JFK – Terminal 8 – Flagship Lounge – Airline Lounge Review

Terminal 8, John F Kennedy Airport, New York

Introduction

This is my review of the American Airlines Flagship Lounge at JFK’s Terminal 8.

This is a brand-new lounge, having opened in 2022 – and is split with an Admirals Club. For various reasons, I didn’t manage to get time to visit the Admirals Club.

Terminal 8 is the primary OneWorld terminal, and in December 2022 British Airways will move there (from Terminal 7). It’s an interesting move, as I personally very much loved the Concorde Room at JFK – so we’re see what it’s replaced with, if anything!  

Opening Hours

The lounge is open daily from 04:30 to 00:15.

Entry Conditions

This lounge is coupled with an Admirals Club.

In the case of the Flagship Lounge, OneWorld Status holders of Sapphire and Emerald are allowed access. Otherwise if you’re flying First internationally to Asian, Europe, New Zealand and South America you are entitled to access.

Domestic flights from JFK to Dallas, Honolulu, Chicago, Charlotte and Maui are also allowed access – but curiously not Los Angles, San Francisco or Miami!

All very confusing!

You can also pay some $150 for access!

How to Get There

The lounge is very easy to find – heading towards Gates 1-12 you’ll find the elevators on the left.

Once checked in, it’s down the New York themed tunnel into the lounge.

Layout

This has a very modern layout to it – it’s light and airy with huge windows overlooking the airport and the city. 

The lounge has a variety of casual seating and low tables around it.

If you’re eating, there is more formal dining seating.

I couldn’t really find any kind of ‘business centre’ – but I did find a few phone rooms and there are some ‘pods’, which are similar to those in the Centurion Lounge at Las Vegas.  That said, I couldn’t find anywhere you could sleep either.

A feature I really like is ‘throne chairs’, which offer some great views of aircraft and airport, operations against the backdrop of the city.

Food and Drink

Drinks

Drinks in the Flagship Lounge are self-service – whether you need a soft drink or something stronger. There are self-service soda fountains and coffee machines.

As I noted in my review of the Flagship Lounge in Miami, there are more varieties of beers than one could ever need. There is also a good stock of wine.

There is also a little cocktail station to make your own cocktails – though I’m not sure if this is manned during more traditional drinking hours.

Food

On the food side, at the time I visited, it was breakfast time. I have to say there was a huge varierty of breakfast items, whatever you may want. In this case, it included cooked breakfast items, pastries, fruit, cheese – and a toaster.

For breakfast, the food was impressive, and even though I don’t ‘do’ breakfast – there were still plenty of options for me.

Wifi

As always, the Wifi was excellent.

Showers

Having landed early in the morning, I decided to use the showers. I believe there may be around 4 or 5 showers. The shower room was available for me, and seemingly it wasn’t necessary to reserve them – I just walked in.

The shower rooms are very large, the showers hot – and they even had Dyson hairdryers!  

Conclusion

I’ve been really impressed with the ‘new’ Flagship Lounges. I’d previously visited Miami in the evening, and New York in the day was equally as good!

It will be interesting to see what happens when British Airways make the move from Terminal 7 to Terminal 8 later this year, as I still think the BA Lounge/Concorde Room at Terminal 7 has the edge over this lounge.

American Airlines are really moving onwards and upwards with their lounges – especially the Flagships. I look forward to visiting many more, and perhaps visiting this PM to complete this review!