First photos of the new British Airways lounges at New York JFK Terminal 8, opening Thursday

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• Willmo says:

  29 Nov29 November 16:00

  I’m sure this will be asked a lot in the coming days, but out of Soho, Greenwich & Chelsea, which lounge is which?

  • Rob says:

    29 Nov29 November 16:04

    Chelsea is the equivalent of the Concorde Room – exact entry rules TBC, probably Gold Guest List and ticketed First.

    Soho – BA Gold

    Greenwich – BA Business / Silver

  • John T says:

    29 Nov29 November 16:18

    This is confusing before they have even opened. Why not just stick with Club, First and Concorde?

    • Rob says:

      29 Nov29 November 16:33

      Because it is shared with AA, Iberia and JAL.

      • Nick says:

        29 Nov29 November 17:11

        The names are actually really cool, it’s a celebration of shared heritage between NYC and London, reflecting the joint partnership between AA and BA with names that work in either city. Even if you think it’s twee you have to accept it’s a clever concept.

        • Richie says:

          29 Nov29 November 18:42

          So Ho NYC is a made up name.

        • blenz101 says:

          29 Nov29 November 21:07

          All place names are made up. But SoHo NYC is still a nod to Soho London.

          Same is true of the Soho in Hong Kong.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          30 Nov30 November 03:11

          SoHo NYC isn’t a nod to London as it’s short for SOuth of HOuston street and was only coined in the 1960’s as a name and the 1970s as a district.

          SoHo in Hong Kong is derived from SOuth of HOllywood road.

          SoHo London isn’t derived from being south of anywhere.

        • Blenz101 says:

          30 Nov30 November 06:14

          Well you are wrong. You think those particular streets were randomly chosen?

          I know not the most reliable source usually for debating with strangers on the internet but in this instance Wikipedia has reliable sources cited for both NY and HK that the London district inspired the naming of both.

• namster says:

  29 Nov29 November 16:05

  just been a week ago to the first lounge at JFK terminal 7 and probably last entry before it’s demise was surprised by the space. The menu was the same for business and first , first lounge was just smaller. Pretty busy for a red eye flight back to London

• James says:

  29 Nov29 November 17:27

  Look forward to the full coverage in due course Rob. Had a quick look at the video that BA put out and the Soho lounge hard product looks impressive and a set up for OWE/ BA Golds previously using the Flagship Lounge in T8.

  I was less taken with the Chelsea lounge and it looked like Moët behind the circular bar rather than LPGS and also Johnnie Walker Black rather than Blue. But I’ll reserve judgement until we see Rhys’ reporting (and tried them myself of course!)

  • Rhys says:

    29 Nov29 November 22:59

    Choice of Krug, Moët or Ruinart so I don’t think you’ll be complaining 😉

    • meta says:

      29 Nov29 November 23:06

      Is BA replacing LPGS with Krug in flight?

      • Rob says:

        30 Nov30 November 00:04

        Good one.

        Just going through the menu. The Chelsea Lounge serves 17 different champagnes plus Nyetimber sparkling. I’ve a feeling we’re not in The Concorde Room any more, Toto.

        • Andrew says:

          30 Nov30 November 01:11

          Quite the surprising champagne list isn’t it?!

      • Max says:

        1 Dec1 December 19:44

        Most likely no as Emirates does have an exclusive deal with Krug regarding inflight supply.
        That’s also the reason why Singapore Airlines does stop serving Krug in flight.

• HH says:

  29 Nov29 November 18:46

  Nice by BA standards, but not a patch on Cathay lounges.

  • Nick says:

    29 Nov29 November 20:00

    Good luck finding one at JFK!

• Rand says:

  29 Nov29 November 19:33

  Key question from my perspective: is there a proper fast track, like at JFK T7 (and unlike pretty much everywhere else at JFK and EWR)?

  • Nick says:

    29 Nov29 November 20:01

    Yes, has been for ages at T8. Separate ones for Emerald and Sapphire too!

  • James says:

    29 Nov29 November 20:28

    Even during the construction works there was a filter from the temporary Flagship First check-in desks in T8 in to the TSA line. An agent would direct you to either the TSA-Pre or general Priority lane. Not as good as LAX where a Flagship First agents walk you to the front of the queue at the TSA check point but they don’t have the volume of non AA OWEs that JFK gets I suspect.

    • Rand says:

      30 Nov30 November 00:00

      I’m aware of that “priority” lane, but I’d eventually get redirected to non-TSA pre together with economy class passengers… at least that’s what happened when I flew out of T8 a few months ago.

• Nihal says:

  29 Nov29 November 19:39

  ‘customers will benefit from an enhanced travel experience with seamless travel connections as the two airlines co-locate operations as part of a $400 million investment’

  $400M my West Bengali ass. I assume that is somewhat creative.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    29 Nov29 November 19:47

    They’ve done a heck of a lot more than just build a couple of lounges.

    Perhaps read the whole article.

    There are 5 extra gates plus expanded and upgraded baggage handling system plus other spaces and improvements.

