I recently wrote about how the Air France Lounge Washington Dulles will be closing for several months, as the lounge is being renovated. As it turns out, that's not Air France's only US lounge that's now closed. As reported by The Flying Dutchboy, the Air France Lounge New York JFK has just closed, and should…
Continue reading: Air France Lounge JFK Closed For Several Weeks
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Always intriguing when airlines choose non-alliance partners for lounges (at GIG last week on a British Airways flight, I was sent past the American Airlines lounge to, er, GOL’s. Which, as it happens, was rather nice).
how about JAL passengers? do they also get redirected to KE (first) and LH (biz)?
Also does the Delta airside bus stop at T1? Because if it does, I can see some skyteam passengers go over to the T4 skyclub
What!? Argh. I'm booked on China Eastern business class for a flight in three weeks and I hate the idea of being relegated to a packed Korean Air or Alitalia lounge (both of which are widely regarded as terrible). Does anyone know where China Eastern passengers will be sent to? There really are not many options at JFK T1 and Air France was the only decent one!
I enjoyed the "Night Service" meal option at JFK two years ago. Nice to be able to eat at a regular meal time (8 PM), then get on the plane at 10 PM and go straight to sleep. The only thing lacking in my mind was that the food was exactly the same as that catered for the plane- I wonder if they are installing a full kitchen to cook those meals on site.
But it's a great service to be able to maximize sleep time on a relatively short red-eye.
How embarrassing. Subjecting Air France most premium pax to the pathetic offerings of a Korean Air's "First Class Lounge" is worthy of compensation.
—Justin Ross Lee
Noo! Any word on where MU J passengers will be accommodated? This is very disappointing.
Slightly away from topic, but why don't JAL and ANA swap terminals at JFK? ANA would then be with their Star Alliance partner Lufthansa at T1, and JAL with their OW partner BA at T7.
@JDS - Terminal 1 is owned by a conglomerate of airlines including JAL, and also Air France, Korean and Lufthansa. A lot of airlines are hodgepodged together at whatever space they can get, and these airlines came together when they couldn't get space elsewhere. Alliances mean very little if you look at what airlines use what terminals at JFK.
I think the plan is to align airlines to their respective partners once (and if) the North/South terminals are built out. Delta will likely take over the majority of Terminal 4 with select partners (likely VS), while the rest of the Skyteam airlines move into the new South Terminal (T1/T2), while oneworld takes over the majority of Terminal 8, especially if it gets built out, and Star alliance and the unaligned airlines move into JetBlue's new North Terminal (T6/T7). Will it actually happen? Who knows.
The loss of the largest lounge in T1 is huge for these six weeks. The KE, LH and Alitalia lounges already get packed at peak hours. There is such a lack of spare lounge capacity that I wonder if the airlines will offer restaurant vouchers to try to alleviate over-crowding during this period.
It's really a testament to how bad the Alitalia and Korean Air lounges are that Air France is moving their business class passengers to Lufthansa instead of their Skyteam partner lounges... The Lufthansa business lounge isn't even that great.
What happens to EVA business class passengers who were entitled to use the Airfrance lounge? Can we now use Lufthansa? What hours is it open? I have a flight tonight in terminal 1. Many thanks!
@GuruJanitor
JAL will most likely stay in the new South Terminal (T1/T2). They already partnered and is partly funding for it.
@Carla ash: I thought EVA used the Lufthansa lounge? I flew the late evening EVA flight to TPE in business class (no status) less than a year ago and we were put in the Lufthansa Business Lounge.
@Carla & Justin: For the daytime BR flight, J pax get to access AF lounge while the night flight, they get LH lounge.
Actually... I think BR daytime flight uses LH (since LH lounge closes early) while the post-midnight flight uses AZ.
@GuruJanitor your statement contradicts itself.
Terminal 1 is owned by a conglomerate of airlines
the plan is to align airlines to their respective partners once (and if) the North/South terminals are built out.
Each terminal is independently owned and operated, even the new unbuilt ones. I doubt they will ever group up the alliance. Port Authority is a dinosaur that even Albany can't handle.
SQ would never close down the lounge for this. SQ would personally wipe
Everyone’s backside if this happened. SQ crews are trained to the highest level possible. PERFECTION!
Anyone find out where China Eastern is sending their passengers during this period?