Review: American Airlines Admirals Club Miami (Gate 30)

November 3, 2015

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This post is part of a broader Aruba & NYC trip report from October 2015.

American Airlines has two Admirals Clubs at Miami Airport – one near Gate D30 and another near Gate D16. Historically the Admirals Club near Gate D30 has been the one to visit (even if it means a longer walk to your gate) because the lounge near Gate D16 is a lot smaller, has less facilities and is pretty cramped.

As things stand, the smaller Admirals Club is in the process of being refurbished and View From The Wing has some early renderings from American Airlines to show their plans for the space. It looks good….but then anything would be better than what was on offer before!

Anyway, that’s a bit off topic. On our way from Aruba to New York, Joanna and I had a short layover at Miami Airport – so I thought I’d take a look and see how the Admirals Club near Gate D30 was faring. I know this club quite well as it’s where I’ve been stopping off on all my trips to/from the Caribbean for the last 10 years…and not that much has changed in that time.

As you walk through the glass doors the membership/welcome desk is on your left, the elevators are straight ahead and an unusually artistic (for an Admirals Club) winding staircase up to the lounge is on the right:

Whether you choose the stairs or the elevator you come out in the same place – an atrium with another membership desk. This is where you can request use of the shower facilities (more on those later) and get help with any ticketing issues you may have:

A recent addition to the Admirals Clubs has been the appearance of WiFi codes all around the lounge and these were in evidence, once again, in Miami:

Despite the recent opening of the Amex Centurion Lounge at Miami Airport, the Admirals Club was pretty busy (probably because the Amex Lounge is quite a distance away near Gate D12) so it wasn’t that easy to get decent pictures – I do my best not to get too may people in the photos as you never know who’s going to object.

The first sitting area you come to, as you walk into the lounge proper, is on the right and is probably one of the darker sections in the Admirals Club:

Opposite this section is a small deli counter where passengers can purchase sandwiches, salads and other typical Admirals Club fare:

As you walk past the food-for-purchase, the Admirals Club opens up into a larger, brighter area with a long bar running along the wall on the left:

Non-alcoholic beverages and non-premium alcoholic drinks are complimentary.

Here’s a view of the bar from the reverse angle:

Opposite the bar is the largest of the seating areas in the Admirals Club although, due to the fact that it was absolutely packed out, I didn’t manage to get a picture that does the area justice! These were the only free seats in the area….

This seating area is bright because of the large floor-to-ceiling tinted windows which look out on to the Miami Airport apron and the gates around the D30 Admirals Club:

A little further past this seating area is the self-serve snack and hot beverage station with crudités, dips, olives, cheese and something called “southwest lentils”:

Hardly spectacular but better then nothing. The highlight of the free offerings is one of the recent introductions to Admirals Clubs around the US – fresh soup:

On the day I visited the choices were:

Sun-Dried Tomato & Red Pepper
Santa Fe Style Roasted Corn and Green Chilli Bisque

I wasn’t hungry so I didn’t try any, but they both sounded and looked appetising.

Next to the food items were a hot beverage machine, filter coffee dispensers (regular and decaf) and a hot water dispenser….

…as well as cold water and iced-tea dispensers together with a selection of teas:

As you move past the food area the lounge closes in again to form a corridor with seats which overlook the concourse below:

If you follow this corridor around you come to another corridor (on the left) which leads back to the membership desk at the entrance and the showers.

But first there’s another hot and cold drinks station…….

and some surprisingly good cookies:

This is actually a very good place to come if the lounge is busy because next to no one comes to this part of the lounge – there’s rarely a line for the coffee machine and there’s always a good stack of cookies.

The last things I had to check out on this visit to the Admirals Club were the showers. Which aren’t bad:

Ok, so they don’t look like much, but they’re fantastic to have when you’re traveling to the Caribbean and when you’ve been sat on a hot, uncomfortable, unhygienic plane for hours on end 🙂

Overall this isn’t a bad Admirals Club but it does tend to get quite crowded. The food offerings pale into insignificance when you compare them to what you get at the Amex Centurion Lounge less than 20 gates away – but then most lounges fare badly in that comparison.

The staff have always been very helpful to me in this particular lounge and they’ve saved my hide on a number of occasions when bad weather has been hitting the Caribbean – so that’s a very big positive in my book.

In the past, the biggest downfall of the lounge has been the abysmal WiFi that has been on offer. I’ve known the speeds to be so slow as to make the whole web surfing exercise pointless…. and no number of emails to customer services ever made a difference. On this trip I didn’t have a chance to sample the WiFi but, if you’re planning on visiting, bear in mind that it’s a 50:50 as to whether the WiFi will be up to scratch.

When you can get a nice seat and when the WiFi is working the Admirals Club at Gate 30 can be a good place to relax but, when it’s crowded, it’s just like any other packed out airport lounge – pretty bad. It all depends on what you’re faced with on your day of travel.