After my impromptu trip to Washington DC, and having published reviews of the Admirals Clubs at JFK and DCA (E-gates), this is the first in a series of three lounge reviews covering my second impromptu trip to Amsterdam. As part of my Flying Blue Gold status benefits, I was able to enter the Delta Sky Club, despite the fact hat I booked a basic economy ticket.

Briefly, enjoyed visiting the Delta Sky Club at gate B31 at JFK Terminal 4. It is quite large, with a full bar and a buffet with some really nice food. I enjoyed sitting here and having a filling dinner prior to my flight. The lounge generally is in good condition and has some nice facilities, including showers. However, I did get here at a peak time (dinnertime) and it was very busy, especially in the dining area, where essentially every table was taken. By the time I left, around 9pm, the lounge hadn’t really gotten all that much quieter, either, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the lounge is generally rather busy. Still, I enjoyed the time I spent here and would look further on returning.

1. What brought me the lounge?
2. Location and hours
3. Seating at the Delta Sky Club
4. Food and Drinks
5. Restrooms and Showers
6. Summary

What brought me the lounge?

I recently took two short trips, the first of which I already reported on by way of two Admirals Club reviews (at JFK Terminal 8 and at DCA’s Terminal 2, E-gates). I didn’t report on the flights as such beyond explaining how I booked them, since it was all in economy and otherwise completely unremarkable.

Here I will now report on the second trip: a quick trip back the Netherlands to visit family and friends. This is one of three reviews, since in this trip I was able to visit three lounges: since I’ve made it to Flying Blue Gold, that also means that if I fly SkyTeam airlines, I will get a bunch of benefits, including priority services, a free checked bag, free seat selection, and lounge access. Like with the first trip, I flew all economy, which I won’t be reviewing.

I booked a basic economy ticket flying from New York-JFK to Amsterdam AMS with KLM, and then on the return flying first from Amsterdam AMS via Paris CDG to New York-JFK, with Air France. Obviously these are all SkyTeam airlines, and so my Flying Blue Gold status granted me the aforementioned perks. I was able to visit the Delta Sky Club at New York-JFK Terminal 4, then the KLM Crown lounge No. 25 at Amsterdam AMS, and finally the Air France Lounge at Paris CDG Terminal 2E, Hall M. In this review I will cover the first of those: The Delta Sky Club at JFK’s Terminal 4, at the B-gates (there is a second one at the A-gates)

Location and hours

The Delta Sky Club at New York-JFK’s Terminal 4 (Gate B31) is opened from 4:45am to 11:30pm.

Mind that there are three Delta lounges at New York-JFK Terminal 4. The signage is very clear, so for the most part you can follow it readily. To get to the Delta Sky Club that this review is about, go down one floor to the main concourse level, and take a left, toward the B-gates. Keep following the hall until you get to around gate 31, and you’ll find the entrance to the lounge on your right.

Enter through the main entrance, and you’ll get to an escalator. Take it up, and you’ll find yourself in the lobby of the lounge.

As you can see, there are a variety of kiosks to gain entry, as well as several desks with agents who can personally welcome you. Though, I didn’t find them particularly welcoming actually. Rather than waving me over to scan my ticket, they sort of waited around for me to walk over to them, which I thought was a little odd and rather unlike any other lounge I’d visited so far.

At any rate, when the agent scanned my ticket it provided it took a moment to process, after which she said I was free to proceed.

Seating at the Delta Sky Club

I turned left into the lounge, but truthfully you could go either way. The lounge overall is sort of split into three large spaces: on the left and right side are long rooms with primarily lounge seating and some high-top seating, while in the center there is a larger rectangular space that houses the bar, buffets and restaurant-style seating, with proper tables and booths.

So, turning left from the lobby enters one of the long rooms. Looking immediately to the right is some seating, with a banquette of sorts as well as lounge chairs arranged in pairs around long tables. These seats are right along the windows, offering fantastic views over the B-gates immediately below, as well as the new Terminal One being constructed on just the other side of the apron.

Follow this room down and you’ll find more seating, mostly arranged in pairs or quads with slightly different kinds of chairs and low side tables in-between. There are some high-top tables with dividers that seem like an attempt to segment the room into three smaller spaces, which is sort of successful. You can see the chairs are well-used, but they don’t look worn or otherwise ‘bad’.

