American Airlines Admirals Club LaGuardia Airport (LGA) Review: Skip It

Worth Coming to Airport Early For: NO (this place, similar to American Airlines itself, is mediocre)

Better Than The Terminal? YES (Although terminal B at LGA is quite nice. Lounge-wise, you’re better off at any of the credit card lounges here: Capital One, Chase, or Amex, in that order. See here for my comparison guide)

Introduction

Oh American. Full disclosure, I visited this lounge right after I visited the Capital One Landing (which is also in terminal B at LGA), which is probably the best lounge I’ve experienced in the US. Maybe ever? It was seriously incredible, which maybe tainted my view of this very ~average~ lounge. Regardless, I had some free Admirals Club passes that come with my Citi Strata Elite card and figured why not? Overall, this lounge pretty much met my expectations – it’s a fine place to hang out in with mixed seating, but don’t come expecting a quality meal. It’s a marginally nicer place than the terminal itself. If you need to get work done or grab a free coffee it’s acceptable, otherwise I wouldn’t bother visiting here.

In this post, you’ll find:

Lounge Access Rules and Where to Find It

Admirals Clubs have many ways to enter. Most common points of access will be:

1. Via a qualifying first / business class flight on American or a OneWorld partner
2. Admirals Club paid membership
3. Through one of many different credit cards (namely AAdvantage Executive and Globe cardholders, and Citi Strata Elite cardholders, which is how I got in)
4. Day Pass (generally available for purchase for $79 – NOT worth it)

After my visit to the Capital One Landing, this lounge was on my way to my gate, so I figured I might as well make a quick stop. This lounge is located in Terminal B of LaGuardia, on the way down from the elevated bridge near gates 30/31.

This lounge is currently open:
Sunday – Friday from 4:30am – 9:30pm, and Saturdays from 4:30am – 8:30pm

I got in via my Citi Strata Elite card, which comes with 4 passes to Admirals Clubs annually. After scanning my lounge pass and boarding pass for my next flight (on American), I was let in.

Lounge Amenities & Review

The best feature of this lounge is its size. It’s 22,000 square feet with capacity for up to 360 guests. It has tons of seating variety and a mix of rooms and quiet areas. However, I found it was very much quantity over quality here. Which is fine for an Admirals Club.

This lounge features food across two buffets, a full service bar, a business center, and showers.

Here’s the space immediately after entering the lounge:

This lounge is effectively split into two wings. They both have their own bars and food stations.

The smaller bar / food area is right by the entrance:

The lounge is stocked with Lavazza coffee and has good espresso machines, which I value in any lounge.

I was there during breakfast, and they had a decent spread including smoked salmon (a lot of it), yogurt, and some hot items:

The hot items on offer this morning were maple sausage and scrambled eggs. I was never a huge fan of the breakfast-in-a-warm-public-vat concept, but it’s here if you want it.

Past the buffet is more seating. The lounge does a good job with power outlets, which are near most seats.

While there aren’t great views of the tarmac because this lounge is built inside the terminal, there’s decent light and high ceilings which is nice.

This lounge is functionally split into two spaces; here’s the walkway that joins them:

The second bar and dining area is significantly larger. It was pretty packed here when I arrived so no pictures of the food spread, but it was functionally the same as the first food area (smoked salmon, yogurt, etc).

This side, however, did have a waffle station (waffles & credit cards? What could be more American?).

This side felt a big bigger with tons of seating. The whole place kind of felt like a sterile office, though.

This side also had its own separate drinks and snacks bar as well:

There was also a sports cave – which felt equal parts fun and sad:

They also did have some fun arcade booths installed as well:

Conclusion

This lounge is massive with many seating options, but that’s pretty much all it offers. I would always see this lounge from the outside when heading to flights departing from B gates, and was always curious what it was like on the inside. It’s a fine place to hang out if you need a coffee or a place to work, but otherwise I’d skip this one and visit one of the many other better lounges in Terminal B at LGA.