This entire article is now out of date.
Please see this article on changes to the Virgin Clubhouse JFK effective March 2023.
In the MilesTalk Facebook group it’s almost become an inside joke how much I love the Virgin Clubhouse. If I’m headed to JFK, I’m choosing the Virgin Clubhouse over any other option, including the very nice American Express Centurion Lounge and the Delta SkyClub. I get teased in the group over it.
I love(d) it so much that when I have a flight out of JFK T4, I show up 60-90 minutes earlier than I need to, just so I can relax in the Virgin Clubhouse and enjoy a comfy seat, some delicious food, and some nicely crafted beverages. It’s all made to order and all complimentary.
My favorite spot to hang out is in the Herman Miller loungers in the back corner overlooking the tarmac.
Here’s one of my Instagram love letters to the lounge:
View this post on Instagram
My answer is now a “no” by the way.
Lately, some people have told me that they’ve tried to go to the lounge and were denied access due to capacity issues. I didn’t think this was common but I’m learning that it is fairly common if you show up around the time a flight they serve is close to departure to be denied entry.
That’s understandable if it’s a true capacity issue, I just didn’t know it was something they did. I mean, that lounge is massive. Of course, this happens all the time with Priority Pass lounges, but this was news to me about Virgin Clubhouses.
Now, I haven’t run into that yet myself, but I did have quite a doozy of an experience today that I’m sharing half because I’m still livid (yes, it’s a rant) and half because more and more, you cannot count on this lounge.
When you pass security, the Amex Centurion Lounge is right there. If you bypass it to head to the Virgin Clubhouse by the A gates and get denied entry, you’ve wasted 20 minutes round trip to get back to the Centurion Lounge.
When you leave super early for the airport JUST to go to the Virgin Clubhouse and get denied entry, it’s even more infuriating.
But today’s reason for denial took the cake.
I could not enter because their Wifi was down.
I’m not making that up. Their Wifi was down, and because the machines that link to Priority Pass need Wifi, they could not swipe me in. Now, I get the need to get my info to get credit for the lounge visit, but there were multiple ways they could have handled this – especially for someone who was willing to wait a bit for verification as I was.
I mean, just last month we thought the Venture X no longer had access to the lounge and I was corrected on that (and later that Amex still worked as well). I was so happy.
I asked if they could connect to the JFK Wifi. They said the machines could but they were instructed not to. I offered my own phone’s Hotspot. They wouldn’t do that either.
If Wifi security was the reason, an alternative was for Capital One to verify my account status by phone and they could write down the card number and run it later.
Or heck, they could just let some people that clearly had a Venture X or Amex Platinum card in as goodwill seeing as how the Wifi outage was supposed to be short lived (but at least an hour I was told).
However, as I tried to offer suggestions on how we could make it work, given that the lounge was near empty and I arrived 90 minutes early JUST for their lounge, the more irritated the manager got.
She was not interested in helping in any way. She told me not to stand by the lounge while I called Capital One to ask if they could speak to them and validate my access and then she flat out refused to talk to the Capital One supervisor trying to help out, with him acknowledging that the Venture X should give me access. When the very nice and apologetic man at the desk tried to speak to the Capital One supervisor, she told him to stop talking.
So to be clear, this is NOT on Capital One nor Amex. They have a contract with Plaza Premium and it’s on Plaza Premium to provide a good experience. This is a Plaza Premium issue.
When you have a lounge like the Virgin Clubhouse, it’s a destination to some people (like me, obviously) and now that I know that any given time I show up I might just be wasting my time makes the whole thing less magical.
So, I think Im falling out of love with the Virgin Clubhouse.
At least the Centurion Lounge has the cool speakeasy downstairs and Delta is building a giant new Skyclub – so there are other options. But I’m probably done rushing to JFK early just for the lounge….
If you’ve ever been denied at the JFK Clubhouse or any of the domestic Plaza Premium owned Virgin Clubhouses, I’d love to hear it.
Thoughts?
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That was some post. How about brevity. Lol. You said you arrive early simply to visit that lounge at least three times.
Honestly this is on you too for arriving 3 hours into a lounge on an economy ticket and expecting to be pampered.
Is the Virgin lounge great? Yeah, but it being included in Plaza Premium with the restructuring was already a great deal and it shouldn’t be treated as a privilege. They already do a lot better than priority pass lounges and it’s clear as day that the VA lounge costs a lot of money to serve and run.
Dave, you’re treating the clubhouse like an a la Carter 3 hour buffet and it’s going to kill the benefit or scale it down eventually. Either buy the premium VA fare or settle for mediocrity.