MilesBuzz! - Best airline(s) out of NYC?

Hello,

Looking to start traveling about 40K+ / year out of New York going domestic and some Intl to varied random locations.

As far as airport go... EWR, LGA, and JFK are fine... but EWR is a tad closer.

What airline should I focus on?

I prefer non-stop, and am not too keen on those small commuter jets. :)

Thanks,
David

In terms of size of the airline, I'd fly CO from EWR and AA from JFK

Cheers

Welcome to Flyertalk.

If having lots of nonstop destinations is your #1 priority, then CO seems the obvious choice. Their EWR hub offers the most nonstops from the NYC area, plus you can earn CO miles on DL, which has a lot of nonstops from LGA and JFK.

The downsides to CO are that their coach has pretty tight seating, and they fly a lot of ERJs, sometimes on absurdly long (2+ hour) flights. Also, their miles aren't the easiest to redeem.

But all the airlines seems to fly a lot of regional jets these days (AA and DL both have huge fleets). B6 is the only NYC airline that offers clearly superior coach, and they have no transoceanic destinations and a fairly limited domestic network--plus zero partners.

Other considerations: What kinds of fares will you be flying on? Cheapest-available or changeable/refundable? And what class of service will you be flying on the international segs?

If you fly full-fare coach domestically and paid business class internationally, CO (and its SkyTeam partners) makes a great choice, since the destinations are there, the quality of premium service is there, and you'll get automatically upgraded on domestic Y fares once you're elite.

But if you fly cheap coach and hope to upgrade internationally, you may want to look into AA, since CO has a lousy international upgrade policy.

Thanks for the help! :)

themicah: To answer your questions...

I am with a non-profit, and generally fly cheapest available via the airlines website or Orbitz.

However, since most trips are only one or two days (eg: Sun - Tue), I've noticed my fares are 2x the cost of a longer stay (Sun - Wed).

Upgrades would be greatly desired. (See my other thread: "Best strategy for a non-profit? (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5583757)")

Thanks again,
David

I am with a non-profit, and generally fly cheapest available via the airlines website or Orbitz.

However, since most trips are only one or two days (eg: Sun - Tue), I've noticed my fares are 2x the cost of a longer stay (Sun - Wed).

Upgrades would be greatly desired. (See my other thread: "Best strategy for a non-profit? (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5583757)")

Many of the cheapest fares have restrictions like 3-day and/or Saturday night stay required. So your observations are correct.

But you're still flying on discounted coach fares, which aren't eligible for any special perks. Upgrades are going to be tough with only 40k miles per year, since most airlines have 25k as their first elite tier (called "silver" on CO and DL, "gold" on AA) and 50k their second tier ("gold" on CO and DL, "platinum" on AA) and 75k or 100k their top tier (75k = "platinum" on CO and DL, 100k = "executive platinum" on AA).

It would probably be worth pushing a little to get those extra 10k miles under your belt each year to make the second tier in whichever program you choose, but you still won't be guaranteed upgrades, since there will be plenty of higher-tier elites ahead of you.

Domestically, CO and DL both give automatic unlimited free upgrades to all elites, but there are a lot of elites who will be ahead of you in line. AA uses a "sticker" system where you get X number of electronic 500-mile upgrade "stickers" for every 10k miles you fly after you're elite (and can buy more for a nominal fee) and you have to request upgrades. But again, competition is fierce.

Internationally, you cannot count at all on upgrading on CO, since mileage awards are very hard to come by, and you have to be on an expensive ticket. I don't know the rules for DL. AA is a little easier, but they have a lot fewer destinations.

I'll try to answer some of your other questions in the other thread.

I have to agree with the previous poster about flying out of EWR. I use to be a CO elite for many years (did not make it for 2006) and CO has the greatest amount of lift from EWR with the widest reaching destinations, both domestic and intl.

The negative is Terminal C. It is usually a ZOO. As you are non elite, like me you are relagated to the Non Elite TSA line. AVOID Monday mornings at Terminal C at all costs....You will be in lines that snake back and forth....

Welcome to Flyertalk and good luck with all your future flights.
Cheers

Thanks for the guidence. I'm glad I found FlyerTalk. :)

I think a lot of this has to do with where your going to be traveling to. If your only earning about 40K miles a year, your a silver, and a Silver out of EWR will get you upgraded maybe once in 10 tries. So your looking at whicg coach product is best and then who has the non-stops.

To me, if B6 flies to where your going, they have the best Y product hands down. If you can handle not earning miles, but instead maybe earnings 1-2 RT's somewhere in the US where they fly, then thats your best bet. Not too mention they are expanding.

CO would also be a good option out of EWR as they have direct flighst everywhere, but beware, most of their smaller market flights (Think Midwest cities or smaller East Coast cities) are on RJ's out of EWR. Not fun and no chance of upgrading anyway.

DL/NW/US are all horrible. Lots of connections out of NYC (except DL to the South).

UA is great, but youd need to get to 50K and get premier Exec to really get the bang for your buck. PS to LAX/SFO is very nice as well.