jamienbaker

Then you didn't enjoy champagne!

I'm with you, with an exception. I walk over to the F side, grab two flutes of bubbly, then return to wife in the J lounge at T7.

Travel well - Jamie

Cathay Dragon 666

I've never use T8 Admirals Club (yet), but the BA J lounge was pretty impressive (for USA lounges. Most USA lounges are a sad excuse for a lounge). I have a trip out of JFK soon, looking forward to this super Admirals Club I keep hearing about here.

seawolf

Admirals Club is not super. In fact it is inferior since it is just open air space re-purposed as club due to ongoing renovation.

G-CIVC

Um...the LAX lounges beat the JFK BA lounges by miles

jkuok

I flew out of JFK on Jan 29th, by comparison BA lounges (T7) are better than Admiral Club/First Class lounge (T8).

The food selection at BA was better at least more variety and hot food.
I didnt drink/notice if there is any champagne at AA Flagship, but there should be.

It is more spacious and comfortable compare to BA and it is brighter too.

If you want better soup (chicken noodles) you should try the AA J lounge at T8 but you probably be having a problem getting a seat as it was full

seawolf

Did BA lounge serve hot food other than the pre-supper for JFK-YVR-HKG for CX F?

jkuok

I believe they did, when I say hot food i meant it like semi-buffet style and you put them on your plate. Not make to order.

BA J lounge have better chips/crisp, soup and more spacious than BA F lounge at T7

sxc

The T7 First class lounge (not CCR) did not have hot food except in pre flight dining room. The only hot food on offer was soup.

It did have sandwiches, cheese and salads which were decent enough quality.

flyaow

So I passed through the new Cathay T8 while traveling Cathay in J and have to say I actually prefer T7 when flying in J.

While I totally "get" that for AA connecting passengers this is much easier, it falls short otherwise as follows:

1) In terminal 7 you used to be able to take that short "private" security line near the Concorde room to avoid the crazy security lines. It was a semi-peaceful and quiet way to go through security. In terminal 8 you do not receive TSA pre apparently when flying Cathay, so while you do get to take a shorter business class line, you get merged together with the full line for a rather hectic TSA experience overall with lots of pushing, shoving, and confused first time flyers. They really should figure out a way to get TSA Pre handled properly for Cathay in T8 or let Cathay premium passengers go through the Flagship security lines (or a similar version).

2) It was quite a long walk from security to the gate area, which includes going down an escalator and going back up on the remote wing of the terminal. T7 was short and easy.

3) The BA J lounge was superior to the Admirals Club lounge across from Gate 42 (the closest to the flight after the long walk). The Admirals club wanted to charge for real food and drinks and offered a small selection of "free snacks" along with premium drink coupons which covered alcohol or bottled water. The BA J lounge in T7 also had more comfortable seating. Disclaimer: I did not try the main Admirals club right by security as I wanted to get the walk over with earlier rather than later.

4) There is massive miscommunication between Cathay and AA in terms of signage for flight departures. The Cathay gate was 47, but it appeared on the in-terminal monitors and in the Admirals Club as gate 14. In fact, a good number of passengers went to that gate instead and saw the monitor behind the empty podium saying it was the right place. Up to about 30 minutes before departure the majority of passengers hadn't figured it out and then came running and panting as someone finally went to gate 14 to tell them. Additionally the monitors only showed the flights to Hong Kong, and passengers who were heading to Vancouver had to figure out their plane was onward bound for Hong Kong to find the gate (although it was the wrong one) listed. They need to get this fixed going forward.

5) The duty free folks had no place to setup to give out their duty free and ended up setting up blocking the check-in process for boarding. The agents were not happy with them and they argued about where they were supposed to be. In T7 they used to just be in the jetway without any trouble.

6) At least the flight left somewhat on time - that didn't happen very often in T7.

seawolf

Flagship security line is PreCheck lane. It's up to CX to make investment to comply with PreCheck requirements. Various foreign airlines are on PreCheck.

I'm surprise CX didn't negotiate for the "low-numbered" gates. AB usually leaves from these gates.

The AC by security is under renovation and is in much worst shape than the mid-field AC.

flyaow

I wonder how we can convince them to invest in Precheck and comply. Given the shift to T8 I imagine many of their premium customers will not enjoy the "new and improved" TSA experience compared to T7.

Dr. HFH

Sounds like a fair amount of this was teething problems. Let's see how it is in a couple of months. Of course, since CX started BOS service, I haven't been back to JFK!

seawolf

T8 has a F/J TSA lane which T7 doesn't except for the evening departures and that's probably due to BA flights. There was no F/J TSA lane on the early afternoon CX departure. Probably none for the morning departure either.

toplayer

Think this may be best place to ask the following: I am flying AA LAX-JFK(J/F), then CX JFK-HKG(J/F), separate tickets so assume will need to collect baggage, re-check, etc. How much transit time should I plan for?

Thanks in advance.

elg26

So im taking the 01:35 JFK/HKG in F in April. Assume Im SOL as it appears clubs in T8 close at 10:45pm??

Any suggestions where I should/could go assuming I get to the airport around 10:30pm...?