Back in November I traveled for a long vacation to Japan. I was flying in Japan Airlines’ new A350-1000 business class, and that brought me to New York-JFK’s Terminal 8, which is where JAL’s operates out of. As part of my business class ticket, I was able to visit the Greenwich Lounge. While I gave an overview of it before, here I will give a full review. Briefly, I much enjoyed my time in this very big lounge, with good (and plentiful) food options and many different spaces with different seating arrangements. My only gripe was the inadequate staffing level at this time of day (or night, I suppose).

1. Entrance requirements
2. Location and hours of the Greenwich Lounge.
3. Greenwich Lounge spaces and seating options
4. Food and drink at the Greenwich Lounge
5. Further amenities and service
6. Summary

Entrance requirements

The first thing to note is that, like it’s more premium ‘siblings’ (the Soho and Chelsea Lounges), the Greenwich lounge is a partnership between American Airlines and British Airways. Nevertheless, the entrance requirements listed on American Airlines’ website make no mention of British Airways, but does refer you to BA’s own website. There you will find much the same information, so it seems as though the requirements are consistent between the two airlines, they are just not cross-advertised with each other’s partner’s branding in mind. These are the entrance requirements from the perspective of American, which are essentially identical to those that BA lists:

• If you’re an American Aadvantage Platinum or Alaska MileagePlan MVP Gold member, you can access the lounge if you have a same-day international ticket in ‘Flagship International’ on American airlines, or in any cabin on international longhaul flights operated by OneWorld member airlines.
• If you do not have status with American or Alaska, you can access the lounge by having a same-day business class ticket in American’s Flagship business operated by American or a OneWorld airline on most International flights (but not from the US to North, Central or most of South America), selected transcontinental flights, and selected flights to Hawaii.
• Finally, you can also get access as a OneWorld Sapphire elite member traveling on any OneWorld marketed and operated flight, or if you are ticketed in business class on any OneWorld marketed or operated flight.

The last bullet is how I got access, given that I was ticketed in Japan Airlines business class, and JAL is a OneWorld member.

Location and hours of the Greenwich Lounge.

The Greenwhich lounge can be accessed by first going straight-ahead from the security checkpoint, down the ramp, and then turning left at the split. Don’t go straight ahead down the long escalator, as that will bring you the mid-field concourse. Soon enough you’ll see overhead signage to ‘Airline lounges’, and you’ll find elevators with silver lettering that says ‘Greenwich’ lounge. The lounge itself is a floor above the concourse. It is open from 4:30am to 1:15am (though BA’s website lists it as closing at 0:30am).

Greenwich Lounge spaces and seating options

When you emerge from the elevator, you enter an enclosed space with several counters staffed by lounge staff. They will verify your eligibility to enter the lounge, which in my case constituted scanning my boarding pass, before being motioned to enter through a sliding door to the left. You will then pass through a hallway that, in some ways, is a nice way to enter the lounge as the fairly narrow hallway builds suspense.

When you first enter the lounge, you are greeted by an expansive room that suggests a variety of seating options, a large buffet and drinks. The overall design is not particularly interesting, but is business-like and practical.

Admittedly, despite the fact that this room looks quite large already, you cannot see just how large this lounge actually is. In effect, the lounge is at least twice as large as the space that is in front of you as you enter, which is because the lounge sprawls to the right and further back. Only when you start exploring other areas, will you start to discover how large the lounge really is, and what more it has to offer. In my pass-through, I found four distinct seating areas, three bars, two buffets, a media room, showers, and a large diversity of seating options that should cater to any mood.

Nevertheless, as you enter this first large space, you will find the main buffet to the right, as well as something of a wine bar. Here you will find restaurant seating to allow a comfortable dining experience.

I suppose it’s not really a wine bar, but more of a set of self-serve coolers that allow you to pour chilled wine. The selection is nice, with multiple red, white and rose options. High table seating is close by, reminiscent of a wine bar setting, though perhaps without the typical ambiance.

To the right, along the terminal windows, you will find lounge seating, with various kinds of chairs with or without ottomans. These seats offer fantastic views of the airside hustle and bustle, with small tables that would be perfect for a glass of wine or a snack. I sat here for a while working on my laptop while occasionally staring out the window when a widebody airplane passed by. Note that you could move around these lounge stairs if you are with a larger group, and I’ve seen some people do this. Just make sure to bring the chair back to its original location.

A little further along the windows is a whole other set of more private seating options that seems particularly good for working. The tall back rests offer privacy, while the booths to the left are comfortable and private.

