A nostalgic look back at the old American Airlines Flagship Lounge at LAX

The following is a detailed overview of my visit to the American Airlines Flagship Lounge at LAX back in December 2015. It looked a lot different back then (not in a good way).

My hope is, by the time you get to the end of this review, you’ll agree with me that the American Airlines lounge situation has improved significantly over the years. If you think things are bad now, I’d advise you to keep scrolling…

A detailed overview of what the LAX American Airlines Flagship Lounge was like in 2015

Other than perhaps the JFK Flagship Lounge, the one at the Los Angeles International Airport was the pinnacle of the American Airlines lounge experience back in 2015. It didn’t get much better than this.

Location

The Flagship Lounge is located in Terminal 4 at LAX (not far from the main security checkpoint). Although much of what I’m about to show you no longer exists, the location of the lounge itself hasn’t changed.

Upon checking in at the front desk of the Admirals Club, those with the credentials to access the Flagship Lounge are given a special card key to get inside. I ended up doing a full lap of the main lounge before I found the “secret” Flagship door.

Again, the signage here was lacking. You would think that the marketing team would be proud of promoting an exclusive perk like that, but the entrance was just a frosted glass door with a card reader to the side.

How to get in

The following are all the ways that you could get into the Flagship Lounge back in 2015. Just as it is today, having a domestic first class ticket wasn’t enough:

• You had to be holding a ticket for international business or first class on American Airlines or a Oneworld partner airline.
• You had to be holding a ticket for American Airlines Flagship Business Class (or Flagship First Class) to New York (JFK).
• Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members, as well as ConciergeKey members, had complimentary access to Flagship Lounges – regardless of what class of service they were flying on any American Airlines or Oneworld partner airline flight.

Layout

The floorplan was very simple. It consisted of one long rectangular room with no walls and dividers to break up the space.

I found what I thought looked like a quiet place to sit and relax, but it was right across from the business center (which isn’t sectioned off). There was a guy yapping on the phone – using the speakerphone no less – which got annoying fast.

Luckily, it only lasted 10 minutes. There was also a man with a crying baby in the back corner – which I thought was going to be a problem, but things were quiet again in just a few minutes.

Food and drinks

The amount of food available was impressive. At least compared to, say, the United Airlines Global First Lounge at SFO at the time.

As stoked as I was to see a full bar of cold and hot food items, I tried not to eat too much (since I’d be eating well on the airplane several hours later).

The bathroom

Not that the bathroom situation is any reason to visit (or avoid) an airport lounge, I will say that the one here in the Flagship Lounge was pretty nice. I would definitely whiz there again.

Pros and cons

I thought this was a really nice lounge – easily one of the best airport lounges I had ever visited up to that point. The thing that I liked the most about it was how quiet it was. It didn’t necessarily feel like a proper first class lounge though.

Pros

• Other than “business bro” yapping on the phone for a bit, it was a quiet and tranquil place to hang out.
• The food was pretty good, and there was lots of it.
• Views of the airport (from the huge windows) were excellent.
• Being so hard to find was a good thing I guess. That alone helped to make it feel more exclusive.

Cons

• It was much smaller compared to other first class lounges I had visited at the time.
• There were few partitions and dividers to block / muffle noise.
• It didn’t look all that much nicer (or more luxurious) than most other American Airlines lounges at the time.