Lounge access before your flight or during a layover enhances your travel experience. You get free snacks and beverages, generally comfortable seating, high-speed Wi-Fi access and outlets to charge your devices. If you’re flying with American Airlines or any of its partners, you may be able to visit an Admirals Club, which is the airline’s airport lounge.

In addition to Admirals Clubs, customers can access partner lounges in airports American doesn’t fly to. There are currently almost 50 Admirals Club locations and more than 50 partner lounges in airports worldwide.

Rack up miles or enjoy lounge privileges with our favorite American Airlines cards

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BROWSE CARDS

To enter the lounges, American Airlines requires travelers to present a same-day boarding pass on American or one of its partners. That's true for all passengers, regardless of status or flying class. Here are all the ways you can visit American Airlines Admirals Clubs.

Admirals Club in DCA airport. (Photo courtesy of American Airlines)

1. Buy an Admirals Club Day Pass

Day passes are available for purchase at select locations for $79 or 7,900 AAdvantage miles. The day pass includes access for you and up to three children (under age 18). You can log in to your AAdvantage account to purchase a pass or do so as a guest.

NerdWallet values American Airlines miles at 1.7 cents each. If you use your points to purchase a day pass, you’re only getting 1 cent per point. Based on the valuation, you’d be better off paying cash than using your points.

$79 per person is a steep price for visiting a lounge, so you’ll want to do the math on how much you could realistically save on food and drinks and whether you value the specific location’s amenities.

2. Get the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®

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Rates & Fees

Only one credit card will get you into an American Airlines Admirals Club lounge.

The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® includes an Admirals Club membership, allowing you to bring your immediate family or up to two guests and up to 10 authorized users with you. This card comes with the following sign-up bonus: Earn 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $7,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.

The card includes a $100 reimbursement every five years for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, $120 Avis or Budget car rental credit every calendar year, $120 in Grubhub credits (up to $10 in statement credit on each monthly billing statement) and $120 in Lyft credits ($10 credit each month after taking three eligible rides).

When flying with American Airlines, you'll receive other benefits such as a free checked bag for you and up to eight travel companions as well as priority boarding, priority check-in and priority screening.

You will also earn:

4 miles for every $1 spent on eligible American purchases.

10 miles for every $1 spent on car rentals and hotels booked through aa.com.

1 Loyalty Point for every $1 spent, which counts towards elite status.

A 10,000 Loyalty Points bonus after you earn 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year. Plus, another opportunity to earn an extra 10,000 points if you reach 90,000 during the same time frame.

25% off on in-flight food and beverages purchases.

Although the card has a steep annual fee of $595, as you’ll see below, that is still less than the cost of an annual Admirals Club membership. So, if you plan to visit Admirals Club lounges often, the card's cost along with all its perks, will be your best bet for getting access to the lounges.

Adding another person to your credit card account will cost $175 annually for the first three authorized users and $175 per additional user. It's important to note that authorized users on the credit card only get access to Admirals Clubs; they do not get access to other airline lounges or clubs that American Airlines has a lounge partnership with. Getting into partner lounges is a benefit solely reserved for the primary holder of the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®.

3. Purchase an Admirals Club membership

Admirals Club annual membership rates vary depending on your frequent flyer status with American Airlines:

Non-elite AAdvantage members: $850 (new membership), $800 (renewal).

AAdvantage Gold members: $825 (new), $775 (renewal).

AAdvantage Platinum members: $800 (new), $750 (renewal).

AAdvantage Platinum Pro members: $775 (new), $725 (renewal).

AAdvantage Executive Platinum members: $750 (new), $700 (renewal).

With an annual membership, you can bring your immediate family (including spouse and children) or up to two guests. You can also buy a household membership for $1,550 to $1,650 (depending on your status level), which includes access for you and your spouse or domestic partner even when you’re not flying together.

4. Fly on a first class or business class ticket

You can access Admirals Club lounges if you fly first or business class on certain international, transcontinental and domestic routes. Those flying on American Airlines and on Oneworld partner airlines are eligible.

Qualifying international itineraries include flights between the U.S. and Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, Mexico, the Middle East and New Zealand. International first class customers can bring one guest, but other business class or first class domestic passengers will not have guest privileges.

Domestic flights with seats ticketed as Flagship for the following routes qualify:

New York-John F. Kennedy to/from San Francisco, Los Angeles or Orange County.

Los Angeles to/from Boston or Miami.

Dallas-Fort Worth to/from Honolulu, Kona or Maui.

Chicago-O’Hare to/from Honolulu.