Rapid Travel Chai

There was so much to-do about the new Delta Sky Club at JFK’s Terminal 4 that Delta even opened a pop-up space in Soho, and media and bloggers have been signing its praises.

Sorry to be underwhelmed. Sure the design is modern, the outside deck is nice, and the staff are jaw-droppingly friendly (let’s see how long that lasts at JFK) but it still has the same two things I find most annoying about domestic Sky Clubs:

1. The bartender hassle. I see that some people like to sit at the bar and chat up the bartender. I want my juice and do not want to wait or feel guilty for not tipping. The staff at the old JFK Sky Clubs excelled at always having their backs to customers and fiddling with items on the shelves to avoid doing anything. Other clubs are more attentive but the waits are still often aggravating. Can’t we have self-serve for non-alcoholic drinks?
2. No food, just snacks, mostly junk food. I exclude paid food.

Junk snacks and bar

Tokyo-Narita’s Sky Clubs have fallen a few notches in the food department since the merger, and the move to more Chinese items instead of Japanese is not their strength, but the people claiming JFK is the best in the network presumably have not visited .

On my pass through JFK last week I visited this Sky Club, quite a hike down T4, saw it was in substance no different than others, noted the cardinal sin of only having one of the newspaper trinity (NYT, WSJ, FT – any self-respecting club has at least two) and hustled all the way back to my favorite Oasis Club.

Where are WSJ and FT?

Delta is still on the sign, though it has been taken off the Delta website. Priority Pass grants access for those that have it.

Oasis still has the Delta placard

Oasis banished from delta.com

Self-service and real food (dinner is better)