Keep walking down further and on the other side you’ll find a variety of booth-like chairs with higher walls, a larger communal table, and a variety of booths arranged in pairs. This actually seemed a little strange to me because such chairs would usually be deployed for increased privacy, but arranging them like this suggests you’d sit here with a travel partner instead. This space also had a drink station with both hot and cold options, though I’ll get to this later.

Here’s an awesome thing: The views of the apron started all the way when I turned left from the lobby and remained available all the way down the room. So when I had a look out the window here, I was greeted by a fabulous view of the KLM Boeing 787 that would be carrying me over to Amsterdam!

From this space you can only go into the large, adjacent dining space. As mentioned before, this is a larger rectangular space with a lot of restaurant-style seating, including regular tables and chairs, as well as more private ‘corner’ booths.

As you can see, the space is really packed with people. Unfortunately, the entire lounge was very busy, but the dining space even more so. Granted, it was around dinnertime when I entered the lounge, and so obviously everybody had the same idea: have dinner. I do think it’s a nice setup overall, but I wish there was more capacity in this part of the lounge. Essentially every table was taken and people spilled into the surrounding rooms with plates of food (including myself) since few tables were available.

This space also had a bar and a buffet. The bar was front and center at the back wall of the lounge. High-top stools allowed seating, with a large seleciton of various kidns of liquors, beers and wines clearly on display. There were two ‘ordering positions’ that were purposefully kept clear so people could come up and order drinks. Here was also a full menu laid out. This is a concept I’m torn about because, while efficient, it does make me feel like I’m less in a ‘club’ and more like a fast food restaurant. Another thing that’s decidedly not very premium is the number of drinks you need to pay for… I asked for a Kona and was told this was part of the ‘premium’ selection, which seemed an odd choice for a ‘premium’ beer to me.

Then to the left of the bar is the buffet. There’s two lines, one coming from the left and the other from the right. On either side the food is identical, so this arrangement just allows for better flow. I’ll get into the food options in more detail later, but for now, suffice to say that I liked the design, resembling something of a kitchen that is refilled from the service side.

Over to the right from the buffet is more seating though not so much restaurant style and more proper lounge seating, as you’ll find throughout the rest of the lounge as well. What was nice is that this space was a bit secluded from the rest of the lounge, and thus felt a bit more cosy due to the darker tones from the paneling on the walls and banquettes.

If we now pass through a wide corridor, we get into another one of those long halls. As I had mentioned, there’s one of these one each side of the lounge, and so you can get here by passing through the dining area. The design of this space is pretty much identical to the one to the othe side of the dining area, with similar furnishings as well. On the one end, you’ll find some of those ‘booth’-like chairs with high-wall seperations, different kinds of lounge chairs arranged in pairs or quads with side tables, and some high-top seating both along the left wall and along the windows to the other end of the lounge. A lot of these have plugs, either in the walls or in the side tables.

In the back of this space is something of a working, or office area. This is essentially a rather narrow L-shaped space, with a long table with small seperations all along the windows. The views here are of the apron to the other side of the B concourse, and provide great views of Singapore Airlines 777s, Emirates A380s, and many other great-looking planes. In this space was also a printer, though no desktop computer.

Following that corridor brings you to the Sky Deck, which… was not open at this time of year, apparently, otherwise you’d have been able to get out and enjoy the views without the windows.

Lastly, back in the long space we just left, there is a corridor that leads from that space back to the lobby. There’s actually three: from closest to furthest, the first one is pictured below. Here you will find a roped-off area that I assume is for Flying Blue Ultimate members, as well as a variety of other comfortable lounge-style seating, as well as customer support desks with Delta staff. The other two corridor get you to either the restooms, or to the showers, and these both ultimately connect back to the lobby.

Overall, I thought this was a very nice lounge. I liked the design, especially of the long spaces on either side of the dining area. The airy, open and light design is pleasant, and I liked the dark blues and frequent use of wood in the seating areas. The dining area is more of a mixed bag for me, mostly because it was very busy. I didn’t like the design as much here, but thought it was functional and easy to get to either buffet or bar.

Food and Drinks

There is what at first glance appears to be a large buffet. As you get closer to it, you realize it’s actually two identical buffet at either side of the counter, serving the same food. You can start either at the left or the right corner, and you’ll pass by soupos, breads, cold cuts and salads, and two or so hot dishes.

