Originally Posted by
pbfoot
Why? Sure it's not great (terrible lounges, too-narrow boarding areas at many gates in C), but it's infinitely easier to get to from Manhattan by car. I've never had it take more than ~40min to get there from midtown and have multiple times almost missed flights out of JFK after it taking ~2hr via car. In my experience on-time performance isn't much worse than JFK, at least for high-priority flights like widebody transcon.
AA has the best lounge situation with Flagships, but terminals 4 and 8 aren't particularly nice otherwise.
The key word in your post is Manhattan. From Brooklyn, Queens (where I live), and arguably the east side of Manhattan, LGA and JFK are closer. Brooklyn and Queens are the most populous boroughs in NYC.
Depending on traffic, it takes me 12-20 minutes to get to LGA, 15-40 to JFK, and 60-100 (plus at least one toll) to EWR. Of course, that's just my situation; YMMV.
If UA flew to JFK with the 78X, they would give AA/DL/B6 a real run for their money.
-J.