Good first step(s) - - CLT needs so much help.
CLT is really leapfrogging with the recent lounge improvements.
40k sqft Admirals Club + Flagship Lounge + Capital One Lounge. And the new Delta Sky Club is top tier as well.
Airlines and CCs can throw all the new lounges into CLT as they want--it's still a crap set of terminals to actually get through. Absent a (several) billion-dollar rebuild, it's still going to be one of the worst airports to connect through [DEN and PHL].
CLT is AA's 2nd largest hub? Learn something new every day. Surprising cause even as an AA loyalist, I've been through there exactly 1 time in the last 20yrs.
Yup, it’s sorta surprising. Of course, DFW #1. Then, you might think maybe MIA for #2 (nope, it’s CLT). MIA is 3rd, then ORD, PHX, PHL, DCA, LAX, LGA, JFK. (MIA is Latin America; Philly is Europe; LA & NYC are mostly O&D; everything else, mostly domestic.)
Wow - didn't realize PHL was smaller than PHX either? I mean, it's a second tier city but I just assumed American had so much international and domestic there that it would have to be bigger than PHX as a European gateway.
Finally, CLT gets treated as a hub. Now let's see what's planned for PHX. Very doubtful a FL but maybe a much larger lounge.
More that CLT is finally getting treated as a city of some importance. CLT remains one of the fastest growing cities in the US, and will only continue to do so. The fact that Delta cared to open a Sky Club there as well as Capital One tells you that it's becoming much more relevant of a station.
Happy to see this coming. I usually end up walking down towards the "A" gates to pass the time in the quieter end of the airport and stretch my legs. Since the AA end of airside is a chaotic mess that would be embarrassing in a developing nation.
And all of my connections are either super short or multiple hours. Weird scheduling at such a major hub...
What's the people capacity? Do the plans say anything about how you get to the lounge? Airport elevators are very slow. An escalator would be nice.
A bit off topic the Flagship lounge that needs renovation is the one at O'Hare. The layout of the Admirals Club is far better and more spacious in my view.
If only everyone was lean, fit & well-dressed in US airport terminals as depicted in the renderings! Maybe I will fall in love with an AI/robot, ha ha!
If this Admiral Club at CLT is similar to the one at LGA, then it's a huge upgrade from the likes of PHL. Ugh.
Honestly, had no idea CLT was their 2nd largest hub?? It just features so much less prominently than JFK, PHL, MIA, or even ORD...
Not just that, CLT is the third largest single airline hub operation in the US behind ATL and DFW.
AA's CLT operations are bigger than any of United's single hub operations
Now if one could have enough connection time to actually reach the lounge and not miss your flight.