Starstruck: American Gave Me Free Access To The Flagship Lounge

Intro

There have long been reports online stating how shocking the service on American Airlines is. As someone who has avoided American Airlines for quite a while, due to being loyal to UA, I am pleased to show something extremely positive that occurred a few days ago after my flight onboard the 787-9P in Business Class.

Please note: this is just my experience. Whether this would happen to someone else, I'm not entirely sure about, but I felt like AA really did shine through here.

Exceptional Service In ORD

Upon arriving in Chicago, I was set for a 1.5-hour layover before heading off to New York La Guardia. However, as per usual in Chicago, the plane got delayed, again and again and again. As a frequent flyer, you know the feeling that you get, which is just "yup, we are not flying tonight"...

Anyways, with boarding getting even more delayed, I decided to purchase a lounge pass to the Admirals Club in hopes of getting some work done while AA attempted to find a new crew that wasn't timed out. I met a lovely agent from Japan, who had only been working at AA for a month, and paid the 79$ to get in.

The Admirals Club at ORD isn't bad, I'll share a review eventually.

Everything was going smoothly, and at 11:00 pm, the lovely agent came upstairs to let me know, personally, that the plane was set to board.

Rushing downstairs, in hopes of not missing this ungodly red-eye 😂, I made the mad dash over to H gates, just to find out that the new crew had timed out... We had been delayed further, and flying was looking like a long shot at this point.

Traveling during summer is just a nightmare

As I turned around, the same gate agent who let me know the flight was boarding was standing right there and said this to me

I'm so sorry, our systems had it wrong, it turns out we are not boarding. My apologies. I have never done this, but I ran over here as soon as I knew to let you know"

She ended up walking me back to the lounge, where we spoke a little about Japan, etc. It was quite a pleasant walk back, and when we arrived, I asked her if I could pay the differential to access the Flagship Lounge since the Admirals Club was closing.

This is the part of the story that frankly blew me out of the water. She called her supervisor and asked if they would allow me in free of charge on a one-time exception (I never ask for stuff because nothing is free in my eyes). Turns out, everything was approved, and I was able to wait it out at the Flagship Lounge!

Got that Flagship Invitation!

I did get involved with a few glasses of Piper

It was peaceful at the time

Just amazing really what happened. The level of service: exceptional

Food hit the spot, yes, AA lags behind in their Flagship Lounges, but the thought was fantastic by the airline.

5 minutes later, the same agent came upstairs, found me in the lounge, and informed me that the flight had been cancelled. Sure, the flight being cancelled does suck, but the way this whole situation was handled was right out of the top drawer.

Additionally, throughout my time, I met some lovely people including agents and staff members, throughout the lounge. There was a man from the Philippines, and we were just laughing the whole time about how beautiful (and slightly funny) the country is. Another lady from Japan at the front was super helpful and tried to get me on the 6 am, which they managed, but then I ended up missing it (more on that later).

Eventually, I left the lounge after figuring out all of my options and picked up my bags! Another impressive part of the story is that there was no commotion about baggage.

Moral Of The Story

Apologies for the long and winding story, but I promise I am going somewhere with this 😅. There were two parts that stood out to me here.

I think it is important that we all collectively know that a lot of the reviews posted online about airlines are primarily bad, since people complain more than praise. As a whole, we need to share more of the good stories, such as this, so customers can have a balanced view when choosing an airline. I've had some not-so-great crews on AA in the past, but that's also been the case on Singapore/United/Cathay, etc. What American Airlines did today wasn't just providing service, but going above and beyond anything I have ever experienced from an airline.

Additionally, I just want to point out how critical it is from a passenger perspective to stay kind and understanding. I am not perfect by any means, I have been kicked off of flights before (and not proud of it), but have learnt that there is no point getting upset about situations with the staff. It's out of their control when there are delays and cancellations, and it goes extremely far when you treat them with kindness and respect, with so many people not doing that. Yeah, I might sound pretentious when I say this, but it's true.

Final Thoughts

After landing from Los Angeles on board the 787-9P, I ran into summer delays that eventually turned into a cancellation. American Airlines went above and beyond to provide me with plenty of accommodations, and I just wanted to share a good experience that occurred. Show respect, show compassion, and be kind. Always ❤️.

And no, they did not know I was a blogger... (nor am I big either 😂)