Magnus77

Flew out of EWR in May, albeit for the first time. Took forever to get to from Central Park area.Found it a strange experience. Check in was in the basement. No priority security lanes. Lounge was nothing to write home about. Food was excellent though. The much fabled lounge dragon,Rosa was miserable and curt at times. Just a dated terminal and a dull experience inmo. In the words of June Whitfield in Carry on Abroad. ' I tried it once, I didnt like it' Will stick to JFK in future.

kanderson1965

Thanks all for the info, I think I’ll take a punt on EWR as it is a new airport for me. I did ask regarding J and F when booking but the agent didn’t seem too clued up regarding flights and only had pricing available for Y. Sounds like they would just charge the same amount as the airline. I have loads of Avios to burn anyway.

Buster CT1K

Taxis from JFK to Manhattan are cheaper than Newark taxis to NYC. But overall it depends on where in Manhattan you are staying (east side generally JFK, far west side or far downtown, Newark has a time advantage), and maybe even whether you are arriving on a weekday evening or a weekend. In July there are often parades on the weekend in Manhattan which can really gum up the traffic works.

London Dude

Wait for the next I-class fare sale out of the UK, and buy a round trip or open jaw with the LHR-EWR/JFK in I class. Play around with the return leg, e.g. with NYC/BOS-LHR/LGW/DUB options booked on a much farther date in the future than your cruise trip, and at the cheapest economy fare compatible with the I fare you can find. It will likely end up costing you 100-200 quid more than half the LHR-NYC-LHR round-trip I fare.

BearX220

In a word, no. It's pretty desolate out there in EWR territory. But as others have said, trains into Manhattan come thick and fast -- so reliably that an expensive taxi really isn't worth it.

The QM2 sails from Brooklyn / Red Hook Terminal, not Manhattan, actually, and it's an area worth exploring with some nice hotels and restaurants. You might consider bolting straight through Manhattan on arrival and staying over there. Easy transfer at Penn Station to the F train for Brooklyn.

jimlad48

Train into Penn is very easy from Newark - a surprisingly pleasant trip and quite fun.

I remain astounded at how poor the public transport options are though for getting to JFK - they are not easy to do!

TheChangingMan

Agreed. The LIRR is a bit of an experience after a TATL

andrewesque

I'll have to say I don't agree, though I'll admit I live in New York so I'm more familiar than a visitor would be with the options.

The way I see it is -- first, both airports require a forced transfer (due in part to inane US regulations until very recently about airport transit funding being allocated strictly to airport access only), from the AirTrain to a secondary mode of access, so they're generally even on this. Neither airport offers a "straight from terminal to city" one-seat experience.

Given that, then I think JFK's options are better for accessing the city, primarily on two axes:

1. End destinations available directly by one-seat ride (after taking the AirTrain in both cases, of course):
   1. EWR -- Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan or Newark
   2. JFK -- Grand Central Penn Station [thank you for the correction!] in Midtown Manhattan (via LIRR), Atlantic Terminal in downtown Brooklyn (via LIRR), or various parts of lower Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens (via the E, J/Z, or A trains)
2. Headways/frequencies
   1. EWR -- weekday trains are fairly frequent, but weekend trains are timed such that 45-minute waits occur with regularity in the schedule, and it's very annoying to arrive at the station to discover that 3 trains have left in the last 15 minutes and the next train is 45 minutes later. For example, this Sunday there are New York Penn-bound trains at 12:06pm, 12:15pm, 12:18pm and then the next one is at 1:06pm -- 48 minutes later. The same pattern repeats itself several hours later, where there's a 3:15pm train, then a 49-minute wait for the 4:04pm, a 4:15pm, 4:20pm, then another 48-minute wait for the 5:08pm.
   2. JFK -- I would never pretend that the LIRR or subway are free of incident, but LIRR trains to Penn Station or Atlantic Terminal from Jamaica never have scheduled 45-minute headways, and neither does the subway.

I would certainly agree that signage could be vastly improved and the various different ticketing options are confusing, but all in all I'd say that JFK generally offers better connectivity to more parts of the city. (Of course, in the end it all depends where you are going. To Hoboken, EWR is clearly superior. To Park Slope, JFK is much better.)

guv1976

Currently, all LIRR service to/from Manhattan uses Penn Station, not Grand Central. However, that will soon be changing:

https://new.mta.info/grandcentralmadison

"Arriving soon: LIRR service to Grand Central"

kanderson1965

Don’t worry I travel on the trains in northern England so I have a fair idea of a rubbish service.

guv1976

Given the scheduled arrival times of all BA flights from LHR to JFK, one should only have to pay $5 to ride the Long Island Rail Road from Jamaica to Manhattan or Brooklyn, using the special "City Ticket" option for off-peak travel:

https://new.mta.info/fares/cityticket

"CityTicket for travel within NYC on Metro-North and LIRR"

Duck1981

From both EWR and JFK I would strongly recommend the train as outlined in earlier posts.

I made the mistake to take an Uber from JFK to Manhattan (next to Penn) and paid $85 and the journey took 1,5 hours (around lunch time so off peak). AirTrain and LIRR is much faster and convenient / safe.

Same applies for the EWR train to Penn, even easier.

Edit: Download the MTA app on the UK app store and you don't have to bother with train tickets plus you see departure times (works w/ UK credit cards).

guv1976

EWR does still offer a one-seat ride from airport terminal to Manhattan via an express bus:

https://www.coachusa.com/airport-tra...op-information

"NEWARK AIRPORT EXPRESS BUS STOP LOCATIONS"

ijgordon

Just my $0.02, for arriving to the NYC area there's not normally a huge difference between EWR vs. JFK if going to midtown (and I would certainly recommend staying in Manhattan pre-cruise, vs. even Jersey City/Hoboken and certainly vs. Newark, unless you're severely budget constrained...).

I disagree with many who have posted here (but agree with some) -- IMO public transport from JFK is much better than from EWR. The EWR airtrain is a toy train that goes 5mph, breaks down all the time, and doesn't hold that many people. The NJ Transit schedule can have huge gaps in service as noted upthread. The JFK Airtrain is much better (there is currently a disruption due to the construction of the new Terminal 1, but it doesn't really impact T7, the EWR AirTrain has an even worse disruption going on right now where it only runs every ~15 minutes (see comments about how many people can fit in the train, it's a total cluster). From JFK then you have the option of LIRR to Penn Station (faster more comfortable) or subway (cheaper and more flexible on destination).

If you don't want public transport, traffic can be terrible from both (though a mid-day arrival from Europe should be fine for EWR into Manhattan, from JFK it won't be great. Evenings will be bad.). I think Uber from EWR is normally a little cheaper than from JFK but pricing can really vary. Taxis from JFK are a reasonable option, flat fare (ends up being ~$85 with tolls/fees/gratuity), but don't ever take a regular taxi from EWR, they're awful.

ijgordon

And sorry, if I can tack onto the topic of "EWR vs. JFK", this time for originating airport - what is the offering at EWR for BA First Class? Any special lounge or expanded pre-flight dining? And what about J, similar buffet to JFK Galleries? (Though I guess JFK is a bit up in the air as BA moves to T8 and the new lounge concepts, I think most would state AA's Flagship lounge >> BA preflight dining?).