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Aer Lingus moving to New York JFK T7 – and into BA’s old Concorde Room lounge!

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More change is going on at New York JFK.

After British Airways moved from Terminal 7 to Terminal 8 at the end of last year, Aer Lingus is moving the other way.

From 27th April, Aer Lingus flights to Ireland and Manchester will move from Terminal 5 to Terminal 7.

Aer Lingus moving to New York JFK Terminal 7

The change is already partly underway. As of yesterday, Aer Lingus flights from Manchester to New York JFK are landing at Terminal 7. The return flights are still departing from Terminal 5 until 27th April.

This is bad news for anyone with an onward connection on JetBlue since the two airlines are no longer together in Terminal 5. It doesn’t make a lot of difference for anyone connecting to or from American Airlines, since the transfer will now be between Terminal 7 and Terminal 8 rather than Terminal 5 and Terminal 8.

Aer Lingus is moving into The Concorde Room lounge

Aer Lingus needs a lounge in Terminal 7 and it has decided to take over the old British Airways Concorde Room, the most premium lounge in the terminal. This has been empty since British Airways moved out late last year.

Here is our last review of The Concorde Room from 2016.

I very much doubt that Aer Lingus will be running a table service restaurant here, but let’s see!

The lounge is open to Business Class passengers as well as AerClub Silver, Platinum and Concierge members. You will not get in using British Airways Executive Club status, even though they are sister airlines. No other oneworld status card will work either, as Aer Lingus is not part of the alliance.

You can find the lounge by Gate 1. Opening hours and further details are on the Aer Lingus website here.

It will be interesting to see if JetBlue takes over the old Aer Lingus lounge in Terminal 5. You may be surprised to hear that people spending four figures for business class ‘Mint’ seats between the US and Heathrow, Gatwick, Paris and – soon – Amsterdam get no lounge access.

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Aer Lingus and AerClub

Comments (33)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • JAXBA says:
    12 Apr12 April 03:42

    AA didn’t move out of T7; they were never in it…

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
    12 Apr12 April 04:14

    I did JFK-MAN on EI on Monday night at JFK T5. Priority security was pathetic and took 50 mins (Irish passport holders are ineligible for TSA Pre Check). I had little time available in the lounge but went up for 30 mins. Despite 2 flights leaving after 19.00 when I asked if the lounge’s dining room was open I was told no. In fact, no hot food because of….covid. Jesus wept. Food options were a soup (so there WAS hot food!) that was bland and watery, turkey rolls and ham rolls, vegetarian wraps and some salad ingredients. Carpet was filthy and the fabric chairs displaying abundant spill marks. Some food leftovers and glasses from the previous DUB flight were left at one set of seats and remained there throughout my time in the lounge. EI are barrel-scraping in T5 at present so T7 can’t be anything but an improvement.

    • GM says:
      12 Apr12 April 07:56

      When I was there in September it was just OK. They did have hot food in a separate section, but only an hour or so after I arrived! Seemed to be very limited to certain times of day and was usual buffet pasta type stuff. Otherwise similar, with passable sandwiches etc. Better than DUB or LHR offerings, but that’s not difficult. EI seem to favour the “you’re lucky to get fed at all” approach to lounge management.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      12 Apr12 April 09:39

      Even if Irish Citizens could apply for GE and thus get Pre Check you still wouldn’t have gotten Pre Check as EI isn’t a participating airline.

    • CamFlyer says:
      12 Apr12 April 10:12

      That sounds normal for food options in domestic US lounges.

      • GM says:
        12 Apr12 April 10:31

        Probably (although Delta Sky Club at ORD quite good), but international carriers tend to/should make more of an effort. Expectations are higher.

      • Lady London says:
        12 Apr12 April 11:11

        That sounds like better class of US lounge to me.

  • Maciek says:
    12 Apr12 April 04:43

    Billhop is shutting down 😭 any alternatives?

  • Richie says:
    12 Apr12 April 07:38

    I doubt he wept, he’d only just risen.

  • John says:
    12 Apr12 April 08:19

    “I very much doubt that Aer Lingus will be running a table service restaurant here, but let’s see!”

    Seems like an extravagant space for a lump of cheddar, slice of long-long cake and a can of Guinness 🤔

  • Matt says:
    12 Apr12 April 08:42

    I thought Terminal 7 was being closed and demolished, which was why BA were moving out. Is that not the case?

    • Rob says:
      12 Apr12 April 08:47

      I thought that too!

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      12 Apr12 April 09:09

      It will be once the new T6 has been built but BAs lease on T7 came to an end last year and the Port Authority needs space to decant other airlines into to enable works to happen in the other terminals as part of the JFK development plans.

    • GM says:
      12 Apr12 April 10:30

      Plans for it to be demolished in 2026, from what I can see

    • TGLoyalty says:
      12 Apr12 April 18:59

      Thought there was something about additional works/investment if BA wanted to extend T7 use past next year so they moved earlier than they needed to.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
        12 Apr12 April 19:55

        BA signed new 7 year lease in 2015 that required them to spend on refurbishing public areas (including lounges), security area and back of house facilities / infrastructure. £50m comes to mind.

        Around the same time the JFK redevelopment master plan came into being and need for T7 to be demolished to enable a super T5 to be built eventually.

        The move to T8 was pretty much planned to be late last year / early this year once AA had done works to T8 to accommodate BA and to coordinate with the end of the lease.

        • Bernard says:
          12 Apr12 April 19:58

          Yet another bad investment from the useless Alex Cruz it seems.
          It’s always after bad CEOs you find the mess left behind

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
            13 Apr13 April 01:06

            What bad investment? It was required as part of BAs lease for the Terminal.

            Even if another airline had the lease they’d still charge BA their share of the costs as part of a tenancy agreement.

  • Howard Miller says:
    12 Apr12 April 20:35

    Actually, since American & JetBlue launched their northeast code-share alliance there’s an airside shuttle bus between their respective Terminal 8 & 5.

    At JFK Terminal 8 (American, British Airways & other oneworld alliance airlines) the shuttle bus operates at Gate 13, while at JetBlue’s Terminal 5, the location of the shuttle bus is opposite Gate 26.

    As such, once Aer Lingus’ move to JFK Terminal 7 is completed later this month, passengers with connections between American Airlines operated flights & those operated by JetBlue will need to change terminals landside via JFK AirTrain, which will require reclearing security for all connections.

    Definitely a downgrade for flyers on all of the airlines involved.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    13 Apr13 April 01:15

    Who said the T5/T8 shuttle bus for people connecting between B6 and AA was going to end?

    • Howard Miller says:
      13 Apr13 April 14:49

      Nobody said the T5/T8 shuttle for people connecting between B6 and AA was going to end. The article is about Aer Lingus moving to JFK T7 from T5, which means passengers connecting between Aer Lingus’ flights and JetBlue (B6) or American (AA) are out of luck for airside connections.

      • Howard Miller says:
        13 Apr13 April 15:05

        Just the same, apologies for any confusion the 2nd to last paragraph in my original comment may have caused as upon rereading the comment, a specific reference to connections between Aer Lingus flights at JFK T7 and those operated by JetBlue or American at their respective terminals, 5 and 8, should have been included as those are the terminal changes that will require using the landside AirTrain and reclearing security.

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