Centurion Lounge at New York JFK Opens
Two-story facility is the largest in the American Express network of lounges
American Express has unveiled its newest Centurion Lounge at New York’s JFK airport, at over 15,000 square feet, the largest in the Centurion network of lounges. The two-story facility is located “just beyond the TSA checkpoints to the left of the escalators that take passengers downstairs to the gate level.”
The lounges features speakeasy bar 1850 (a reference to the year American Express was founded), concealed behind a copper-paneled wall and offering a rotating cocktail menu that “gives a nod to some of the city’s greatest bars.”
Amex has also partnered with Equinox to offer the Equinox Body Lab, which is normally only accessible at Equinox clubs. The lab will offer “performance-driven restorative therapies including custom, self-guided meditation and stretching sessions using the Variis by Equinox app, a vibro-acoustic chair to help fliers relax before takeoff.”
According to American Express, when the lounge opens, Equinox will offer these sessions to individuals, “in a self-led format to prioritize health and safety.”
The lounge dining menu has been created by New Yorker Ignacio Mattos, with signature dishes including a caciocavallo and egg sandwich with tomato marmalade, fennel salad with castelvetrano olives and provolone and steak with romesco and taleggio sauce. Food is currently being served by Amex representatives rather than buffet-style due to COVID-19.
American Express closed all its Centurion lounges in March as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic shut down travel demand, including the new Centurion lounge in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX which had just opened.
However as air travel has slowly resumed, the company has begun to reopen its lounges in a phased approach with Seattle and Philadelphia reopening on Oct. 5.
Locations at airports in Dallas, Charlotte, Houston and San Francisco are set to reopen by the end of October, the company says. The lounge at Las Vegas McCarran is currently undergoing expansion and the one at New York LaGuardia is moving into a new space, nearly doubling in size. Future new facilities are also planned for Denver and London Heathrow.
