What delights await you in American Airlines’ New York Flagship Lounge?

American Airlines operate what they call Flagship Lounges, which are premium facilities in select cities. These are much more upscale than the airline’s Admirals Clubs, and the New York Flagship Lounge at JFK airport demonstrates this well.

In addition to New York, you can find one in Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago, though the latter two are presently closed. A new space will also be available in Philadelphia in due course.

Flagship Lounge Access

Access is granted to all oneworld Sapphire and Emerald frequent flyers who are not in AAdvantage or Alaska’s Mileage Plan, regardless of cabin class or itinerary. People in the two US programmes at those levels must be flying on an international itinerary (which does not include Canada, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela) to gain access.

Otherwise, you need to be travelling in Flagship First or Flagship Business on international itineraries, certain transcontinental flights with the Flagship products, or certain flights between the mainland and Hawaii. You can also buy a single visit pass for US$150. All the details on access are here.

New York Flagship Lounge Decor

Having last visited three and a half years ago, it was comforting to see nothing had changed. This is not surprising, as the lounge was pretty new back then and what with the cost of renovating a lounge, they don’t exactly get refreshed annually.

The lounge opens at 4:30am, and I was admitted shortly before that and found one person had arrived ahead of me. I was pleased they were not sticking precisely to the advertised hours, unlike some places.

Breakfast Food Offering

One of the great things about the New York Flagship Lounge and these lounges in general is the food selection. There is plenty available to suit every taste and like most food in the United States, it’s always of a high standard.

Quite frankly I wish I had read the menu more carefully before taking pictures. I would have liked to have tried the Hearts of Palm Salad and the Potato Pancakes. Oh well, some other time!

Coffee and My Breakfast

Naturally there is a coffee machine and since it was morning I elected to have a Latte. I generally avoid coffee in the USA, but this was perfectly acceptable.

Breakfast was quite good, with the Canadian bacon being a particular stand out. Since I was also going to be having breakfast on my flight, I made sure not to go hog wild in the lounge.

Overall Thoughts

The American Airlines New York Flagship Lounge is an excellent place to spend some time before flying. There are an array of excellent foods on offer at breakfast time to suit every palate.

Staff clear up relatively quickly and I find the seating to be varied and comfortable. There is also free and fast Wi-Fi, plus plenty of places to charge your devices. All in all, this is a modern 21st century airline lounge that is pretty faultless.

Have you been to the New York Flagship Lounge before? What do you think of it? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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