Cars at JFK
 

Members,

I had a quick question. Based off previous experiences, how big are the EA / ES lots at both LaGuardia and JFK?

We are arriving on Saturday night a few weeks from now and were hoping they have quite a large assortment of cars given their humongous fleet sizes.

Usually, Saturdays are fairly empty relative to the weekdays. Do not know if this is true for LGA or JFK.

Thanks again for all your help.

clahiji - don't know the answer to your question but welcome to Flyertalk and our National forum :)

I've been to both recently
 

I can answer this pretty well, as I go to both of them quite a bit. Ime the EA and ES at LGA SUCK, STINK, BLOW. Been there 10 times in the past year, and there are always very few cars and very plain cars, generally you can get either an impala or a grand prix or an impala or a grand prix and occasionally a small suv. I will say that the weekend is bettter, late Fri. afternoon ans Sat. there are more cars and there is a better selection. The fleet at LGA is not big- small location (small airport). JFK on the other hand has better selection but again during the week can be tough b/c there are so many business people using them. But it's a much bigger location/bigger fleet (got Hybrids there and Malibus and other interesting stuff). Oth, b/c JFK is such a big airport it's a real pain, between taking the train and walking, eats up a lot of time both on the pickup and the return, LGA is much quicker. But if you don't mind then pick JFK over LGA, for suure. Oh yeah, the National at LGA lets people park there for a nominal fee, so sometimes there are cars in the EA and ES that are private cars and not for rent but of course you don't know this until you get close to the car and in the meantime somebody took your 2nd choice car. Whatever. BBottom line- not a big fan of National LGA- but hey it is convenient and easy.

I was recently at LGA and I second the above posts, selection is very limited to mostly bland cars. On a positive note, I left my navigation system in the car and the GM of the LGA location called me and told me he would mail it out to me. That is excellent customer service.

Was at JFK last week
 

Not too many choices, Impala or Malibu. I took Impala LTZ with 7k miles on it. Avoided the airtrain on the way back by returning my car the night b/f leaving and having the airport shuttle pick me up (it's the same place-Federal Circle) and then the shuttle dropped me off at T8 the next morning.

selection at jfk
 

I rented from JFK mid march and was pretty dissappointed at the executive aisle selection. saw a bunch of impalas, two Galants, a malibu (not sure what trim) luckily i had booked a full size and was entitled to a premium which was an avalon touring - but that was it! nothing else at premium! it was thursday afternoon and i'm not sure if they have better at different times, all i know is that when i returned my car sunday afternoon 2 weeks later there was not a car in the lot! people were waiting for whatever came back first. Either they are very slow at turning over returned cars or they just are extremely busy.

I've rented from LGA several times over the past few years and have always found an OK selection in the ES -- some decent convertibles, Volvos, etc. But yesterday it was lousy. The ES consisted of two Toyota Siennas. EA offered a couple Chrysler Town & Countrys and an handful of Kia Spectras. That was it.

Not wanting or needing something so big, I went with a Kia, but it most certainly did not make me feel like an executive ;)

This morning, there were *no* cars in the Executive Aisle at JFK. An employee on the lot saw my eyes perusing the lot and actually came up to try to help (!). He pointed out a PT Cruiser for me... I laughed and said no thank you. ;) I have yet to get anything special being an Emerald Exec.

What did you end up getting?

Well, I'm kind of embarrased to say... I wanted a Prius, but I was only driving it to Manhattan and heading to work, so I took the nearest foreign car I saw... A Hyundai Accent... With no power windows. :eek: :D

That truly is embarrassing.;)

Just completed a rental at JFK. Exec Aisle had mostly Hyundai Sonata's. There was an impala. There was a Hyundai coupe in the Emerald aisle and some Camry's in the EA. I noticed something interesting, people who did not have Emerald Aisle were being directed to the aisle to choose their rental.

Had a reservation for JFK 10/9 with EA...

There were a whole lot of Sonatas... Had one Altima and Volvo S60... There was also a Maxima on the premium line which I could have taken, but previous driver must have been a heavy smoker...

Ended up getting the S60... Good for the price I paid...

When I arrived at JFK a few weeks ago at about 5:00 pm, the lot was very empty and there was only one toyota on any of the emrald or executive aisle spots left. :td:

Sadly, this is the norm for JFK...several times I've arrived to an empty lot and put in the que waiting for a car to be returned and "cleaned." And the last two times that mid-size car I rented turned into a minivan.