LAX American Airlines Flagship Lounge

August 2019

Tonight I'm off on a fun 48 hour solo trip to JFK, Montréal and Bermuda. This trip started as a way to use my last 2018 AA EXP Systemwide Upgrade. Just before that last SWU expired in January, I booked a cheap LAX-JFK-Bermuda Business Class ticket and then used that SWU to upgrade LAX-JFK to First. I looked for something after July, which would be the start of my 2020 BA Executive Club qualification year. With a 12 hour JFK connection, I figured that I had time for a quick up and back to Montreal to squeeze in a NEXUS interview and requalify. Delta offers cheap First Class fares from NYC-Montréal so I would also be earning 30XP points and help me requalify for my 2020 AF Flying Blue Silver status. On the return, a cheap Bermuda-BOS-LAX flight gives me another 21XP and chance to sample Delta One's transcon service.

• American Flagship First Dining at LAX

• American Flagship First Class to JFK

• Delta First Class LaGuardia to Montréal YUL

• Delta First Class YUL to LGA

• American Flagship First Dining at JFK

• American Business Class to Bermuda

• 16 hours in Bermuda

• Delta First Class Bermuda to Boston

• Delta One Boston to LAX

Miserable rush hour traffic tonight on the 405 around Long Beach and it took 90 minutes. I parked in the T2 garage and walked the back alleys over to T4.

To private Flagship First Check-in...

... and then up the elevator to Pre-Check, where amazingly I was the only passenger.

After checking at the front desk, I received my First Dining invitation. Upstairs, I was personally escorted back to First Dining.

Pics from a previous visit.

Tonight's menu...

... and wine list.

A glass of Krug Grande Cuvée to start...

Tonight's starters...

Chilled Maine Lobster... poached lobster tail, fresh burrata, local cherry tomatoes and basil three ways. This was very good although the burrata was a meh.

And the Avocado Tuna Tartare, sashimi yellow fin tuna, avocado, cucumber, tempura with grated hard boiled egg.

The ahi was very nice.

For my main, the Cabernet Braised Short Rib with Bordelaise sauce, pearl onions and glazed root vegetable.

This dish was excellent, even more so with a glass or two of the fabulous Pagodes de Cos d'Estournel Bordeaux.

For dessert, the House-made Banana Bread was tasty although a little dry. With vanilla bean ice cream and Nutella.

And a little more Krug and Cos... way better than Ambien for the flight to JFK.

May 2018

Today, Mrs. SFO777 and I are off to Santorini, to celebrate our 20th anniversary. Our first stop is London as we're using the return portion of our January Athens-LAX outbound. Although it's a single connection, LAX-LHR flights misconnect to the one daily morning London-Santorini BA nonstop. Surprising light traffic on the 405, 105 and Sepulveda on a gloomy Friday in SoCal.

I dropped Mrs. SFO777 off at the Flagship First entrance and then went to park. Not sure what the deal was today but there was no porter outside and no one inside seemed to care. #GoingForGreat indeed.

Door was closed, had no sensor or handle.

Ten minutes later, I was back to pick up Mrs. SFO777 and head to Pre-Check and the Flagship Lounge.

We headed for the Admirals Club/Flagship Lounge...

... and directly to Flagship First Dining which is reserved only for international First, transcon First and Concierge Key.

The coolest thing about the new lounge is the vintage photos of celebrities flying AA years ago.

This is second visit to the LAX Flagship Lounge and it continues to be an attractive oasis with excellent staff.

Breakfast on my previous visit was inedible, so I was interested to see if All Day Dining would be any better. Hint: It wasn't.

We both had a glass or two of the lovely Bollinger, and then the Lobster Pad Thai which our server Jocelyn said was one of their most popular dishes.

Ugh. More inedible food. The pasta was bone dry while the lobster was just plain gross and disgusting. We had a couple of bites and another glass of Bollinger, while we lingered a while at our table until we headed down to our gate.

Yuck.

March 2018

LAX Flagship First Dining and AA First from LAX to JFK

Another gorgeous SoCal morning and I'm off to LAX to continue my CAI-HNL ticket and progress to my BA Gold. But instead of returning to Cairo, I've changed that trip to September and my next year BA qualification. So today, it's LAX-JFK and then JFK-BOS-LAX on a separate ticket to get me over the 1,500 Tier Point threshold for BA Gold.

And yet another LAX traffic bottleneck as a dozen LAPD cops were checking vehicle and profiling passengers driving to the terminals.

Lots of parking spaces on the ground floor of the T4 garage.

A month later, this escalator is still not working.

The PreCheck escalator was clogged with a bunch of mainland Chinese pax who inexplicably had PreCheck access. I exited and used the Flagship check-in where a great porter espcorted me to the from of the PreCheck line and conveyor. That was worth a $20 tip.

I checked in downstairs and received my Dining invite.

Love the period celebrity photos that line the hallway to Flagship First Dining.

Nice first impression with an impressive bar and communal work table.

Not a big fan of the thick partitions and the two tops squeezed against said partition.

More two tops against the wall. And the good seats by the window are too sunny in the morning.

Since I arrived at around 9:15am, it was still breakfast time and the Breakfast Menu.

Service was pleasant... but more friendly and adequate than excellent like JFK.

The Steak, Eggs, Frites sounded great. OK, that sure doesn't look very appetizing. What chef in his right mind would like think this looks good?? And where is the Steak?

OMG, this was disgusting. All I could eat were the eggs, after brushed off the sauce. The short ribs were just plain gross. And the "crispy potatoes" weren't even close to be crispy. They were soft... just you get them on any AA inflight meal. I'm betting that the kitchen made a big batch early in the morning and then just served all morning from that.

I sent it back and with time running out, went with just the House-made Toasted Coconut Granola with apricot guava compote and Greek yogurt. I sure didn't see any granola as this was basically a smoothie. Jeez.

OK, not a good first First Dining impression. Maybe it was the B team in the kitchen for breakfast and maybe it's all still new. Hopefully, the All Day menu is better... or it's back to the QF lounge.

Before I headed to the gate, I checked out the regular part of the crowded Flagship Lounge.