It’s certainly a work in progress right now, but the Admirals Club in Concourse C at Charlotte Douglas International Airlines still reminds me of the good old days of US Airways…
American Airlines Admirals Club Charlotte Review – Concourse C (CLT)
I hesitated even writing a review of this lounge since it is under construction, but since it will continue to be under construction for several for months I hope this review will be helpful to some of you… perhaps even a warning to stay away.
Next year, American Airlines plans to open a massive new lounge in Charlotte in the Concourse D-E connector area that will be the largest in the system. For now, the Concourse C Lounge remains the primary lounge at CLT (there’s a smaller one in Concourse B) but is itself undergoing renovation (of the kitchen area, not the entire lounge)…and boy could it use it a makeover.
Location + Hours + Access
The lounge is located airside (past security) at the intersection between Concourse C and D is open daily from 5:15 am to 11:15 pm. There are sliding doors on both sides of the concourse that lead into the reception area (currently under construction and quite unsightly).
Access is reserved for:
- Admirals Club members
- Qualifying first and business class passengers, including those traveling same-day on American or another oneworld member to:
- Asia
- Australia
- Canada
- Caribbean
- Central America
- Europe
- Mexico
- Middle East
- New Zealand
- South America
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro, or Platinum members traveling internationally in any cabin of service
- oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members from other oneworld carriers (on any oneworld itinerary in any cabin of service)
- Admirals Club day pass holders
- Citi / AAdvantage Executive Card authorized users
- Active-duty military traveling in uniform with military ID
International first class and oneworld elite customers are allowed one guest (a child over two counts as a guest). Admirals Club members or members of the military may bring in their “immediate family” (spouse, domestic partner and/or children under 18) or two guests.
Seating
I visited around 2:00 pm and the lounge was packed…though my understanding is that is always packed. Seating spans a trio of large rooms, with almost every seat taken in all three rooms.
Power ports are available in the end tables between seats, but some are quite worn (meaning your plugs just fall out).
Restrooms + Showers
This lounge has no showers. There are restrooms, but they were so crowded I have no pictures.
Food + Drink
During the construction phase in this lounge, most of the food items are individually packaged. The advantage of that is that if you are hungry, you can grab a few things and head on out, especially considering the shortage of seats.
Snacks included beef jerky, granola bars, gummy bears, dried bananas, Nutter Butter cookies, hummus with crackers, Pringles potato crisps, Doritos chips, cake, cookies, and a selection of flatbread wraps.
Additionally, self-serve snack jars were available (corn nuts, dark chocolate covered cranberries, “Sweet Caroline” mix) as were two choices of soup (minestrone and “Italian Wedding”).
In terms of drinks, La Colombe coffee (regular and decaf), an espresso machine, tea, water, and soft drinks were available on a self-serve basis.
A makeshift but full-service bar was available in one of the rooms with a complimentary selection of beer, wine, and spirits plus higher quality drinks for purchase.
CONCLUSION
While I suppose this lounge is a better alternative than a crowded gate area, this lounge is desperately overcrowded and is finally being refurbished. While I do appreciate the pre-packaged snacks, I would tend to avoid this lounge now if possible.
Oof, looks like it has been like that pre-packaged food and makeshift bar for at least 5 months now.
Is the 2025 opening of a new CLT AC official? Last I saw it was in a planning phase still with no defined timeline.
That is a hell of a long walk from D/E intersection to B, or if yoiu have the rare A gate departure. Unless I am missing something, that is a terrible location. Except for passengers leaving out of D or E. Almost as bad is the walk at BNA from the Club there to the new T gates.
This club is a super dump. Has always been a dump and will continue to be a dump.
I was in this lounge (my first time, first time at CLT for that matter) for about an hour on a Sunday evening in February during a connection and to be sure most seats were taken but spouse and I had no trouble finding a table (by the window, no less, always my preference!) and a filling enough (even tasty) light dinner (and, to your point, grabbed some extra food to take onboard for the onward flight…and for my home office snack drawer, haha). I suppose the fact it was a weekend evening meant there was no active construction activity, perhaps that’s more of a nuisance during weekday business hours?
