JFK check-in & lounge?
 

If we print boarding passes at home, do we need to go to a check-in counter for passport checks?

We're flying F and JL uses the LH Senator lounge at JFK. Do we just show our boarding passes or did we need a document from JL?

When checking in online, the website asked if we wanted to change seats since we'll have immovable armrests ???

Go to the check in counter, you'll get escorted with VIP One security.

From quick reading, that sounds better than our TSA pre-check for T1

Thanks!

FYI when I went through last month, the terminal wasn’t busy so they didn’t bother escorting me. This was a few hours before JL3.

There are some seats where they move up and down ;)

After reading bloggers on the joys of VIP One, that would be disappointing, in a somewhat trivial sense of the word.

I would have thought all F seats would be the same?

In any event, all other F seats were marked unavailable, so it wasn't a useful message. If they viewed it as an issue, they might have mentioned it when we chose those seats.

Is there any meaningful difference between the F seats between JFK and NRT/HND?

They said they were no longer doing VIPOne. There was a pre-check line and first class line. About 15 minutes from curb to past security.

LH lounge is very uncrowded, almost everyone looks Japanese. The lounge check-in agent filled out red luggage tags for us.

It was a joke. All the F seats are the same. This message is meant for other classes of service. But the programmer didn't realize it was a moot point. Like, there is no such thing as bulkhead in first. There is, but it doesn't give you any more legroom, because you are enclosed in your little capsule.

That's what I thought, but Poe's law

It is a very nice seat.

No, you can get through security and get lounge access with your home printed boarding passes. Unfortunately the stupid thing is that they make you get a new boarding pass at the gate. They can't even print you one at the lounge. I then thought to myself what is the point of online check in if I have to get a new BP at the airport anyway? I raised this point with them and even told them that the JL website says you can use your online BP at JFK (nothing about needing to get a new BP at the airport). They just gave me an annoyed look and treated me like I was the weird one. (They were pretty rude and un-JAL-like.) Nine years ago I flew ANA out of the U.S. with online boarding passes with no problems. Why can't JAL get their act together?

I echo your comment. Have come across this reaction when you ask someone anything which is out of the norm for them. Either they don't know what to do or how to answer the question so either wave their hands in you face and shake their head or just ignore you. I thought it was the lack of English speaking/understanding skills (something that is very common in Japan everywhere) but its seems not necessarily to be the case. If they don't like your question, they just wave you away, and sometimes quite rudely.

Now JL uses Air France/KLM lounge, a little section upstairs with no hot food. No more LH senator

Has the upstairs portion of the AF lounge reopened for JL passengers? Last time I used the lounge in mid-2021 flying JL F JFK-HND, the upstairs was closed and all JL passengers (F and J) had to use just the downstairs part of the lounge.

-FlyerBeek

Upstairs is open for JL passengers, sign for JAL points upward

So essentially JAL have created their own lounge within the Air France lounge? Is there a separate F section? What is the food / alcohol?