First up were two soups, and today those were vegetable minestrone soup and chicken noodle soup. Right beside it were some bread as well. You then round the corner and find some salad. The funny thing is that I came back not much later after i took this picture to actually get some food, and found that some dishes ahd been swapped out! The fruit on the left had disappeared…

Next up were four hot dishes. This included coconut steamed rice, chicken with chillis and fresh basil, vegetable Thai green curry, and stir fried vegetables. I appreciated the various choices, and the ones I tried (stir fried vegetables, rice and chicken), were all actually quite tasty.

Next up were a variety of lighter, cold dishes, including a vaiety of cold cuts that included meets and cheeses, as well as wraps and sandwiches, and variety of raw vegetables and hummus, for those that just want a dip.

Then, a few steps away form the main buffet, was the dessert buffet. This was a high-top table with a variety of different cakes and fruits. Including key lime bars, pound cake, glass cups with strawberry short cake, and various pieces of fruit. The key lime bar was especially tasty!

Then, scattered around the lounge in two or three locations are drink stations with various options. To the right of the bar is a large soft drink station with many options. This included a variety of sodas and water from a soda fountain, but also four dispensers with iced coffee, iced tea, lemonade and infused water.

In other locations are other options, includes espresso machines for coffee and tea. Tea bags are also available with a variety of black and green teas. The fridge had different kinds of milk.

After having checked out all the toptions, I went and got myself a healthy portion of food for dinner, and I’m glad I did sicne the dinner service with KLM in economy was not particualrly impressive.

Overall, I very much liked the food that was available in the lounge. The chicken was good quality, and I much enjoyed the coconut-steamed rice. If I’m honest, the food in the Delta Sky Club was quite the step up from the food in the Admirals Club.

Restrooms and Showers

The Delta Sky Club had shows and large restrooms, all of which were clean, well-maintained, and nicely designed. The showers and restrooms are in seperate corridors. The furthest corridor has the showers. Depending what side you’re coming from, you would first come across the reception desk. You then turn the corner, to find something like 6 shower rooms. I had asked some of the staff to make pictures and they were happy to oblige.

Every shower room has a sink, toilet, and the shower stall in the back. I’m not a fan of this kind of open design, since it always seems to me that water just sort of spills everywhere. But, it did look pretty well stocked, and looked nicely designed and very clean.

Then, there was a toilet and a trash can, as well as a sink. I thought the sink was especially well-stocked with amenities. There were plenty of deodorant rollers, soaps and tissues, and the staff was able to provide towels and such.

To then get to the restrooms, you’d have to exit this corridor and go into the adjacent corridor. There are separate mens and women’s restrooms, and while I can’t speak for the women’s restrooms, I was quite impressed by the sheer size of it. You come in to find essentially two ‘rooms’ connected by a corridor, each of which with a slightly different layout. Along the corridor you’ll mostly find separate stalls, which, rather than ‘stalls’ are actual ‘rooms’. I think this is great: I actually quite dislike the prototypal toilet stall that is common in the US, as such ‘rooms’ are simply much more private. Then there’s plenty of urinals, and severla sinks. The design was pretty. The whole space is well-lit, well-maintained, and clean.

Overall, I much liked both the restrooms and showers. They look good: modern, clean and well-maintained.

Summary

All in all, despite the sheer crowd in the Delta Sky Club, I enjoyed my time here. The design of the lounge is pleasant, with large, well-lit spaces that offer comfortable seating. The dining area is a little less nice, given how busy it seems to get, and felt a little bit enclosed. The food here, however, was very nice, and I enjoyed the large plate of food I had gathered for myself. I also thought the various facilities, the restrooms and showers, were nicely designed and kept clean and tidy.

What I thought was not so nice was that a large selection of so-called ‘premium’ drinks at the bar weren’t complimentary. KLM does the same thing in its Crown Lounge 52, which I kind of expected (I say that being Dutch myself), but Delta being so big on the ‘premium branding’, I wouldn’t have necessarily expected ‘premium’ drinks to be paid.

I will say that the Delta One Lounge, which I had the opportunity to visit in December 2024, is a true step up from the Delta Sky Club, so don’t expect these two to be at the same level. This is true for the quality and sheer variety of food and drinks, though I thought the design of the two lounges is not super different – though the Delta One Lounge is the nicer one.

In short, I’d be happy to return to this lounge, though I’d hope that next time it’s a little less busy.