Flying commercial to New York City, which airport?

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Ravioli

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I may have a gig near Times Square for a few months. I'll be Mon-Fri and travelling from DFW.

Any thoughts on Liberty vs. LaGuardia? I'll probably Uber from the airport, but will consider good trains if available.

Thanks!
 
Newark, take the train into Manhattan.

Sorry, didn't know the name change. It'll always be Newark to those who spend too much time traveling back east.
 
EWR has been the choice when I go. Hotels are typically cheaper in NJ and then just take the train in and out each day.
 
If you arrive during traffic times, La Guardia and the bus to the subway at Roosevelt Ave.
 
After traveling out there numerous times to meet with AT&T in NJ back in the day, and doing the telecom work with GTE/FAA at JFK, I have absolutely nothing nice to say at all about NYC and travel.

The answer is: If you can avoid it, don't go. Haha.
 
mscard88 said:
Newark a lot easier.
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Depend on where you are headed in the City. I live on the Upper East Side and it is 18 minutes by cab to LGA and probably an hour plus to EWR.

For mid- and downtown, EWR gets the nod. Also there is now a great train connection from EWR to New York Penn station. It is easy and
well marked. Just get on the inter-terminal light rail inside your terminal bldg and read the signs.
 
Not LGA. The answer is *never* LGA. ;) But the others are right - everything pretty much sucks. Can't speak for EWR, but if using JFK, I'd take the LIRR to Penn Station.
 
If it's just you traveling, def Newark. Easy shuttle to/from the city. Or, "the ****ty", as we used to call it.
 
I'm going to amend my answer slightly.....last time I flew into LGA I just hopped on the NY airtransporter. traffic and stinky-a$$ people aside, it was relatively easy. but I still say EWR.
 
We go to LGA, then the bus to the 7 train. Used to be a local with a million stops, now it's an express between LGA and the 7 train station; forget which one. Easy-peasy.

We flew into FRG private this summer. LIRR into Manhatten. We did FRG for cost and our next stop was Cape Cod (HYA).


Wayne

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Ravioli said:
I may have a gig near Times Square for a few months. I'll be Mon-Fri and travelling from DFW.

Any thoughts on Liberty vs. LaGuardia? I'll probably Uber from the airport, but will consider good trains if available.

Thanks!
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For Times Square... I'd say probably EWR is faster, but I'm not sure by how much. I heard they have a train to Penn Station from EWR now, but I've never ridden it. A train to Penn would put you in walking distance to Times Square, or you could take the subway one stop if you're lazy.

From LGA, you'd grab the Q70 Limited bus. Then if the traffic is heavy on the BQE and the bus is crawling, get off at 74th and Roosevelt Ave and grab the 7 train. Take the 7 Express if it's running, which depends on the time of day. There are a bazillion stops on the local. If it's not running, then take the local.

If the traffic is moving well on the BQE, then stay on the bus until its terminus at 61 Street in Woodside, and grab the 7 train from there.

Either way, stay on the 7 until its terminus, which is Times Square. But when you pass the 40th Street / Lowery Street station, start looking out the left window. Aviation High School will be near the next station (33rd Street / Rawson Street). It's a NYC public high school that cranks out A&Ps.

As for EWR, I've never taken the train from there, but it's probably faster than the bus / train combination from LGA. The Q70 Limited takes the BQE, which is always an adventure whether its moving or not. So it's a crap shoot. It can take 15 minutes or it can take an hour. Someone told me it has a bus lane now, though. I haven't verified that.

As for the airports themselves, LGA is... quaint. It usually ranks as the worst in America in pax polls conducted by various travel magazines. But EWR usually ranks second-worst. I think they're a coin toss, personally, but I usually chose LGA because I lived 10 minutes away if I stayed off the Expressway and took the local streets.

The other thing I liked about LGA were the approaches. The approach to 13 at LGA (the "River Visual") is very scenic, and the approach to 31 (the "Expressway Visual") is very... interesting. :yikes: But I also know people who will not, under any circumstances, fly into LGA because they find the approaches and landing a bit... disconcerting. It's kind of like landing on a stationary aircraft carrier. But I happen to like them.

Rich
 
1: EWR
2:Air trainto Newark Penn station
3:Then 15 min train to NYPenn station. Easy, fast (traffic will kill hours at the wrong time), cheap.
 
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Not JFK. Other than that it's equally poor, so base it on flight schedule. I take the train from DC.
 
LGA is under construction for the next few years. It is a nightmare when connecting to ground transportation. I was there 3 weeks ago and it is a mess.

I used to fly in there and take a private car (my client provided it) and I was at the Empire State Building in 20-25 minutes. That was 7 years ago.

