David buick

Flying first from LAX , is best lounge QF?

355F1

crazyarmadillo

If I was flying from TBIT on BA as a OWE or in F, I would just stick with the OW F Qantas lounge. You can always get a seat. The bar is real nice and its closer to BA and you can keep track on the screens for departures. The employees are wonderful. Food is ok, it is cooked freshly, but recently it seems to take forever to be cooked. Having been there numerous times since the air-side connector opened. I loved the place at first, but the room itself I just don't like. Ive said it before and I say it again, its like a school canteen. I've seen some posts compare it to the LHR CCR - just so that you dont get disappointed, it is nowhere close to the CCR.

I think for most people, the walk to the new Flagship may not warrant leaving TBIT. Its a bit of a walk and its going to get busy I fear, just as JFK has become.
There is an ongoing thread at the AA bit of FT. When the Kennedy flagship first opened it was great - such a great improvement on the old one. At the start, it had the old rules on admittance. Now it is packed solid at times. I get to try the LAX flagship next week and cannot get overly excited by it, as I like a quiet place to pass the time and just have a bad feeling its going to be too busy. As an aside, i loved the old LAX flagship, spent many an hour just watching planes park up , get unloaded then reloaded and fly off again.

LupineChemist

I'm currently sat in the flagship lounge and I have to say, especially if leaving on 268, it's great since it gets a lot more quiet as the evening rolls on whereas the oneworld business lounge tends to be fairly crowded at this point.

The food selection is excellent and the showers are plenty nice as well, it's a very good J lounge. That said, I should be getting my IB Platinum card soon so then QF F lounge becomes the obvious choice.

Shareholder

I made my first visit to the new LAX Flagship Lounge yesterday but found it lacked much of what makes the JFK one so great. Not sure what exactly it is that makes the difference, but it may have been a familiarity with the old Admirals Club that occupied the space. And my fondness for the old Flagship Lounge. There was nothing really fancy about that lounge, but it felt comfortable. I have been to the OW/QF lounge at LAX and would probably recommend it over the AA lounge though if you have the time, do check it out for at least a taste of the pho soup. However, the time taken to walk between Bradley and T4 might be better spent enjoying the offerings in the OW lounge which will be closer to your gate. (I was there mid-afternoon and the Flagship Lounge was very crowded with numerous flights departing between 3p and 7p, both international and transcons.)

And a Sapphire does have access to the Flagship Lounge under the new entry rules. We are no longer sent to the Admirals Club. I was traveling on a domestic US AA flight but entered using my BASilver/OWSapphire card. (I also have an AAExecPlat/OWEmerald card.)

Geordie405

Having just had my first visit to the new LAX Flagship lounge since it opened post-refurbishment I have to say that I wasn't that impressed. The lounge is nice per se, but given the change in access eligibility it's a lot busier now than the previous incarnation ever was. It's certainly a vast improvement in terms of design and comfort but, rather like the Qantas lounge at LHR T3, I found it quite cold and impersonal. I think it's trying to be all things to all people, catering to both OWE and OWS. Maybe it will grow on me over time but I found it to be noisy (especially where I was sitting, in the little lobby area next to the entrance) and not particularly relaxing. I wish I'd stayed in the Qantas F lounge in TBIT if I'm honest, and that would certainly be my lounge of choice at LAX. However, for OWS / BA Silver it does offer a significant improvement in lounge facilities for those flying out of LAX and AA is to be commended in that regard and, objectively, it is certainly an impressive lounge and a significant step up in terms of what US travellers would be accustomed to.

Tobias-UK

Reetmafreen

Am I right in assuming that on a LHR-LAX-SAN routing in first that I'll have access to the QANTAS F lounge in LAX as I'm connecting to a Oneworld carrier on the same day? I'm on a 001 stock ticket with the TA flight on BA and the domestic on AA. I can get access to the AA Flagship lounge by virtue of the first class arrival and also because I'm sapphire on an international flight, but I can't access Flagship dining as the flight has to be marketed and operated by AA in order to qualify for access. I'm usually a little peckish shortly after landing after a long haul flight, so I thought it would be nice if we could dine in the QANTAS First lounge before heading over to the Eagle's Nest for the puddle jump down to SAN.

crazyarmadillo

EDIT - well i thought this thread was kinda familiar when I just posted this in repsonce to Tobias-UK , as I see I have already given my thoughts above ! Darn, thats how addicted I am to flying and FT - I thought I hadnt looked at FT for a few months and now see it hasnt even been a month! Oh the pain, the pain........
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Gave FT a break again for a couple of months, bit too addictive for me LOL , hence commenting on a post a few weeks back.

Absolutely totally agree. The new Flagships are real nice, but they are just way tooo busy for us. We choose the Qantas lounge (never used to btw) over the new flagship at LAX. At JFK we try to avoid the busy times, unless in F transcon, for the quietness of the dining room.

I hope, its just Amercican showing off their new product and in some months maybe, the year, anniversay they will change the new flagships back to old rules of access.

crazyarmadillo

deleted - duplciate

355F1

Reetmafreen

xenole

Very flakey service today. Not too many staff but the main person seems to be spending a lot of time with one particular person and isn't proactive.
Bit of a job to flag people down even when multiple staff (8 now rather than 2-3) have just appeared and there's no-one really here.
Barman no problem. Just been going up to him as far easier overall.

Reminds me of an atypical BA cabin crew

Still like the AA lounge for:

Soft drink machines
Bowls / jars of candy and chocolates
Biscotti bars
USB sockets

RafKa

I'm flying LAX-BNE and as a OWS I was wondering if I'm better off at AA Flagship or QF J lounge? I've got a 4h between flights in LAX (incoming from MIA) so not too concerned about the trek between lounges.

sxc

I think the AA lounge is better than the oneworld J lounge.