American Airlines is expanding its Flagship offering by extending certain aspects to oneworld Sapphire and Emerald frequent flyers. The Flagship offering is the most exclusive at American and these extra benefits will be appreciated by overseas flyers.
A revamp of the product is happening at the moment and the first new Flagship lounge opened on 25 May at New York JFK. Further lounges will open throughout 2017 and 2018 and as each one comes online, there will be changes in the access for the lounges.
Extra Benefits For Sapphire
There is a new benefit for oneworld Sapphire level frequent flyers from all airlines apart from American. These passengers will be granted access to the Flagship Lounge when flying in any class on both domestic and international itineraries.
The access will apply to the new Flagship lounges only. The current International First Class lounges will continue to have the same access policy as before. This means Sapphire will only be able to access in New York JFK for now. Lounges will next open in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles (2017) and in London, Miami and Philadelphia (2018).
International Business Class and select Transcontinental Business Class passengers will also have access. American’s own Sapphire level frequent flyers – AAdvantage Platinum and Platinum Pro – are excluded from this on itineraries that are solely within North America.
An Extra Emerald Benefit
Flagship First Check-In is now available for oneworld Emerald frequent flyers. This check-in is available in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Miami and New York and features personalised service and expedited security access. Extra benefits like this are going to be appreciated by these high level frequent flyers.
Overall Thoughts
It is interesting to see these extra benefits being introduced at American Airlines. When looked at objectively it really is just American coming into line with the rest of the oneworld alliance. Emeralds on other airlines use the first class check-in desks regardless of what class they are travelling.
The new Flagship lounges sound like they are on par with other airlines First and Business Class lounges. There is sit down dining for First Class passengers and a free buffet for Business Class passengers. There are also showers and all the other amenities people expect. Extending access to Sapphire and Business Class also brings American into line with standard alliance policy.
All of this makes me happy and I plan to visit the new Flagship lounge next time I am over in the USA. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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With thanks to Australian Business Traveller for the heads up.
Featured image by American Airlines
As I am a multi-continent flyer this is great news! Paradise on both sides of the Atlantic!
That’s the dream, right there haha!
Isn’t AA platinum One World Sapphire, not Exec platinum?
You’re right, I’ve corrected that. Thanks for pointing that out!