If you do want to go into Manhattan, download this MTA map: http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/maps/submap.htm

If you take the F train, you can get off at 57th Street and go to the Carnegie or Stage delis on 7th Avenue in the mid 50s. You can also get off right at Rockefeller Plaza and walk around the area. When you are done, hope back on the F toward Queens and follow the instructions already given.

If you take the E or V trains, you can get off at Lexington Avenue stop and go to PJ Clarke's for a great burger....it's a NY landmark too. On 3rd Ave (one block east of Lexington, toward the East River) and on 55th Street. Or you can take the E,V to 5th Avenue and walk around. It's really up to you. I can't think of any option in terms of storing your luggage though. Sorry.

The Q10 runs from the Union Turnpike Station on E/F. However, not all Q10's go into JFK (the bus has to marked JFK; the route makes many stops and takes at least 45 minutes (if there is no traffic.) I've tried that route several times and will not do it again!
[There is a Q10A which runs for about a 1 hour period on weekday mornings that runs non stop from Union Tpke to JFK...at least that is what the schedules state.)

When is the Airtrain supposed to open? I can't find anything online with a target date. How much time will it trim off the current subway-bus trip?

All they are saying is by the end of the year. We were waiting on the tarmac for an hour on Sunday the 10th waiting for gate space and every ten minutes one zipped by, we were parked right near the tracks, so testing has begun again.

See http://8575www0.nyc2.aens.net/airtrain/
for informaiton on times and the rest, but remember it will also add $5 to the cost, they will do away with the shuttle busses from the subway station, and replace them with the $5 train ride.

They are saying midtown to JFK terminals in under 45 minutes, not sure if that is with the LIRR or the subway, they neglect to give many details.

FIRST TIIME IN NYC:
DON'T WASTE IT ON LUNCH!!!!

I don't care what you do, but don't think about food, NYC is famous for other stuf. Best thing to do if you don't get any good suggestions is stroll along Downtown Manhattan and look up, it's cool walking around feeling like an ant amongst the giant buildings. If ther's not enough time for that then at least go to the end of Queens or Brooklyn and take in the view of Manhattan from there. If you see it once you'll be sure to love it so much that you'll want to come back again.

We don't typically fly into JFK, but we had to to fly Concorde. On our return on BA First, we did take the bus and the "A" train into the city, just so we would know how to do it. It was a dramatic change in environment from BA First to the "A" train, but to tell you the truth, the "A" train was more interesting for people watching (OK, BA first was more luxurious, and the food was better.)

The train is perfectly safe (we chatted with a lovely young woman who works at the airport and live in the Bronx) and it drops you right out in midtown which was perfect because we were staying at the new Westin Times Square, which is directly across the street from the subway drop.

We hired a car ($49.00) on the way back out to the airport. Hiring a car and taking a cab costs about the same and a hired car has better leg room, is cleaner and more reliable. There are actually more hired cars in NYC than there are Yellow Cabs and they are all regulated by the City.

Most of our flights are into EWR, where the public transportation is very easy and very fast.

The web site also mentions a $3 surchage per airport passenger. So that really means $3 per person if you don't use the train or $8 per person if you do...?

Nice...

I don't know about 45 minutes... On Sunday, it took me about 2 hours to get from Rockefeller Center to Howard Beach station and another 20 minutes on the bus...


[This message has been edited by Leumas (edited 08-26-2003).]

I have to disagree with that. Perhaps this is your viewpoint, but schlepping bags all over the place may ruin one's enjoyment of NYC. It may not; but it also just may. Finding a coffee shop, sitting down, looking out the window to those walking up and down the sidewalks, listening to the conversations at tables nearby, watching taxis cut each other off, all of this while enjoying an egg cream or a slice of cheesecake------this is also one of the joys of New York.

[This message has been edited by Analise (edited 08-26-2003).]

Ah, now I remember... I have seen this Web page before but never bothered to call. Has anyone had experience with this service? I'm almost tempted to try it out, but I have visions of trying to talk to a customer service agent who claims to have no idea what I'm talking about, then after spending several minutes educating the agent about his/her own company's product, getting booked on a bus that doesn't show up. Maybe I'm paranoid but when the flight only runs once a day these are chances you cannot take.

Oh, and now I remember something else. When I first looked up this service I tried to at least see what the schedule was like, and even though there were links to the JFK-Jamaica schedule, following the links resulted in a 404 error. (You can still duplicate this problem in some places, I've found.) That didn't exactly inspire confidence on my part.


[This message has been edited by Factotum (edited 08-26-2003).]

Whenever I wanted to use the JFK-Jamaica bus (2-3 years ago) I either couldn't find a schedule or the bus didn't run when it was supposed to. The last time I was at JFK, however (waiting for the bus to the Howard Beach subway station), I saw the airport bus to Laguardia Airport, which was running via the Jamaica LIRR station.

I have found that bus only reliable from its Grand Central location to JFK. When I've taken it from JFK or from Jamaica, the schedule not only was erradic but when the bus finally arrived, often the buses were already filled and thus I had to wait for others. Don't count on the bus from Jamaica.

Thanks, guys - it looks like some of my suspicions were well-founded. I certainly don't want to be standing around Jamaica station wondering if the bus is ever going to show up and worrying that I have a flight to catch and zero other options if I miss it. Perhaps when I return to JFK I will see if the bus to Jamaica is around...

On a related note, if the JFK-Jamaica bus is really the JFK-LGA bus with an added stop in between, it beats me why they can't offer the Jamaica option on their Web site.