Centurion Lounge JFK Review: Amex’s Flagship NYC Lounge

Worth Coming to the Airport Early For: YES (the first Centurion lounge I’ve been to that was worth coming to. Ideally come in the morning to avoid insane crowding)

Better Than The Terminal? YES (Solid food, a real coffee bar, good natural light, and lots of seating options)

Introduction

As I have said before, Centurion lounges are generally like a Chipotle in an upper-middle class neighborhood. They are fine, you can get decent food, but they are nothing special (no shade to Chipotle – I love the place). The Centurion lounge is a place where consultants / bankers / PE guys / tech workers / influencers / golf dads can get a drink and a bite preflight to justify paying $895 a year for a credit card (or free for US service members!).

I’ve been to several Centurion lounges (see here for nearby LGA and DCA reviews), most of which have been unimpressive (and some downright bad, like the one at LAX). I honestly don’t really care about Centurion lounges much though, because I get plenty of value from my Amex Platinum card without ever having to step into one of these lounges, and mostly see it as a cherry-on-top perk. The advantage of the Centurion lounge network is breadth over depth; none of them are particularly good, but they’re everywhere.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by how nice their “flagship” JFK lounge was. It’s definitely a cut above other Centurion Lounges, and worth carving out some time pre-flight to visit. This property features two key unique amenities: an in-house espresso bar with baristas (“Blue Roast”) and a hidden speakeasy in the back of the lounge.

One thing to consider is that this lounge generally gets very overcrowded anytime past 2pm+, and really bad in the 4pm – 8pm window specifically. JFK’s terminal 4 is functionally Delta’s terminal + a bunch of international airlines (Etihad, LATAM, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, etc). This makes premium / high-income traveler throughput pretty crazy; during peak hours there might be thousands of people passing through the terminal eligible to get into the lounge with their Platinum / Centurion card. In general, peak departure banks (transatlantic + international rush) begin in the afternoon through the evening. If flying during this time, expect lines & a crowded lounge (if you make it in). In general, I’d only plan on coming early if flying out in the morning, when T4 is much quieter. Unless you like lining up for a crowded buffet.

In this post, you’ll find:

Lounge Access Rules

Standard Amex Centurion Lounge entrance requirements apply for this lounge. This lounge is currently open from 5am-10pm, daily.

As a reminder, access to Centurion lounges are restricted to holders of the:

1. Amex Platinum Card
2. Amex Centurion Card
3. Delta SkyMiles Reserve (if flying on Delta the same day)

The majority of people will access the lounge via the Platinum card. In that case, as long as you have a same-day boarding pass and are visiting within three hours of departure time, you’re good to access the lounge.

This lounge is super easy to find – it’s directly left immediately after security (same level).

Lounge Review and Amenities

This lounge is structured into two floors stacked directly on top of each other. Both floors offer similar amenities and seating, although the upper floor has the espresso bar and the lower floor has the speakeasy (dubbed “1850”), depending on what you’re looking for.

Immediately after entering the lounge, the coffee / espresso bar “Blue Roast” can be found straight ahead:

The cold brew was out today so I opted for espresso and fruit from Blue Roast:

Onto the lounge itself. The first floor (4th floor) main seating area has pretty great views of the tarmac. T4 is great for spotting all sorts of cool widebody aircraft, like the El Al 787 and Etihad A350 below.

Here’s the main seating area on the top floor. You can probably see how this lounge can get packed very quickly during peak departure periods.

There are drink stations and buffet spreads on both floors of the lounge. Here was the top (fourth) floor drink station:

The buffet spread was your standard American breakfast (eggs, french toast, sausage). While the food here is decent quality, it’s still a notch below the table service / made-to-order food at Chase lounges and Capital one lounges (both of which have lounges in T4 at JFK. The Chase lounge is about 5 feet from the Amex lounge, and Capital One lounge a ~2 minute walk away). I think this is the primary place Amex can improve their lounge offering, if they care about that (my guess is they don’t, given how successful the Platinum card has been in general – they don’t need another carrot to attract cardholders).

Back towards the entrance of the lounge is an elevator (or stairs) to the lower (3rd) floor of the lounge.

The lower level looks almost identical to the upper level, with some more seating options. Also note the speakeasy is on the lower level (copper door in back), but was not yet open when I visited.

The food downstairs was exactly the same as upstairs:

And last but not least, a quick bathroom check:

Conclusion

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the Amex Centurion longe at JFK. This property is significantly nicer than any other Centurion lounge I’ve been to. I’d definitely carve out some time to spend here if flying earlier in the day. Just be careful with afternoon / evening departures – this is when the lounge can get slammed, and at that point you’re better off just grabbing a meal in the city ahead of the flight.