American Airlines has announced plans to invest in its lounge setup in Chicago, as the airline continues to try to grow there, and make up ground that has been lost to United.
American plans to open a new Admirals Club in Concourse L at Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD), which will eventually replace the existing lounge in Concourse L. The new lounge is already under construction, and it’ll span more than 10,000 square feet.
American shares that the lounge will “feature local design elements that reflect the vibrant community of Chicago, as well as sweeping airside views via floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the runway.” The lounge will be broken up into distinct zones (“neighborhoods”), each featuring their own unique offerings to suit travelers’ needs.
American has three Admirals Clubs in Chicago — in Concourse G, Concourse H/K, and Concourse L — and that will continue to be the case after the work is done, since the new lounge will replace an existing one. This will be the first “new style” Admirals Club in Chicago, and American’s new style lounges are certainly nicer than the old ones.
Here’s how American’s Chief Customer Officer, Heather Garboden, describes this:
“We’re helping customers at ORD connect to the world with more than 500 flights daily and we want to offer a premium experience from start to finish. The new Admirals Club® lounge will offer more seating and upgraded amenities and fully reflect the standards our customers expect when visiting one of our lounges.”
Competition in Chicago is mighty fierce right now
American is currently growing massively in Chicago, and by this spring, the airline will operate more than 500 peak daily departures from the airport. Long story short, in recent years American has lost a lot of ground to United in Chicago, which has continued to grow.
Chicago O’Hare has a unique gate allocation process, whereby the gates that airlines are assigned in the future are based on how much they’ve flown from the airport in the past (with a bit of a delay), so that’s why we’re currently seeing American add so many flights from the airport.
American insists it wants to grow and reverse the trend of losing capacity at the airport, while United CEO Scott Kirby says he’s “drawing a line in the sand” in Chicago, and won’t let American grow. So it remains to be seen how this all plays out, given that United claims it’s profitable in Chicago, while claiming that American is losing massive amounts of money in Chicago.
When it comes to competing on the premium front, American really needs an updated Flagship Lounge at the airport as well, in my opinion, especially given how much better the United Polaris Lounge is. The issue is that in order to renovate the Flagship Lounge, they’d need to close it for an extended period of time, and that would make customers pretty unhappy in the interim.
Bottom line
A new American Admirals Club is coming to Chicago, with construction already underway (though there’s no anticipated opening date yet). The roughly 10,000 square foot lounge will be located in Concourse L, and will replace the existing lounge there.
It’s good to see American investing in its ground experience in Chicago, as this sounds like a nice upgrade. I just wish the main Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge would also eventually get a refresh, especially given United’s much more impressive lounge setup at the airport.
What do you make of plans for a new Admirals Club in Chicago?