This Review of the Lufthansa Senator Lounge JFK, Terminal 1 is part of a new trip report covering JAL First Class and luxury hotels in Tokyo and Southeast Asia. If you're flying a Lufthansa First Class in the afternoon or evening, such that you'll be at the lounge after 2pm, see our Lufthansa First Class Lounge at JFK Review. You can also read all of our airport lounge reviews.
Lufthansa Senator Lounge JFK Airport Location, Access and Hours
The JFK Lufthansa Business Lounge is located at Terminal 1 post-security, on the left hand side. The Senator Lounge is open daily from 10am to 1:45am, and if you meet any of the following criteria, you'll have access. Interestingly, JAL uses the Lufthansa Senator Lounge for its First Class passengers, even though JAL is part of oneworld, not Star Alliance.
- Lufthansa and Star Alliance First Class passengers with a boarding pass for a same day departing flight
- Star Alliance Gold members, with a same day boarding pass for a departing Lufthansa or Star Alliance flight
- Lufthansa and Lufthansa Group (SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines) Premium Economy or Economy passengers who have a valid lounge access voucher (this includes a voucher from the Lufthansa Miles and More card) and hold a boarding pass for a same day departing flight
- Passengers with a valid Miles & More HON Circle member or Senator card and boarding pass for a same day departing Lufthansa, Star Alliance or codeshare flight.
After checking in with reception, by providing your boarding pass, you're directed upstairs to the Senator Lounge; you can either take the stairs or the elevator, which has a button marked “S” for Senator.
There was a buffet that was good compared to, say, United Clubs and similar domestic U.S. airline lounges, but not by international standards. The menu, just as with the bathroom products, were a mishmash of various items, without any coherency:
The fruit, such as the watermelon, wasn't very ripe, whereas the cherry tomatoes were wrinkled and overripe. The best part of the salad bar were the marinated mozzarella balls.
I tried a bit of stew, and one piece of meat was fine, but the other was tough and sinewy. The noodles were ok, although lacked flavor.
My son had some scrambled eggs and bacon, and flavor was ok he said, although the bacon was limp, not crispy. The best part of the hot buffet were the crispy, slightly spiced thick cut fries.
Desserts mainly consisted of M&Ms and other candy–colorful, but not exactly what I'd expect for a decent international lounge.
The Verdict
I remember in my consulting days that some of my German colleagues were very focused on keeping Lufthansa Senator status. I can only assume that Lufthansa Senator lounges used to be much better in quality than the JFK one is currently. Even the WiFi, arguably the most important part of any lounge apart from available seating, was quite slow. I was glad we didn't make any special effort to arrive early, and only spent about 45 minutes in the lounge, as it's not worth making extra time for.
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