Renovated BA Club Lounge at JFK now open
May 1, 2019, 1:46 am
#46
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 259
I am really impressed with how you analysed the lounge and articulated your analysis. Where can one go about acquiring this skill? This is an honest question.
Absolutely horrible.
The new First lounge is bland but expensive looking; this manages to look both bland and cheap. Neither has a whisper of luxury - too bright; long out of date pale wood and veneer finishes; the use of a split-complementary colour temperature in both lounges more suited to walk-through morning spaces like cafeterias and lobbies, when the vast majority of users will be dining and drinking towards the evening and night-time - topped off with hard design corners and repetitive cubic furniture arrangements.
Billboard style slogans/words pasted across walls are cringeworthy in their own right; the fact they have done this in Copperplate Gothic is utterly unforgivable.
Anyway this is only my opinion obviously and I'm certain some people will love it
The new First lounge is bland but expensive looking; this manages to look both bland and cheap. Neither has a whisper of luxury - too bright; long out of date pale wood and veneer finishes; the use of a split-complementary colour temperature in both lounges more suited to walk-through morning spaces like cafeterias and lobbies, when the vast majority of users will be dining and drinking towards the evening and night-time - topped off with hard design corners and repetitive cubic furniture arrangements.
Billboard style slogans/words pasted across walls are cringeworthy in their own right; the fact they have done this in Copperplate Gothic is utterly unforgivable.
Anyway this is only my opinion obviously and I'm certain some people will love it
May 3, 2019, 1:46 am
#47
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, Mucci: Classe de la Luxe Eternelle
Posts: 816
May 3, 2019, 4:16 am
#49
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 100
Apologies if this has been covered already, but has the re-opening up of the Club lounge resulted in a more pleasant atmosphere back in the First Lounge? I seem to recall the F lounge was being used to accommodate all pax with lounge access when work was being done and hence it became a bit of a scrum.
May 3, 2019, 4:37 am
#50
Join Date: May 2012
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 663
May 3, 2019, 5:36 am
#52
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Gold, HH
Posts: 261
Given the way in which they are marketing this I would expect better.
I would also suspect that they must have lost business.
I switched my flights to EWR after giving up on going through JFK.
Then I moved to Delta and Virgin (after the 787 debacle) as I don't want to sit in the mess of JFK, which given traffic, in some circumstances you can find yourself having to spend a good amount of time there, if you are on the earlier flights.
May 3, 2019, 11:54 am
#55
Join Date: Oct 2018
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Platinum, ALL Gold, Bonvoy Gold Elite, HHonors Gold
Posts: 384
The difference is subtle, but I think it's there!
May 3, 2019, 4:59 pm
#57
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: LHR, LGW
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 3,412
It lacks an identity whatsoever. It’s sadly a design concept that’s bland, plain and cheap. It’s certainly clean and new but there is no ‘British Airways’ DNA shining through here.
You could argue that it’s a new DNA and a new way forward but honestly you could stick a ‘WeWork’ ‘Ibis’ or even ‘Pret a Manger’ sign up in these areas and you wouldn’t know the difference. The classic BA blue A4 signage (you know those WiFi password signs etc) even looks out of place. Not because they are new and different but the classic BA blue A4 design looks dated and the lounge looks too alien to the BA brand.
I have dwelt on this because I wanted this new lounge concept to work. But sadly the FCO and ABZ lounges were pretty quiet on here in terms of commentary vs the new LGW South lounges which received great praise.
I don’t always take FT as gospel but this new design direction may work to fulfill the customer experience briefly but you can’t just hope that new and clean is enough and clearly FT has already been more negative towards this new JFK lounge than the thread for the LGW lounge which got lots of praise.
That to me says a lot, despite the constant rhetoric that FT is a minority and we aren't the majority, I do respect that, but somewhere along the line BA have got this creative process wrong. Sorry BA. Your investments have been very promising but this is not one of them! I do hope you’re saving the money for a even newer luxury lounge when the move happens at JFK.
Create a network of new lounges that marry your identity across the travel experience and scream I’m in a BA lounge not a “hmm I’m not sure, is this a TOG or WeWork or even ibis lobby?” Luxury it is not. More 3 star chic than 5 star opulence. Nice but not... oh wow!
May 3, 2019, 4:59 pm
#58
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Brighton. UK
Programs: BA Gold / VS /IHG Diamond & Ambassador
Posts: 14,176
The £52m is for improvements across the whole of T7 not just the lounges and is a requirement of the lease BA has with the Port Authority knowing full well that it would have a limited lifespan because of the JFK reconfiguration project and a likely move as part of that to T8.
Last edited by UKtravelbear; May 3, 2019 at 5:23 pm
May 3, 2019, 7:36 pm
#60
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: BOS
Programs: BA - Blue > Bronze > Silver > Bronze > Blue
Posts: 6,812
Sure, but it's not £52m well spent and it looks like a dire investment.
Given the way in which they are marketing this I would expect better.
I would also suspect that they must have lost business.
I switched my flights to EWR after giving up on going through JFK.
Then I moved to Delta and Virgin (after the 787 debacle) as I don't want to sit in the mess of JFK, which given traffic, in some circumstances you can find yourself having to spend a good amount of time there, if you are on the earlier flights.
Given the way in which they are marketing this I would expect better.
I would also suspect that they must have lost business.
I switched my flights to EWR after giving up on going through JFK.
Then I moved to Delta and Virgin (after the 787 debacle) as I don't want to sit in the mess of JFK, which given traffic, in some circumstances you can find yourself having to spend a good amount of time there, if you are on the earlier flights.