passportjs - post request from node does not authenticate the user

Question

I have the following ajax post which is working perfectly with passportjs.

$(document).ready(function(){
  $('#btn-login').click(function() {
      var email = $('#loginEmail').val();
      var password = $('#loginPassword').val();
      var emailValidation = new RegExp(/^([\w-]+(?:\.[\w-]+)*)@((?:[\w-]+\.)*\w[\w-]{0,66})\.([a-z]{2,6}(?:\.[a-z]{2})?)$/i);
      if(!email | !password) {
        $('#loginLabel').text('Email and password are required.');
      }
      else if(!emailValidation.test(email)) {
        $('#loginLabel').text('Email format is invalid.');
      }
      else {
        var userData = {
          username: email,
          password: password
        };

        var request = $.ajax({
          type: 'POST',
          url: '/login',
          data: userData
        });

        request.done(function (response, textStatus, jqXHR) {
          window.location.href = '/profile';
        }).fail(function (jqXHR, exception) {
          $('#loginLabel').text('Invalid email and/or password.');
        });
      }
  });
});

Now I am trying to do the same thing from node but it is not working.

  activateUserAccount(payload, res) {
    const token = payload.token;
    signUpService.validateEmailToken(token)
      .then(isVerified => {
        if(isVerified[0]) {

          const userData = JSON.stringify({
            username: isVerified[1],
            password: isVerified[2]
          });

          const options = {
            hostname: 'localhost',
            port: 3000,
            path: '/login',
            agent: false,
            method: 'POST',
            headers: {
              'Content-Type': 'application/json',
            }
          };

          const req = http.request(options, (response) => {
            let responseString = '';

            response.on('data', data => {
                responseString += data;
            });
            response.on('end', (data) => {
                res.redirect('profile');
            });


          });

          req.write(userData);
          req.end();
        }
        else {
          res.redirect('error-page' + '?status=errit');
        }
      })
      .catch(err => console.log(err));
  }

Don't mind the JSON part, as values are passed correctly to passportjs, I have console logged everything.

Passportjs part.

const expiryDate = new Date(Date.now() + 60 * 60 * 1000);
app.use(session({
  secret: 'XeGcW4Vb23',
  resave: false,
  saveUninitialized: false,
  httpOnly: true,
  expires: expiryDate
}));

app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());

passport.serializeUser((user, done) => {
  done(null, user);
});

passport.deserializeUser((user, done) => {
  done(null, user);
});

const restrictedArea = (req, res, next) => {
  if (req.isAuthenticated()) {
    next();
  } else {
    res.redirect('/login');
  }
};

passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
  (username, password, done) => {
    console.log("strategy username");
    console.log(username);
    console.log("strategy password");
    console.log(password);
    console.log("strategy done");
    console.log(done);
    databaseManagement.selectUser(username, password)
      .then(user => _.isEmpty(user)
        ? done(null, false)
        : done(null, { username: username, password: password }));
  }
));

app.post('/login', (req, res, next) => {
  console.log("REQ BODY");
    console.log(req.body);
    passport.authenticate('local', (err, user, info) => {
      console.log("REQ err");
      console.log(err);
      console.log("REQ user");
      console.log(user);
      console.log("REQ info");
      console.log(info);
        if(err) { return res.status(500).json(err);}
        if(!user) { return res.status(401).json(info);}
        req.logIn(user,(err) => {
            if (err) { return next(err); }
            return res.json({detail: info});
        });
    })(req, res, next);
});

app.get('/profile', restrictedArea, (req, res) => {
  profile.renderProfile(res);
});

In both cases (ajax/node post) the output is the following:

REQ BODY
{ username: 'someemail@gmail.com', password: 'Potato123' }
strategy username
someemail@gmail.com
strategy password
Potato123
strategy done
[Function: verified]
REQ err
null
REQ user
{ username: 'someemail@gmail.com', password: 'Potato123' }
REQ info
undefined

but it seems that the session is not created after node post, as it redirects me back to /login.

Do you know what might be the issue here? In case additional details are needed, let me know.