Car Rental at LGA
 

Easiest way to rent a car at LGA? I fly American (Terminal B) and last time had to take two separate shuttles to/from Hertz, with the way back taking well over half an hour with the construction traffic. Is there a hack here - is it easier to uber out to an off-airport location, can I uber to the rental car place at the airport, are any rental cars easier than others? Flexible on cost and will be heading out to New Jersey.

What time of day, and how much luggage will you have? If you will only have carry-on and will be arriving during the day or early evening, I would take a bus (Q70 SBS or M60 SBS) to the subway, and pick up a car on the West Side of Manhattan, close to the Lincoln Tunnel or George Washington Bridge (depending on where you are going in NJ).

With the caveat that the construction makes things fluid, it should be possible to walk from the Central Terminal (aka Terminal B) to Alamo/National on Ditmars Boulevard in ~10-15 minutes depending on where you're coming from and how fast you walk.

I'm not sure I agree with this advice, although it does depend on where in NJ the OP is headed. I don't like the idea of heading into Manhattan to get to NJ if it otherwise would not be necessary (e.g., if waze would otherwise direct the OP over the GWB or the VNB from LGA). That said, I do frequently rent from the Hertz office on W. 34th, just west of Penn Station, which is easy to get to from LGA.

Does anyone know if it's that hard to get to Hertz or Avis from Terminal B currently?

When I returned a car to Budget at LGA last month, the shuttle driver said that, due to the construction at LGA, car-rental shuttles may only pick up and drop off at the Marine Air Terminal (Terminal A),w there is a separate Port Authority shuttle to/from Terminals B, C, and D. So it seems like two separate shuttle buses (or one taxi, which will be driven by one very unhappy driver) will be needed to get from T-B to Hertz or Avis at LGA.

I provided the following advice in the Hertz Forum recently:

This sounds like a total PITA, but I wonder if taking the rental car shuttles off the roadways at Terminals B/C/D helped the flow of traffic there. Haven't heard any horror stories in a while.

As much as a PITA as this is, I think I'd still rather rent a car at LGA rather than uber or public transit into the city or elsewhere to get a car. One needs to remember that the uber and public tranit process will be a PITA, too, and I'd rather just get in my car and go, relying on Waze to avoid the worst traffic when driving from LGA to NJ.

Oh yeah, totally agree, I wouldn't Uber/MTA to the west side to pick up a car there either. I guess if I had to rent a car, I'd just deal with the double shuttle. But obviously flying into EWR would be much much easier, and save a lot of tolls.

I have to (respectfully) disagree with this. At the end of two shuttle bus rides, you're about a mile from where you started, and still have to cross the East River somewhere en route to NJ. At the end of one MTA bus ride and one subway ride, you've invested a little more time, but you can be on the West Side of Manhattan, with easy access to the Hudson River crossings -- without having to worry about paying the cashless toll on the Robert F. Kennedy/Triboro Bridge.

We can agree to disagree :) Partly underlying my view is the assumption (which, to be fair, could be incorrect) that the car rental process itself will be much easier at LGA, with Gold service or Emerald Aisle or FastBreak and a much larger selection of cars, vs. a tiny local office carved out of a parking garage in midtown where you have to wait at the counter and then wait for them to bring a car up (or down) from its parking spot. :) (I don't know for sure whether renting at LGA is like renting at a "normal" airport - and I consider JFK and EWR normal for these purposes, lol)

Hi - could anyone provide an update on the latest situation with renting and returning a car (Avis) at LGA? I am flying Southwest with elderly companions. Is it still shuttle from B to A and then get on the Avis bus? On return (Sunday afternoon), how much time should be reserved to drop off the car and get to the terminal?

Thanks!

The situation is the same with two shuttle buses required still. Construction will be ongoing for years so I can’t imagine that changing.

ignore the above advice to take a bus to the subway to pick up a car elsewhere. Even in the worse rush hour traffic that will take longer or about the same time as just getting a car and going from LGA.

Just get an Uber or Lyft to take you to the rental car from the terminal. It’ll be $10 max. Totally worth the time and hassle savings.

Double Post

Check the LGA website before you go. Things change, especially the location of the shuttle to the shuttle.

The Lyft / Uber pickup is currently on level 2 of the Terminal B parking garage. It can be a bit of a hike and once there, finding your car can be chaotic.
So, pick your poison, shuttle to the shuttle or the walk.
I'd also take a look at the cab stand. That may be the easiest transportation to get your charges to.