    • Nihal says:

      29 Nov29 November 19:58

      5 gates, some parking positions, a few lounges, the new T8 contribution – you could get all that done for a lot less than $400M in Delhi, even if I say it mygoodself.

      I bet you a rupee to your pound that you get all that infrastructure done for 25% as much in LHR. Maybe $400M includes future work not mentioned.

      • JDB says:

        29 Nov29 November 20:41

        You will find that public statements or press releases issued by big companies are extremely closely scrutinised by compliance/legal people so the stated facts are likely to be correct.

        • Nihal says:

          29 Nov29 November 20:52

          could rob burgees very kindly comment as he made a good point yesterday?

          $400M seems far too high unless half of it was graft.

        • Rob says:

          29 Nov29 November 22:33

          As its Port Authority it will have been fully unionised labour. $400m sounds reasonable given all the outfield works. Heathrow T5 was £4b 20 years ago, so let’s assume nearer £6bn now, so about 5% of the cost of that. T5 was also a ‘clean’ site so presumably easier than extending a functioning terminal.

          Unless you’ve gone around a building project in an airport (I have) you have no idea how regimented it is. Every hammer etc has to be signed out and signed in again each day. Every bit of building material has to be security screened. Every single worker has to have full clearance.

        • Andrew says:

          30 Nov30 November 01:13

          Can’t tell if you’re joking but ‘correct’ more likely means the most generous possible accounting formula of past, present and future theoretical spending over a lifetime rather than anything you could tell a customer with a straight face.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        29 Nov29 November 21:01

        It’s irrelevant how much these works would cost in Delhi.

        New York is reknown for being an expensive place to do any construction work and add on the extra costs of working airside and that also increases the costs.

        It’s not clever to toss around unfounded allegations of corruption.

      • Heathrow worker says:

        29 Nov29 November 21:24

        I think you’d end up spending MORE for the same at LHR. How much did the T3 integrated baggage project cost in the end? £130m (before the £ sank)? Wasn’t it £200m to refurb the cargo tunnel under the southern runway?

        Have you ever tried building anything at an airport? In the middle of airside, surrounded by runways and taxiways and all sorts of critical underground infrastructure, while ensuring your overground temporary structures (cranes, site buildings) don’t interfere with the myriad navigation, communication and surveillance systems operating there?
        It’s nothing like your normal building project.

      • Thywillbedone says:

        30 Nov30 November 07:44

        Delhi?? The investment was made in the first world, not the second or third!

  • blenz101 says:

    29 Nov29 November 23:44

    Also seems within the $400m they did some social good.

    The project employed 115 unique Minority-Owned Businesses (MBEs) and Women-Owned Businesses (WBEs) who were awarded contracts totalling more than $150 million. AA and BA partnered with local businesses in Queens, New York with contracts worth over $33 million.

    So it didn’t all go to the main contractor and architect. SodexoMagic is also apparently minority owned so ongoing benefits.

    I would have thought the world cup would have brought into sharp focus that importing immigrants from the subcontinent and paying / treating them appallingly was considered undesirable.

    • Mike says:

      30 Nov30 November 03:29

      Uuurrggghhh…

      “The project employed 115 unique Minority-Owned Businesses (MBEs) and Women-Owned Businesses (WBEs) who were awarded contracts totalling more than $150 million. ”

      So they used large amounts of the pot to be racist and sexist and I’m supposed to see that as a “social good”, no thanks. Racism is racism and sexism is sexism even if you are being a bigot to the supposed ‘bad guys’.

      • blenz101 says:

        30 Nov30 November 11:05

        Wow. Private companies spend their money to the benefit of their local communities and direct their resource to help overcome demonstrable systematic barriers which impact minority communities. And this is racist and sexist?

        Words fail.

      • Lady London says:

        30 Nov30 November 13:51

        Well it does smack a bit of greenwashing. Or whatever the politically correct term for “Look at us we’re following xyz politically correct cause(s) is currently fashionable”. Surprised we’re not hearing LBGTQ+ (have I got that right?) were not $$$$m part of it too

        • blenz101 says:

          30 Nov30 November 15:14

          As I am sure you well know it is nothing to do with greenwashing or the LGBT community.

          It is not ‘politically correct’ to monitor the makeup of your supply chain and where it offers value for money seek to remove barriers to both local businesses (and by extension in the US, minority owned businesses) to participate in the procurement process. The benefits of this approach are well documented and in most countries, SMEs account for the majority of all businesses and provide the majority of all jobs.

          To me this approach is better than awarding the whole contract to China State Construction Engineering and shipping in the cheapest acceptable labour, just to make shareholder richer, provide no local tax revenue and zero opportunities which benefit to the local community.

          If you are taking the trouble to monitor your supply chain and provide these opportunities then its hardly a stretch to publish the results and benchmark yourself vs the makeup of your population.

          As this isn’t really the place for this kind of debate perhaps you should go back to writing crackpot theories on how the worlds airlines and credit card companies are out to get the consumer.

        • Nihal says:

          30 Nov30 November 18:36

          There are a few weaknesses in that argument, Blenz.

