Originally Posted by
lwildernorva
This is not a bad suggestion, but the others, including me, who have done both are making the point that even with an Uber or taxi, you're still 15 minutes from your terminal--as with many major airports although you can see where you're going the entire time you're traveling there, it still takes longer than it should look to do so. So there's a savings of maybe 15 minutes each way..
The JFK Hilton is an 8 minute drive without traffic, which there presumably would not be very early in the morning (based on OP I'm assuming flight departs around 6am and so OP is on way to airport at 4am give or take). And this is door to door service.
The Manhattan suggestion was to take the train from Penn station. Once you add the walk or cab ride from your hotel to Penn station, plus waiting time for your train, I have a hard time believing that this can be done in under one hour, especially super early in the morning when trains don't run as often. Even if you were to take a car from Manhattan you'd still be looking at a 30-40 minute drive, and a much more expensive fare.
Again, I love New York, I think it is one of the best cities in the world, and I would always grab a chance to spend time in the city. But it's just not accurate to portray these options as similar. Staying in Manhattan will almost certainly be more expensive (hotel and commute) and it will likely include travel time to JFK that 5-6 times as long as the uber ride from a JFK airport to the T4 curbside.