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American Airlines has announced that it’s completely overhauling the rules and costs surrounding entry to its Admirals Clubs and the key news here is that from later this month, the cost of some memberships will increase dramatically.
What’s changing
- Two levels of Admirals Club membership are being introduced – one which continues to offer the member and two guests access and one which only grants access to the member.
- Anyone who wishes to hold a membership which grants guest access will have to pay a lot more than they do now.
- The membership option that grants access to the member only will have one price level. There are no discounts for AAdvantage elites.
- Household memberships are being discontinued.
Current Admirals Club membership costs
Through 22 August 2026, an individual membership (which includes the member plus up to two guests) costs the following to purchase/renew:
- AAdvantage member: $850/$800 or 85,000 miles/80,000 miles
- AAdvantage Gold: $825/$775 or 82,500 miles/77,500 miles
- AAdvantage Platinum: $800/$750 or 80,000 miles/75,000 miles
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro: $775/$725 or 77,500 miles/72,500 miles
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum: $750/$700 or 75,000 miles/70,000 miles
Household memberships, which cover the primary member and a spouse or domestic partner, cost between $1,500 and $1,600 to renew and cost between $1,550 and $1,650 if a new membership is being taken out.
The new Admirals Club rates
From 23 August 2026 there will be two membership options:
Option 1 – Admirals Club membership with two guests:
- AAdvantage member: $1,400 or 140,000 miles
- AAdvantage Gold: $1,350 or 135,000 miles
- AAdvantage Platinum: $1,300 or 130,000 miles
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro: $1,250 or 125,000 miles
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum: $1,200 or 120,000 miles
Option 2 – Single membership:
This new membership tier costs $750 or 75,000 miles for everyone regardless of status. It gets the member into the Admirals Club lounges, but there are no guesting privileges and, notably, this membership will not grant access to partner lounges.
Other things to note are:
- ConciergeKey® members continue to receive a complimentary membership.
- The distinction between new-member and renewal pricing is going away, so renewing will be no cheaper than taking out a new membership.
Link to Admirals Club membership page
Household memberships
Household memberships will be discontinued from 23 August 2026. Existing household memberships will remain valid through the current membership year, after which members will have to pick one of the two options outlined above.
Currently, American Airlines appears to still be permitting individual members to add a spouse or domestic partner and to upgrade to a household membership, so if that is worth doing for you, do it before the option disappears in a few weeks’ time.
New memberships
If you’re not currently an Admirals Club member, you can take out a new membership at the current rates through 22 August 2026. You’ll have to pay the new rates next year, but you get to lock in the current rates for 12 months.
Renewals and auto-renewal
The Admirals Club membership page lets members renew up to 90 days before expiration without moving the expiration date, so if you can renew on or before 22 August, you should be able to lock in the current renewal rate for another full year.
If your membership is set to renew automatically, be aware that American Airlines will process the charge 30 days before your membership year ends and you have to opt out at least 35 days before if you want to prevent that from happening.
If you don’t opt out, it looks like memberships expiring on or after 23 August will auto-renew at the new rate (presumably the member + 2 guests rate).
Note: View from the Wing reports that current members can renew at today’s lower prices right up to 3 October 2026, with the 23 August cut-off date applying to new memberships only, but we haven’t been able to confirm this.
What isn’t changing
- One-day passes to Admirals Club will still be available for $79 when the lounges are not busy.
- The option to choose Admirals Club membership as a Loyalty Point Reward will remain.
- All members will continue to have access to Admirals Club lounges upon arrival as well as ahead of departure.
Thoughts
Clearly, the numbers that stand out are the 70%+ increases in the annual membership fee for anyone who wishes to retain their guesting privileges, and by any measure that’s a huge price increase.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a lounge program increase its price by that much, and I have to say that I’m a little amused at how American Airlines is justifying this move:
“This keeps pricing aligned with other premium lounge programs”
Since when have Admirals Clubs been “premium”?? If that’s what passes for “premium” at AA HQ it goes a long way to explaining a lot about the airline 🙂
Anyway …
There is one calculation worth doing before deciding that you absolutely have to have the new “full” membership and not just the $750/year single member option:
The gap between single membership and full membership is:
- $650 for a non elite member
- $600 for an AAdvantage Gold member
- $550 for an AAdvantage Platinum member
- $500 for an AAdvantage Platinum Pro member
- $450 for an Executive Platinum member
Also, a one-day guest pass costs $79.
What this means is that a full membership will only be worth it if you’re going to be guesting at least nine people a year if you’re a non elite member, eight people if you’re a Gold member, seven people if you’re a Platinum or Platinum Pro member, and at least six people a year if you have Executive Platinum status.
The fact that household memberships are being discontinued will probably mean that a lot of people will need to pay for the new full membership, but the numbers above are worth keeping in mind if you don’t fly with others particularly often, as the cost of full membership may not be justifiable.
Right, with those numbers out of the way, let’s focus on what this is really all about as it isn’t about new sub-lounges (Provisions by Admirals Club) or about lounge improvements.
This is all about pushing flyers in the direction of the soon-to-be refreshed Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive Card which will cost $695 from, unsurprisingly, 23 August 2026.
This card offers a full suite of benefits, and one of those benefits just happens to be a full Admirals Club membership (the one with guesting privileges).
So what’s it to be? $1,200 – $1,400 just for an Admirals Club membership that gives you guesting privileges or $695 for a credit card that gives you the same thing plus a lot more?
It’s a no brainer isn’t it? Why would anyone choose to pay for an Admirals Club membership rather than the card when the card is cheaper than the cheapest Admirals Club membership?
This isn’t even remotely subtle 🙂
Alternatives
There will be some people for whom the credit card route is a non-starter (either because they’ve somehow upset Citi in the past and are now banned or because they cannot get the card for other reasons), and for these people there are two other options.
The first option is to choose Admirals Club membership as your 250,000 or 400,000 Loyalty Point Reward, but the issue with this is that you’ll have to be one of American’s most frequent flyers to earn enough Loyalty Points to be given this option.
The second option is to buy an Alaska Lounge+ membership which, at the time of writing, costs $795 a year and which includes Admirals Club access for the member and 2 guests when they are flying with Alaska Airlines or American Airlines.
It also gives members access to select Qantas Clubs and a few United Clubs, so this could be a genuinely very good option if you can’t get (or don’t want to get) the top-level AAdvantage credit card and you’ll be traveling with others often enough that you’ll need guesting privileges.
Bottom line
From 23 August 2026 an Admirals Club membership with guesting privileges will cost between $1,200 and $1,400 depending on status, and that’s up from between $700 and $850 today.
Also, a new option which gives just the member entry to Admirals Clubs (but not partner clubs) is being introduced (it will cost $750 for anyone who wants it) and to add to the bad news, household memberships are being discontinued.
The advice here is relatively simple.
If you can renew your membership before the rate increase make sure you do that. If you think you’ll get value out of a membership at the current rates but aren’t a member yet, make sure you buy a membership before 23 August.
Beyond that, if you have access to the Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive card, holding that card has long been the most economical path to Admirals Club membership and from 23 August that will be more true than ever before.
What do you make of these changes? Will they change your behavior?
