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After arriving from Las Vegas on AA’s 757 with international configuration I met up with my buddy Dave, and he guided me to where he’d been hanging out for the afternoon: The American Airlines Flagship Lounge in Terminal D. In general, I’m a fan of AA’s flagship lounges and have enjoyed my experiences at their Chicago and Los Angeles outposts. They offer solid food, much improved ambiance, seating, and typically a decent glass of bubbly. Let’s check out my experience at the AA Flagship Lounge in Miami.
Lounge Details:
- When: November 2018
- Where: Miami
- Concourse D
- Hours: 4:30am to 10:30pm
- Access:
- Qualifying flights first and business class flights on One World airlines
- One World Emerald and Sapphire on any cabin on international flight
- To clarify…any One World Sapphire/Emerald that isn’t American would have access within the US as this would be an international flight for those members.
Entrance
I find the fresh and sleek entrance representative of what you’ll find inside after breezing through the doors and checking in: a refreshed lounge that competes on an international level.
Seating:
The lounge was very busy when we arrived; however, due to the sheer size of the lounge we had no difficulty finding various options to sit. Ultimately we plopped down in the dining area and had a couple nibbles.
Dining Options
There is a large buffet style dining area with cold and hot selections. We were only in the lounge for a short amount of time, and decided to use our Priority Pass to eat at the Corona Beach House instead of picking at the food in the lounge. As you can see from the pictures, the food was heavily picked over, and we didn’t really have enough time to wait to see if they replenished quickly. Plus, I wanted to review the Corona House and they serve Impossible burgers, which I love.
More seating, spirits, and Flagship First
Heading on around the dining room you’ll find the entrance to the Flagship First Dining area. A small, exclusive area where only passengers flying in AA First Class can dine ( or Concierge Keys ). Apparently they’re serving Krug, and from other reviews, the food is quite good and served restaurant style from a menu.
Since Dave and I were headed off on a fun buddy trip I grabbed the Besserat, poured a couple glasses, and we cheersed to a great trip ahead.
Showers:
The showers weren’t available while I was there, but this is a picture from the LA Flagship lounge, and should give you an idea of what the Miami showers would look like: very nice, updated, and modern
Overall:
The American Airlines Flagship Lounge Miami is a bright, fresh lounge with quality food, wine/bev, and I look forward to visiting in the future.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
In Chase branch: 70k Points after $4k spend in 3 months ( make appt with banker –Information about this card has been collected independently by Monkey Miles. Card issuer is not responsible for the information or accuracy.)
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.