New service offerings have arrived at American Airlines Admirals Club lounges. As of yesterday, July 23rd, improved food and drink selections have started to make their way into select lounges. The upgraded offerings are currently available in the Washington-National and Miami Admirals Clubs.
These changes were initially teased by American in a press release on July 10th regarding changes to the Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard and now we’re getting our first look at what you can expect on your next visit.
The food offerings have been updated to add a little local flair, with the Miami club currently serving Cuban-style pork sliders from a build your own bar and roasted vegetable empanadas. The menu, as of today, is below.
I’m not sure if the rollout is going a little rough or if this is what to expect moving forward, but the build your own slider bar consists of some buns, mustard, and sliced pork. Hardly a “premium” experience.
The empanadas on the other hand were decent and they had a selection of desserts including macarons that were going fast.
In addition to the upgraded food, the alcohol selection has been upgraded with signature cocktails, sparkling wine, craft beer, and additional liquor offerings. The two complimentary cocktails currently available in the MIA Admirals Club are a Caribbean Bloody Mary and a Strawberry Daiquiri. The full menu of offerings is below.
For passengers who are short on time the airline has started offering grab and go snacks as well. Today, that selection consisted of a Quinoa and Veggie wrap for $9.00, chicken Caesar wrap for $10.00, and Coca-Cola products for $4.25. These can be purchased with a swipe of a credit card from a cooler in the lounge.
These upgrades to the soft product come as the airline rolls out redesigned Admirals Clubs throughout the system, with the first one opening in Washington-National a few months ago. and new clubs in Denver and Newark opening in the coming months. As part of this change, individual Admirals Club annual memberships have risen to $850 or 85,000 AAdvantage miles with one time passes increasing to $79 or 7,900 AAdvantage miles.
Aside from the upgraded alcohol selection this doesn’t seem like much of an improvement, especially on day 2 of the rollout. Hopefully as the new offerings continue to roll out systemwide we’ll see an improvement in the quality overall. Through the first 36 hours, I’m not impressed.
