gooselee

We had to make a T2-T4 transfer a couple months ago. Amazingly, the first time Mrs. Lee had ever been through JFK - I guess we'd always been lucky enough to fly into LGA or use another airport as an int'l gateway. In any case, her first experience with the dilapidated T2, JFK Jitney, trek around the broken moving sidewalks in T4...gate positions meant she got the full tour.

She is ordinarily a rather collected and proper lady. However, she revealed an entirely new segment of her vocabulary that day. She wasn't even that upset by it as we were in no risk of missing our connection. She was more...embarrassed that such a facility represents the entry point to the US for so many visitors.

pbarnette

A connection at most major European airports may involve a bus and long walks. Do you think most Europeans are or should be embarrassed?

FWIW, I'd answer:
- Italians = yes
- Brits = sort of
- Frenchies = mostly
- Germans = definitely
- Danes = no

HDQDD

Actually I'd say MSP walks are longer. Whaaaaaaa... you asked for it.

ND76

It is close to a 15 minute walk from gate B55 to the Sky Club (I did it on a recent DCA-JFK-MXP itinerary, although we had a 6 hour layover, so on this particular trip it was not an imposition).

Delta did about as good a job with T2 as is possible. They've improved the food concessions, and it is relatively easy to move around in there. They've also enlarged the T2 SkyClub, and the staff there have been very nice to me. Two major engineering works they finished are: (1) tearing down and totally eliminating the "RJ Corral" and replacing it with jetways at Gates C64, C65 and C66; and (2) taking down the pedestrian overpass between T2 and T3 and installing modern two-way escalators to the platform used by the JFK Jitney (although I miss the really springy, almost trampoline-like Dunlop rubber belts on the people mover between T2 and T3), and in the process getting rid of the metal ramps which formerly accomodated two way pedestrian traffic.

gooselee

Buses and long walks are one thing. The general and ongoing state of disrepair...something else.

Most European airports I've been to seem somewhat more presentable than JFK, regardless of how they're set up. And even if they didn't, I don't see how that precludes me or my wife from thinking JFK can and should be better.

bennos

In an attempt to bring the thread back on topic, I do seem to recall an early mockup showing an extension to the "A" Pier, which is what I think you are describing. I haven't heard anything about that going forward, and it probably wouldn't be for the benefit of DL so much as the other airlines that still use T4. (Though I think there are some mixed use gates still in the "B" Pier that DL could presumably take over if an extension to the "A" Pier were built.)

ssullivan

Seriously? It's about 1,300 feet (measuring on Google Maps) from the SkyClub's location to B55. I regularly walk that distance in five minutes at my normal pace; still under ten if I'm slow. It's not that far.

AirTheory

What about the Delta|ONE check in? I thought term 4 at JFK was suppose to get the same type of check in area that LAX has

live5

Personally, I don't mind the walk. I like having space to move around, and T2 just doesn't have that. Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I don't like sitting around while I wait for my flight. I like being able to walk and explore the airport, even if it's one I've been to a million times like JFK. In T2 I just feel trapped in a tiny space.

That said, sounds like we don't know much about what the future plans are, which is a bit discouraging.

TWA Fan 1

I'm not sure that even the end gates at DTW or MSP Concourse A are quite as far as Delta's JFK T4 extension.

Remember Terminal A at DTW may be very long, but, unliike JFK T4, it is accessed in the middle of the structure.

The only time the walk at DTW has to be epic is if your connection is at the other end of your arriving flight, which--in my experience--is rare.

And if you do have to go from one end to the other, then you can just take the excellent express train.

Similarly, although MSP's Concourse A is indeed very long, there is also the Concourse A/B/C tramlink.

As was written in a post above on this thread, there is a shuttle bus from the outer gates at JFK T4 (B54), but it runs so infrequently that--unless you hit it as a bus is leaving--you might as well walk (if your primary consideration is time).

Here is a map of the current configuration of JFK T4:



You'll notice how much longer the DL concourse is that than the top concourse.

Before the extension, the B concourse ended at B31, which was already fairly long.

It is what it is, but the very long walk, combined with the fact that (for those traveling domestically with checked bags) domestic baggage claim is all the way on the north end of the main terminal building, makes this one of the longest walks in any airline experience.

As far as other airports around the world being similarly designed, yes there are others, although, in my experience, the worst is ARN, where the walk from one very linear terminal to another can literally extend for kilometers.

Pharaoh

What was the reasoning behind putting DL's bag claim at the north end?

TWA Fan 1

I don't know exactly why, but remember DL's extension at JFK T4 was cobbled onto a terminal that was built specifically for international carriers whose flights, therefore, involved international arrivals with a baggage claim facility in an area within the CBP secure zone.

To my knowledge, the only carrier serving domestic destinations at T4 before DL was VX, whose gates are in the A concourse, although I do remember CO having a handful of domestic flights there before they left JFK entirely a long time ago (I recall that CO also used the A concourse).

I can't say, however, that the domestic baggage claim is on the north end because of VX. It might simply have been the only space available.

bennos

I'm not sure if this was the official reasoning, but by putting it there passengers who are connecting I-D have a shorter walk (at the expense of passengers arriving at JFK who need to collect bags). Basically it has to go at one end or the other due to international arrivals, so pick the passengers you want to help. International arrival passengers connecting to their next flight may have a tight connection, not so for domestic arrival passengers (who have to wait for the bag to show up anyway).

HeadInTheClouds

I don't know about CO, but NW definitely had some flights out of the A gates before the DL merger.

TWA Fan 1

Indeed.

As ytou may recall, NW and CO had a type of joint venture at the time and I believe those A gates at T4 were shared among the two carriers.