JFK CH not for any AU card holder???

Arrived today in JFK with a colleague who's a Au card holder. Thought we'd while away a couple of hours in the CH before flying on to Charlotte with JetBlue. The lady on the desk at the JFK CH said "sorry you can't come in, the CH is for departing passengers only"[:0]!

Is this true that the CH is for VS departing pax only? I thought if you were an Au card holder, you could use the lounge whenever, or have I missed something here?[:(]

[preiffer]

She's absolutely correct.

You only get an open door policy with a BA gold card for terrace lounges only.

[Bazz]

Yes they are "Departure" lounges and not Transit or Arrival lounges (exception to the latter is obviously the Revivals lounge at LHR which is an Arrivals lounge)

Gold card holders can get in when flying VS regardless of class of travel.

So you take out your credit card, buy a fully refundable economy ticket, check-in and get boarding pass, go to VS CH, have a drink and a meal, leave CH, go to check-in desk and off-load yourself from the flight and get refund on credit card, then get Jet-Blue flight

[mcmbenjamin]

Interesting. The current new is that jetBlue will codeshare with an international airline in and out of JFK. I bet VS is the airline as VAmerica will be SF based. Would be a great feeder...

So IF that happens, would VS allow people connecting from a VS metal flight to a VS code flight to use a pre-security CH?

Originally posted by KenJohn
So you take out your credit card, buy a fully refundable economy ticket, check-in and get boarding pass, go to VS CH, have a drink and a meal, leave CH, go to check-in desk and off-load yourself from the flight and get refund on credit card, then get Jet-Blue flight

There was a story about a chap about ten years ago who did exactly that with BA. He had one one way ticket and spent several months feeding and watering himself, and changing his ticket on a daily basis, in an Exec club lounge before BA got annoyed.

I am not sure I could put myself through that.

Cheers, Howard

Originally posted by jaguarpig
You only get an open door policy with a BA gold card for terrace lounges only.

I usually rate BA Silver as most other airlines' Gold. It takes about the same effort to get and the perks are similar.

BA Gold is nice to have, in particular the serious Champagne of the UK First lounges and Open Doors, but it takes about the same effort to attain as platinum levels on other airlines.

The obvious parallel is the OneWorld Qantas/BA comparison where QF Gold = BA Silver = OneWorld Sapphire.

Cheers, Howard

Well I had a BA Gold for over two years and I cant say I miss it.

During that period I never got an operational upgrade once, Even though I flew LHR to Philadelphia almost every other week in WTP.

I got a lot of points but there were no 'bonus' points like VS have. The tier points became increasingly more difficult to get - effectively penalising you for flying BA when by flying any other airline would get you at least something for your trouble. The final straw for me was on a long cheap flight I got Tier points 0 Miles 0 - thats something Ive never had from bmi or Virgin (both where I am currently Gold).

The First lounges are very crowded although they are good the food is nowhere near clubhouse level. The US lounges are distinctly average and even the pre boarding food from Philadelphia was a) always the same and b) cold.

bmi Star Alliance Gold is nice too. The one time I couldnt fly BA to Philadelphia I flew US Airways and they operationally upgraded me to Business - Envoy class which was superb, I was fairly speechless that I had flown that route 25 times with BA and once with US and US treated me like royalty.

and last week I got an op-up to LH First Class from FRA to TLV which I will post a review of. It was awesome, and from a Z fare business class seat too.

The very day I got my Au on Virgin I got an operational upgrade from LAX to LHR so I dont ever care to get a BA Gold again.

No Way BA I say!

I got a lot of points but there were no 'bonus' points like VS have. The tier points became increasingly more difficult to get

There is a 50% miles tier bonus with BA gold on all TP earning flights. All WT+ and above fares earn TPs, you earn miles flown plus, 25%(W),50%(J),100%(F)miles Cabin bonus.This works out as 200% miles in J and 250% in F as a gold.
Have to say I have the opposite experience to you mysteryflyer,our VS AU cards are gone next month and will not be missed.We have been looked after rather well on BA as gold card holders. The real plus for us is we have managed twice the amount of miles booking with BA as opposed to similar spend on VS because of the amex 241 voucher.