AA at LGA/checking out the Eastern Concourse?
 

Happy Holidays everyone! My wife and I are flying on the AA shuttle tomorrow from LGA-ORD. Looks like most of those shuttle flights depart from either concourse C or D at Terminal B, and right now our flight is indeed showing a departure from D5. We are interested in getting there early to check out the new Eastern Concourse, as we haven’t seen it yet and we’d like to have a bite there before takeoff at Kingside. It looks like this is technically possible by using the AA connecting bus.

I have a couple questions about this:

1) Will TSA allow us to clear security in the Eastern Concourse with our AA boarding pass with a departure gate in concourse D?

2) How often does the airside connecting bus run? And if leaving from the Eastern Concourse, is it likely to go concourse D-C-B or B-C-D in terms of stopping order? Just trying to figure out how much time we’d need to leave to get from Eastern to D.

Thanks very much!

D

There is a line for the bus from D to C right after the security check on the right side. Last time TSA checked my ticket to see which gate I needed to go before allowing me to wait on line. The bus comes frequently probably one every 5-10 minutes. It literally drove me 100 feet to the C gates. I don't think it makes any other stops though only between D and C gates.

Not sure about going from C - Eastern Concourse though. You might need to go from D to C then C to EC. I've landed into Eastern Concourse before and it's nothing special. I honestly wouldn't bother with anything at LGA right now. It's still very much a sh*t show. Being at the D gates, you're basically all the way on the opposite side of Eastern Concourse.

Just a side note - Imo it's not worth trying to spend extra effort/energy to go around LGA or try to check out terminals away from your departure terminal. I recently flew into LGA into term D and upon arrival there was thick smoke in the terminal, was coughing a ton, I think one of the food vendors had a small fire. LGA sucks except for the Admirals lounge.

I’ve never had an issue accessing the new concourse even if flying out of another concourse. The bus takes about ten minutes total, but during my last visit it was a half-hour wait, so I ended up exiting and reclearing security, which was much quicker. Happy holidays!

TSA only requires a valid document for the date of travel from the airport, e.g. LGA.

It is possible that one of the line minders (who are not TSA Officers) may try to direct you to the "correct" concourse, but so long as you make it clear that you really do want to enter the specific concourse, you will be permitted to do so. Any flack, just as for an Officer.

Thanks so much everyone! We ended up having some unexpected delays this morning getting to the airport so we will use these tips next time.