If you venture away from the terminal windows and walk passed the wine coolers, you will find another set of more casual seating options with couches, single chairs and low tables.

It’s also in this part of the lounge that you’ll find various phone rooms, the main restrooms as well as shower rooms. I did not venture into these though it didn’t seem there was a central reservation system and are likely at a first come, first served basis. This seemed a little odd to me however, as most premium lounges I’ve visited had some kind of reservation system. Let me know if I’m wrong in the comments and I can update this.

Finally, in this space, and just to the left of entrance, is a fairly large ‘quiet room’ separated from the rest of the lounge with a glass window pane. While I didn’t sit here, several large chairs with privacy partitions were placed throughout, as well as some lounge chairs.

After having ventured around here, the way to the rest of the lounge is through the second area, dubbed ‘The Tasting Room’. This is a glitzy-looking room in the style of a brewpub, seemingly in partnership with Brooklyn Brewery. As such, on tap you will find four different kinds of Brooklyn Brewery beers (although while I was there, one of them had run out).

As you can see, there are various types of seating here, ranging from barside stools, lounge chairs along the window, and more traditional restaurant seating, including booths. My favorite place to sit were the lounge chairs, and I sat here for a while enjoying a flight of beers while looking at the JAL A350 that would be operating my flight:

I very much liked to sit here, in part because most people where seated in the main space, shown earlier, so it was nice and quiet. I will say that (at least this hour) there was remarkable little staff at the lounge, so I had to wait for a while before somebody came to take my order. More on that later.

Beyond this space you can follow a short hallway that open to yet another area, where you will find lots of more seating options, including lounge chair with privacy partitions, and smaller setups arranged along the terminal windows.

Here I also found another bar, as well as a buffet that mostly served sweets and finger food, as well as a selection of self-serve drink stations. Unfortunately in the entire time I was in the lounge, the bar seemed to be unstaffed, though I didn’t see any signt hat suggested it was self-sere, or that it was closed.

Moving on, a little beyond this space was a media room, with chairs arranged to face a large TV screen, a children’s play area, and also a series of booths that appeared to function as quiet work spaces for those wanting to have private phone calls and such. One such booth was setup with an iMac and there was a printer along the opposite wall as well, though both appeared to be turned off.

If you then continue past this corridor, you enter a small space that turned out to be a secondary entrance to the lounge. The set of double glass doors bring you back to the elevator down to the concourse. It’s practical that they placed an exit here, otherwise you’d have to walk all the way around na back to the main space of the lounge in order to leave.

As you pass this secondary entrance to the lounge, you will enter a lovely area, dibbed ‘At The Bridge’: a bar with an ambiance of a rooftop garden with a view over the security checkpoint. Here is yet another (and the last) bar of the lounge with a small menu serving various cocktails, other alcohol drinks as well as a light food menu.

Besides the barstools along the nicely designed bar, there are various other lounge-type seating, such as low chairs with low tables, which give off a relaxed vibe. Unfortunately, like the other bars, this one also didn’t seem to be staffed in the 20-30 minutes I spent looking around here.

I enjoyed looking out over the planters down at the security checkpoint, for a view of the hustle going on down there. As quiet as the lounge was, the checkpoint was quite busy, since a few long-haul flights were still departing that night.

So to conclude this part of the review, you can see that this an expansive lounge with a great deal of seating options. Although there certainly is some replication from area to area, the different spaces have their own vibes, so that those same setaing options take on a different feel between spaces. My favorite space was certainly the

Food and drink at the Greenwich Lounge

Food and drink is a huge part of a lounge. I’m happy to say that food options are plentiful and of good quality at this lounge. The above section should have shown you that you will find at least two buffets and three bars, serving a variety of options, allowing you to pick what suits your mood. The buffets seem to be rotating, such that course that match the time of day will be available. Since m flight was departing at 12:35am, I was there while dinner options for available.

The primary buffet is in the main space, and including several hot options, some cold options, salads and soups, snacks and desserts, and a selection of beers, wines and liquors, all as self-serve items.

I had an early dinner at home before going to the airport so I wasn’t too hungry, but I stillk indulged in the food. As you may be able to tell, from left to right, the hot options included chicken brest, meat balls, a pasta dish, pureed pumpkin and sauteed broccoli rabe. I decided to have a little of all but the pasta, and was very pleasantly surprised with the quality. Every dish was tasty, and especially the pumpkin puree was deliciously smooth and not too sweet, while the meatballs seems to be made of rather good-quality meat.

