A few of my trips this month have me connecting at JFK Terminal 4, and so I’ll be visiting The Oasis lounge quite a bit. Here’s a review of my first visit this month.
The Oasis is landside in Terminal 4, which is both a positive and a negative. The positive is that you can access it without a ticket for a flight departing Terminal 4. This means the Oasis lounge can be used by any passenger flying on any airline. The negative is that even if you are actually flying out of Terminal 4, you’ll need to leave enough time to go through security.
Delta is currently extending their side of Terminal 4, and the new security area will be to the side of where the Oasis is located. From what I can tell, the lounge will continue to remain landside before security.
The lounge is contracted by a multitude of T4 airlines for their business class and elite passengers. Of note is Delta, which gives access to international BusinessElite and SkyTeam Elite Plus passengers, since they are still building their new Sky Club in Terminal 4. The rules should allow Transcontinental BusinessElite passengers access, although the agent at the lounge desk wasn’t having it (or likely, she didn’t know that caveat of the lounge access rules).
I ended up gaining access using my Priority Pass Select membership, which I got for free through the American Express Platinum Card. Keep in mind that unlike Delta Sky Club access with the American Express Platinum, you have to pay $27 per guest that doesn’t have a Priority Pass membership. You can also access the lounge via the Lounge Club, of which you get 2 passes with the Chase Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards.
Once inside, I was pretty impressed with the lounge’s ambiance and seating areas. One side of the lounge looks out onto the Terminal 4 apron, with some great views of international aircraft (when they are there … not many aircraft around when I was there in the mid afternoon). Wi-fi passwords are provided on signs throughout the lounge, and the speeds are pretty good.
The food and beverages in the lounge are on par with an average lounge, though definitely better than the Sky Clubs and United Clubs in the United States (which also function as business class lounges for international passengers leaving the USA). While the lounge is open 24/7, a cold breakfast is put out between 4AM-10AM, while hot food is put out from 3PM-10PM. Snacks and wraps are placed out throughout the day. I was at the lounge just as the hot options were being put out, which included a soup and chicken tikka masala.
All in all, I was pretty impressed with the Oasis Lounge. While I would never pay the $45 they ask for a walk-in, I would visit it on a long layover at JFK if it were included in my ticket or current lounge membership.
To get to the Oasis Lounge, you have to enter Terminal 4 and proceed towards the left-most section of check-in lines. Behind the check-in area (but before security), you’ll find the lounge. Terminal 4 has a covered walkway to the JFK AirTrain. The outer loop of the AirTrain continues on to T5, T7, and T8, while the inner loop will take you back to T2/T3 and T1. If you choose to visit the Oasis on a layover with a flight not in T4, keep in mind the time required for changing terminals and for security (and for those of you with Pre-Check, only American Airlines at Terminal 8 currently has Pre-Check at JFK).
