the Centurion lounge over the flagship dining at DFW, and definitely over the lounge that BA offers. That said, it's still a positive addition, and will be better if AA does improve the food. My experiences in FL are that the food has often been sitting there for a very long time, leading to food that is dried out and overcooked.

For what it's worth, a new centurion lounge has opened at IAH, so if you're connecting from a BA flight to an AA flight, you now have a domestic lounge to use. It's within terminal D and all terminals are connected airside at IAH. AA still has plans to open a lounge at IAH in the near future as well. For a long time, IAH was not really somewhere I would connect, but now it's an option that might be good for some with the improved lounge options.

lotus918

Thanks, that never occurred to me! I'll be passing through IAH to LHR and back soon, and I'll definitely try the Centurion Lounge on the return leg. Between Priority Pass lounges and Centurion, IAH has numerous options that make it an attractive transfer point. While I've never tried the IAH Centurion, the LAS one is excellent.