New York - Beginner questions

mvteng

Thanks Bungle. Will do

shudd1967

Flown in and out of both Newark and JFK and found Newark the cheapest and easiest to use!

dmg24

All the airlines you mention are fine. Given a choice, I would fly with KLM as Schipol is a dream to transfer through. There is very little difference between Newark and JFK.

payless

I thought the meals were above average on AF ( transatlantic, but not NY) ... and the supply of wine superb, and the champers pre-take off very nice.... all on economy

phatbear

Slight difference between newark and jfk is the cost of a cab into manhattan, if you choose to use this as your mode of transport.

Personally im not a huge fan of newark as i find it mega basic but i was also suprised how little jfk had too, considering how its such a well known airport.

Alan_Bowen

Avoid AF simply because of the nightmare of changing at CDG airport. KLM is OK but I have a very different view to others of Delta. In my view they are dreadful and in a US based survey earlier this week they came out as the worst of the US airlines and I would go a long way to avoid them again. If you want to save tax in the UK, you would need two separate tickets, one to AMS and then another transatlantic, otherwise if the two flights are booked under one reference you pay the US rate of UK departure tax, not the European rate.

payless

Avoid AF simply because of the nightmare of changing at CDG airport.

had tight changes at CDG.. and they worked ( just highlighted the fact to guy at customs , and he put us thro' the fast track queue)

If you want to save tax in the UK, you would need two separate tickets, one to AMS and then another transatlantic, otherwise if the two flights are booked under one reference you pay the US rate of UK departure tax, not the European rate.

Did this the time before- too much potential trouble unless palnning a stay in France

Pinklepurr

I've recently flown on Delta LHR/JFK/LHR and it wasn't the best experience. Usually I would fly to New York on BA but hesitated this time due to the strike action earlier in the year. Always found BA to be excellent. Delta was a shambles!

Checked in on-line 24 hours prior to flight and flight was flagged up as overbooked and was looking for volunteers with flexible travel plans to off-load. Bag drop took almost an hour at LHR T4. At boarding gate there were constant requests for passengers to come forward to voluntarily off-load due to overbooking. Even when we were seated on the plane they were still saying the flight was overbooked! They double booked seat numbers too. Only when we finally took off were we sure we were actually going. In flight service was good though and we liked the 2-3-2 configuration of the plane. There was video on-demand and food was OK.

I've flown in and out of both Newark and JFK and prefer JFK. It takes 45 minutes or so to get to Manhattan if traffic is good and about $60 for the cab including toll and tip.

If you do use delta JFK to LHR then it will go from T2 at JFK which (unknown to me) is largely a domestic terminal so the duty free was limited to a few bottles of whisky and some cigarettes. I was expecting a large duty free and had saved some $'s to spend only to find nothing to spend them on!!

If I had the choice I would choose another airline over Delta in the future.

willstewart

On my recent trip to NYC, I flew into JFK and out of Newark.

JFK to Manhattan is a fixed $45 fare + tips whereas I think Newark is more expensive at $70 as it's on the meter.

Took one of the official yellow cabs from JFK to Manhattan and the driver must have been under the impression he was driving a F1 car!

On the return, I took the NJ Transit (train) from Penn station to the airport and that costs $12.50 including air train transfer. Very easy as long as you don't mind carrying luggage up and down the odd set of stairs assuming you travel by the subway to Penn. Might be easier grabbing a cab from a Manhattan hotel to the station if you've a few bits and pieces..
Once at the airport, I was flying with Virgin and the check-in desks, security and gate 55 where I departed from were all within 100m or so of each other. Much better than the usual remote stands I tend to fly from that require miles of walking. That said, not sure what airlines depart from what gates or if things are random.

whatmichaelsays

Flew with Delta last week and have absolutely no complaints.

Flight out left Heathrow on time and landed at JFK early. Flight back was deliberately delayed by Delta because of the strength of the tail winds over the Atlantic (Heathrow won't let any plane land early and Delta felt that we'd prefer to spend another 45mins watching the end of the NFL game rather than circling over Middlesex). Still landed a few minutes early. Delta also use T4 at Heathrow which, IMO, is the best of the bunch.

In flight meals were fine, IFE was very good, seats were comfortable and the flight attendants largely left you alone until you wanted them. I'd have absolutely no problem flying with them again.