The drinks included the full complement of sodas, spirits, beer and wine (of which I provided a photo earlier on, in the previous section), as well as a coffee machine in partnership with Gotham Coffee Roasters that was able to make most of what you’d probably want to have – though personally I don’t drink much coffee. The desserts were the only part that felt a little sad to me, with three options of little cakes. Perhaps they also looked a little sad because the middle variety had been plundered but not restocked at the time that I made the photo.

The selection of beers was nice. If you look closely you’ll see Guinness and probably every variety of Brooklyn Brewery’s lineup (including the well-known Lager, but also IPAs), plus a selection of Sam Adams’ beers. For those that want something lighter, Miller Lite was also available.

Moving on, the Tasting Room was entirely branded by Brooklyn Brewery, and so the beers on tap were all beers by that brewery. There was a small menu with some finger food, though I didn’t order any and I regret I didn’t make a photo of that. However, I found the menu on a fellow traveler’s review here, if you’re curious. As you’d expect, there are predominantly bar bite,s including olives, grilled cheese and such things.

Moving on to the third space, besides the bar I ahd already mentioned this is where there was a second, smaller buffet:

As you can see most of what’s here can also be found at the main buffet. Some unique items included the small sandwiches. The desserts were mostly the same. To the right of the areas I photographed were also some water and juices, as well as another coffee machine.

Finally, the ‘At The Bridge’ bar had a complement of spirits and cocktails on offer, as well as bites:

it seems as though this place is in partnership with Betty Buzz and Aviation Gin, and so the products on offer tends to focus on those company’s products (particularly gin, of course). The food is also supposed to complement the cocktails. So, whether you like what’s on offer would probably depend on whether you like the alcohol beverages that those companies put out.

Overall I thought the food options on offer were of good quality and of sufficient variety. I’d be happy to return and see what sort of options would be available at other times of the day.

Further amenities and service

Although IU’ve already mentioned some of the other amenities you can find besides the spaces and food, I thought I’d spell them out, for clarity. For examples, the lounge has showers available, as well as a media room, a small office area with a printer, a media room, and I believe there was a playroom as well, for any kids that need to be entertained.

One thing I also wanted to spend a little but of time on is the service. Now, the disclaimer is that I was there, admittedly, at a late hour: my flight was scheduled for 123:35am, and I probably arrived at the lounge around 10am or so. At this point, many of the long haul flights would have already departed and while the lounge was not empty, I’d say it was probably at 20% capacity. Hence most of the lounge (as you can see in the pictures) was essentially empty. Only the main space had a good amount of people hanging around.

With that said, in the entire lounge I must have seen no more than 4 or 5 staff members (that’s just frontline lounge staff, not counting any security guards or kitchen staff), two of which were cleaners. As a result I was sitting around for 15 minutes before anybody came to take my order at the Tasting Room, and none of the other bars appeared staffed either. Note that there were no signs anywhere saying that anything was closed, so I would have expected to see somebody around, or at least offer a mechanism to call a staff member. As it is, it meant that a lot of the food and drink options were essentially inaccesible. This was disappointing. I understand that later in the day the lounge wouldn’t need as many staff members compared to peak times, but you also wouldn’t want your guests waiting around or not be able to use all the lounge has to offer.

A side effect of the lower staffing levels was that the staff that was on duty seemed spread thin. Between serving and attending to different guests, sometimes in different spaces, staff also has duties with respect to cleanliness. I saw some staff jetting from one space to the buffet to tidy it up a little, or replenish food options. However, as the photos show, some areas were a little messy, with some bowls nearly empty. More staff would have likely prevented these situations.

Summary

I very much enjoyed my stay at the Greenwich Lounge, and certainly think of it as one of the better lounges I’ve visited. The lounge is huge, with several distinct areas that will allow you to find the kind of vibe you’re looking for, with diverse seating options from anything to dining, to lounging to working. With great views throughout of both JFK Terminal 8’s airside bustle to views of the security checkpoint and hustle on the lower floor of the terminal, you’re sure to stay entertained. Then factor in the nice design, the good food options, the plentiful drinks with a full Brooklyn Brewery tasting room and cocktail bar, and you’re sure to have a nice and relaxing time while waiting for your flight. I do hope that the lounge sees higher staffing levels earlier in the day to ensure that guests receive the service they expect. That said, I’ll definitely be happy to return to this lounge.

Have you been to the Greenwich Lounge? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!