I've always thought the $5 surcharge on the JFK Airtrain was a scam... it cost $2 billion dollars to build and it saves only five minutes compared to the free shuttle bus that used to be provided from the Howard Beach subway station. What annoys me most is if you are heading to the airport, there is no way to exit the station without paying it. It is free to ride within the airport; the charge is only applied to people who take public transport, who are least likely to afford it, including airport employees.

Last week, in order to get around the $5 (partly on principal, but also b/c it worked better for me) I took the Airtrain to Howard Beach, got off and purchased a Metrocard from the vending machine, grabbed a copy of the subway map, got back on the Airtrain to Terminal 4 and waited outside for the city bus. The Q10 and the B15 take you to the "A" and "3" subway stations, respectively, about 20 minutes away.