I couple of weeks ago I took the LIRR to the Airtrain to JFK. I was on an 8:09am train from Penn Station and did not get to the JetBlue terminal until an hour later.
The main reason -- a 15 minute wait for the Airtrain, smack in the middle of rush hour.

I just missed one Airtrain (partly because the LIRR was crawling into Jamaica), and various electronic signs indicated that the Airtrain runs every 10-15 minutes (IIRC, one said 10-15 another said 15).

Sure enough it was 15 minutes until the next train. I was hopping to say the least.

Anyone know if this is normal for certain times of the day (I would expect it for 2am, but not at 8:30am on a weekday)? On the return, about 6:30pm on Sunday, the Jamaica AirTrain was running much more frequently (seemed to be 5-10 minutes).

Any ideas? I think I may complain to the Port Authority. A 15 minute headway on the Airtrain really makes this mode of transport uncompetitive in many cases.