New (ish) First Class check in at JFK

[Kefci2000]

Hi all,

Just wanted to share a great experience I had with the family at JFK AA checkin in mid/late January this year.

Not sure how long it has been there but there was a new(ish) F checkin at the far right of T8, and it is excellent!

Was flying Y transcon with family (6 in total) and we were all checked in, given usual F priority tags for bags, had 4 bags, all were free (I thought only 3 were free as OWE?).

We were personally escorted through security, taken to the front of the scanner line, then when we went to the lounge, the nice lady at the desk said, I am afraid you can only get one guest into the Flagship lounge, but if you don't mind slumming it I can let you all into the Admirals Club.

Just a great experience at the back end of a RTW Y trip with the family.

Cheers Pete

 

[galah]

Thanks for sharing Pete.

AA's 'Flagship Checkin' at T8 has been there since 2014, however up until May 2017 it was for the exclusive use of 3-class trans-con, Concierge Key and Five Star Services (e.g. non-status based options). From May last year, they also admitted OneWorld Emerald status pax traveling in any cabin.

Being based in NYC, I've made use of the Flagship Checkin a lot and it's been great, to the point where I'll travel the extra distance to JFK rather than fly out of LGA given the construction mess at LGA at the moment. And doubly because there's pour-you-own champagne in the Flagship lounge

I've had mixed experience with the security escort though. Sometimes they will escort you to the front of the belt, sometimes they will drop you at the front of the ID check line, which is annoying if there are long lines as per usual. On one particularly busy day I saw the short-drop coming and requested to be taken to the front of the belt, which to their credit they did.

I received another random perk back in late-2016 when I was offered an SUV escort from the lounge to my gate! The lounge agent casually offered it as they were 'trialling it on random F lounge pax'. Couldn't turn that one down! I was escorted down a random emergency exit to a waiting SUV, driven over to one of the remote T8 gates, then escorted back up an emergency exit to the front of the boarding line. Kind of wished they had stairs waiting so I could board from the tarmac, but hey I'll take it.

Overall, the level of service at JFK is excellent and far beyond anything I've experienced at the other AA hubs.