After spending two weeks in the United States visiting family in California and Arizona, we had to fly back home to Ecuador. As I have gotten older, I am not interested in overnight flights. I barely get any sleep on an overnight flight, and then the jet lag screws up my sleep schedule for at least a few days. And yet, I booked an overnight flight from Los Angeles to Miami and then an early morning flight from Miami to Quito.
Why did I do such a thing? First, Quito—despite being a capital city—does not have many flights. (It’s not as bad as Montevideo, but still relatively small.) From the United States, your only real options are either American Airlines through Miami, Delta through Atlanta (Doesn’t Everything Leave Through Atlanta?), or United through Houston. The problem with all of these flights is that they arrive at Quito late at night, around 11pm or midnight. By the time we go through immigration, collect bags, and get home, we are looking to get to bed by 1am at best, but 2am more likely. Our normal bedtime is closer to 10pm.
However, American Airlines has three flights daily to Quito, one of which is an early morning 9 a.m. flight that arrives in Quito at 1 p.m. This is perfect, except you have to be in Miami early in the morning to be able to get the flight. Thus, either we have to fly from Los Angeles to Miami the day before and stay overnight in Miami – which we have done previously – or we have to take the redeye from LAX to Miami.
When I was looking to book these tickets, American had an amazing sale on Business Class tickets from the U.S. to Ecuador. And since you only live once, I splurged and bought the Business Class tickets. I figured that if we could sleep on the plane from LAX to Miami, getting Business Class and doing the overnight flight would be worth it. (Read my review of American’s Flagship Business Class here.)
American Airlines Flagship Lounge @ LAX
Kevin and I have CapitalOne Venture X credit cards, so we try to use the free Priority Pass lounges whenever we have time at airports. Most Priority Pass lounges are lukewarm. They serve some drinks, finger foods (nuts and cookies), and sandwiches that we can’t eat. The biggest benefit for us is that we can sit down and use the Internet without having to compete with the masses out by the gate, so we do appreciate this benefit of being Venture X card holders.
Of course, LAX doesn’t have any Priority Pass lounges (neither does Phoenix!), which is quite surprising. LAX is almost always ranked in the top 10 busiest international airports, and yet it doesn’t have this benefit. My hunch is that because LAX is so in demand, LAX’s lounges do not need any more visitors, especially of the free kind.
Fortunately for us, American Airlines came to the rescue! To access Airline lounges, you generally need to have very high status with that airline or one of its alliance members. Alternatively, you could also book an intercontinental (not just international) Business or First Class ticket with that airline and get a one-time pass into the lounge. Most airlines don’t want you to book a cheap international flight across the border and suddenly get premier lounge access.
But for American Airlines’ LAX customers, there is a loophole to lounge access. If you book Business or First Class on either an LAX to Miami or LAX to New York (JFK) flight, American will give you access to their Flagship Lounge (not the Admiral’s Club). And since I booked LAX to Miami in Business Class on the way to Ecuador, Kevin and I walked ourselves right into the Flagship Lounge.

Where is the American Flagship Lounge at LAX?
Once you pass Terminal 4’s TSA Security, keep walking straight ahead to Gate 40. The Flagship Lounge is across from Gate 40, on the right side. You can’t miss it. If you hit Gate 43, then you have gone too far – turn around and go back.
The Flagship Lounge is perfect in terms of location within the terminal. If your flight is in Terminal 4 – American’s main terminal at LAX – then you can quickly walk to any of the gates in less than five minutes from the Flagship Lounge. However, if your flight is in the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT, or Terminal B), then I would plan on at least 15-20 minutes of walking time, even more if your flight is on the far end of TBIT. Fortunately, there is now a walkway between Terminal 4 and TBIT post-security, so you don’t have to reclear security. But it is still a walk!
What is the Flagship Lounge like?
After scanning our boarding pass, we walked upstairs and entered the Flagship Lounge. The first glance isn’t mindblowing. There is a small hallway with a couple of greeters, including one who asked if we would like a glass of champagne. We don’t drink alcohol, but that was nice. After walking past, there are some tables and chairs, along with a snack bar. There is a small window that looks down at Terminal 4 below. This would have been okay, but we kept walking.
Finally, we entered the main lounge area. It was so cool! First, the entire right side has floor-to-ceiling windows that are astonishing in their own right. But these windows also give an amazing view of Terminal 4, parts of the Tom Bradley International Terminal, and the takeoffs from the South Runway Complex. I love watching planes, so it was awesome to have dinner, sit in a very comfortable lounge chair, and just watch the takeoffs. I admit that the view would have been much better in the daytime, but nighttime was still impressive.

There were lots of comfortable leather chairs, along with quite a few tables. There was an extensive buffet bar on the left and more wine and champagne. Overall, the architecture and ambiance were amazing and high-class, in my opinion. If we are splitting hairs, I would say the LATAM Business Class Lounge in Santiago had a better ambiance and more privacy. However, obviously, both are amazing and way better than the Priority Pass lounges.

American Flagship Lounge Food
Most airport lounges don’t cater to people with special dietary needs. That makes it hard for Kevin and me because we are both gluten-free. And to top it off, I can’t have lactose and Kevin can’t have nuts. The American Airlines lounge wasn’t much different in this aspect. Most of the gluten-free selection consisted of salad and deli meats, although I appreciate American writing the allergens on each dish so it was clear. Most lounges don’t even do that.

I enjoyed my appetizers very much. The beet hummus was quite good, and the kale salad was amazing. Kevin enjoyed the deli meats and cheese, but he couldn’t have the salad because it had nuts in it. For the main meal, I ended up having the Mexican pork adobo with white rice. The pork adobo was the only meat that was gluten-free, as most of the other meat options were Asian-themed and had soy sauce. It was good and satisfying but not over the top. In this aspect, Kevin and I both rate the CapitalOne Lounge at DFW to be better in terms of food.
For beverages, the Lounge has a Coca-Cola Freestyle Machine, so you can mix and match whatever soft drinks you want. They also serve beer, champagne, and wine, which you can help yourself with. And, of course, they also serve coffee and tea.
Our Rating: 4.5/5
The American Flagship Lounge had everything we wanted: amazing views, excellent WiFi, comfortable chairs, and a calming ambiance. The only reason we couldn’t give it 5/5 was because of the lack of gluten-free main dishes. We don’t expect lounges to cater to every single dietary restriction, and we give props to American for labeling the allergens for each dish. But I also can’t say it was a 5/5 experience if it was hard to eat dinner, which is one of the main reasons for going to the lounge in the first place.
Nonetheless, we had an amazing time, and if we get a chance to go back to the Flagship Lounge again, we would 100% do so.
How interesting!!!! That lounge is beautiful, very modern, just plain exciting to be in. Like you said, they can’t cater to every dietary need but they did at least try and they did list the allergens (which was really helpful). I did two red-eye flights in my life when I was really young (can’t remember where we were going), and I’ll never ever do red-eye flights again. I felt sick for a couple days after, which basically ruins the trip (unless you take a red-eye to get back home). Great article, information, and I appreciate that you say it like it is.