The New American Airlines Flagship Check-In Facility in Chicago
By Alex Reed|March 7, 2015
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.
Another 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 new 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 spread of food.
But I'm a Pepsi guy....
Immediately in front of the entrance was a seating area. I took a minute to sit in the chairs and can say they were comfortable enough. I could definitely see enjoying a small breather in this area after or before checking in, but sitting in them long term is unlikely to be comfortable. That’s unlikely to be an issue since one of the goals of the FSC is to move premium customers and elites from check-in to lounge as swiftly and hassle-free as possible. Lengthy lounging isn’t intended for this space, so the chairs work well for their purpose and bring a modern aesthetic to the location. I certainly would recommend making this area your primary target for relaxation though.
Flower arrangement and seating.
Seating and outlet.
More seating.
To the right of the entrance is a short hallway leading customer out into the security checkpoint. At the front of the hallway is a FIDS (flight information display system) showing AA’s flight activity.
Flight Information Display system (FIDS)
At the end of the hallway is another monitor rotating through various photos of flowers. Next to the monitor is a quote from Henry Miller.
Display.
Another set of frosted glass doors is to the left of this monitor and it leads out of the FSC and deposits customers at the front of the existing TSA Pre-Check line at the ORD Terminal 3 premium cabin/elite security check point.
Exit from the check-in area.
If one were so inclined (and lucky enough to be Pre-Check approved), I’m betting you could go from curbside to lounge in less than 5 minutes. Even if you didn’t have Pre-Check, I’m betting the entire process would take at most 10 minutes. For premium customers on the go, this is likely to be a nice feature and something they’d enjoy.
Overall I thought AA did a great job with the ORD FSC. The location is close to existing premium services, so ORD-based customers can easily locate the new facility. The look of the entire operation is modern and clean, which feeds into the modernization rhetoric we’ve seen quite often from AA’s management team. The layout if simple and easy to follow, and if the staff stay on their game customer should be able to quickly move through the entire process in a matter of minutes. It’s nothing revolutionary to the airline game, but it’s definitely an improvement over what AA currently offers out of ORD and it’s a nice investment into what is an important customer base for the carrier.
Chicago's Flagship Lounge.
The one thing AA needs to do now that this FSC has opened is renovate and expand the corresponding Flagship Lounge (FL) at ORD. Currently AA’s ORD FL is the tiniest and least appealing product in AA’s FL system. The entire ORD FL could probably fit 4/5 times in the JFK or LAX locations. It’s simply too small for the amount of traffic AA is moving through this airport. During high traffic times it almost feels like you’re a contestant in the Hunger Games – clawing, slashing, and maiming your way through the hordes of passengers to find an open seat, electrical outlet, or to simply get your paws on a single bacon wrapped scallop.
Fingers crossed that we see some improvement in that area as well.
