Flying into NYC

I'm looking at flying United into Newark, delta flies into laguardia or JFK, or JetBlue. My DW wants to stay in Times Square for a few days , what're my best options for time, money and getting there.

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LaGuardia is the closest airport to Times Square. A cab is in the $40 range and the airport bus to Port Authority, Penn Station, or Grand Central Station is $13.

Newark is next closest. I'm guessing $80-100 for a car service. Airport bus is $16 to Port Authority, Bryant Park, or Grand Central and is $28 round trip. There is also train service to New York Penn Station for $12.50/pp, but the convenience of that will depend on your date because there is a service interruption May1 to Juky 15.

JFK is the farthest. Options are cab for about $53 plus tolls and tips, so let's say in the $70 range. Car Service would be competitive. There is also Airtrain to either the subway or the LIRR train which would be less.

We can provide more details about any option. What time, exact date, and what day of the week would you be doing this?

Probably like a wed or thurs, haven't decided this. Wanted to do this for my DW as a bday gift.

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When is your wife's birthday? Jet Blue opens the reservations six months to the day of the flight. Usually the first day is the cheapest, and they will give you a credit to be used within a year if the price goes down. Jet Blue is very well liked in the NY area. All things being equal take the Jet Blue into LaG.

Depending on the date of your wife's birthday, you might be able to score a good deal for your hotel on Hotwire. There are some times in NYC that are "high" season and deals are hard to come by. If you give 138 the exact date, she is a whiz at looking up deals.

Her bday is in August, but we wouldn't travel till April.

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We have a cruise in Nov, to San Juan. So this way it gives us time to save to NYC and still have saving money for Nov.

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We have a cruise in Nov, to San Juan. So this way it gives us time to save to NYC and still have saving money for Nov.

 

 

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So we are talking April 2015? Plenty of time to figure something out. You should start planing for next April as soon as you come back from your November cruise.

The only reason I'm planning now is cause I'm gonna book the airfare in Aug for her bday cause the past two trips and upcoming cruise I picked out.

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When is your wife's birthday? Jet Blue opens the reservations six months to the day of the flight. Usually the first day is the cheapest, and they will give you a credit to be used within a year if the price goes down. Jet Blue is very well liked in the NY area. All things being equal take the Jet Blue into LaG.

 

Depending on the date of your wife's birthday, you might be able to score a good deal for your hotel on Hotwire. There are some times in NYC that are "high" season and deals are hard to come by. If you give 138 the exact date, she is a whiz at looking up deals.

This is not accurate. Earlier this month they started accepting reservations into early 2015.

Her bday is August. 8, I figured it would be nice since I picked the last 3 trips.

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We do a good deal of air travel in our younger career days, living out of the suitcase & carry-on with our much heavier "portable" gears - just caution OP about looking at choice of airline/carrier AND total costs of transportation from 3 area airports to the hotel, and to cruise terminal; taking into account sightseeing wishes & needs for getting around, regardless of one's budget. 138east/Carol spelled out the options, costs & time for using LGA, JFK and EWR as posted above. The traffic advisories about the Skyway Bridge for the next 2+ years and EWR Airtrain for next 2 months, especially on weekdays will affect travelers & commuters more than on weekends with lighter road traffic - allowing extra travel time should ease most of the anticipated problems on most days.

With airlines consolidating & merging, there are fewer choices for flights, fuller planes and higher airfares, taking into the uncertainity of airport delays - JetBlue was once our prime choice as an emerging carrier with many reasons, until it started stranding passengers at airports, often overnight & for days on standby, and cancelling flights out of its regional hubs at the first hint of poor weather (as in this past winter for the Northeast, namely NYC and Boston.) Worst, it would not "endorse" tickets for travel for other airlines with available seats - a standard industry practice in case of IROPS (irregular operations) cross-honoring fares/reservations (i.e. AA, UA and DL, etc.) We have 3 extended family members & others working in the area airline hubs and there are enough horror stories, and, always advocating those traveling to allow extra time to get to the destination AND to take travel/trip interruption insurance.

Airfares has sharply risen lately and staying high as the economy improved and Jetblue's fares are no longer the least expensive. Depending on the airports, there might be 1 or 2 daily flights via another hub and if that aircraft is delayed and the series of flights flown on the route are cancelled, you WILL be stranded for 24 hours or more - the alternate is for a refund (which doesn't help) and to pay for a much higher last-minute airfare on a different carrier, or, to jump into a (rental) car and rush to the port if close enough within driving distance, weather permitting. We've had international passengers connnecting on arrival, thru CBP and transfering to JetBlue - and left on the ground as the ship sailed without them - per B6 (JetBlue)'s policies & procedures. Plenty of stories posted on Facebook & Twitter, just look them up on their official websites by upset, frustrated & helpless travelers.

Do your price/schedule comparative shopping for airfares carefully and add the ground transport costs - happy cruising ! Even in typical spring/summer months, airports run into "excessive" flight delays - like yesterday at JFK, LGA & EWR.