I’ve passed through Philadelphia a couple of times recently and experienced two of the Admirals Club lounges. Since it’s quite a large international hub, a Flagship Lounge is due to open, but nobody seems to know when.
For those wondering, these are the premium lounges operated by AA and they are quite nice. This year alone, I’ve visited the ones in New York (since changed to a shared space with British Airways called the Greenwich Lounge), Los Angeles and Chicago.
The Current Situation at PHL
For what it’s worth, the lounge situation is not all bad. When connecting out of Terminal F, I found the Admirals Club lounge there to be quite pleasant.
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- It’s pleasant enough in the F terminal.
Not so the windowless basement lounge in the A East Terminal between gates A4 and A6A. While the staff were lovely, the basic small room was not very pleasant and has nothing whatsoever going for it. It is perhaps one of the most underwhelming lounges I’ve ever used (see picture at the top of this article).
When Is The Flagship Lounge Due To Open?
The short answer is, nobody seems to know. According to the American Airlines website, the space is still listed as, “Temporarily closed to prepare for a new Flagship Lounge”.
Thanks to the pandemic, the schedule was thrown off and it seems to still be pending. Some people have speculated that it could be Q3 2023 before this opens, which is still quite a long way off.
Overall Thoughts
With Philadelphia being a large station with plenty of international services, a Flagship Lounge seems to be needed. That basement lounge is nothing to write home about, and next time I will go to the other lounge between terminal B and C, which I have yet to see.
If anyone has heard anything around the date the Flagship Lounge is due to open, please let me know. What do you think of the current AA lounge situation in Philadelphia? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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If I were writing and article about the PHL Flagship lounge on an online travel site, I would have called AA PR and asked for their official answer. I can tell you that sometime late last year, a PHL Admirals Club agent told me that the construction permits expired and new ones had to be (re)approved. As that came as secondhand knowledge, who knows if it’s the reason.
Yes, if I had a contact in the AA PR department, I may have done just that. Either way, it’s been quite some time and everyone is waiting. I’ll see if I can find some more information.