Originally Posted by
boolean64
The Ritz club lounge is not accessible via status in any way. You have to have a club room to access the club lounge. Cash upgrades to the club room vary not just across properties but also for a given property. I've seen various posts on FT quoting $150-500 upgrade charge per night with 200-300 being the norm, which baffles me unless you plan to spend a significant amount of time eating and drinking in the club (which kinda defeats the purpose of being in NYC).
If you can live with just free breakfast instead of the club, the St Regis would be a great option as well.
You can access the Ritz Lounge for free on a paid booking with a $100 F&B credit in Asia with the Ritz Card club upgrade certificates. On points, it is indeed impossible without a rare, generous upgrade.
The Ritz Central Park has received praise on these forums but, personally, I’m pretty unimpressed. Essex House is fine but is not a luxury property by any definition of the word. The St. Regis NY is a fine hotel with an exceedingly generous breakfast benefit (like $137 per day) but upgrades are tough to come by unless you are paying the full standard rate IME.