Over Christmas, my husband and I visited Mexico City. This was the first time for both of to visit Mexico, and we were quite excited! We had booked our flights there and back with points, which I described in detail previously. Briefly, we booked two seats in AeroMexico‘s economy cabin through Virgin Atlantic, but with my Flying Blue Gold status we were able to choose AeroMexico’s ‘AMPlus’ seats, which is AeroMexico’s extra legroom economy seat. I will review this product in the next review. However, before boarding we were able to visit the Delta Sky Club, also thanks to my Flying Blue Gold status.

Previously I had reviewed the Delta Sky Club near gate B31, so this time I wanted to check out the Delta Sky Club near Gate A8. This is a newer club, and is also typically a little less busy because most flights depart from the B-gates rather than the A-gates. Fortunately, our flight to Mexico City departed from the A-gates, so it worked out that way.

Briefly, I thought the Club near gate A8 was a beautifully designed lounge with ample, comfortable seating and great views over the Terminal 4 apron and the runways beyond. I loved the 360 degree bar, which is the center piece of the lounge. The food was plenty tasty though perhaps a step down from the Delta One Lounge or the Sapphire Lounge. Overal, if you’re lucky to have a flight departing from the A-gates, this Club is a good place to spend an hour or two.

1. Location and Hours
2. Access Requirements
3. Seating and Design
4. Food and Drinks
5. Restrooms
6. Summary

Location and Hours

The lounge is open daily from 5:00am to 10:30pm.

Mind that there are three Delta lounges at New York-JFK Terminal 4: the Delta One Lounge, specifically for passengers booked in Delta One (which is offered on most of Delta’s international business class flights, and select transcontinental first class flights) and two Delta Sky Clubs, one near gate B31 (see here) and one near gate A8 (this review).

To get to the lounge, go down the escalator and take a right once you get down, following signs towards ‘Gates A’. You should see signs for the Delta Sky Club as well in that same direction.

As you make your way through the center part of the terminal. you’ll end up in the A concourse. Keep going all the way to the end of it, following the signs towards the Sky Club, but do not go down once you get to a set of escalators! Instead you’ll want to pass the escalators on the left (take note of the arrow pointing up-right!).

Once you make it passed the escalators and a some shops, you’l lfind the entrance to the lounge on your left. Enter to sign in with the agents at the desk, and take the escalator up into the lounge.

Access Requirements

Let’s start with one important requirement: if you are flying in Delta First class either domestic or to the Caribbean, you do not get access to the Delta Sky Club. Fortunately, Delta has a pretty clear list of entry qualifications, but let me summarize them here:

• Available to Delta Medallion member only, there are annual memberships. You need to hold a same-day boarding pass and must be at least 18 years old.
• Delta One passengers get access if ticketed on a same-day domestic or international flight, or when connecting between a Delta One and domestic (non-Delta One) flight. But, as a Delta One passenger you should go to the Delta One Lounge, not the Sky Club.
• SkyTeam first or business class passengers on a same-day international flight get access. The caveat is that international travel excludes flights to the Caribbean. But, if you are a SkyTeam business class passenger flying KLM, Korean Air, Air France or Virgin Atlantic, I’d recommend to go to the Delta One Lounge, not the Sky Club.
• SkyMiles Elite status, specifically Diamond, Platinum or Gold, provides access to Delta Sky Clubs if (1) traveling internationally in at least Premium Select (premium economy), (2) if flying Delta One domestic or internationally, or (3) if flying in Delta First when flying internationally to Canada, the Caribbean, or Central America.
• SkyTeam Elite Plus members (those with SkyTeam Elite status through a program other than Delta SkyMiles) can enter the Delta Sky Club when flying internationally with a SkyTeam airlines (excluding the Caribbean).
• Those with one of the following credit cards:
  • Delta SkyMiles (Business) Reserve card provides 15 annual visits when traveling on a same-day Delta flight.
  • Amex Centurion (‘Black’) card when traveling on a same-day Delta flight.
  • Amex (business) Platinum card provides 10 annual visits when traveling on a same-day Delta flight.
• Passengers In LATAM or WestJet business class can access the Delta Sky Club when on an international itinerary or when connecting between LATAM or Delta flights.
• Members of frequent flyers with LATAM’s LATAM Pass, or WestJet’s WestJet Rewards in all but the lowest elite tiers can access the Delta Sky Club if traveling on LATAM/WestJet or connecting between LATAM/WestJet and Delta on any international flight (LATAM) or US-Canada transborder flights (WestJet).