Go to EWR or JFK if you are paying for your own ground transport and do not get paid until you get to the job site.

If you are hourly, go into LGA. You will log more hours.
 
If you haven't, check the NY income tax impact. Factor that in your pricing, if NY is, like a bunch of eastern states, one that will tax your earnings in-state, regardless of your permanent state of residency. Maryland burned a friend for quite a few thousand a couple years back. . .
 
I used to work up there. You will get hit for New York state income taxes and New York city income taxes, and depending on how long you are there, New Jersey state income taxes if you sleep on that side of the river. I seem to remember that it's 30 days cumulative in a tax year to get hit with them in NY and NYC. Jersey was all year I think. I managed to miss Jersey due to spending less than a year in state at the time.
It's been a lot of years since I was up there so no advice on getting around or where to eat. I lived out int he Del Water Gap area and commuted in by bus most days. Some of my schedule was that I had to drive in.
 
Sundancer said:
If you haven't, check the NY income tax impact. Factor that in your pricing, if NY is, like a bunch of eastern states, one that will tax your earnings in-state, regardless of your permanent state of residency. Maryland burned a friend for quite a few thousand a couple years back. . .
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Every state with an income tax taxes your in-state income. MD taxed your global income if you had any nexus to the state. They got their pipi whacked by the Supreme Court and had to pay billions back.
 
It's rather farther out from NYC, but if you have ground transportation Stewart is a pleasure. I live in CT and always look at Stewart first when looking for airline fights. The walk from long term parking to the gate is shorter than just the security line at many airports. Unfortunately, I believe JetBlue is the only airline still flying into there.
 
RJM62 said:
The other thing I liked about LGA were the approaches. The approach to 13 at LGA (the "River Visual") is very scenic, and the approach to 31 (the "Expressway Visual") is very... interesting. :yikes: But I also know people who will not, under any circumstances, fly into LGA because they find the approaches and landing a bit... disconcerting. It's kind of like landing on a stationary aircraft carrier. But I happen to like them.

Rich
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First I flew an airliner into LGA was at night on that river visual I believe. Looked like you were going to be downtown with all those lights. Beautiful sight though. I enjoyed flying in and out of there for the airline, but taxi and ramp congestion, not to mention inside the terminal, bordered on being a nightmare. A lot of traffic in and out of that airport. Used to see Trump's 757 parked there all the time.
 
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Dana said:
It's rather farther out from NYC, but if you have ground transportation Stewart is a pleasure. I live in CT and always look at Stewart first when looking for airline fights. The walk from long term parking to the gate is shorter than just the security line at many airports. Unfortunately, I believe JetBlue is the only airline still flying into there.
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Stewart is nice. I often direct people there when they're coming up here. It's a bit closer to me than ALB. But it's quite a schlep from New York City.

HPN is closer to The City and also a pleasure, except for the parking, which is basically non-existent. SUNY Purchase used to run a deal there where they let you park at there lot and ran a shuttle bus back and forth to the airport. It was cheap and worked out pretty well. I don't know if they still do it.

When I lived in Northern Queens, I sometimes used HPN preferentially to LGA or JFK despite the driving distance if I had to depart during busy hours. I saved more time in screening / boarding than I spent driving. TSA screening at HPN never took me more than five minutes tops. It can take hours at LGA or JFK if they're busy. Plus there were way fewer arrival and departure delays at HPN.

Rich
 
You need descide where you want to waste your time. JFK is the least delayed of the NYC 3 but may be the longest ground commute. I love HPN but if your plane is delayed or has a mechanical, there's no plan B available. Personally I would fly JFK in anything other than VFR conditions but never between 5:00pm and 8:00pm.
 
RJM62 said:
Either way, stay on the 7 until its terminus, which is Times Square.
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Rich, buy yourself a new Subway Map. The 7 train now terminates at Hudson Yards/34th Street.

-Skip

Edit: saved you the trouble. See attached... Same price as the ticket booth.:D
 

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I'm no stranger to the local taxation issues.

I live in TX (no state income tax, right?) I typically need to file returns in 5 or 6 states each year.

Cost of doing business.

Thanks all for your tips on the airports. I'm leaning EWR.

Will advise.
 
weilke said:
Every state with an income tax taxes your in-state income. MD taxed your global income if you had any nexus to the state. They got their pipi whacked by the Supreme Court and had to pay billions back.
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I think the OP may be from a state without income tax. . .in my friends case, it was a relatively short gig in MD. Visiting professional athletes get nailed when playing the Orioles or Ravens, for example.
 
Skip Miller said:
Rich, buy yourself a new Subway Map. The 7 train now terminates at Hudson Yards/34th Street.

