British Airways First Class Can Access American’s Flagship First Dining DFW

Earlier, I wrote up my first impressions of the new American Flagship Lounge DFW. The lounge is opening on Thursday, May 16, 2019 in Terminal D of Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Flagship First Dining DFW

American’s Flagship Lounges are pretty impressive to begin with, but you can take it one step further to swanky with Flagship First Dining, exclusive to New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), and soon to be Dallas-Ft Worth (DFW).

Flagship First Dining is a “lounge within a lounge concept.” Instead of a buffet, there’s sit-down a la carte-style dining, more personalized service, and an elevated food and drink menu. There’s a total of 54 seats available and the Flagship First Dining is open from 8:00am to 10:00pm daily. 

British Airways Customers Can Access Flagship First DFW

To get access, you normally would have to be flying American first class onboard one of 20 Boeing 777-300ERs or first class on a premium-heavy Airbus A321T’s for transcontinental flights. However, British Airways first class passengers will also be allowed access into FFD for its one daily Dallas to London flight. British Airways operates a single Boeing 777 with 14 first class seats from DFW to LHR.

This is likely a similar agreement that American has with Cathay Pacific at the Flagship First Dining JFK, where those first class customers are invited in to the exclusive space.

FFD Dining-Accessible Flights Originating From DFW

I took a look at American’s mid-summer schedule to see which flights originating out of DFW would have access to FFD. Besides the British Airways flight, those flights would be on eight-seat first class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to London, Hong Kong, and Sao Paolo. Additionally, those connecting onwards on a long-haul 777-300ER first class American operated flight would also have access (like DFW-LAX-HKG).

Dallas to London

• 3:45pm American operated
• 7:15pm American operated (this flight is sometimes operated by a 777-200 which does not have first class)
• 9:55pm British Airways operated

Dallas to Hong Kong

• 10:50am American operated

Dallas to Sao Paolo

• 7:30pm American operated

The Upshot

As you can see, that’s not a lot of flights. A total of 46 passengers would theoretically have access on flights that originate out of DFW throughout the entire day. I’m assuming American has allocated more space for connecting passengers and select ConciergeKey members, but still it seems it would be quite empty. I have to wonder if Qantas will also reach an agreement with American to allows its first class customers access to Flagship First Dining.

All in all, FFD is stunning and the food is delicious, so it’s good to see American allocating usage of the space to British Airways instead of having it sit empty.