American Airlines has announced changes to Admirals Club.
- Cash price increase as of February 1st, 2019 (renewals are $50 less than what is listed below):
- Regular: $550 to $650
- Gold: $525 to $625
- Platinum: $500 to $600
- Platinum Pro: $475 to $575
- Executive Platinum: $450 to $550
- Concierge Key: free
- Miles price decrease as of (renewals are 5,000 miles less than what is listed below):
- Regular: 85,000 miles to 65,000 miles
- Gold: 75,000 miles to 62,500 miles
- Platinum: 70,000 miles to 60,000 miles
- Platinum Pro: 65,000 miles to 57,500 miles
- Executive Platinum: 60,000 miles to 55,000 miles
- Concierge Key: free
- Must show a boarding pass with same day travel on American or a partner airline to access Admirals Club from November 1st, 2019
- Admirals Club household memberships will be discontinued
As you can see the cash price is increasing and the usability is decreasing. The miles price is decreasing, but at best you’re still only getting 1¢ per mile. In any case paying cash doesn’t really make sense given the Citi American Airlines executive card comes with admirals club access with an annual fee of $450. Your authorized users also get Admirals Club access (and you can add up to 10). It’ll be interesting to see if the annual fee on that card is changed or not. I personally don’t think paying even $450 for Admirals Club access is worth it, but that will depend on how often you fly American and what other lounge access you have available to you.
Hat tip to OMaaT
