I’m live-blogging my SAS EuroBonus SkyTeam Million Mile challenge this week. Click here for background and route information.
The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at JFK is a treat and I enjoyed a great breakfast here.
We checked in for our 6:30 pm Virgin Atlantic flight to London and I considered asking about taking the daytime flight (we were early enough), but I noticed on ExpertFlyer it was zeroed out.
Even if there were no-shows, it would be a very full flight and the evening flight looked much more lightly booked. As an aside, Virgin Atlantic does not have an official standby policy (to my knowledge)…I may have been able to find a generous agent to make the change, but ordinarily, you are going to pay a change fee, if applicable, and any fare difference to switch to an earlier flight, even on the same day. There is no concept of same-day standby like in the USA.
I wasn’t sure if they would let us into the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, but we were welcomed in (thanks to my SAS Gold status). I would have started with just coffee and worked for a bit, but Augustine was hungry so we had breakfast right away.
All food is a la carte in this lounge and the full breakfast menu is available until 8:30 am.
I was so happy to be greeted by Devina, who took such great care of me last time I was in this lounge. The staff are wonderful here.
Augustine ordered a British breakfast with a waffle and no baked beans while I had a poached egg with avocado on sourdough bread. We both had fruit. I had a flat white which was not great, but the cappuccino was far better. A nice breakfast indeed.
From 8:30 am to 1:30 pm the lounge is open to Priority Pass members with a limited free menu of items and some a la carte items, like the avo toast, available for purchase. Espresso drinks are also for purchase during the Priority Pass hours while a cup of coffee is free.
This remains one of my favorite lounges at New York JFK. You can read my full review here.
I prefer spaghetti and soup for breakfast .
Shout out to Devina for taking care of you. Always nice to see a great server once again. I would have ordered the eggs Florentine no hollandaise.
Your flight was at 6:30 pm but you were there for breakfast? How many hours did you spend in the lounge? Wow. What was the alcohol (wine) selection like during the Priority Pass hours?
The red eye arrived in the morning and the virgin Atlantic flight departure is in the evening 6:30. ( If I’m following this correctly ).
We spent the entire day at JFK…12 hours.
Lord have mercy.
Matthew is good with that. ;· )
This is where someone opening up a gym as a lounge would be a huge draw. I’d like to walk a couple miles and get my steps in. It’s hard to do that hauling luggage and it’s probably a bad idea to leave your luggage in the lounge to walk around the terminal.
Yes, would love that…like the Air France Lounge in Paris where I hope to soon spend some time in the sauna.
Did Devina remember you?
She did.
Really? That’s pretty incredible.
Well, I assume she read what I wrote about her and I did post a picture with her. 😉
Otherwise, she is a very good actor!
I mean, what are the odds that she would still be an employee? My impression of lounge staff is that the servers are temp jobs or on high-turnover contracts. At least the Delta lounges. While the actual Delta employees are long-time, the servers and cleaners at Sky Clubs in airports like DTW seem to change all the time. I wouldn’t think working for Plaza Premium’s contractor is a great job.
My wife and I flew Delta One to Budapest recently and went to the new Delta One lounge, wow. We are loyal United flyers (my wife is a million miler on United), but it’s marginally better than the Polaris Lounge in Newark. I think it’s the best lounge in the NYC area.