ASTravel

I'm travelling with 2 kids (walking, no strollers) and have to catch a flight from JFK to YYZ.. tickets were bought SEPARATELY, so bags will have to re-checked at JFK. My international flight arrives at JFK Terminal 8 at 4.20pm and I have 2 options for my next onward flight to YYZ:

Option 1. Have 3.25 hours layover and take a 7.40pm international American flight which is at Terminal 8. So get checked baggage from International arrivals, clear customs, get to international departures, check-in with bags at American, do security and make way to the boarding gates).

Is this enough time to make it with checked bags from Terminal 8 international arrivals to Terminal 8 international departures?
Is it basically going from one level of Terminal 8 to another?



Option 2: Have a 4.5hr layover and take an international 8.55pm Delta flight at Terminal 4 (clear customs, baggage, take AirTrain from terminal 8 to terminal 4, re-checkin bags, get boarding passes, security, and get to gates). I'm guessing there is ALOT of walking from Terminal 8 arrivals to get to AirTrain and then to Terminal 4.

Can you take luggage carts on AirTrain since I will have 3 checked bags+2kids? (How arduous is it?)

Struggling to figure out which of the options is better, stay within Terminal 8 with 3.25hr layover OR change terminals with a 4.5hr layover?? All with 3 checked baggage and 2kids in tow! (Main issue is tickets are booked separately, so airlines won’t acknowledge any potential delays/missed flights)

JY1024

Welcome to FlyerTalk, ASTravel ! Let's move your question over to the NYC forum where the experts there can chime in about JFK airport. Thanks. /JY1024, TravelBuzz moderator

guv1976

Book AA and stay in T8.

If your flight into JFK arrives on or close to schedule, you should have plenty of time to make the AA flight to YYZ.

Which carrier is flying you into T8? Most won't through-check baggage across separate tickets, but I think JL does. (Through-checking in this context would mean that you would still have to claim your baggage at JFK T8 for Customs inspection, but you could just drop the through-checked tagged bags at the re-check desk just outside of the Customs hall.)

Edited to add: If the children's other parent will not be traveling with you, you might want to familiarize yourself with this guidance from the Canadian government:

https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/children/consent-letter

("Consent letter for children travelling outside Canada")

ASTravel

Thanks so much for your response! Flying in from Auckland with Qantas.. I guess I'll have to try at the airport and see if they can or not.
Ah good reminder on the consent letter, thank you!

themicah

I agree with staying at T8. Switching terminals will eat up a lot of that 75 minutes of extra buffer, and will be annoying with kids and bags after a LONG flight. Also a good idea to ask QF in AUK if they can tag your bags all the way to YYZ (reiterating guv1976's important note that you'll need to claim them at JFK either way to clear customs--having them tagged to YYZ just makes it easier/quicker to recheck them).

If for some reason you end up going with the DL flight and QF is willing to tag them through to YYZ on the DL flight, I would NOT drop them at the post-customs T8 recheck, but would take them to T4 myself. While rechecking at T8 would make the terminal transfer less annoying, I don't really trust the baggage handlers to transfer the bags from T8 to T4 in time for the connection.

Lastly, you clearly already know that you may forfeit your YYZ ticket if you miss the connection since it's separate, but you should have some kind of backup plan.

tom tulpe

Holy jetlag, Batman!
Stay in T8, and try to get Qantas to through-chek your luggage (both QF and AA are oneworld, although there is no longer any requirement for ow airlines to through-check on separate tickets).

ETA Your backup plan should be the cheapest refundable ticket you can get for the next day from any NYC area airport. Which will likely be AC from LGA.