A new lounge is coming to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. American Express has signed a lease to open a lounge in Terminal D near the gates of foreign carriers such as Emirates. The move apparently caught American Airlines by surprise and the carrier appealed to the airport to deny the lease application. That request fell on deaf ears, however, with the airport approving the move.
AA’s VP of Real Estate, Kevin Cox, spoke at the hearing on behalf of the carrier. He objected to AmEx getting a lower rent rate than AA pays. He also claimed that competition wasn’t needed for lounges because the AA lounge is never full. At one point he also said, "Never in our wildest dream did we anticipate that there would be a third party building a club in Terminal D." Apparently the "we didn’t think about it" defense was deemed rather pathetic, too.
This is good news for folks flying out of the terminal, with the lounge expected to open soon. Certain AmEx cardholders will receive free access while others will pay a daily rate which is reasonably consistent with other lounges: $40-75.
More news once the lounge actually opens…
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Hmm…a testing of the waters by AX, and perhaps if financially viable, foreshadowing termination of AX Plat/Centurian lounge access at Admiral’s Club/DL/US clubs?
What is odd is that there is already a third party lounge in terminal D- The Club at DFW, which participates in Priority Pass, so Amex Cents and Plats already have access to a second lounge in this terminal
The comment in the source article suggests that the other lounge is at the far end of the terminal so this would be more convenient for many passengers. I don’t know the terminal well enough to know how far it is from end to end but I’m not all that surprised that another lounge has a chance.
Perhaps Amex did some math and figured out it could save some money by operating its own lounge rather than paying other lounges. It also looks like this will be a free-standing lounge, different from the existing suite of rooms in the contract lounge area of D.
I wish AA would follow UA’s lead and discontinue Amex Plat/Black access to the AC.
Terminal D is angled a bit so nothing is too far from anything. The contract lounges are also to the south (Low D), so this lounge won’t be too far from them. The international carriers all use Low D gates.
I’ve always been a bit curious why both QF and BA each maintain separate contract lounges at DFW, distinct from their oneworld partner AA.
The new lounge is being located down by the gates where Emirates and Qantas depart. An assumption could be made that this lounge is being opened at the request of EK & QF. The current shared lounge in Terminal D – The Club – that these airlines use for their premium and elite passengers is not a great lounge. I bet this new AMEX lounge is much nicer will be built to EK standards.
Well this will be interesting. Maybe it will finally prompt AA to open a Flagship Lounge at DFW – their only international gateway without one, I believe.
All in all, I think this is good. Domestic lounges are so crappy. AA is probably just mad that they might have to substantially improve their lounge now. I hope AMEX opens lounges in all major US Airports.
Some actually wonderful threads on this site, relation for share.