A First Class Passage To India – Admirals Club And Flagship Lounges

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This is a continuation of our recent First Class trip to India, a journey where we had Big Travel with Small Money.

Trip Report Index:

• Introduction
• American Airlines Admirals Club Lounge and Flagship Lounge – Kansas City & Chicago
• American Airlines First Class – Chicago to London
• British Airways Concorde Lounge – London Heathrow
• British Airways – (New) First Class – London to Mumbai, India
• An Indian Wedding Extravaganza
• InterContinental Lalit – Mumbai, India
• Park Hyatt – Goa, India
• Jet Airways, First Class – Mumbai, India to London
• Jet Airways, Business Class – Mumbai, India to London
• American Airlines, First Class – London to Chicago
• American Airlines, Business Class – London to Chicago

We checked in at Kansas City and got our boarding passes for our flights from Kansas City to Mumbai.  We then went through security and went to the Admirals Club Lounge by our gate.

Admirals Club Lounge – Kansas City

The lounge was very small, but we were warmly greeted as we entered.

There was a small bar in the lounge.

I asked for an internet access card and logged onto the web.  Emily used one of the 2 computers in the lounge to check her email.

The lounge was very small and the picture below is literally about 50% of the lounge area!

After spending ~45 minutes in the lounge, we headed to our gate and boarded our flight from Kansas City to Chicago.

We were in domestic First Class, and the short flight to Kansas City was uneventful.  I would have liked to have posted pictures of our flight, but I didn’t take any since I wasn’t blogging at the time.

Flagship Lounge – Chicago

We landed in Chicago and made our way to American Airline’s Flagship Lounge.

American Airline’s Flagship Lounges are restricted to First Class International passengers, First Class Transcontinental customers, and to oneworld Emerald International customers traveling on eligible  oneworld flights.

The Flagship Lounge is supposed to be a “premium” First Class lounge, but I found it to be just okay.  The service was great, but the food offerings (processed cheese and vegetables with ranch sauce) and decor were below par.

I am being critical here, because American Airline sells International First Class tickets for tens of thousands of dollars – and for that type of money I would expect a lot more than a self-service bar and a few finger foods served with packets of ketchup and mustard!

In comparison, the Concorde Lounge in London most certainly was a “premium” First Class lounge! But more about that later…

Cheese and crackers with regular cutlery and crockery!

There were self-service beverages available.

We helped ourselves to a Bailey’s on the rocks and checked our email.

We decided to graze on some fruits and sandwiches.

I decided to have a shower before we boarded our flight to London, so I left the Flagship Lounge (which didn’t have any showers) and walked to the showers in the Admirals Club Lounge.

The private shower room was great – water pressure good, clean towels, and toiletries were provided.

After my shower, I trudged back to the Flagship Lounge and soon it was time to board our flight from Chicago to London.

The walk from the Flagship Lounge to our gate was very short and soon we were in the First Class cabin of an American Airlines 777 heading to London!

Bottom Line: We did have a nice time together exploring the 3 American Airline lounges in Kansas City and Chicago and looked forward to our flights to India. What do you think? Was I *too* critical of the First Class Flagship Lounge in Chicago? Should I expect the lounge to be of a very high standard – given the retail price of a First Class ticket – even though I redeemed miles for my ticket? Tell us about it in the comments!

Last Day!

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