Seating and Design

When you ascend the escalator you emerge into soemthing an ‘ante room’ and are greeted by a stylish lighting display consisting of a column of large bulbs with a bronze-colored structure surrounding it. Pretty! To the left of it are a row of chairs with a lovely view of the apron, while behind it you’ll find various types of seating, including banquettes, couches and armchairs, all with sidetables that can be moved around for convenience.

If you turn to the right here you will enter the lounge proper. You’ll enter the main part of the lounge, with to the left a space dedicated to various kidns of lounge seating. This included various swiveling armchairs, some banquettes, couches and side tables with power outlets. And sitting in the row closest to the floor-to-ceiling windows, you’d get a lovely view of the aircraft taking off and landing. That included witnessing the arrival of the AeroMexico Boeing 737 Max 8 that would carry us to Mexico City!

Much of the rest of the space was taken up by the beautiful 360-degree bar, the impressive-looking center piece to this lounge. I loved the bronze finished with the white marble top. High-stool eating was able all around the bar, except where staff was able to enter or exit. In front and behind the bar, against a low wall, were also banquettes and tables, allowing for additional seating.

Then on both sides of the bar against the wall, was additional seating. While both sides had the same style banquettes with round tables and chairs, on the one side these were a standard height, and on the other they were high-top seating. initially we sat at the standard tables to eat and have a drink, before we moved over closer to the windows (which is where we witnessed our plane taxi in)

Deeper into the lounge and to the left of the bar was an additional space with various kinds of seating, mostly meant to sit back and relax. Here there were several kinds of single lounge chairs and two-seater couches. All of these had side tables, coffee tables or dining tables, allowing a variety of activities in this space from dining, to relaxing to working. Towards the back of this space was a defining feature, which doubles as both a window and a fireplace: this is kind of cool, as it was an actual window onto the sky deck, an enclosed viewing platform, but also had a fire effect going on inside of it.

Then towards the right side of that space, along the windows, was a long table with seating. This would be a nice place to work with a view. More chairs with conventional circular tables were available further along the corridor that extended along the windows.

If you follow that corridor you;’d ultimately get to the restrooms. Along that corridor, though, are a variety of workspaces. First you’d come across a variety of phone booths, with a stool and shelf/table that’d be primarily for calls. I wouldn’t think this would be all that comfortable for working, but the doors do close hermetically for a truly quiet and sound-proofed environment. The other working space is a little odd, though, in that’s a banquette that wraps all around the wall with small, circular tables. While it’s perfectly comfortable as a seating space, as a working space it isn’t so much. A table that wraps along the walls with desk chairs (so the opposite of what was designed here) probably would have made more sense. There was a printer though, sot hat was useful…

Going back to where the corridor came from, if you’d go to the back of that space by where that fire place/window is, there’s a door that grants access onto the sky deck. I’m not so sure whether this is open year-round, but I bet it is, given that we here on December 24th and it was freely accessible. Note that there’s sliding doors with access to the sky deck from by the bar as well, so you don’t need to come all the way to this door.

The sky deck was a very nice place and I can totally see myself sitting here, sipping a drink and enjoying the view. Various kinds of comfy seating, including patio chairs and couches, were placed in various configurations to allow individuals as well as larger parties to take a place. Of curse the views from her are wonderful. I also liked that while the vibe was that of a patio, the space was in fact enclosed with windows, so it never got too windy here.

Finally, goin back to where the bar is and taking a right rather than a left (taking a left would bing you to the space I described abvoe, with the fire place), you’d end up ina. wholly different room with a rather different vibe. This space felt a lot more secluded, with a different design and different furniture. Her was something of a communal table with dining chairs, as well as variety of lounge chairs. What struck was how spacious the setup was here, with the various tables and chairs, arranged in pairs, with quite a bit more space than in the rest of the lounge.

In this space were also a customer service desk, as well as a roped-off area for top-tier elites in the Delta SkyMiles program. During our visit this ear remained empty. And I gotta say: I’ve seen a similar area in the Sky Club by Gate B31, and KLM and Air France Lounges also have an area like this – I’ve always felt it was a bit of an uncomfortable vibe. I’m not sure why these airlines don’t design a true private space, rather than an awkwardly roped-off section that, in some lounges, is frankly a little small and cramped.

Overall, I really liked the design of this lounge. It’s sleek and modern, with a certain elegance to the finishes and touches throughout the lounge. I thought the 360-degree bar was. a particularly nice design, though not as grand as the bar in the Delta One Lounge. I also thought the furniture was generally comfortable and arranged nicely, though in terms of a space to work I’m not sure the Gate A8 Sky Club has a particularly good setup available. But for any other purpose, I think anybody would enjoy dining or relaxing in this Club.

