American Airlines Flagship Lounge - O'Hare International Airport

Hours

5:00am to 10:00pm daily

Airlines Serviced

American Airlines
Japan Airlines
OneWorld Airlines

Access Rules

First class or business class ticket on an OneWorld Airline
Emerald or sapphire status in OneWorld
One guest of the above

The Lounge

A lounge that has moved around O'Hare since I first was able to visit in 2009. When it initially started, well, it was ok, but I wasn't super impressed with it in a small room at the end of terminal K.

Now that it has moved to one floor below the Admirals Club, well, they really did a great job with the current location. I have lost count of the number of times I have waited between flights in this club and I don't regret a moment of it.

There is no bar with service in the club, but there are copious amounts of high quality alcohol available for your own mixing delight.

When I was drinking more, this was frequently where I was standing mixing up cocktails

Ahh, the wine and champagne! A fixture in every club

Now let's get to the food. As you'll see in the pictures, it changes service per time of the day, and also based on Japan Airlines flight schedule.

Two lines of buffet. I found the food service here the best of all of them excluding flagship dining

Custom omeletes was a new one right before covid closures

Frequent flyers' breakfast of champions - eggs, sushi and alcohol (Just before JAL was scheduled to depart that day)

Dinner is always changing through the months, and I, Mr. Picky eater, always find something I like

Custom brats. That was way too rich and fattening to finish, but it was damn tasty

And yes, more liver shock to add to my drinking

And the other areas

The rest of the club is basically seating areas and it can hold quite a few

This is an area I have not seen utilized and I wonder how long it will remain this way

I never eat in this area, and I don't know why I haven't. I guess because I'm not flying with anyone usually and I hole up in a private-ish area

Very large, and one of many exclusively just for the lounge, not shared with the Admirals Club

The view of Chicago early in the morn, after I had already been in the lounge for a while and had a drink too

Summary

I've been to 5 of the international lounges in Chicago. This one is the best. Polaris I've heard is nice, but I'm not sure if it meets the quality of this one or not.

Of all the flagship lounges in American's system, this one is my favorite, even without Flagship Dining. I try to spend at least 5 hours per visit. At one point, I was here so much the staff asked me if I had a job or if I just flew around the world all the time (kinda a little of both in 2019).

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