I recently spent a long, long time in JFK airport. I had a flight to Europe booked, and was really nervous about something going wrong with my positioning flight from Pittsburgh, so I gave myself 9 hours between arrival to JFK and departure to Paris. Quel ennui! I actually ended up having a really fun day because I challenged myself to check out as many lounges as I could!

I was able to get into all of these lounges with my Priority Pass membership and a boarding pass for a flight out of JFK that day. There are several credit cards that give you free Priority Pass membership: Capital One Venture X, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum and Business Platinum, US Bank Altitude Reserve, among others. You do need to sign up ahead of time, and each card has a slightly different way to do that. I worried about being turned away because I was on a layover of my own making with an itinerary booked on separate airlines, but this did not end up being an issue at all. 

So here they are, ranked from worst to best based on my very thorough and not scientific at all assessment of food, decor, size, and overall vibe:

6. Coming in at number six is the Sapphire Lounge. And here’s why. My flight was leaving out of terminal one, and this lounge is in terminal four. JFK has several terminals, and you must go through security upon entering each of them. I decided to bite the bullet and make my way over there since I had so much time. After going up and down a billion, zillion escalators and getting on the AirTrain, I arrived at terminal four to be greeted by a billion, zillion people in the TSA line. Even the pre-check line looked awful. I threw in the towel then and there, and took all of the escalators back to where I belonged. Terminal one. My suspicion is the Sapphire Lounge would have been the best lounge of the day, but we’ll never know.

5. Turkish Airlines was very clearly the worst lounge of the day. It kind of smelled like feet, and as I got deeper in it became apparent that the feet smell was coming from all of the feet that were not in shoes. This lounge lost points for “vibe” because the general vibe was take your shoes off and lay down on the couch. There  were at least 15 people who really took “lounge” to the next level. The food options were not very appealing, and this lounge does not have alcohol, which may or may not matter to some. The space itself had a lot of windows and natural light, but it was quite crowded with not a lot of options for seating. I did not find this lounge much better than sitting out in the terminal and would not re-visit this one again. 

4. The first lounge I visited this day was the Primeclass. I was pleasantly surprised by the many food choices. I had rice with stewed chicken and grilled veggies. There was also a pasta dish and two soup options, as well as many varieties of cold salads. There was also a full bar and a self-serve espresso machine. This lounge is on the smaller size, which didn’t matter at first as there were only a handful of people there. Eventually it got a lot busier and began to feel claustrophobic. The decor was pleasant, but there weren’t a lot of windows or natural light. Overall this was a comfortable place to do some work, and the many food options made up for some of what it lacked in vibe. No feet were out.

3. The Lufthansa lounge was a solid experience as well. What stood out to me was the larger size of the space, the huge windows with runway views, varied seating styles from lounge chairs to tables, and the excellent food selections. There were several hot dishes, a lovely salad bar, three beers on self-serve tap, and some wine and spirit selections. What edged this one out over the Primeclass lounge were the big windows, and possibly I was swayed by the candy bar.

2. The Air France Lounge was easily my favorite lounge in terminal one of JFK. I saved this one for last, as it was right next to my gate, but if I had started here I probably wouldn’t have left. The space was large and clean, the top floor had plenty of natural light and windows, and the food was great. It also looked the most appealing as it was placed put in ceramic cookware. As expected, there was a lovely cheese display that the attendants kept nicely stocked, and there were several options of wine and champagne to choose from. It had very simple, yet sleek decor, but was overall a very pleasant spot to relax in before my flight. Definitely all of  the feet were in shoes in there. 

1. The Capital One Lounge in Denver was definitely my number one, by a long shot. Ok, now  I’m being silly, which is my favorite way to be. All of these lounges were nice, and I was really thankful to be able to get in to each of them (well, not you, Turkish) on my long airport day. However, my expectation of what a nice lounge is got extremely skewed in March when we had 45 minutes to stop in the Capital One Lounge in Denver. The food was borderline gourmet, the soda fountain had flavors like elderflower and lavender that the kids enjoyed sampling, the space was huge and beautifully decorated. The vibe was more “spa” than airport waiting room. None of the lounges in JFK terminal one could hold a candle to the Capital One Lounge, and so I will keep it number one in my heart.