American Airlines/British Airways Lounges Terminal 8 — Attraction in New York

I have been flying out of JFK for years. As with any airport, they have their pros and cons. There are going to be issues. Whether it be flight delays or whatever, passengers have to learn to be flexible. The only reason for the 3 stars is because I am reviewing TSA, check-in, the agents (customer service) and the flight crew collectively. Depending on what time you are traveling in the morning, you may be able to use your TSA pre- check or not because sometimes they are not open. I can’t fault AA for this, but they all need to do better. Pre-check should be open at 4am just like the regular line. The agents are hit or miss. You may or may not get a pleasant one. As long as you don’t have an issue with your ticket, you should be good. Go to the kiosk, check-in and drop off your bags. The gate agents are great people. Just don’t annoy them with ridiculous questions. Again, some of the gate agents are hit or miss. Now the flight crew, mainly the flight attendants. I use to think they get a bad rap, but I have since rethought that. 99% of them need to be retrained or just trained in customer service. I do understand that passengers can really be a lot to deal with, but start with a little niceness and kindness first. The minute you step into the aircraft, most of them are speaking to each other and don’t even acknowledge you. It’s truly annoying. And most of them do not how to speak to people. If they were suppose to get a tip, my tip would be if you don’t like your job, change it. They have the most attitude ever. While I will never give up on my US airlines, that’s why I love traveling to Asia. The Asian airlines keep smiles on their faces no matter what, assist you when needed and don’t give you all the tude. The old days of traveling are extinct. I’m just saying though, they need to do better, it’s...

Ladies and gents, I love this lounge!! I was told by a representative in the Admirals Lounge at another gate that I could use this "VIP" lounge since I was flying internationally. This location closes at 1am, the other lounges closes at 10:30pm. That's perfect for me since my flight out of the country leaves at 1:30am.

The design of this spacious flagship lounge is sleek and modern. There are plenty of seats, booths, tables, single booth type comfy chairs with an outlet. Outlets are plentiful here along with the space to move around to the different areas if you so desire.

There is a section for food in the lounge that is sort of the norm, they also have a separate section of the lounge labeled The Tasting Room. The booths and seats in that area are cozy and the lighting is dim.

My favorite thing about this place is that the wine, alcohol, and beer are all SELF SERVE!! I have only seen this at a lounge in Japan and I remember thinking, "Why aren't we doing this in America?" It's nice to not have to deal with the everyday bartender/customer banter then worrying about what is is a decent tip when we're receiving free spirits due to our membership. I'm not against tipping and I know that's how our bartenders make a good portion of their living. I myself was a bartender for 1.5yrs after college. It's just nice to not have to worry about that while still in America. There's a beautifully set up wine tasting table with several bottles of different types of wine with wine glasses surrounding the table. There is a cooler for different types of beers. A station towards the end of the food section has several types of alcohols with a variety of tonics, sodas, and ginger ales in a refrigerated section beneath...

The new T8 Soho lounge felt like a big step down from the previous T7 offering. It was much busier and more noisy, the food offerings were distinctly average (especially compared with LHR T5), and the WiFi was shockingly bad.

I totally understand that accessing a lounge is a privilege, but it's also bundled into the ticket price. And for the money that BA charge, this was a big disappointment. Especially the bad WiFi (of which several folks were complaining). I couldn't get any work done, and instead had to work late the next day.

Although the staff at the door were friendly, everyone inside looked rushed/harried, and I saw two members of staff carelessly drop plates and glasses. There weren't many smiles from the staff putting out food. My assumption is that management is optimising for the wrong experience here.

For context, I typically fly out of JFK ~8 times a year, and so I have spent a lot of time in the old T7 lounges.

The one small bright spot to all this is that the new T8 check in and security experience is much better than T7, and TSA PreCheck is now supported.

Given the lounge experience, I've opted to check out the Virgin Atlantic experience on my next...