pbiflyer

Any recent experiences using Uber/Lyft from Terminal C/D? Will be arriving on a Friday evening of a 3 day weekend at 7pm, so I suspect it will be busy. Is Uber/Lyft better than taxis then? Is one of the ride shares better than the other for timing?
Departing on the MLK Holiday Monday. Flight is at 7pm. Will traffic be lighter than normal that afternoon? What time should we leave mid town Manhattan?

Thanks for any insight.

uppereastsider

Considering you’ll still need to take a shuttle bus to the taxi area, Uber and Lyft are your best choices. It’s luck of the draw which one is better - open both, see the availabilities and watch your drivers route and don’t be afraid to cancel if they went the wrong way. On my worst day at LGA I had 5 cancellations (both the driver and me cancelling when I saw them go on the wrong exit off the highway). On my best days, I’ve gotten a car within 5 minutes of pressing request.

Traffic will be a bit lighter on MLK day... but not as light as a normal holiday as not everyone gets MLK day off. I’d still want to give myself 90-120 mins leaving midtown. You just never know, especially since you’re still leaving at rush hour.

ijgordon

I'd expect it to be moderately busy that Friday at 7pm when you arrive, but there are probably more people leaving NYC than coming to NYC for MLK weekend. So ride share shouldn't be too terrible, but the departures could still gum up the roadways, though by 7pm it should be quieting down. Also Uber/Lyft will probably have their "line-ups" where you get in line for the next available driver, like with a taxi. The app gives you a code for the driver. So you at least don't have to worry about cancellations or drivers stuck in traffic getting into the airport.

On MLK Monday, I'd say 5pm (120 minutes) is the absolute latest I'd leave, although that may be dependent upon where in Midtown you're departing from. City traffic should be somewhat lighter than normal but the airport traffic can still be unpredictable and a 60-90 minute taxi ride to LGA isn't unheard of during rush hour (50-60 is probably normal for rush hour excluding the LGA construction). From midtown east with easy access to the 59th St Bridge or Midtown Tunnel, 5pm should be fine. From midtown west I'd add an extra ~20-30 minutes. There's a good chance you can make it from midtown east to curbisde at LGA in ~40 minutes, but one accident and you're toast. So the cushion is really for the unexpected. Whether or not you're checking bags may have implications, due to cut-off times, although my experience with DL is there's some flexibility (we were a few minutes past the 60-minute window at JFK recently and the agent didn't say anything but the tag had "Late Check" or something on it. Presumably if the bag didn't make the flight they wouldn't deliver it to your destination for free. Not sure if our status or flying first class helped.)

uppereastsider

I keep hearing about this unicorn... but I’ve yet to see it. I’ve only seen the code pickup is closed sign every time at LGA. Landing in 40 minutes... maybe I’ll get lucky!

ijgordon

Haha, I've generally been avoiding LGA, but the one time I thought it would be open, it wasn't. Let us know!

uppereastsider

Closed yesterday at 7pm. Still have never seen it! Fortunately it only took 8 minutes for a car to arrive

pbiflyer

Where is that sign? Somewhere on the way to ride share area?

uppereastsider

Finally used the code system today! Landed at 4:30pm on a Wednesday, opened the Lyft app and it said it would be the code system. Walked to the area, requested a code, walked to the first driver waiting, showed him my code and was in there. Super easy. Wish it was like this all the time

ijgordon

Haha, finally!
I wonder what the drivers think about this system. They get NO control over choosing rides, but I guess that's not all that different from regular operations (e.g., they don't see the destination until they check in the passenger?).

I suppose, however, you wouldn't consider it "super easy" if there were 100 people in line, but if there were 100 people wanting rideshares, it's still probably better to do it this way than have drivers all over the place canceling left and right. Say what you want about taxi queues, but they're fair & equitable (as long as there's a steady stream of taxis!)

uppereastsider

The reason why it's super easy is because now we don't have to begin the game of watching a cab get selected, seeing them get stuck in the airport, or miss an airport exit and keep driving w/o cancelling... now there's a row of cars and I can just walk into one since I requested it. It should *theoretically* not have 100 person queues because as soon as you have a code, you are in a car... but maybe there's also a reason why I haven't seen this system during any of the really busy times I've landed at LGA (which is often 1-2x a week)

My hunch is drivers prefer this vs waiting for a ping, then having to enter the airport and dealing with all that fun during a hectic time.

ijgordon

If 100 people all get off a flight and walk over to the pickup area and request a code, there will be a long line because the cars can only load so quickly. If I had to guess, a single line can probably process ~8-12 cars per minute assuming 6 loading spots. If passengers arrive faster than that, a line will build. And that assumes there's no delay in cars arriving.

pbiflyer

Update from the trip.

We arrived in terminal D about 7:45pm this past Friday. No codes for either Uber or Lyft. But not a huge amount of people waiting either.
We use d Uber. Looks like the driver was in a lot east of the airport. Said 8 minutes to get there. Was there in about 5. No traffic into the city.
Lyft on the way back Monday. Left Time Square area about 4:50 and was back at terminal D by 5:30.
Totally easy. I think the holiday weekend helped immensely, the plane back to PBI was about 2/3 full.

ijgordon

Update from a trip to LGA last Thursday at what probably should have been one of the worst possible times of the week to go to the airport, for a 6:30pm flight. Short version, I left my office in midtown (near 57th St. F station) at 4:05pm and got to Terminal C at 4:50pm via F train/Q70.
Slightly longer version, didn't really hit any meaningful traffic anywhere from Jackson Heights into LGA (maybe a patch of ~25mph when we first got on the BQE). The Google Maps looked relatively clear and the Q70 was approaching the station, so I figured I'd gamble. It is a bit annoying to circle past B then D to get to C, but it probably was ~10 minutes from B to D. I was pleasantly surprised. I had an unlimited Metrocard, so cost was basically free, can't beat that!