Any flight tips?

[Kwami]

Have you flown out of JFK recently?

It's an absolutely monumental hassle.

$600 to park and an hour of traffic just to get through Queens.

I flew out of JFK about three weeks ago. To Hawaii, no less!

We just took Amtrak to Penn, LIRR to Jamaica, and then the Air Train to the TWA hotel the night before. No problem at all. I think we'll just wait a taxi from Penn next time, though. It's pricier, but much simpler than dealing with two trains.

The airport itself was fine. It's under construction, but so is every airport these days. More importantly, it has direct flights to Honolulu.

 

[adamak]

With JFK, or LGA, taking public transit is way "better" than taxi or car in some sense. Yes, hassle dragging luggages. But driving & traffic is almost always horrendous and unreliable. But make sure you plan and understand MTA / LIRR beforehand.

 

[Kwami]

With JFK, or LGA, taking public transit is way "better" than taxi or car in some sense. Yes, hassle dragging luggages. But driving & traffic is almost always horrendous and unreliable. But make sure you plan and understand MTA / LIRR beforehand.

That was my thought, too. I figured that taking the train would be cheaper and faster.

It's definitely cheaper. Faster? Maybe, if you know where you're going and everything just kind of works out. You can get from Penn to JFK in about 35-40 minutes in perfect conditions. A taxi is probably about an hour unless you go during rush hour. Is saving twenty minutes and some tens of dollars worth the hassle? I'm not so sure now. I think I'll try the taxi next time. It's about $80, which is more than double what two people would pay for LIRR and the AirTrain, but it's so much easier.

Either way, though, JFK isn't so bad. I don't know why anyone would drive and pay to park there. That's nuts.

 

[WinterSolider]

That was my thought, too. I figured that taking the train would be cheaper and faster.

It's definitely cheaper. Faster? Maybe, if you know where you're going and everything just kind of works out. You can get from Penn to JFK in about 35-40 minutes in perfect conditions. A taxi is probably about an hour unless you go during rush hour. Is saving twenty minutes and some tens of dollars worth the hassle? I'm not so sure now. I think I'll try the taxi next time. It's about $80, which is more than double what two people would pay for LIRR and the AirTrain, but it's so much easier.

Either way, though, JFK isn't so bad. I don't know why anyone would drive and pay to park there. That's nuts.

The only hotel that's convenient to the transit route for an early morning flight is the TWA, and the TWA doesn't have any rooms that sleep 5. So if you need two rooms it's another $1,000 to stay the night before.

I'm not going to spend $1,300 on transit and hotels to avoid $600 in parking.

The best path we've found for a big family coming from Connecticut the night before is the Hampton Inn JFK which has parking on-site and a decent shuttle. But even that shuttle only gets you to Federal Circle, you can't get dropped off at your terminal. And it's a dumpy hotel that still runs about $350+ per night if you don't have Hilton points.