When American Airlines (AA) embarked on its modernization and revitalization efforts almost two years ago, one of the more unique updates they introduced was a re-imagined version of the Flagship Check-In (FSC) they’d been offering at London Heathrow. That version of FSC was a private area at Heathrow’s Terminal 3 where passengers in First and Business class as well as AA Executive Platinum and oneworld Emerald customers could check in for their flights.
When AA decided to roll the product out to their hubs within the United States, they added a few perks and made a few changes to the experience to increase the appeal to premium customers. Some of those changes included:
- Access is restricted to passengers: 1. departing in First class on international itineraries with three or four class cabin aircraft on AA, British Airways, Qantas, Japan Airlines, or Cathay Pacific, or in business class on Finnair, 2. First class customers on AA three cabin transcontinental flights, 3. Concierge Key members, and 4. Five Star Service purchasers.
- A private check-in facility with dedicated doormen to assist with baggage and a guardian to confirm eligibility to use the service.
- Direct access to the priority security and TSA Pre-Check lines.
Admittedly, the changes are subtle but they’re enough for AA to consider this product a different offering than the existing London Heathrow operation. AA opened their first upgraded FSC facility in Los Angeles and quickly rolled out facilities to Miami and New York JFK. I’ve spoken with a few users of these new FSCs and the overall consensus seems to be that the product is nice, efficient, and allows them to move through the check-in process quickly.
AA has been constructing a FSC at Chicago O’Hare (ORD) for the past few months and yesterday was the official opening of the facility. Being an ORD-based customer, I was able to swing by the airport and view the new product offering. I apologize in advance that many of the pictures have folks wandering around the area. Since it was the grand opening there were quite a few curious folks and AA staffers wandering the area, so I wasn’t able to secure many photos without someone in them.
Flagship Check-In entrance.
The entrance to the FSC is located at the far left-hand side of the AA check-in operation, past the standard premium passenger check-in and the premium passenger/TSA Pre-Check security lines. There’s a large black sign with a red stripe noting the purpose of the area. A red coated gate keeper has a list of eligible users for the day. A rope stands a few feet in front of the frosted glass doors.
Alternate entrance view.
The FSC area is rather small to be quite honest. Standing one step inside the doors you can see almost the entire facility, as this panorama shows:
Panorama of the Flagship Check-In facility.
Three check-in desks are located immediately to your left when you walk in. The desks are white with silver accents. The wall behind the desks is a speckled frosted glass with lights illuminating the entire fixture. Today the desks only had two staff members, but this seemed more than adequate for the amount of traffic coming through. As was noted above, the entry requirements are restrictive.
There was a dedicated luggage valet who took passenger’s checked luggage behind the wall into the bowels of ORD for processing. All staff members as well as a supervising manager can be seen in the picture below:
Check-in desks.
One feature of the FSC that completely boggled my mind was the inclusion of a single self-service check-in kiosk.
Self-service kiosk.
I’m sure AA has some information on the utilization of these FSCs across the country, but my immediate thought was to ask myself why anyone who goes out of their way to enter the FSC would then make the decision to skip all the perks and simply use a machine to get their boarding pass and tag their own baggage. There’s plenty of these machines within AA’s check-in area, dozes of which are visible from the entrance of the FSC. Perhaps research or experience has shown that customers occasionally enjoy this option though? It seemed out of place to this humble blogger though.
To celebrate the launch of the FSC, AA had laid out a food spread for folks who were looking at the facility. A few folks asked if this would be a standard feature of the product but AA emphasized the spread was solely for the opening and that customer would be able to get snacks in the lounge if they felt a bit peckish.
Celebratory food spread.