Food and Drinks

the Delta Sky Club near Gate A8 has a main buffet with hot and cold options and a bar, besides a cart with some cold drinks and some nuts that are placed around the lounge. The main buffet is located right behind the bar, and has a nie glass design feature behind it.

Starting from the left, that’s where you will find plates and utensils, and then there were four heated pans with hot options. There were string beans, pasta, chicken and mashed potatoes. I sampled from all options and thought the chicken and pasta were very nice, the potatoes good and the string beans were fine. I did go back for second – I did really like the chicken.

There were also two soups available, namely chicken noodle and roasted red pepper soup. I did not try these, but they looked fine.

In terms f cold options there were quite a selection of salad as well as ‘pure’ vegetables and a fruit salad. Among the vegetables were also some dips, to eat those vegetables with. The salads on offer were tasty. The farro salad was delicious and I also really liked the beet citrus salad. I didn’t try any of the wraps or sandwiches though.

Beyond the salads and sandwiches were all the ingrentis for something like a charcuterie board, including salamis, hams, olives, cheeses and grapes. The salami was good – I didn’t try anything else. Finally, there were a selection of breads, cakes and crackers, of which I didn’t try any.

On a separate table was the dessert selection. Among the options were raisin and oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies, as well as ‘pumpkin’ bars and lemon bars. I tried all of them and thought they were all pretty good. I did think the desert selection was a little bit uninspired, but it gets the job done.

To the left of the food buffet were all the self-serve drinks, which included essentially all the non-alcoholic options. Among these was a large soda fountain with all the usual options, as well as an espresso machine. It was kind of nice that there were two interfaces on this so two people could get a hot drink at the same time. Beside that were all the tea bags, sugar and such. There were also two taps for Starbucks coffee: regular and decaf. I thought this was an interesting novelty!

Another set of (pretty nice) drinks were on a cart over at the window. Here were three large reservoirs, one holding infused water, and two kinds of iced tea.

Finally, all the alcoholic drinks were available at the bar. To order these you ahd to get to one of either special position from which ordering was possible. I canm see that they would organize it like that for efficiency’s sake, but I hate the concept as it makes it feel like a canteen to me, rather than a bar or restaurant. I wish you could just order from anywhere at the bar.

Anyway, in terms of options, you can get essentially whatever you want at the bar, though note that only a certain selection is complimentary. There’s wines, beers, liquors, cocktails, as well as non-alcoholic versions of all these drinks. The complimentary items are restricted to the orange ‘column’ at the center of the menu.

Overall, I much enjoyed the food and drinks at the Delta Sky Club. I got myself some of the hot options, a glass of the iced tea and a glass of sparkling wine from the bar, and had a rather enjoyable dinner. I’d be happy to come back to have this food again, and would be curious to come at different times, to see how the food changes throughout the day.

Restrooms

To get to the restrooms you return to the space to the left of the bar, by the cart with iced tea, and take a right. Follow the corridor with the working spaces to the end, and you’ll find the mens and women restrooms there. These had an elegant and modern design. When you enter you’ll be greeted by three sinks to the left, with black tiling and white marble tops. Take a right to get to toilet stall and urinals. Here was another mirror with some hand cream and tissues.

There were four toilet stalls to the left and several urinals to the right. The (faux?) marble looked nice, breaking what would otherwise be an all-white appearance. with grey streaks. It was interesting how lights above the toilet stalls gave a clear indication of whether that stall was available or not, but, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it’s not something that was particularly obvious when I entered the restrooms. It may have been better if it were placed lower. The stalls themselves were fairly deep and quite wide, providing ample space.

Overall, the restrooms had a modern and elegant appearance and were generally kept very clean. The marble and wood finished, as well as the black tiling came together nicely.

Summary

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to the Delta Sky Club near gate A8 at JFK’s Terminal 4. IT’s clearly a newer lounge than the Delta Sky Club near Gate B31, and honestly, I might come to visit the A8 lounge even if my flight were to depart at the B0gates. Not only is the design more elegant and more modern, I felt it was significantly less crowded. That shouldn’t be surprising given that the A gates only sees Delta flights within North America, with smaller planes. Meanwhile, at the B-gates all the longhaul International Delta (and some SkyTeam) flights depart, with widebody aircraft that each take 200-300 passengers. Now, if you require certain facilities, such as showers, your only option will be the Gate B31 Sky Club. Otherwise, if you’re okay walking 15-20 minutes from Gate A8 to your B-gate, I’d recommend the Sky Club at Gate A8 over the one at Gate B31.