No Emirates Business Lounge at JFK

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

  • LuganoPirate
    Participant

    I’ve been told that EK have closed their lounge at JFK for refurbishment for about 6 months. I can’t find anything about this on the website and was wondering if anyone has experience of this and which lounge can you now use. I was told by a friend they just give you a voucher?


    Gold-2K
    Participant

    Looks like you are on your own with a meal voucher!!!

    Emirates Is Closing Their JFK Airport Lounge For The Rest Of The Year


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Thanks Gold, so it’s true. Bit of a nuisance as the flight leave around 10.30 pm and while I can usually keep the hotel room to 4pm but stretch it to 5 pm I’m at the airport around 6.30 so it’s much nicer to relax in the lounge and have dinner than wander aimlessly through the airport for 4 hours. Perhaps I’ll go back to Swiss for this trip!

    Or does anyone have any other suggestions other than third party lounges, which tend to be overcrowded and the food not that good?


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    [quote quote=831424]Thanks Gold, so it’s true. Bit of a nuisance as the flight leave around 10.30 pm and while I can usually keep the hotel room to 4pm but stretch it to 5 pm I’m at the airport around 6.30 so it’s much nicer to relax in the lounge and have dinner than wander aimlessly through the airport for 4 hours. Perhaps I’ll go back to Swiss for this trip!
    Or does anyone have any other suggestions other than third party lounges, which tend to be overcrowded and the food not that good?
    [/quote]

    I think that’s the point, and one of the reasons Emirates won’t have paid the other louunge operators (or airlines) to use alternate lounges while its own is being renovated.

    Firstly, most of them aren’t large enough to cater for all those business class passenegrs (is it four A380s daily from JFK now) and so the over crowding would be very bad, and secondly, even if they spread them around different lounges, most of them aren’t very good – Emirates likes to say it is a great experience, so handing passengers over into these lounges then reflects on it. At least with the voucher, the experience is more impersonal !

    I think you get a $40 voucher – not brilliant, but not bad.


    SwissExPat
    Participant

    Sorry to hear thus LuganoP…

    Emirates lounges are generally the best I have experienced (if you are in J)

    My only complaint is that there is no extra offering for F PAX (as you would get with BA or SWISS)

    But as a J Pax then the food and beverage was always top.

    I cannot believe that they will not have a lounge in JFK for 6 months… if so then I would avoid them but expect you are already booked to MXP.

    Rgds xPat


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    It takes an astonishing amount of time for airlines to refurbish their lounges – and whatever date we are given, then slips, and then of course there are situations when they open before they are ready…

    Thinking about this some more, I tried to think which of these carriers would welcome Emirates

    http://www.jfkiat.com/airline.html

    Airline Lounges
    • Air India Maharaja Lounge
    • Delta Sky Club
    • El Al King David Lounge
    • Emirates Lounge
    • Swiss Lounge
    • Virgin Clubhouse
    • Wingtips Lounge

    Delta and Virgin are out given the relationship (in public at least) with Emirates, as is El Al, so the choice is fairly limited…


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    “Thinking about this some more, I tried to think which of these carriers would welcome Emirates”

    El Al & Emirates ?

    Would be nice to think they would….. do they??


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    Well as I’m sure you know from your travels, behind the scenes, residents and citizens of countries find numerous ways of getting on in business and being friends despite being on opposite sides of various important political debates.

    And the same is true for the airline industry (and hotels and all travel suppliers).

    However, for political reasons, I think it will be some time before we see Emirates passengers welcomed into the El Al lounge.

    The day it happens, I’ll be among the first to celebrate.

    More generally, I honestly believed that the more the world travelled, the less likely conflicts would be.

    Same with the internet – surely greater transparency and knowledge would cause the fall of totalitarian regimes and lead to greater understanding between all nations.

    How naive I was.


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    I was actually wondering if there’s a nice hotel restaurant or lounge within easy reach – 5-10 minutes away – after check-in where I can go and relax and maybe have a decent meal. I’m sure I’ll find a happy recipient for the $40 voucher which I’ll happily give them.


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    I think I’ve found the place for you via an internet search for “Hotels close to JFK T4”.

    It’s called Kew Motor Inn

    The latest review, admittedly from 2011, is very persuasive.

    “This inn rocks! A bit kinky I gotta add too. They have rooms with different themes. When you enter their lobby, there’s the receptionist in the front desk and he will ask you to choose a room from the televisions displayed above him. The rooms that are in use will be darkened. If you ever heard of the hotels they have in Japan, (you know what I mean? ^_^) this reminded me a lot about that.

    The kinds of rooms they have are the Oriental Delight, Arabian Nights, NY Skyline, Safari, Southwestern Oasis, Waterfall to name a bunch. I’ve only had the Oriental Delight but based on the television or the pictures of their other rooms, they are all very colorful and exciting.

    Whenever you see a hotel with rooms this colorful, you might think it might be packed. It surprisingly wasn’t when I went there. As a matter of fact, it was quite empty and they had lots of free rooms. The atmosphere of this place is quite moody. They dim the lights everywhere even the lights in their cafe.”

    If you do go, please remember to tell us about your experience later. I would hold onto the $40 voucher just in case, though. It may well not be redeemable at this establishment.

    https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/kew-motor-inn-jamaica?hrid=46AwT5wPGp7C5ZR7undZQw


    SGJNI1961
    Participant

    Still no word on the new QF Lounge for T3? It’s now long overdue isn’t it?


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    [quote quote=831648]Still no word on the new QF Lounge for T3? It’s now long overdue isn’t it?
    [/quote]

    Do you mean at Heathrow? Yes, it’s long overdue – but thenlounges are always delayed at Heathrow – Cathay had huge delays before it opened its new one. And at least Qantas passenegrs can use it.

    First look: Cathay Pacific’s First and Business Class lounge, Heathrow T3


    esselle
    Participant

    Heathrow……

    Contractors going airside with knives, hammers, nails, all their stuff………security, inefficiency………..plumbing, electricity, HVAC………..

    How long to get a planeload of pax through the incoming system……………..

    It’s going to take a lot longer than anybody thinks to get things done.

    I think the airline is only guilty of over optimism………


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    I asked yesterday about this lounge. It still isn’t open.

    But no one seems to know when it will be either !


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    I seem to have missed this thread since my flight to New York in February (postponed from November), so thanks to all for your advice and comments.
    In the end I flew EK over Swiss due to the (massive) price difference and free car service to/from MXP.
    My hotel, The Parker, gave me an extended checkout to 7pm so I was at JFK at 8 and met a friend and colleague where we had dinner with our $50 voucher each.

    Coming through Dubai a few weeks ago I asked about the lounge to be told they still have no information as to when it will open.
    I asked again on the plane to be told by the Purser who confirmed they still have no information, but he added it was a question asked by many premium passengers, and as a result they have seen a small drop in pax to JFK with some citing this as the reason.

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