My 90 minutes connection in PHL on my way back from Europe in May just morphed into a 2:26 layover due to a schedule change that resulted in a five minutes later arrival of my transatlantic flight.

Based on prior experiences, I'd much rather spend the extra hour at the Chase Lounge than at any of the currently open Admirals Clubs. The extra walking will help me stretch my legs between 9+ and 6+ hours long flights.

My last flight out of PHL was as far as physically possible from the Chase lounge. It took me 15 minutes to get to the gate.

You can spend more time than that just walking from security to your flight at major airports. It'll probably keep the supremely lazy away, but that's it.

It�s also not a competition because whatever you may think of AA, Chase�s flights are far less convenient and they are far stingier with upgrades. So if you�re flying AA and chose to access the Chase lounge rather than the FL, I don�t imagine AA is going to object.

Curious - what do you mean by Chase's flights? For people who book flights via the Chase portal, you can book on any airline you want, pretty much. But you don't have to be flying on a flight booked via the Chase portal to use the Chase lounge. That's got nothing to do with it.

Or is this just a big /s post and I'm having a serious whoosh moment?

Yeah, just my lame attempt at sarcasm. But unless I�m missing something, I don�t see AA losing much sleep over passengers opting for the Chase lounge over the FL. I have to imagine that AA is not losing much (if any) passenger traffic at DFW even though there are �competing� lounges there, too.

Wouldn't it even (potentially) be a benefit for AA if people did opt for one of the other lounges? Would certainly help with overcrowding.

I'm still curious what the new Flagship will be like and I'm sure I'll use it when I've got a qualifying flight and am feeling lazy.

I have a theory about airport and hotel lounges. They want the food to be good enough to attract and satisfy customers but not so good that it leads to increased costs (unless the increased costs less to a corresponding increase in revenue) or to decreased revenue.

At hotels that also operate a restaurant (as opposed to simply leasing the restaurant to a third party), they don�t want to lose restaurant revenue. I�ve been in many Ritz Carlton lounges, for example, which offer free food and booze all day long. But they still want you to eat at their restaurants. So the lounge food is pretty good, but in my experience not so good to lead many to conclude that it�s better than, or even as good as, what�s available in the restaurant.

It�s slightly different for airlines, but still they want to attract you to buy seats on their flights without having to overspend on the lounges (or on other amenities). It�s a fine line, of course. I�ve been in AA, DL and UA domestic lounges in the past month, and AA�s were the least good. In my case, there�s zero chance that will impact which airline I chose to fly, but perhaps others will make a different decision. My guess � and this is only a guess � is that AA knows its lounges aren�t as good as the others, but their goal isn�t necessarily to be the best. Of course I imagine that they want to be the best, but they have to constantly estimate what the cost to improve the lounges would be relative to the expected increase in passenger revenue. Similarly they have to consider the risk whether not improving the lounges will lead to decreased passenger revenue. We all think we�d be better at running an airline than AA management, but my guess � again, only a guess � is that most of us would fail at that analysis. AA has real data; we all just make it up in our heads!

I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally know enough about the complexities involved with running an airline to know that I would not be better at running it than AA management. haha

Anyway, I think you're right.

AA management isnt losing much sleep over a lot of things. Thats why their financials trail everyone else.

Everyone else is investing in high quality products, from DL, UA to Amex, Chase and Capital One. Even HA and AS are planning some.

As an Amex member I sincerely hope that the Chase lounge is very successful.

That said, I remain curious as to what the new Flagship lounge brings, especially how it compares with the old Envoy lounge. The only real draw there was the space. The food was almost nonexistent.

AA would love it if their business class passengers (and anyone else that was FL eligible) went to the Chase lounge and were happy about their overall flight experience. Zero lounge cost for AA in that scenario and passengers satisfied.

This is slightly off topic because I'm talking about Chase Sapphire Lounges, because my last few recent visits to the ones at LGA, JFK, and IAD have been kinda underwhelming. I don't know if the Boston one is still as good, but the last time I went about a year ago, they were down to using paper plates and bowls. The LGA, JFK, and IAD experience for me was mostly just ok, the space is still beautiful and the staff are mostly very nice. However, the food options were very limite compared to grand opening, just a handful (5-7) things on offer at the buffet and a couple of items (one noodle option, one burger and one Beyond/Impossible Burger option, the kids stuff and fries). The burgers were mostly luke warm, you know the patties have been sitting on the assembly line waiting for the order. The new PHL one might be good during the grand opening, but they seem to slip in quality over time. So overall, I'd say the experience at Flagship Lounges (at least at DFW FL versus Capital One next door), is competitive, if not better. There are more things on offer and more shower availability, and no half hour waiting list. That said, AA should get the PHL Flagship Lounge ready for the summer season if they want to keep the premium passengers.

The key part of a lounge, that Amex/CO/Chase struggle with, is accessibility. I expect the FL will not have a waitlist or standing room only that most of these third party lounges have regularly. Considering after the allure of a new lounge wears off, especially US based ones, most people aren't showing up significantly early to get into a lounge, and having to wait 20+ minutes is going to send me to the lounge I can access immediately.

The other key part, that credit card lounges can't address, is assistance with IRROPS.

True. It's nice to not have to wait at the FL.

Regarding crowding, one part is people arriving early, but a lot of it is connections. On a connection, I'd happily go a FL, but I'll still wait for a CL/Chase lounge over the AC. The Admirals Clubs are pretty pathetic - the ones in the LUS hubs, especially so.