Reliving the glamour of flight

Our final day in the Big Apple ended on a high note. For years, I’ve wanted to take a closer look at the iconic TWA Terminal at JFK Airport. The building was originally designed by Eero Saarinen for Trans World Airlines (TWA) and opened in 1962. Saarinen is famous for many iconic structures, including the St Louis Gateway Arch.

The building features a soaring white concrete roof reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House’s sails. Two tube-shaped, red-carpeted corridors extend outwards from a central atrium. A series of 26 departure gates, long-since demolished, capped each corridor. For decades, images of the striking terminal recalled the glamour of commercial flying in the sixties.

The terminal closed when the last of TWA’s assets were sold to American Airlines in 2001. It sat idle until its conversion into a stunning boutique hotel that finally opened in 2019. Naturally, booking a night in this beautiful building has been on my bucket list ever since. Garry and I stayed there last Friday.

A night in the hotel made perfect sense after one of our suppliers, Triple 8, scheduled a meeting on Long Island. Their office is based in Port Washington, about 30km north of JFK Airport. We also had an early flight the following morning. After meeting with our supplier, they drove us to the airport and joined us for a drink and dinner at the hotel.

We kicked off the evening with cocktails in the Connie Lounge, a cocktail bar housed inside the cabin of a restored Lockheed Constellation airliner. We later learned that the TWA Terminal was originally built to support the airline’s Constellation fleet, the world’s most advanced airliner at the time. However, by the time the building was completed, Boeing had launched the larger 707 jet airliner. The larger, faster plane transformed the industry. rendering the building too small for the higher passenger volume it generated.

We then had dinner at Paris Café, located on a mezzanine level overlooking the hotel’s grand lobby. Afterwards, Garry and I spent an hour exploring the lovingly restored building. Clever little design features abound, including a row of payphones leading to the women’s toilet and a faux Solari board departure board. These mechanical departure boards were ubiquitous in airports worldwide in the 1960s, charming travellers with a whirring and flipping display of flight information.

The original terminal check-in lobby has been repurposed into a rather clever concept. The hotel leases individual check-in counters to local restaurants, which then offer guests a range of casual dining options. We grab a treat for dessert before retiring to our hotel room overlooking the terminal building. I’ll let my photos speak for themselves.

The following morning, we caught the Air Train to Terminal 8 and checked in for our flight to Sint Maarten. Our flight departed at 7:00am, so we were among the first passengers to arrive in American Airlines’ new Soho Lounge. The lounge is operated jointly with British Airways and opened in late 2022.

Wow! This lounge is nothing like the soulless, spartan complex I regularly frequented more than a decade ago. It features, among other things, a cosy back room with a roaring gas fireplace and padded leather booth seat dining. The food on offer was also the equal of any Qantas or British Airways lounge. It was an awesome way to finish our time in the USA.