Originally Posted by
sethweinstein
You don't have to pay to access the AirTrain platform from the long-term-parking area. You pay only when crossing between the AirTrain area and the "rest of the world" (which includes the subway).
Which means if you somehow needed to access the long-term-parking area from the street at that point, or vice versa, you'd need to pay for the AirTrain even though you wouldn't be using it.
Seth
Confirming what Seth said.
You can usually park significantly closer to the station at Howard Beach than you can at Lefferts. We haven't parked at Lefferts in years, and we've never paid for the Airtrain when parking.
Another note is that you can prepay your parking, normally at a discount at the
PANYNJ JFK site.