After a decade of shutting clubs and cutting costs, American Airlines has flipped the script. Its chief customer officer, Heather Garboden, told the Future Travel Experience conference that travellers should expect a new, renovated or expanded lounge roughly every month over the next two to three years — around 24 to 36 projects in total, on top of about 13 already announced at ten airports.
The turnaround follows a rough stretch. American closed Admirals Clubs in Buffalo, San Juan, Hartford, Greensboro, Caracas, Santiago and Tokyo Narita between 2015 and 2020, and its 2015 refurbishment programme produced spaces critics likened to a modern hospital. The design reset began with the warm, wood-heavy club at Washington National's E concourse in 2022, followed by Denver and Newark in 2023 and a 25,000-square-foot combined Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge in Philadelphia in May 2025.
The pipeline is ambitious. Austin gets a 12,000-square-foot club — roughly double the current one — with American's first outdoor lounge terrace, targeted for 2027 on a $10 million filing. Nashville's new Concourse A club spans about 17,430 square feet with terraces and a balcony. Washington National's D concourse club will be rebuilt with 50% more seats, Chicago O'Hare gains a 10,000-plus-square-foot club on the L concourse, and Dallas-Fort Worth gets a 37,000-square-foot Terminal C club. Miami nearly doubles its lounge footprint, Charlotte gets its first Flagship Lounge, and JFK adds a grab-and-go Provisions outlet by the end of 2026.
Money and credit cards sit behind much of this. Citi has moved from selling lounge access to putting its name on the clubs themselves, with branding rolled out at Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami from April. The Citi Executive card rose to a $695 annual fee for new applicants in August 2026, while American now charges $750 to $1,400 for its own Admirals Club memberships — making the card the obvious buy for anyone wanting regular access. The refreshed card also adds up to $500 in annual American Airlines Vacations credits and extra Loyalty Point bonuses.
Food is improving too, with made-to-order QR-code dining across Flagship Lounges, Lavazza coffee and Bollinger champagne, and a Flagship Dining at DFW that reportedly delivers meals in four minutes. From September 15, Flagship Dining at DFW and Miami opens to qualifying Flagship Business passengers — a boost for business class travellers, though it dilutes the exclusivity that made First Dining special for the small group who previously qualified. A rethink of the whole Flagship product is underway, with open questions about capacity, consistency across hubs and who gets in.
For anyone who flies American regularly, this is the best news in years: more space, better food and quieter places to work are coming to the hubs you actually use. The card-and-membership maths also just changed — if you want lounge access, running the numbers on the Citi Executive card now beats buying a membership outright.