corporate-wage-slave

Friday 2 December 2022, sees the opening of the new BA and AA Greenwich Lounge in John F Kennedy Airport, New York, Terminal 8. This continues on from the former Galleries Club Lounge in Terminal 7, which has now closed.



Location: Terminal 8 JFK. It is airside, in the main terminal building, confusingly known as Concourse B, with the satellite terminal being Concourse C. The location is near but above gate 10. If coming from the main TSA security area, go forward then left at Bobby Van's Grill / the passageway to Concourse C. This is the location of the former T8 Flagship lounge.

Opening hours: 04:30 hrs to 00:30 hrs - 7 days a week,

Access rules:
Usual oneworld lounge rules: BAEC Silver cardholders and above plus 1 guest. BA Club World travellers, no guests. oneworld Business class travellers. Plus those entitled to use the Soho or Chelsea lounges. AA / Aadvantage passengers have separate rules, see AA Forum.

Facilities
Buffet
Snacks
Drinks
WCs
Showers
Rest areas
Wheelchair access
Runway views

Useful links
BA & AA JFK T8 joint operations to begin Dec 2022
particularly from post 160 onwards.

British Airways and American Airlines Chelsea Lounge - JFK Terminal 8

British Airways and American Airlines Soho Lounge - JFK Terminal 8

corporate-wage-slave

Admin notice: this more of a placeholder at the moment, since the lounge is just about to open, and we need confirmation of details. Any photos, visit reports and suggestions are most welcome.

allturnleft

Does this replace the AA flagship lounge in T8 or is it the same space

Going through next week…

Lefly

From what I read, and from the pictures, is the same lounge with the addition of the First Dining and AAdmiral Club spaces.
What I'm curious about is the food offering, if it's the same quality/quantity/variety as before or something else.

crazyarmadillo

Same too, only from what I've read and seen, the lounge will take the space of flagship and has or will, take ffd.

The admirals club will now be just the existing one, through the tunnel on the other side. Unsure how that's going down with Admirals members, if that is the case.

Again, just going from what I've read elsewhere. We don't go through Kennedy till 1st week Jan.

Genius1

The buffet is the same as the Soho lounge, minus a few choices. There is no QR code menu.

freelance

The food is not even close to the standard of the old T7 pre-boarding dining. Today was rubber chicken, or overcooked salmon, The veggies were good though. Some things just seem odd, no sparkling water? The general lounge area doesn't feel a patch on the old T7 lounge. Greenwich just feels like a bog standard US business class lounge which, to be fair, I suppose is what it is. What it definitely isn't is a flagship lounge like the old T7 Club World lounge was.

Genius1

I popped into Greenwich last night and it unpleasantly busy. The 'bridge' area (which coincidentally has a door into the reception for the Soho and Chelsea lounges although passengers aren't allowed to use it) was open and was much quieter than the main lounge area. The ex-Admirals Club and Flagship First Dining areas were still closed, although allegedly will all be opened up into one lounge area soon.

Spruce-Moose

I was in on 03/12/22. It wasn't a great experience, but I suspect a lot of it was down to teething problems that will be ironed out quite quickly.
Examples of things that could have been better:

There was soup at the end of the buffet station, however at times only a couple of bowls / spoons and at other times none of either. For some reason the staff seemed reluctant to stack the shelf on the buffet station with utensils. Leaving people to have to hang around until a staff member passed to ask. The same situation occurred to a lesser extent with plates for the main buffet and also glasses for the beer and soft drinks.

There didn't seem to be any sort of nibbles available in the lounge to accompany drinks. Some nuts / crisps / pretzels etc. would have been welcome and surely something easy enough to sort out.

Staff seemed to be new to the job. There was someone who I assumed to be a manager in the lounge in "plain clothes" who seemed to be having to micro manage to the point of emptying bins and cleaning up spillages, I'm not sure if he was actually on duty or just travelling through as at one stage he was enjoying a glass of champagne.

I witnessed a member of staff slip on a spillage on her way into the kitchen/cleaning area, resulting in her taking a tumble.

The lounge was extremely busy. No problem with this as such, but there didn't seem to be enough staff to collect used glasses and plates regularly enough. Maybe this was linked to the above slow distribution.

I'm sure these things will be ironed out if they haven't already, but it did feel like a bit of a soft opening, which would have been fine if BA were charging soft opening prices for the ticket.

Genius1

My full review of the new facilities at T8 is now available here: The New AA / BA Premium Experience at JFK Terminal 8

In summary, the Greenwich lounge will benefit from soon being opened up to occupy the ex-Admirals Club space and the ex-Flagship First Dining space, as when I visited the lounge was uncomfortably full. The views are undeniably better than what was possible in the Club lounge in T7, but the offered buffet is no match for Club World Pre-Flight Dining, which will be sorely missed.

salut0

Thanks for your detailed review in the list you linked.

The views are nice but the slanted windows have a lot of glare and reflection on them (not BA/AA�s fault but the architects?) so you can�t actually see much out of them when it�s dark unless you go up to them and press your head right against the glass.

The lounge is so crowded they even have seating installed against the wall directly underneath the screen showing Departure and Arrival flights so your head blocks the screen. I had an amusing exchange with someone who was trying to look at the posted times when I realized they couldn�t see around me. When I apologized they said �Not your fault � you didn�t put the seats there, you just sat in them.�

Food was disappointing. Much worse than BA T7 preflight dining. No nice or interesting snacks. Couldn�t find any mixers other than Sprite and Coca Cola next to the serve yourself alcohol area. Drinking glasses were either unavailable or smeared and blotched/dirty looking when they did arrive (and placed upside down in that annoying way so they can�t dry any further than they already have).

Ambience was chaotic and unrelaxing.

(We consoled ourselves when we actually flew out via HEL with a visit (generously allowed to all three passengers although only I am BA Gold) to Finnair�s Platinum Lounge at HEL which more than makes up for the grimy AA/BA Greenwich experience.)

Our seven year old child remarked in the JFK T8 lift as we were going upstairs to the lounge as they read the sign �Green which? They should say �green sandwich� instead.� I assumed the reference was to vegetables, and didn�t think at the time of the possible connotation of green mould (I was actually once served a green mouldy sandwich at a cafe in the NYC area) but perhaps it�s quite apt�

xenole

All the jars of sweets / candies / snacks have gone. The biscotti next to the coffee machine have gone as well (although still got them in the LAX and MIA Flagship lounges).
Soup, bread, salads stuff, cold cuts, cheeses, wrapped apples etc. Chicken pot pie, salmon bits, some meat, rice, bird food type stuff.

(MIA Flagship on Monday had some bits of meat, chicken, tasteless rice and large cauliflower florets as their "hot" supper options. LAX Flagship had scrambled egg as pretty much the only normal breakfast option)

Soft drink machine was broken yet again a few days ago, so cans of Coke etc. only.
Glasses ran out in there and Soho. Seem to be too few out at any given time and they're smaller than they were previously.

Loads of Moet champagne though.

Wasn't too busy. Chelsea (and SoHo) seemed far busier - obviously loads of people flying F (or got in as GGL or CK, depending on what the front desk decided that day).