Originally Posted by Blumie

The easiest way to do this is to enter Penn Station at the corner of 7th Avenue and 31st Street. There are escalators at that entrance to make it easier with luggage, and it takes you directly to the NJTransit area within Penn Station.

When you get to the bottom of the escalator, you will see the NJTransit ticket vending machines. (You may also see an AMTRAK ticket vending machine. Make sure to use the NJTransit machine.) Use your credit card to purchase two adult and two childrens tickets to Newark Airport. If you do this, you will not have to pay any other fare to ride the AirTrain. The AirTrain fee is already included.

If you have any problems purchasing tickets using the machine, the NJTransit ticket windows are right there as well.

There are also monitors right in that same area that will list all of the trains and, shortly before departure time, will list the track from which your train will depart. If you arrive early, you can take an earlier train; you can take any train that has the notation EWR on the departure screen.

When you get to Newark Airport Rail Station, you will need to use the same ticket to get to the AirTrain, which will take you directly to your terminal.

Originally Posted by guv1976

What day of the week will you be traveling? Children under 12 ride for free on some days of the week when traveling with a fare-paying adult.

If you purchase an NJ Transit Rail ticket to EWR Airport, the $5.50 AirTrain access fee is included in the ticket price -- you will not have to pay extra.

But it's a little odd that the child fare to EWR is the same as the senior fare: children are exempt from the $5.50 AirTrain fee, but seniors and the disabled are not.

A cheaper option would be for the four of you to buy NJ Transit Rail tickets only as far as downtown Newark, and then board the Route 62 bus, which gets to the Airport in about 20 minutes. It will take a little longer, but will cost much less.