Over the past year or so, we’ve seen the opening of four Delta One Lounges, which are exceptional, among the best lounges you’ll find in the United States. While these lounges are amazing in terms of design, food, drinks, and service, unfortunately crowding continues to be a major issue, as flagged by JonNYC.
Delta One Lounge JFK serious crowding problems
The Delta One Lounge JFK is the biggest lounge in the Delta One Lounge network, at nearly 40,000 square feet, with a capacity for over 500 guests. It’s one of the biggest lounges operated by a US airline, but despite that, there still doesn’t seem to be enough space during some peak periods.
FlyerTalk member Cypriote tried to visit the lounge over the weekend, only to find quite a substantial line to get in. Even if one does get in, it’s not hard to imagine how uncomfortably crowded the lounge would be at capacity. I’m not sure that’s a lounge I’d want to spend much time in…
Admittedly this visit seemed to be on a Saturday afternoon in summer, which is just about the busiest possible time at this lounge. It seems that the lounge gets most crowded in the afternoons and early evenings, around 4-6PM, and then crowding isn’t as much of an issue later in the evening. Meanwhile in the mornings, this lounge is an oasis of calm.
With Delta’s new and improved lounge setup at JFK, the airline had touted how there would be no more lines to get into lounges, but clearly that’s not completely true.
In this case, I don’t really blame Delta for crowding
In Delta’s defense, I don’t think the airline is doing anything wrong here, or that this could be handled in a materially different way. This is a large facility, and ultimately Delta has greatly expanded its lounge capacity at the airport. Furthermore, most airlines have banked hubs, so it’s normal for lounges to get especially crowded over certain hours of the day.
Delta probably couldn’t get its hands on more lounge space, and Delta isn’t going to rework its schedule just to make the lounge experience better for passengers. So while this is unpleasant, I also think that in some ways, Delta One Lounges are a victim of their own success. People really love these lounges — for good reason — and I know many people arrive early to enjoy these lounges.
That creates a cycle of unpleasantness — people get excited about the lounge, that excitement causes them to spend more time in the lounge, and that causes the lounge to not be as pleasant.
Delta One Lounges have strict entry requirements, so I don’t think most of us are calling for entry requirements to be made more stringent. Heck, perhaps a change that will help with crowding is Delta’s eventual introduction of “basic” business class. However, I don’t think most of us are excited about that, and let’s not give them any ideas of “enhancements” that can be blamed on customer feedback.
So anyway, I think this is just a reality that guests will have to deal with over certain peak periods. If you’re visiting on a peak day in the late afternoon, expect you’ll have a very different Delta One Lounge JFK experience than if you were to visit in the morning.
When I was younger, I always remember my parents telling me how far they’d have to walk to school, etc., and that would blow my mind. When my kids grow up, I’ll tell them that back when I was younger, there were no lines to get into any airport lounges. Maybe that’ll blow their mind too.
Bottom line
The Delta One Lounge JFK is a beautiful facility. It’s huge, at nearly 40,000 square feet, and can accommodate over 500 people. However, even that isn’t big enough, and during some periods, there’s a line out the door.
While we often see lines out the door for Priority Pass and credit card lounges, it’s much less common for lounges targeted at international premium cabin flyers. This obviously just reflects the size of Delta’s JFK network during peak hours. This is the Delta One Lounge that most frequently has crowding issues, despite being around four times the size of the next biggest Delta One Lounge location.
What do you make of these Delta One Lounge JFK crowding issues?
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