The new British Airways First Class Lounge has opened at New York’s JFK Terminal 7

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• Chris says:

  14 Oct14 October 06:30

  Rob – please bear in mind that the proper dining room (called “boutique dining”, as you have pictured) is only for Club passengers who have access to pre-flight dining as part of the sleeper services. “Regular” OW Emeralds in economy/premium economy have to make do with a selection of sandwiches and snacks in the main lounge. (I appreciate that BA have overlooked this detail in their press announcements!).

  • Rob says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:24

    Thanks, will tweak.

  • Jamesay says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:54

    Am flying back in two weeks. Am GOLD BAEC and sadlybin WTP cabin. Does this mean I can dine prior to flight or only snack?
    Thanks in advance

    • Rob says:

      14 Oct14 October 11:04

      Buffet only it seems.

      • Globetrotter says:

        14 Oct14 October 13:15

        Is the Galleries Club dining buffet restricted only to CW passengers too, or can OWEs dine there too?

    • BA says:

      14 Oct14 October 13:09

      No chance. You’ll be sitting down the back with the plebs.

• Alan says:

  14 Oct14 October 08:30

  Visited here last Tuesday – definitely a big improvement. The Galleries Club side of the lounge is still to be renovated and it’s a marked difference! It also means that at present, as Club pre-flight dining is in the Galleries First side, you get access to that bit of the lounge too!

  Definitely a more extensive food selection, although confusing layout whilst work still going on – I thought they only has the Asian salad/noodle bar selection until you go through a small connecting door and find a whole other buffet selection!

  Overall definitely a good improvement, although sadly boarding was as chaotic as ever at JFK.

• Peter K says:

  14 Oct14 October 10:09

  Minor typo in first paragraph. You put ckeck-in rather than check-in.

  • Rob says:

    14 Oct14 October 11:04

    Fixed!

• randomizer says:

  14 Oct14 October 10:41

  (unashamedly) OT: The wife and I both have Tesco accounts, both have BAEC accounts and both received the 1000 bonus point offer. I’ve read the T&Cs and can’t see why we wouldn’t get a bonus on an additional two transactions from my Tesco to her BAEC and vice versa. Thoughts?!

  • Genghis says:

    14 Oct14 October 12:36

    “The bonus Avios will only be awarded once per British Airways Executive Club account”?

• David says:

  14 Oct14 October 10:53

  This is all very well but it doesn’t address the worst part of using Terminal 7: arrival and progressing through immigration.

  For the last 3 trips to JFK I have queued for over 2 hours – most recently just shy of 3 hours – to get through passport control.

  BA/AA should be investing their money in a combo of paying more to the immigration authorities to provide more staff and/or lobbying them to do significantly better.

  It may now be increasingly pleasant to leave NYC through JFK T7 but it’s still a nightmare to arrive there!

  Until they sort that out it’ll be the 1 or 2 BA flights into EWR for me, or another airline.

  Sorry – rant over.

  • ChrisC says:

    14 Oct14 October 12:46

    T7 is simply not fit for purpose and will be demolished as part of a mega rebuild of JFK.

    There is simply no space to expand the immigration hall at present. Without expansion there is no more room for more immigration officers etc.

    The money BA is spending (a requirement of their lease with the Port Authiruty) at the moment on T7 is simply putting lipstick on a pig

  • Nick_C says:

    14 Oct14 October 12:50

    “It may now be increasingly pleasant to leave NYC through JFK T7 but it’s still a nightmare to arrive there! ”

    Unless you take BA001 from LCY of course, when it becomes an absolute pleasure!!

  • mark2 says:

    14 Oct14 October 12:54

    We are currently in Boston.
    Customs and Immigration was completely electronic and took about five minutes.We may have just been lucky.

    • Nick_C says:

      14 Oct14 October 13:11

      Completely? I’ve used the APC kiosks a few times now, and it has certainly speeded up the process, but I still had to present a slip to an Immigration Officer and get my passport stamped. Has this changed?

      • mark2 says:

        14 Oct14 October 13:23

        Yes, you are right; it was stamped. We were in F so got to the machines first.

    • Lumma says:

      14 Oct14 October 13:53

      USA immigration is actually becoming almost a pleasant experience than what it used to be a few years ago. I think non EU nationals arriving in London have a far worse experience than we do arriving in the USA these days since they introduced those kiosks.

      Having said that, I went to Boston on a new passport last year and had to use the first time visitor line and the immigration officer couldn’t understand why I’d visit Boston alone with not knowing anyone who lived there

      • sunguy says:

        15 Oct15 October 12:50

        O’Hare was very, very good for the last few years, but when I arrived at about 4pm on a Saturday a month or so ago, it was a total and utter nightmare – took about 3hrs to get through!

    • Anna says:

      14 Oct14 October 14:33

      +1 for Miami this summer! Washington DC on the other hand was grim, 2 1/2 hours of queuing ????

      • thehornets says:

        14 Oct14 October 15:59

        I agree. Arriving in Detroit on Delta the other day, it took less than a minute to clear the US border.

        On return to Heathrow (as a UK citizen) it also took no time at all via the T3 eGates. I was very impressed.

        That said, passing through security at Newark was almost worse than Stansted!

  • Alan says:

    14 Oct14 October 16:49

    If making frequent trips then Global Entry definitely worth considering – always through in a couple of minutes (including customs) – only delay is if waiting for checked bag.

    $100 for 5 years (although a bit more now to for additional cost of UK checks), but last year when arriving at MCO to multi-hour queues it paid for itself in one go – so much nicer to be at the hotel bar rather than still being in an immigration queue!

    I suspect things could be about to get a lot worse for short-haul trips from April though, last few times I’ve been through the EU passport eGates in minutes but the non-EU queues have been very very lengthy…

  • Riku says:

    14 Oct14 October 21:30

    JFK terminal 8 is much better for arrivals. For the past few times with Finnair from Helsinki it has taken 5 minutes max to get through immigration thanks to the automated passport readers.

• TTraveller says:

  14 Oct14 October 14:50

  O/T
  Trying to book a trip through BA Holidays (Flight + Car), i.e. trying to put the flights and hotel under the same booking to get the avios bonus

  Any idea if I can use avios / companion vouchers as part of that process? Or if I need to book flights and hotels separately to achieve that?

  Thanks in advance!

  • Anna says:

    14 Oct14 October 21:00

    No you can’t use avios with a package booking.

    • TTraveller says:

      15 Oct15 October 10:53

      Thanks Anna

• Shoestring says:

  14 Oct14 October 16:44

  [We are investing £52 million in to our home at JFK this year as part of the £4.5 billion investment we’re making in our customer experience globally,]

  You’d have to be pretty stupid to believe this.

  • ChrisC says:

    15 Oct15 October 09:12

    Whether you believe it or not the JFK investment is a requirement of the T7 lease BA has with the Port Authority and is clearly happening both airside and landslide

• Max says:

  14 Oct14 October 17:02

  Flew into jfk last week in first
  About 1 hour to get through immigration no more escort to front of the line as in the past
  Came back next day in club
  They have now closed the fast track security on the left ramp but rather end up in main section with left lane for fast track took me over 25 min
  Lounge was packed as usual with all the night flights back
  Overall experience in T7 well bellow expectations

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