On our way home from New York a couple of weeks ago, we visited the brand-new Capital One Lounge at JFK Terminal 4. I booked our trip via JFK because it was a bit cheaper than LaGuardia and I was using a companion ticket from a Delta Platinum Amex card so I was paying cash for one of the tickets. As it turned out, my wife used the last of her allotted SkyClub visits for the year on our outbound flight so we needed another option for a lounge on the return.

JFK Terminal 4 is arguably the best terminal for lounges in the US now. Besides Capital One, Chase Sapphire and Amex Centurion lounges, there are multiple Delta SkyClubs, a DeltaOne lounge, Virgin Clubhouse, Emirates lounge, Air India Lounge, and maybe another lounge or two that I am forgetting. I’ve reviewed the Amex and Chase lounges before and they can get very crowded. I’ve also reviewed the newest SkyClub in Concourse A and the revamped one in Concourse B. As SkyClubs go, these also get crowded although the new DeltaOne lounge should help ease that a bit. You could make an argument for the Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX having better or more lounges, but you’ll need international business or first class tickets or high-level airline status for most of those lounges whereas JFK Terminal 4 has three different credit card lounges allowing for broader admittance.

We arrived around 7pm and our flight wasn’t until 9:30pm so we had some time to enjoy the Capital One lounge. The entrance is actually on the departures level, below where security lets out. After security, go down one level and head toward Concourse B. You will see the entrance on the left. It looks like a very small footprint based on the entrance, but the lounge actually is quite large as it runs a long way perpendicular to the entrance once you get inside.

To enter the lounge, you’ll need a boarding pass and either your Capital One Venture X (or Venture X Business) card. You can instead download a lounge pass from the Capital One app which is what I did. Because of that, I didn’t need to dig out the card when I visited. Although my wife also has a Venture X card, one guest per cardmember is permitted for now so she didn’t need to show anything but a boarding pass. On February 1, 2026, complimentary guest access will end and you’ll either need your guest to have an authorized user card or their own Venture X for entry. Capital One Venture and Spark Miles cardholders can pay $45 to access the lounge and anyone can pay $90 (based on capacity limits) to enter. Based on our experience, I’d pay $45 to enter but not $90 if those were my only options.

Past the entrance, there’s a few tables then a bagel counter on the left that has made-to-order bagel and schmear or bagel sandwiches. There’s also some pastries, salads and other desserts available. Across from the bagels, you can get coffee, tea and other drinks. There’s also to-go bags with snacks like dried fruit, snack mix, and nuts. You can also get boxed water to go here.

Moving forward into the long left to right area of the lounge as you face the windows, there’s a buffet and seating on the left, the bathrooms and some more seating in the middle, then the bar on the right. There is also a Cheesemonger section at the far left with about 10-12 seats at a bar with lots of cheese and wine options.

We decided to start with the Cheesemonger and we were disappointed at first to learn that they stop serving their 45 minute curated wine and cheese serving at 6pm. However, we were in time for a sample platter so we sat at the bar and were served a really nice sampling of the cheeses and other goodies. They also gave us a sample of sherry.

Frankly, I preferred this to having to sit through a 45 minute explanation of how all the cheeses were made. After our cheese sampling, we found a table for two nearby and looked at the QR code menu. You select the items you want and put in the table number. The items came out fairly quickly.

We both ordered the pork shank and it was really good. I also went and got us both smoked salmon bagel sandwiches. For some reason, I didn’t get pictures but they were also tasty and pretty fresh for a 7:30pm bagel.

The buffet had some small plates of salads, veggies and other items. There were also cookies and brownies for dessert.

Here’s the full menu for the day as found on the Capital One Lounge website. The bagel counter is known as the bodega. Note that they were out of everything bagels by the time we ordered.

I walked over to the bar which was all the way at the far end of the lounge. It didn’t seem like you could order bar drinks from your seat although I didn’t test that by asking a staff member. It was quite an adventure to walk with full drinks all the way back to our seats at the furthest point from the bar.

The drink menu was varied and long. Here’s both the cocktail and beer/wine menus from the website:

I tried the Van Brunt Old Fashioned and it was good but sweet. My wife tried the Jetliner and didn’t love it, but that’s the beauty of trying cocktails for free in a lounge. I went with a regular old-fashioned after that and it was served in this neat mug.

The bathrooms are individual washrooms which most newer credit card lounges are trending towards. They can create a bit of a wait, but at least men and women have the same line. The bathroom was clean and large (I ended up in the handicapped washroom just by chance). There is a shower room as well which could come in handy before or after a long international flight.

As we left the lounge to head to our gate, which was thankfully nearby as there can be some long walks at Concourse B, we were handed chocolates by the friendly staff. All of the staff members we interacted with were friendly although the bodega staff definitely had a bit of NY attitude in moving the line along.

We were at the lounge on a busy Sunday night at primetime for most international flights. In fact, it took an hour for our flight to get from pushing back at the gate over to the runway as we were something like number 25 for takeoff. Despite that, there was no line to enter the lounge, no line for food or drinks and plenty of seats throughout our stay from around 7:15pm to 8:45pm. I’m not sure if the lack of crowding is because there are not as many CapitalOne Venture X cardholders as there are Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders or because folks aren’t yet aware of this lounge as it’s on the lower level and newly opened. Whatever the reason, it was nice to have a pleasant, uncrowded lounge experience.

I would place this lounge at the very top of the US lounge rankings that are accessible without airline status or an international business or first class ticket. Lounges like the DeltaOne Lounges and United Polaris Lounges have a more elevated overall experience, but for a lounge you can access just for holding a credit card, the Capital One Lounge JFK is top-notch and better than a typical domestic airline lounge or any of the Amex Centurion Lounges that I have visited. I would put it on par with the Chase Sapphire Lounge LGA and maybe slightly ahead thanks to the unique cheesemonger and bodega dining experiences. This is the second CapitalOne airport experience we have tried after the CapitalOne Landing at DCA. They are really upping their airport lounge game with unique localized experiences, and I look forward to trying out the Las Vegas version when I’m there in December.

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