Review: American Airlines Admirals Club Los Angeles (LAX) – Terminal 5

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American Airlines operates three Admirals Club lounges at Los Angeles International Airport: this review will cover the Terminal 5 location.

American Airlines Admirals Club Los Angeles – Terminal 5 (LAX)

The lounge is located in Terminal 5 near the Farmer’s Market and duty-free shopping in the center of the terminal.

Hours + Access

It is open daily from 4:30 am to 11:30 pm. There are many ways to access the lounge, including:

AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro and Platinum members traveling internationally
oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members
Qualifying first and business class passengers

international
LAX – JFK
LAX – BOS
LAX – MIA (only on Boeing 777-300 flights)

Membership
Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard
One-day pass holders ($79 or 7,900 miles)
Military

Even with a membership, you must be traveling on a oneworld flight in order to enter.

Take the stairs or elevator up one level from departures and you’ll be checked in at the desk.

Seating

There’s a small seating area to the right of the check-in counter, but make a u-turn for most lounge seating. There’s a beautiful domed ceiling and my guess is that this is original to the airport. This was a former US Airways Club before the merger with AA and a Delta Sky Club before that (US Airways only moved from Terminal 1 to Terminal 5 in its final few years of operation as part of a gate shuffle with Delta and Southwest).

 

It’s a large lounge and at 8:00 pm it was not at all crowded…

Food + Drink

In terms of food and drink, a buffet included sliced meats and cheeses, empanadas, street corn, soup (clam chowder and mushroom broth), salad, vegetable sticks, hummus, snack mix, whole fruit, and cookies.

There was also a guacamole bar (sponsored by Citi) next to the bar (bar menu here). That menu also includes a list of food items like lobster mac & cheese or sushi available for purchase.

Soft drinks (Coke Freestyle machine), tea, coffee, water, and juice were complimentary.

Restrooms + Showers

Restrooms and showers (three shower suites) were available.

Flagship Fights

My last three “Flagship” flights have departed or arrived in Terminal 5. That meant that if you wanted to visit the Flagship Lounge, you had quite a long walk to Terminal 4 via underground walkway…it seems very strange to me that AA would schedule any of its “flagship” flights to depart from T5.

CONCLUSION

The AA T5 Admirals Club at LAX was spacious and not crowded, with showers and a respectable selection of food and drink.

If you are departing from Terminal 5, this is a much more convenient lounge than in Terminal 4 (and security lines tend to move faster too).

You can compare this lounge to AA’s Terminal 4 lounge here.