LGA to JFK
 

CO will be leaving me on the doorstep at LGA and my next flight departs international out of JFK. How much time should I allow? The flight out of JFK is 8PM.

I presume these aren't going to be on the same ticket? What is the earliest you could get into LGA?

I would take the earliest flight just to avoid the traffic in the late afternoon to JFK. Renting a car would be my preference, but it depends on whether you know the area or not. Actual journey time would be anywhere from 25min to 2+hrs.

It once took me 1.5 hours to transfer between airports. It was about 10:30AM on a weekend...

If you are planning on arriving LGA during rush hour, I would give it this long. You just never know what you're going to hit...

I assume that CO probably has a two hour recommend check in (6PM) for International. I would give myself then two hours for collecting luggage from your LGA flight (assuming you checked baggage), getting a cab (which can take awhile at peak times) or a rental car, and making your way through what will be very heavy traffic at 4-6PM hour.

If you are comfortable using mass transit and have limited baggage, you could do a bus/subway connection to the JFK Airtran, which at least would provide you will a narrow timeframe. But again, I would not recommend that option if you don't know the NYC subway system or have more than one bag.

It will be on a weekend on the outbound and weekday on the return. So it may be the return that gets me in trouble with an arrival at 1:30 pm in JFK.

I had a feeling this was not going to be easy.

There's tons of info on this in the NYC forum. You'll find all the info you need over there.

Figure ~2 hours to be safe, and it doesn't matter too much if you are on a single ticket or not as the airport change is on your time, not theirs.

Excellent! Thanks.

Which airline are you flying out of JFK on?

Renting a car is the very Last thing I would do to get between these 2 airports. I dont even think its 10 miles between them

Agreed - renting a car is just silly, with the rates LGA charges, for such a short hop.

I would take the scheduled bus that runs between the two. Runs on the half-hour, takes an hour.

http://www.nyairportservice.com/page.php?id=57

I've never paid more than $30 to rent a car for this trip, from Avis. Likewise EWR-LGA or EWR-JFK. I've probably done all of these journeys 50 times each. 1,000 VS miles included (that's 3 cents / mile for the MR folks - with a free car thrown in) :), and no suicidal NYC cab drivers to deal with :) Like I said, it's not the only way - many people wouldn't be happy driving the maze of roads between them.

I stand corrected. $30 from Avis? Amazing, for a one-way fare. Thoush I assume the VS miles don't earn any credit towards elite status. I had tried
Avis myself just now, and gotten a $100+ rate.

Going way OT here, but I use an AWD number that eliminates one-way fees for the same metro area as well as the same state, plus I am not just resident in the US ;) - this makes a HUGE difference to Avis rates.

I live in New York. I drive in New York. I drive to Newark and LGA, but from Manhattan to JFK, I always take the LI Railroad to Jamaica and then the airtrain. I just wouldn't bother with the hassle of renting and returning a car no matter how cheap to travel from LGA to JFK. I would suggest you take a cab either to Jamaica Station to connect with the AIrTrain or all the way to JFK. It's less than 8 miles to Jamaica Station and could take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour +. Then the AirTrain will be another 10-15 minutes. If traffic is light, take the cab all the way to JFK. If traffic is heavy, take the cab to Jamaica Station and then the airtrain.

walk out the door from baggage claim and catch the bus. cost is like $13.00. can't get any easier.