Genius1

The Greenwich lounge is what was the FL / FFD (and Concourse B AC). The Soho and Chelsea lounges are on the same level, but the other side of the bridge, in space that was previously offices. They are accessed by a different lift and stair core to the Greenwich lounge, to the right of the main concourse (whereas the lift and stair core for the Greenwich lounge is to the left).

Genius1

I’d be interested to see how many BA passengers have GE. I’m not that much of a regular traveller to the US (or at least, wasn’t in previous years), but may well take your advice!

Sadly I didn’t snap one as you have to backtrack from the check-in entrance. It’s quite embarrassingly awful.

daftboy

I would point out that GE eligibility is only for a limited subset of nationalities - of course that includes citizens of the UK, which a majority of passengers on BA will be, but certainly not all, particularly I would think people based in London who thus have BA as their home airline (myself included!)

SFO777

Marvelous report with an excellent review of the new AA/BA lounges at JFK. What a disappointing menu at Chelsea. Simply moving the FFD menu would have been great but no doubt nixed by the beancounters. Once again, AA (and BA) cheapen out, but not unexpected for two airlines with dismal international First Class products.

BlooJoo

Got it, thank you. The Concourse nomenclature in T8 makes no sense.

hugolover

Cool, that's the LOT champagne in their lounge too. It's £25 in Tesco atm. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-G...ucts/283507302

NYC1

As a frequent visitor to the CCR at Terminal 7, this is a pretty sad, but not unexpected, read. The CCR @ T7 was my favorite lounge in the US with great staff and catering. It also brought back memories of flying Concorde. Great report.

Sandy Hopper

They might have run out of the Soho-designated Champagnes and were serving the Greenwich staple instead?

These were the Soho Champagnes on December 9:


BarelyBAGold

Thanks a lot Genius1 for a very comprehensive overview of the lounges at JFK T8. I don't often fly to JFK but next time I do, I look forward to sampling the Soho lounge on my return to LHR in case I don't manage an avoid upgrade to F. Have to think perhaps that we too frequent flyers, are maybe a bit over fussy when it comes to our lounge expectations. I recently flew F from Kuwait to London and tbh if the KWI lounge had been half as good as the Greenwich lounge at JFK I would have been very content.

MikeFly

Here is the review I shared with another group from my visit in December. I'll be back in a couple of weeks and hoping for some improvement.I was there on the 18th, around 4pm staying for a couple of hours. Here are some of my observations:

- Food menu was dramatically reduced and some of what was on the menu was not available. In my case the fish & chips
- What was available on the menu, the burger, was basically inedible and that included the fries. When FFD was open, both the burger and fries were good, plus there were a lot of other good items to order. Food tasted so off we went downstairs to Vans for dinner.
- The champagne menu was also cut. The staff did offer up Le Grande Dame which is a good substitute for some of the missing ones. Again selection was limited from even the abbreviated menu. Staff informed us that the Ruinart was down to 1 bottle which disappeared quickly.
- the staff did not have corkscrews to open the wine! I had to show them how to open the wine without one. An hour or so later a supervisor was able to find a couple of corkscrews for the staff.
- lighting could be improved from the OR stark white which is not very relaxing
- some background music may also help make the place feel less sterile

My colleague and I truly felt sorry for the staff as they were being as accommodating as possible, but had to spend a lot of time apologizing for all the things they couldn't do. Which is definitely not a healthy work environment for them. The staff we interacted with were from the Concorde Room and they were aware of what is possible and was just a few weeks ago.

There were 2-3 other people sitting at the bar while we were there and they were equally disappointed.

ChazzaBazza

If I already have my F boarding pass + TSA-pre and no bags, is it worth going through the check in area? oO they help cut the queue for TSA pre security or is it best to just go to the normal line? Thanks

daftboy

Going through the F check in brings you out right at the TSA-pre scanners, so recommend going that way.

Unfortunately while OWE we don't have TSA-pre so when passing through on Monday last we were directed to the slightly more chaotic main line, albeit very close to the top of it so it wasn't too painful an experience