-Skip

Edit: saved you the trouble. See attached... Same price as the ticket booth.:D
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's a change since I moved away.

Rich
 
Sundancer said:
I think the OP may be from a state without income tax. . .in my friends case, it was a relatively short gig in MD. Visiting professional athletes get nailed when playing the Orioles or Ravens, for example.
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That part is not unique to MD. The double taxation of out of state income was the thing unique to the state that taxes both the rain and flushing your toilet.
 
EWR, and if someone is meeting you, tell them to meet you on the departure (not arrivals) deck... less traffic (relatively)
 
Here is the problem - American does not fly to EWR from DFW - only JFK and LGA. So EWR is out unless you want to start flying United - I would not recommend that because they've only got a few flights a day from DFW to their hub @ EWR =-

If you're going to do this every week for 6 months - you need to consider flight availability in the event of weather and irregular ops - if you have status on UA - then by all means - start flying UA into EWR - understanding your options are limited to specific times - and full airplanes from EWR.

Next- if you can BUY status on AA or buy an AirPaass to GET status - I'd strongly recommend you do that because Airpass members get priority rebooking - and you don't really need a reservation. So when JFK has three or four stacked up departures on Friday evening to DFW you can grab the first seat- get a good seat for free - and get home ASAP.
 
comanchepilot said:
Here is the problem - American does not fly to EWR from DFW - only JFK and LGA.
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www.aa.com thinks there are daily flights between DFW and EWR. Otherwise I wouldn't even consider it.

You are correct about status. Not much beats Executive Platinum. (American equivalent of United 1K)
 
EWR is generally the easiest of the three to deal with.
 
If you're on public transport and going to midtown, EWR and JFK are convenient (in that order), and bring you right into Penn Station. If you're taking an Uber, LGA usually gives cheaper flights and a more frequent schedule. The downside is flights are more commonly delayed there (at least in my experience) and your Uber will sit in a lot of traffic, especially going to midtown.
 
denverpilot said:
After traveling out there numerous times to meet with AT&T in NJ back in the day, and doing the telecom work with GTE/FAA at JFK, I have absolutely nothing nice to say at all about NYC and travel.

The answer is: If you can avoid it, don't go. Haha.
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This is quite possibly the best advice. That whole area can best be classified as our nations armpit !
 
I spend a week or more a month in NYC on business. All the options suck (but lga is the worst). Getting in and out of NYC is an excercise of serious patience.

DO NOT use LGA anytime soon, tons of construction, and it's been a total disaster of waiting in traffic for a hour or more just to get from the airport entrance to the departure drop off. I believe on my last trip the driver said lga will be hosed for years.

As to transport from the airport - I always use the sketchy looking guys that are hustling around asking if people need rides. They always end up having a nice luxury car, are nicer drivers, and you don't have to wait in the super long taxi line. They're typically hanging around the baggage area. Look for the guys wearing a Bluetooth headset.

I pickup my bag and I'm in one of their cars within 90 seconds. They have it down.

Don't blame me though if they kidnap you. I don't worry about that sort of thing :)
 
Skip Miller said:
Depend on where you are headed in the City. I live on the Upper East Side and it is 18 minutes by cab to LGA and probably an hour plus to EWR.

For mid- and downtown, EWR gets the nod. Also there is now a great train connection from EWR to New York Penn station. It is easy and
well marked. Just get on the inter-terminal light rail inside your terminal bldg and read the signs.
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I was raised on the UES (and was there a couple weeks ago visiting mom) and we used LGA when I was a kid. However EWR is my preference in more recent years. Getting to JFK is a pain, LGA is hosed up, and EWR has typically been the fastest. Also have done GA in and out of EWR without any issues numerous times when I was flying 135 (we had a customer that would go EWR -> Panama regularly).

The question also comes down to what transport you have available to you. I typically have a car, so I can get to/from EWR easily and typically faster than JFK. If I was limiting myself to public transit, then that tips the scales in favor of JFK.

I tend to agree with the advice of avoid it if at all possible, but when I fly to NYC via GA it's a lot more tolerable. Land at CDW, get a rental car, and I'm in the city fast enough.
 
Now that EWR has a NJT stop in the parking lot, that's my choice. The LGA airtrain is a close second, but it's still problematic.
It ****ed me off no end when I lived in NJ that the NJT / AMTRAK mainline went right through the long term lot without stopping. They built the station right after I moved.
 
Dana said:
It's rather farther out from NYC, but if you have ground transportation Stewart is a pleasure. I live in CT and always look at Stewart first when looking for airline fights. The walk from long term parking to the gate is shorter than just the security line at many airports. Unfortunately, I believe JetBlue is the only airline still flying into there.
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Really, not KHPN?
 
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