loosecanyn

Folks,

LGA is undergoing massive reconstruction pains now and for the foreseeable future. This has negatively impacted almost everyone's experience due to the road construction, parking deck, pier and apron demolition, as well as a host of others not yet initiated. It's probably only going to get worse before it gets better, and that's not for several more years. Most of the airlines at LGA are shuffling around right now, or will be at some point. The best thing we can all do, to help improve our own experiences as well as our fellow travelers, is to stay informed ahead of time, and throughout our travel plans. Check the app for gate assignments, then double-check at the airport monitors. If you are an AC member, you can always take the shuttle bus in between concourses, which I've never had to wait for more than 5 minutes for.

For anyone saying "AA should really improve X, Y, or Z" about the LGA experience, well, they are! Short term pain, long term gain. Right now, flying into or out of LGA on any airline will have its headaches. The terminals have been awful for years, the Uber/Lyft situation is dreadful right now, but as a life-long NY-er, this is loooong overdue, and I can't wait to see the finished product. SO in the meantime I'll just leave earlier for the airport, see if JFK has better options, or tell my wife it'll be an extra 15 minutes before my Uber gets me home.

But as for the "AA is improving the LGA experience" hogwash on that PR release...please don't get me started!

ibrandsguest

vote for politicians who have learned from the mistakes that led to LaGuardia being as bad as it is and will make changes in governance and funding so that it doesn't happen again.

Adelphos

This is the issue - Terminals C and D at LGA are actually pretty nice, as is the Marine Air Terminal. Most of my AA flights had been Terminal C, and I had generally flown Delta before that (so I was flying out of C, D and Marine Air Terminal). So going from Terminal C to the current state of Terminal B is a pretty big devaluation. I guess my complaint is that AA seems to have been outmuscled by DL at LGA in general in terms of positioning themselves during the renovation. They were forced out of the best real estate. I wish AA found a way for their fliers to be less inconvenienced. In a market where people can switch airlines easily, Terminal B will hurt AA until it the renovation is finished.

george 3

I agree with you - I check for JFK options first before considering LGA at this point.

A point - you can take the shuttle even if you aren't an AC member. I took it a month ago, and I gave up my membership some time ago.

jordyn

Agreed. Terminal B is worse than Terminal C in basically every respect, so it's just not correct to imply that LGA sucks and therefore AA is just suffering along with everyone else.

ijgordon

This all factors into the equation, but I certainly don't default to JFK over LGA. B6's upcoming move to the MAT makes that option more attractive (though how does one get to the MAT by public transit, the Q70 doesn't go there, right?), and of course the situation at DL is still pretty decent. And then there's price.

loosecanyn

100% Agree! US made the gate swap just before the merger with AA. Imagine their ops if they held onto LGA slots and Terminal C for a few more months. They'd still have all of C, which would have been a real nice base of operations for the combined airline. Instead, Delta was able to see the opportunity, and made that deal. I'd argue that having a stronger NYC base, with a larger footprint at LGA, has been the better move for DL, than US taking more slots and expanding at DCA. But that is a conversation for another thread...

AANYC1981

Yep, AA keeps getting out maneuvered by DL time after time (remember those ex-TWA 757s?), and this is another example and now we're left with those awful concourses in B. AA upgraded D years ago and I think it's totally fine with the large Admirals Club, but those other concourses are really sad.

george 3

Agreed. What I've done twice now to deal with the Uber problem at B is to take the shuttle bus to C where there is virtually no wait for your ride to appear.

ty97

Definitely, C is nicer B but most people are buying on price, not terminal.

I haven't heard anything but I've assumed all along that the shuttle will use D since the club is there.

The Q47 from Jackson Heights goes to MAT, but it runs local through the neighborhoods to get there.

jordyn

Turns not to be true for routes like LGA->DCA, though. Especially since one of the problems with B is that it takes quite a bit longer to get out of the airport, adding a 15-30 minute delay for business travelers that can buy essentially the identical product from Delta but with less hassle is going to be a problem, I suspect. I have status on both DL and AA, and would never choose to fly AA's shuttle over DL's in the current arrangement. Having status on both airlines is probably not that common, but people who fly the shuttle frequently are probably going to take a hard look at other options.

