After a visit to the American Express Centurion Lounge, I headed over to the American Airlines Admirals Club in Concourse C at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
American Admirals Club Charlotte Concourse C Location
American Airlines operates two Admirals Clubs in Charlotte. The primary club, which is the one I visited, is located at the connector between Concourses C and D. The club can be reached from either concourse. The signage for the club is somewhat subdued so you may have to look carefully.
American Admirals Club Charlotte Concourse C Hours of Operation
The American Admirals Club Charlotte Concourse C is currently open between 5:15a and 10:15p daily. This covers almost all departures from the airport.
American Admirals Club Charlotte Concourse C Entry Requirements
The Admirals Club can be accessed in a variety of ways, including by:
- Admirals Club members, including Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard cardholders;
- First and Business Class passengers on a qualifying departing or arriving international, transcontinental or other domestic flight;
- American Airlines Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro, and Platinum elite members traveling on qualifying departing or arriving international flights;
- OneWorld Emerald and Sapphire members (excluding American and Alaska members);
- Active duty military traveling in uniform traveling on a same-day flight operated by American.
I accessed the lounge thanks to my British Airways Executive Club Gold (OneWorld Emerald) status. There was a line when I entered the lounge but, after a short wait and a scan of my boarding pass, I was welcomed into the lounge.
Full entry and access requirements can be found here.
Layout
The Admirals Club in Concourse C is pie-shaped with the entrance located at the tip and the lounge spreading outwards from there. The lounge is undergoing construction and the front part of the lounge is filled with construction equipment and trash. Not a great introduction to the lounge especially considering this is the primary lounge for the airline’s second-largest hub.
Past the construction mess is a very busy blast from the past. The Admirals Club in Concourse C still has the old U.S. Airways Club vibes. The lounge is spread across multiple rooms featuring high ceilings that reminded me of a train station. The lounge was packed during my short visit so my apologies in advance for the photo quality.
The main seating area of the lounge is spread across multiple rooms and almost exclusively features lounge chairs with smaller, side tables.
While the lounge has plenty of windows that overlook the ramp, I found the space on the darker side during my visit.
In addition to the main seating area, the lounge has a couple of smaller spaces in rooms located off of the main hallway.
Food and Beverage
The lounge had a few different buffet and beverage stations scattered throughout. For the most part, things consisted of salads, soups, a sandwich, and a couple of hot dishes.
Beverage stations with water and tea were located throughout the lounge.
Coffeemakers were located in the lounge though they were out of service during my visit. While this wasn’t a huge deal on a Saturday afternoon, I’d feel differently if I visited on a Monday morning.
The bar is located in a separate room, off to the side of the main lounge. Beer, wine, liquor, and sodas were on offer. Premium beverages were also available for purchase.
American Admirals Club Charlotte Concourse C Atmosphere
While the lounge was packed full, it was relatively quiet inside. The lounge staff was constantly patrolling and cleaning the space as there were only a few seats available. While I wouldn’t call it a bad lounge, it paled in comparison to the American Express Centurion Lounge.
Ultimately, I only spent a few minutes in this lounge before heading to my gate to catch my onward flight to Nashville
Summary
The American Airlines Admirals Club in Concourse C at Charlotte Douglas International Airport is a serviceable space that hasn’t expanded to meet the needs of the airline’s second largest hub. If given the choice between the AmEx Centurion Lounge and the Admirals Club, I’m choosing the AmEx lounge every time.
This lounge is perfectly serviceable if its your only option. However, I wouldn’t recommend arriving early to spend any more time than necessary here. I’m hopeful that the experience will be much improved once the renovations are completed.
Those small rooms off the main room (like the one with the high backed seating up against the wall) are brand new spaces within the last month or so. The entrance from the C concourse side was a wood Home-Depot construction door as well until recently so the sliding door returning is new. The walled off construction storage area is where the huge main entry desk/customer service center was located forever… first part of construction build the new desks along the opposite wall. More seating will eventually go into the old check in space. It’s sad because it looked quite nice with lots of dark wood and a huge sweeping desk that could seat 5-6 agents.
Reason why the main club space is broken up…. if you’re facing the rotunda area at the end, there is a room off to the right side that seems like it’s separated by doorways. That’s because it was for decades… that was the side where you could smoke and it had doors.
I’ll have to make another pass through once the construction is complete. Unfortunately, the construction storage area isn’t walled off anymore, just a bunch of construction supplies and trash somewhat hidden behind visqueen that you walk right past to enter the main portion of the lounge.
Interesting that they still have the old smoking area separated. I don’t remember a time when you could smoke on planes/in the airport.
You could still smoke in the CLT airport until about 12-13 years ago.
The partitions separating the construction waste/storage now are better than a few weeks ago when it was just stanchion ribbons surrounding it. Then again, there is not exactly anywhere that’s any better to put all that stuff. I was told the space where that is will be open seating, so probably requires the least amount of remaining work (it was where the heaviest initial demo was)
Wild that you could still smoke in there in 2012. Any idea on when renovations are expected to be completed?
Last I was told was “this fall” for completion. To be fair, I haven’t been in there in a month or so. I generally don’t even bother when flying out from CLT.