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The First Class Travel Blog

JFK American Flagship Lounge

JFK American Flagship Lounge
March 2018

We arrived at Gate 34, so a healthy hike to the Flagship Lounge.

Mrs. SFO777 and I saw Kinky Boots last year and loved it.  One of the best musicals in years.  I'd highly recommend.

Really cool wall on the hallway to the lounge.

The regular serve yourself offerings for those without First Dining privileges.

And my home for the next hour.

So much nicer than LAX.

And with fabulous service from Karol and Karen at the bar.    My first glass of lovely Bollinger.

I started with the Maryland Style Crab Cakes, spicy remoulade with zuchini and cherry tomato salad.  Very good.

My Roasted Pork Tenderloin was amazing, with mustard cream escarole and lentils.  Yum.  

Not on the menu but Karen made me a Spicy Tequila which she served me a couple of times last year.

And my brownie sundae.  

What a treat.  Great food and service in the best airline lounge in the country.

September 2017

At around T-60, I headed back across the T4 connector to T4.

Where AA finally decieded to close the Admirals Club and Flagship to finish renovations. 

The nearby AA customer service area has been converted to a mini-Admirals Club...

... with grab and go food and beverages.

My LAX-JFK gate tonight is in Terminal 5, which is another walk via tunnel.

A quick stop to check out the T5 Admirals Club, which AA took over from Delta. 

LAX-JFK
AA 28
321T
10:00p-5:15a +1
September 25, 2017

Tonight's flight departed from nearby Gate 53B.  I arrived at T-25 and pretty much everyone had already boarded.

Tonight's menu for the pic.

Just after take-off, I reclined my seat into bed more and slept all the way to New York.  Nice sunrise on descent.

On arrival, I headed for the JFK Flagship Lounge.

Which was virtually empty at 5:30am, perfect for picture taking.

After a shower, I headed for Flagship First Dining and breakfast.

What a lovely oasis of calm as it is strictly reserved to international First and transcon First passengers.  

I had the delicious Eggs Benedict on my last breakfast visit so I tried the Steak Eggs and Frites today.  Yummy.

 

I love, love, love Flagship First Dining.   Hard to believe that this is really American Airlines.

 

August 2017

From Terminal 4, it was easy to get to the inter-terminal Sky Train. 

And a few minutes later, I was at Terminal 8.

At the far right of the Terminal is Flagship First check-in, where the check-in dragon has a list of all eligible First Class passengers that day.    Body language says she was not going to make in past him.

Some pics from an earlier visit.  A little spartan compared to some other airlines, but certainly a pleasant oasis especially again I was the only passenger.   I was fortunate to have a great agent that input my KTN data and reprinted my Etihad-issued boarding pass so I now had the magic TSA PRECHECK on it.

The grey door at the far end leads directly into the PreCheck queue which was a nice design and set up feature.

PreCheck security took about 5 minutes and I headed for the Flagship Lounge.

Not many in line today and I was in the lounge in short order.

And the usual afternoon mob scene...

Some pics of the lounge from a prior more quiet time.

First order of business was a shower.  And the new Flagship showers are plentiful and a nice improvement over the old ones.

 

Still a mob scene after my shower as I headed to Flagship First Dining, a lovely oasis of calm.   Some pics from an earlier visit.

The hostess counter is right inside the front door. And don't even try to get in without an invitation card from one of the front check-in AAngels.

Very attractive but small bar, lounge area and dining room.

 

 

And back to today, I requested a booth to try a different vantage point.

Like last time, I started with the delicious Gin Basil Lemonade.

OK, I'm guessing that the tape is temporary.

For today's starter, I had the Arancini, with smoked mozzarella and roasted tomato sauce. 

OMG, this was sensational.

For my main, I had the salmon which I really enjoyed last time.  It took forever to come out depsite few other patrons this afternoon.  And despite the "chef recommends medium rare", it came out pretty well done.  Still good, but not great like before.

Fortunately, my flight was delayed today.  The always amusing AA lies about departure time.  The inbound arrives at 6:50p and we're going to depart at 7:20p.  LOL.  Not a prayer.

So I moved over to visit with Karen at the bar and started with her fabulous Spiced Tequila.

And dessert.  To die for.

At this point it was 7pm and time to head over to the midfield concourse for the last leg.