First look: JetBlue unveils first-ever airport lounge at New York JFK

Return 12 years, and JetBlue was an airline identified for its egalitarian expertise: all-coach cabins, no long-haul flights, and few bells and whistles past its trademark seatback screens.

Over the previous decade, issues have actually modified.

2014 ushered within the airline’s lie-flat Mint cabin. Then got here flights to Europe, and — most just lately — the promise of home first-class.

And subsequent week, the airline will launch its largest new product in years: Its first-ever airport lounge, which is able to debut at New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK).

JetBlue debuts ‘BlueHouse’

JetBlue’s membership at JFK Terminal 5 received’t simply be a brand new outpost. It would double because the launch of its new lounge community — which, on Thursday, the service mentioned can be referred to as “BlueHouse,” a reputation that attracts on the airline’s model and its hope to create a “New York Metropolis apartment-style” really feel.

BlueHouse JFK will open at 5 a.m. on Dec. 18, spanning 9,000 sq. ft throughout two flooring close to the T5’s Gate 527.

The stylish house sports activities two bars, grab-and-go meals and house for 140 clients. That’s on the smaller finish for a brand new lounge in 2025.

Nevertheless, JetBlue has made clear: it’s hoping to make this an unique (and line-free) expertise for a small variety of its prime clients — not a sprawling outpost for the plenty.

“What we heard over and over in buyer analysis is that clients love lounge merchandise,” JetBlue President Marty St. George mentioned at a preview of the lounge on Wednesday. “They hate the expertise of getting to face exterior in queue.”

Who can entry JetBlue’s lounge?

With that in thoughts, entry guidelines for BlueHouse can be tight, with entry restricted to:

• Credit score cardholders with the JetBlue Premier World Elite Mastercard®, which comes with a $499 annual charge
• High-tier Mosaic 4 elite standing members of the airline’s TrueBlue loyalty program
• Passengers flying to Europe in its upscale Mint cabin

JetBlue lounge design

JetBlue’s new lounge digs at JFK sport an Artwork Deco-inspired design, with navy blue options accented in gold trimming, wallpaper, eclectic lights and locally-sourced paintings.

Coming into on the principle terminal degree, the entrance desk provides “condominium mail room” vibes with submit office-style mailboxes that include small items for members.

You may take the old-timey elevator as much as the second ground — or proceed down a navy blue-painted tunnel into the lounge’s open-concept main house.

Anchoring this room is the bar, the place you’ll be able to seize a cocktail curated by Lengthy Island Metropolis-based The Greats of Craft — or ask a barista to whip up an espresso drink from Joe Espresso, which was based in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village earlier than increasing throughout town.

Don’t neglect to lookup. One of the distinguished design options on the ceiling pays homage to the celestial sample that famously adorns the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

Down under, there’s a smattering of padded chairs, cubicles and work stations for visitors to loosen up, eat, or get work carried out throughout a go to.

Or, they will go for the gameroom, which options JetBlue-branded card and board video games in entrance of a big tv.

There’s a library setting with books sourced from The Strand Bookstore, and — one of many quirkier touches — a photograph sales space that, come February, will sport a retired flight deck leap seat from an Airbus A320.

“It actually needs to be an area that’s welcoming, playful — not pretentious. Type of like your own home,” St. George mentioned throughout a tour of the brand new house.

“This lounge is simply basically New York,” St. George added. “And in addition basically JetBlue.”

Second ground

Heading as much as the second degree, skip the elevator and also you’ll move by some timeless New York (and JetBlue) paintings in your approach up the staircase.

There’s a second bar serving up beer and wine, and a snazzy breakroom-kitchen-type house the place you’ll be able to seize self-serve espresso, smooth drinks or bites to eat.

The principle house upstairs affords extra working, lounging and quiet areas — with the point of interest a seating space beneath bookshelves and adaptable temper lighting harking back to the lighting patterns you’d see on one among JetBlue’s Airbus jets.

Eating

If there’s a weak spot within the lounge, no less than from the start, it doubtless surrounds the meal service.

You received’t see a fully-stocked buffet or a la carte menu; JetBlue is primarily doing grab-and-go eating choices.

Past snacks, heartier picks embrace a bacon egg and New York cheddar sandwich at breakfast and a scorching pastrami sandwich at lunch, together with an assortment of salads, wraps and different dishes (a few of that are served scorching, and ready same-day).

I like pastrami sandwich, and there’s a transparent effort to offer the meals some native aptitude — however I do suppose that, early on, the eating at BlueHouse could not headline the expertise in the identical approach that the delicacies in JetBlue’s Mint cabin does.

However that might change. The service mentioned it hopes so as to add kitchen house to the ability later in 2026, which may develop its choices after the membership is up and working.

And the craft beverage choices (just like the full-service espresso bar) actually clear the excessive bar set by Mint.

At launch, JetBlue is collaborating with Brooklyn-based Union Sq. Occasions on its culinary choices inside BlueHouse.

Cracking down on crowding — from the start

A key theme JetBlue executives actually drilled house with the launch of this new lounge portfolio was their disdain for the overcrowding that’s plagued many airline- and credit score card-affiliated outposts lately.

“We’re basically centered on ensuring that the purchasers who’re Mosaic 4s, Premier card members [and] transatlantic Mint clients by no means have to attend exterior,” St. George mentioned.

That’s an enormous motive the service is conserving its entry guidelines tight.

What about visitors, day passes and annual memberships?

Past top-tier Mosaics, transatlantic Mint passengers and premium credit score cardholders, there can be a number of different alternatives to enter the house later in 2026.

Starting in February 2026, JetBlue plans to promote annual and day passes to its membership. Decrease-level Mosaic members and sure different JetBlue cardholders can have alternatives to purchase their approach into the golf equipment on a extra restricted foundation.

As for visitors, right here’s how the coverage shakes out:

• Mosaic 4 members and Premier cardholders can deliver one complimentary visitor; then, it’s $39 for every extra visitor
• Transatlantic Mint clients can deliver one non-Mint visitor in for $39 per particular person

Be aware that Mint clients not flying to Europe are usually not entitled to BlueHouse entry. Neither are United Airways Premier elites or United Membership members — the brand new Blue Sky partnership between JetBlue and United doesn’t embrace reciprocal lounge entry.

Only the start

From the outset, JFK would be the lone lounge in JetBlue’s BlueHouse community — however extra are within the works.

Past its New York house base, the service is planning to unveil a second BlueHouse location through the latter half of 2026 at Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS). It is also eyeing a 3rd location at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide Airport (FLL), JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty revealed final week.

The service can also be leaving the door open to a different airport or two … and to an eventual growth of its JFK lounge footprint, whereas noting that airport house comes at a premium — and thus, at a substantial price.

“The extra individuals who get the [premium] bank card, the extra Mosaic 4s we’ve,” St. George mentioned, “the extra we will afford to construct extra lounges.”

A push for loyalty

It is price noting, this funding for JetBlue — together with different new customer-facing merchandise like home first-class — comes because it concurrently works to return to profitability for the primary time for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic.

However executives imagine this boutique JFK outpost — a “house away from house,” as they name it — is nicely well worth the expense if it drives deeper loyalty within the airline’s base of TrueBlue members.

It is also simply the beginning of a lounge portfolio that, like JetBlue’s lie-flat Mint seats, as soon as appeared unthinkable for the airline.

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