American Airlines JFK Flagship First Dining Is Now The Tasting Room

by Gary Leff

When I visited the business class Greenwich lounge in the American Airlines-British Airways terminal at New York JFK in December I discovered that it was, essentially, the old Flagship (American Airlines business class) lounge – untouched.

However inside the Flagship lounge used to be the “Flagship First Dining” room. Sit down first class dining is now the separate Chelsea lounge. That was, in my view, the best lounge experience in the United States until it closed at the beginning of December.

The Flagship First Dining room was planned to become more space for the main lounge, offering up its own bar and fantastic views to help alleviate crowding during peak evening transatlantic departures.

While I was there two months ago, the lounge was closed off and being used as an employee break area.

That’s all changed. The old Flagship First Dining space is now part of the Greenwich lounge, re-opened as the Tasting Room to take advantage of the bar there, featuring Brooklyn Brewery products as noted by aviation watchdog JonNYC. You can see there’s new signage behind the bar and offerings on tap. And, it turns out, food specific to this area of the lounge.

American Airlines shares these details,

The Tasting Room, formerly known as the Flagship First Dining space, features a soft refresh that will transport customers to a high-end tap room, making visitors feel like they are inside a beer garden.

Customers will be able to relax and sip on an array of Brooklyn Brewery products, including beers on draught, exclusive brews and beer flights ahead of their travels.

A lighter fare menu will be available for customers to enjoy with their beer pairings. Some selections include Beer Braised Bratwurst, French Onion Grilled Cheese, and a Beer Float dessert.

It’s great to have this beautiful space available again, and it’s a really nice addition for business class international passengers and mid-tier elites (oneworld sapphire, like American Airlines Platinum and Alaska Airlines MVP Gold members) in economy on long haul international trips. Other oneworld mid-tier elites, like British Airways Silver members, can use this lounge even when flying domestically on American Airlines.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. But No AA passengers have entry?
    This entire Greenwich / SOHO / Chelsea is silly to appease the British.
    Is this only for BA passengers?
    We, on AA, flying in First Class aka Business, have to schlep to the Admirals Club on T3 —— long walk etc.

  2. I flew JFK-LAX last week in business. Would that have given me Greenwich access by itself? Would EXP make a difference? So confusing. The flight was out of the far end of the remote terminal so I used the AC but it would have been nice to see the pub had it been open then.

  3. Coming soon ChatJFK, a new AI chatbot that exists only to help you figure out which oneWorld lounge, if any, you have access to.

  4. @Rob_in_MIA – domestic American flight? AA club members have access to the Admirals Club. Oneworld mid-tier elites have access to Greenwich and oneworld top tier elites have access to Soho, but not American or Alaska elites.

    Internationally passengers are on equal footing for access to Greenwich and Soho

  9. EX Plat (Emerald?): Flew AA fm JFK to LHR in Biz class 2 wks ago – could only access Soho but not Chelsea. (I”m BA Gold too but this still didn’t give me access to JFK Chelsea Lounge – which has zero (0) natural light (like Soho Lounge does) btw. AA/BA reception were nice, allowed me to look at the pretty new Chelsea Club!).

    Yes, super confusing.

    Returned LHR to JFK in First only to learn that new AA LHR First Class lounge hasn’t opened yet.

    @Gary: I too cherished JFK Flagship Dining. It was perfect.

  10. If Brooklyn Brewery didn’t have the name “Brooklyn” in it, nobody would drink their beer. Subpar brewery even by the low standards that NYC sets.

Comments are closed.