Lots of activity in the New York City airline lounge space in recent weeks, nearly all of it good news for passengers. Two new lounges have opened, one at LaGuardia and one at Newark, and another is on the horizon.
First up, at Newark, Porter Air has opened their first lounge in the United States and the third in their system. Unique to Porter is that the lounge is open to all ticketed passengers; access is included in the ticket price. And while the lounge doesn’t include free booze it does offer free wifi, cookies and non-alcoholic beverages including Starbucks coffee. The seating area is also rather pleasant and much more lounge-like than the typical Newark gate area. The wifi was a bit spotty when I dropped by to check out the facility but they were working on it at the time; hopefully it gets better soon. Adding to the convenience factor of the lounge is its location, directly adjacent to the gates Porter operates from at Newark.
Next up, Delta has opened a new lounge in Terminal C at LaGuardia. The lounge replaces one of the US Airways lounges in that terminal and allows Delta customers access to a lounge in that terminal, something which was not previously available since they expanded operations there earlier this year.
Also at LaGuardia, the former Eastern Ionosphere club, currently operating as the United Club by the A pier of the central terminal, will be closing next Friday. United will be consolidating their club operations to the former Red Carpet Club closer to the C pier of that terminal. The lounge won’t be closed for long, however. Air Canada will be taking over the space and opening a Maple Leaf Lounge at LaGuardia on September 24th. As an added bonus, Air Canada will actually be updating the lounge to match their typical brand standards in the coming months. That should be a major upgrade for the space.
Details on all these lounges (and more photos of the Porter Air one) can be found Lounge Guide section of Wandering Aramean Travel Tools.
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Shame about losing the old UA Red Carpet Club at LGA as I have an affection for it having spent probably too much of my life there.
But have you really lost it? As an AC MLL you can still go in any time you’re flying on any *A flight so long as you are *G or a paid lounge member.
Also, it is a dump. The AC renovations will be quite welcome.
Is UA consolidating operations on pier C or are they continuing to operate out of pier A as well? Seems like AA could shift some of their RJs from C over to A
Also, wasn’t UA planning to expand the lounge including a new entrance post security in C?
I find AC MLL offerings are usually better than United clubs, so also looking forward to an upgrade in soft product. (might be too much to hope for soup in the lounge 🙂 )
If there is an AC MLL at LGA outside of security, I would think the only reason to go to the UC would be to get help on a ticket.
@Phudnik- However, it is entirely possible AC will restrict Star Gold access to the lounge unless you are flying on AC like what SQ does in SFO. The lounge space is pretty small, so after the lounge opens AC might will have to consider instilling some kind of restrictive access control procedures.
The club in pier A is the former presidents club. It was never, to my knowledge, a red carpet club. I will definitely be stopping by once it is open as an mll just to check it out, but the club Indy pier c will generally be more convenient, even for those times I’m on aa. Also, I imagine the renovations to the c club will be part of the broader lga renovations, no?
I noticed that one of the United Lounges at Newark servicing gates A11-20 closed. This pier contains all Air Canada flights – any chance it is reopening as a Maple Leaf Lounge?
There are certainly plenty of people who would like to see that as a new MLL. No word from AC yet on whether that is happening or not.