I actually enjoy the packaged products better, however this lounge is exactly as you said, always overcrowded. A remodel isn’t going to change that until the new larger location opens, but with this one being in the middle of everything I still expect it to be very busy.
On a side note if you are a BBQ fan, the Carolina Pit BBQ in the food court at CLT is actually very good for airport fast food.
Correct, CLT has Bojangles and Chick-fil-A, two staple Southern fast food chains loved by everyone in NC. The lines for those are always quite long as well.
The lack of 3rd party lounges is severe at CLT though. The Centurion is always overcrowded. I heard the Club is decent-ish? Otherwise nothing else though.
When was the visit? They have had the kitchen reopened for a few weeks now, so they are serving prepared food again.
A few weeks ago. Good to know the ktichen has reopened.
Wait so will this lounge get a full refresh now in addition to the new D/E Admirals Club opening?
Apparently not. Just a new kitchen…
Still looks the same and with the same food as back in the us Airways days.
The lounge does have a nice nostalgia appeal, if you miss the way lounges looked from over a decade ago, so it does have that going for it at least.
Honestly, you gotta feel for the CLT denizens. Fortress hub locked into AA with some of the most decrepit lounges in the entire world. Delta’s new SkyClub is coming in though, which should be a nice breath of fresh air, the problem is the no nonstop service to the West Coast from CLT on Delta.
The lounge is not being remodeled. Only the kitchen is being remodeled (not AA’s choice but needed to get up to code) and everything else will remain as is… a dump.
B lounge and AMEX Centurion are all equally overcrowded although the AMEX lounge has better food/free alcoholic beverages/decor.
AA outgrew the infrastructure and now the passenger experience is suffering whether it’s trying to find a seat at the gate, settle down in a table in the atrium to eat, or to relax at a lounge.
The fire marshal made AA move around some gate counters at the first few gates on the concourses so they now face into the gate with boarding lanes stretching parallel to the windows versus out into the hall. The crowds made it too difficult to get through (blocking egress). So now those gates lost a third of what seating was even there.
I was in the C Club a couple days ago. Bar is reopen. Food is back and the prepackaged are gone. It was a struggle to find anywhere to sit. They have started building a new entry desk. It will be directly across from the current one. The location of the current large desk will become more seating. They are also knocking down the wall into the rest of where the former Envoy Club was and conference rooms. Apparently this will all add another 50-75 seats in the short term.
For those who don’t know, the reason for the different rooms is that the area where the bar is now used to be the smoking area until not all that long ago.
AA has limited to no meaningful competition at CLT, where it runs close to 600 flights a day. The operating costs at CLT are low, and AA loves that. I needs better lounges at its #2 hub airport. The Admiral’s Club is really just the old USAirways Club.
One way to deal with loose electrical outlets is to bring a European adapter. If the outlet can accept round-style plugs (many in airport lounges and on planes can), plug in the Euro adapter then plug your US electrical cord into the adapter.
This lounge is atrocious and so is the mini-AC in the other terminal. With SO many connecting flights to long hauls, you would “think” AA would have showers somewhere in this sprawling airport. But no. Also, I heard PHL is getting a Flagship Lounge, but none for CLT? Weird. Anyways, I’m DFW based but tired of CLT already.
I fly direct or connect through CLT a lot. Recently I connected through DCA while not as busy as CLT, I think CLT could take some notes from DCA. I believe there is an Admirals Club lounge in every AA terminal and they are nice. As busy as CLT is, there is some lost exclusivity for the Admirals Club access due to lots of other factors but the fact is this is a very busy airport and to only have 2 Admirals Clubs where they are the main carrier in 5 terminals seems lackluster
I was at this location on March 27, just 4 days later. No pre-packaged food was in sight, everything fresh, plentiful and varied! Two soup choices, beef chili, huge platters of small sandwiches on baguette-type bread, cold penne with pesto, and another flavorful chilled salad with chick peas, all of the usual small snacks like cheese cubes, crackers, pita chips, carrots, etc. Brownies, chocolate chip cookies, Krispie Treats and more. Hope this means the kitchen reno is done! The club was crowded as always (2 – 3 pm, then I left and found a rocker in the C to D/E connector for some space!)