Edited to add: given that car service companies also can't pick up at terminal C, AA has essentially ceded to Delta a huge advantage in convenience for the exact set of customers (high budget business travelers) that are least likely to be price sensitive. You'd think AA would want those passengers.

ijgordon

You'd think AA would have wanted a lot more NYC passengers in general, but alas it hasn't seemed to be the case in the past few years.

AANYC1981

AA thinks we love them so much that we'll connect or train down to PHL though (sarcasm)!

GotCalcio4

Quite sad that this ends operations at what was formerly known as the "US Airways Terminal," (nee USAir). When it opened, it was truly the best, roomiest, and nicest terminal at LGA, and remained as such, even though it had lost its former glory by the time of the slot swap in 2011. The once grand signage on the terminal exterior reminded you that US was the dominant airline at the airport for a couple decades. Once DL pumped some life back into the terminal following the slot swap, it really was a nice place to transit. It was also nice to have access to the Sky Club (which was really just the old USAir Club space) in the terminal while the new US Club was under construction. Once it opened, while the new US Club was small, it was a nice and modern facility, with quite a nice bar area and great windows and natural light. I liked the design elements of the final US Club designs (only found at LGA, RDU, and PHX B), arguably moreso than the current AC designs, which is quite unfortunate.

This is one move I'm sad about! At least the LAA AC has showers (which I rarely, if ever, have used at LGA).

samm

I don't have anything new to add besides wanting to empathize here. For background, I've visited LGA two times almost every week this year. I exclusively fly AA. This is me getting some feelings off my chest.

It seems like most of the people going through LGA are not frequent visitors or repeat customers, so it's very satisfying to see other NYers on here that travel as much as I do that share similar views of this sad excuse of an airport.

Before Thanksgiving the buses just casually decided to stop operating and dump people along 94th street:


For those that rely on public transit and bus service every day to get to their job at the airport, I cannot begin to imagine the hassle this dysfunctional scene has caused you. For foreigners and visitors exploring New York for the first time, please excuse this sad embarrassing first impression of an otherwise magnificent city.

.


New Yorkers deserve better. We deserve a functional, sane airport while this renovation is taking place.

I find the state of Terminal B and the access roads to be egregius and the private car ban at Terminal B to be despicable. In recent memory I have never seen the taxi queue at Terminal B to be under a 30 minutes. It is a serpentine queue that eventually stretches far past the many baggage carousels, and is very cold outside. I am convinced this private car pickup restriction was done to benefit the NYC TLC, and cannot fathom why Uber's lobbyists haven't made a bigger stink about it. When it was first announced back in April (!), it was communicated as a short term temporary trial to alleviate congestion. The trial seems to have quietly become permanent in nature. It's obvious that they didn't impose a restriction on private cars that are dropping passengers off simply because people would raise hell if they missed their flight hassling with a dinky green shuttle a quarter mile away, thus leaving this one-sided ban to be very puzzling.
This is what doesn't make sense to me: if private these cars are already at the Departures level dropping folks off, why can't they have passengers who have landed hop in at this level, since the car is already there?! As it is now, after dropping someone off, the Uber has to trek it to an even further distant staging lot while totally empty without a fare, and then idle while waiting to be dispatched to a private car lot, an additional process that can easily add 30 minutes of them not having a fare and not getting paid.

Even though the passenger — and the car that may ultimately be assigned to that very passenger — are quite possibly at the terminal at the same time, both the passenger and the car must rendezvous in some distant lot.

In the meantime while all this is happening, LaGuardia Gateway Partners was very preoccupied last week assembling some great Black Friday deals, like a free tote bag with a $170 minimum purchase at one of the airport shops. Or recruiting for 100% unpaid skilled bilingual volunteers to staff their information desk, help translate for passengers and perform security duties while roaming the terminal, all in exchange for "making friends from far off places" as the compensation. I am not making this up.

LaGuardia airport is often cited as a third world experience — more accurately, it is a dystopian experience that truly must be seen to be believed, (but should avoid being seeing at all costs!). I often wonder if Fiorello LaGuardia would have ever imagined his name would have been associated with such loathing and disgust. I don't believe he's entirely to blame.