          Taxation – it might not be local but it would still be USA
          Cheapest labour would still be USA (as China Whatever couldn’t just bring in cheap labour from abroad), so USA minimum wage would apply
          Greenwashing or LGBTQ+-washing? Sounds like it to me, ie paying above the market rate to get a few brownie points, virtue signalling, PR to be used by cos involved
          Benchmarking the ethnic numbers of workers you use vs the make-up of the general population? Even if they are less capable of doing the work? Sheesh.
          Er, what about fiduciary duty of Company Directors to safeguard the interests of their shareholders? You’re suggesting paying more, for less qualified workers, to do comparatively useless work vs the best solution at best cost

        • blenz101 says:

          30 Nov30 November 19:56

          To take your pointless arguments on…

          On tax, the US has state taxes. By using local SME’s in Queens who employ locally the state income tax is collected and local sales tax is paid when those same people spend in their local communities. Bussing in the cheapest temporary labour (construction gangs) on minimum wage from elsewhere (even in the US) doesn’t bring this benefit. And whilst this project may be subject to union control due to it being on Port Authority land plenty of other projects would see the major construction giants bring in cheaper Mexican labours wherever they could.

          I will leave you to look up greenwashing but it is totally irrelevant here. Same goes for the LGBT argument. Not relevant but helps you feel like this is the the Daily Mail comment section by at least seeing it raised I guess.

          At no point did I suggest ‘paying more’, I specifically said where using local (and by extension minority) business offers value for money. No idea why you think a local contractor is going to be less qualified or competent to undertake a piece of specific work to a defined specification (i.e. building code) because the business owner is female / black or hispanic or the employee lives locally.

          The reality is 50% of the population in Queens is from an ethic minority and 50% of the population are going to be female. If anything these small contractors are able to be more responsive to issues, innovative, mobilse quicker and be more price competitive (no large management overhead, shareholder dividends, risk premium etc.). If there was no monitoring then ideas like yours where all work packages should be given to the trusty Grand Wizard Triple K Construction Co. to safeguard the shareholders would persist.

          When large corporations do the right thing they should be applauded. The overall redevelopment of JFK is in the billions of dollars. It is perfectly right that when such sums are being spent that there is a consideration of how the procurement and supply chain is structured in order to benefit society for the better and particularly for those living and working in the communities where major projects happen.

          Of course the best people and value for money at all times, thats a given, it’s the USA after all. But that doesn’t automatically mean the billion dollar turnover construction companies take all the work, pay as little as they can for the labour and deliver the profits to their shareholders.

        • blenz101 says:

          30 Nov30 November 20:07

          Oh – and nobody suggested benchmarking ‘the workers’ for any characteristic. The companies themselves are being benchmarked via their ownership and management structure.

          It is the same type of reporting we have in the UK that tells us 4% of CEOs in the FTSE 350 are female. But by your argument they are naturally not as competent and would need to be paid more than the status quo of 96% male dominance.

          Efforts to track and look at ways to address these systemic issues are further evidence of the LGBT/Greenwash/Sportwash/Woke/Transrights agenda.

        • Rob says:

          30 Nov30 November 21:40

          The reason a lot of small contractors don’t bid for these contracts is because they don’t believe they can win them and/or because they don’t have the experience in filling in the mountains of paperwork required for Government deals. In my experience you are not directly awarding contracts on the basis of ownership status but choosing to help companies that meet these criteria through the process by making sure they are aware of opportunities and working with them on the paperwork.

          Without this, the contracts go to big companies who can afford to subscribe to Government procurement journals and who have the back-up required to fill in the papers. These companies are not necessarily cheaper than smaller contractors, especially when so much construction is done by sub-contractors anyway.

        • Nihal says:

          30 Nov30 November 20:24

          Well: I guess you beat me on a few points there (not all).

        • Nihal says:

          30 Nov30 November 20:31

          Actually it was a bit like: We are best in the world! We have beaten England! England, birthplace of giants, Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana, vi har slått dem alle sammen, vi har slått dem alle sammen! (we have beaten them all, we have beaten them all!). Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating! (Norway)

          I feel a bit like I got a jolly good beating 🙂

        • Nihal says:

          30 Nov30 November 20:39

          You win the argument on nearly all points, Blenz

• Peter says:

  29 Nov29 November 20:02

  Still no update on when the terminal 5 lounges will get a refurbishment? I guess by that time I won’t be gold anymore..
  Maybe that’s actually their aim, reduce the number of status holders by not investing in the London lounges.

  • namster says:

    29 Nov29 November 22:22

    LOL 😆 bite the hand that feeds , surely not 😆

  • Rhys says:

    29 Nov29 November 23:02

    It’s still happening. Covid (and this summer) delayed a lot of projects but it’s on the cards.

    Eg new uniforms originally scheduled for 2020 are now coming early next year. Same with Club Suite.

• Catalan says:

  29 Nov29 November 21:24

  Lovely looking lounges. Just hope they don’t get too overcrowded as there will be quite a few oneworld carriers using the facilities.

  • Rhys says:

    29 Nov29 November 23:02

    Not the Chelsea Lounge. BA/AA only.

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