Review: Alaska Lounge New York JFK Airport

I'd say AS lounge food is a bit behind UA & AA "standard" domestic lounges a bit, but those other lounges don't usually blow me away either. With any of these lounges all I really expect is a light bite, a snack.

What I really like about AS lounges is their selection of complimentary regional craft beers. Most of the time, when I'm at a lounge, I just want to kick back with a beer and relax and the fact that UA & AA lounges only offer complimentary yellow water is always a disappointment.

Curious Lucky what food you think they've cut back on? Out of curiosity I checked your prior AS Boardroom reviews and it doesn't seem any different.

That said, I think AS Lounges strike the right balance. Their food selection is a notch above what Aadmirals Clubs offer (some like SF and ORD do well as they've got a hot item, but others like DEN or EWR or even JFK are total garbage) but behind Delta Sky Clubs (which consistently seem to offer a hot item.) But they absolutely win on the drinks, with the best coffee setup and decent complimentary craft beers too.

Honestly now at SeaTac I usually skip the Centurion cockroach farm and head to the N gate AS Lounge.

I tried to access once as a PP member. They refused to let us in until 8pm. Ok. We walk in at 8:01 and there were two (2) people in the entire lounge (and no, nobody had just left). Barista service had ended, the food was just leftovers, and the lounge had a lot of dirty plates around. Multiple outlets didn't work.

Decor was nice though.

Quite the investment for AS considering their draw down of Transcon services and also the little fact that this terminal is slated for demolition within the next decade.

I am flying JAL F in a few weeks out of JFK and I have a long layover due to my positioning flight coming in early. Lucky, you say above that this lounge is only practical if flying out of T7, but is it technically possible to go into T7, clear security, spend time here, and then leave before taking the AirTrain to T1 for my flight. The Lufthansa lounge in T1 actually seems worse than this.

Do you think this plan is feasible or just too much trouble for what its worth. [Alternate idea is to check out the TWA hotel for a few hrs]

I believe United called it Premium Service not Premier Service. Those were the good old days! I recently switched from United to AS + Partners. It's been pretty good so far.

This lounge is super bizarre. We had a layover here while going back home to Seattle from Paris, and were told that Priority Pass was not valid because of overcapacity. There was a delayed flight or something, and a whole bunch of people were in the lounge. We were later told that there were two 4pm flights that were going out, so we would have access at 4pm. When we went in, there was trash EVERYWHERE. Which they didn't really clean until 5pm. They decided last minute that they were going to extend the lounge by another half hour because of the flight delays, and then we all got kicked out at 6pm on a Saturday. Which was also odd.

The salad selections were very fresh though! We weren't super hungry but it's not really a meal.

I visited this lounge about 6 times last year, and really agree with your summation. If Alaska could get a little bit better food offering, and a little bit better house wine and spirits offering (beers fine) - this would be a great lounge. I can’t imagine the investment would be that costly.

Good luck getting in there in the evening. The times I've used the BA lounge with the adjacent entrance they've had a permanent metal sign outside noting no entry for Priority Pass. Every time.

The two times I've used the Alaska Lounge at JFK, it was the evening and I was flying on a purchased first class ticket to enable entry. The front desk was turning people with Priority Pass memberships away left and right (which reinforces to me how nearly worthless that membership is for domestic U.S. travel now). It was fairly crowded in the evening, with several delayed flights. It was annoying none of the staff could tell passengers anything about how long until boarding would start for my delayed flight. It felt like the Alaska Airlines service culture wasn't as friendly at this distant outpost.

@Ben: I've never heard of LOP Polish... sounds like a nice airline, though

😉

Ah, the glory days of waiting in here for my row 9 UA PS flight to the West Coast. Now we have the ongoing S-hole that is EWR with no usable lounges. Nice job $misek!

Lucky - pretty sure for a brief period, post UA, pre AS, this was a LOT-branded lounge.

Been there many times for AM flights. Quite pleasant for breakfast with a nice spread. Never refused PP entry until just recently 12/26–they claimed it was a staffing issue. 2 of our party of 5 got in due to first class tix, and the place was very empty. So I somewhat believe it was due to staffing? AS has a number of transcons leaving between 7-8 AM, and it has been busy here and there but never was overly crowded.

I really don't understand the concept of having to pay for the 'better' food and drinks in US lounges. You may as well stay outside and pay for the type of food you would prefer from many of the outlets you will readily find, rather than the lounge limited offerings.

I've just visited the AS LAX lounge a few hours ago. They had amazing soups. Constantly there were 2 kind of hot soups on offer, and every time one of the bowls got empty, the've replaced it with another kind of soup. While I was there, I tried 5 different ones.
I wonder why JFK does not have this option.

"....the new flagship Alaska Lounge in Seattle."

Flagship?
Time for another lawsuit from American?

your entire JFK experience seemed awful. The TSA agents were the most troubling. These are supposedly attempting to protect the flying public, HA, its a joke. I also experience a fowl mouthed TSA agent screaming at me at DCA. I won't go into the details, but they were shouting orders at the screening location at me personally. After I got through (since I had a LOT of time to kill) I made a federal case out of it, with a supervisor. I ended the conversation letting them know that there are passengers who are hearing impaired, and if the TSA agents don't get a reaction from passengers, that might be the reason. The expletives are unacceptable, any other place , after a few warnings, would simply fire the employee. I avoid JFK at all costs, a simply unpleasant experience all round.