Plane Spotting Hotels website has a nice section on hotels at New York JFK for those wanting spotting views at the airport.
The Holiday Inn and Ramada Plaza hotels are the best options.
The Holiday Inn has distant, but good, views - particuarly for those with telescope poles. Having a SBS is also definitely useful here! Rooms that don’t face JFK have distant views of La Guardia airport, which is also useful if you have a SBS.
From the Ramada, rooms have views of aircraft when landing on runway 13L, but there’s also a grassy bank area a short walk from the hotel with much better views.
