[THREAD CLOSED - SEE PART 2] Anything & Everything New York

hammy_the_hammer

sue136 wrote: »

Hi, first post, so sorry if if wrong place. I'm getting lots of info from this thread so thanks.

I am looking to go to New york and Miami next may from Manchester, currently looking at Continental flights. I have a couple of questions please, the outbound flight to from Miami is via new york with a stop of 1 hour 50 mins and change of plane. Do I have to collect luggage and then re check it in? Have I enough time to make the connection?

Second is on the inbound from Miami again the plane stops at New York and I would like to stop for 6 nights. I have searched for this as a multicity ticket which is £602, but if I search for a return ticket form MAN tro MIA the price is about £50 cheaper - I thought continental did a free stopover, is this so and how do I book it to get the lower price. I am wanting MAN to MIA 14/5/09. MIA to EWR 23/5/09 and EWR to MAN 29/5/09. Am I booking too early as the flights have only just been released, but I don't want to be paying more than £602 and I daren't leave it too late to book as I already have a cruise booked out of Miami.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks

sue i'd be slightly wary of flight timings for continental out of manchester next year as with their review of operations one of the manchester flights (twice daily) may be cut ....so i'd think carefully about flight connections even though they are responsible for getting you there if ticketed through. also the internal flight schedules can change in the normal course of a year but next year is going to be extremely challenging for them and they will definitely cut frequencies.
i'd probably think about booking in a a stop at the beginning and the end

hammy_the_hammer

AceT wrote: »

I may be off to NY in 2 weeks time for a business trip. Only have 2 whole days plus half a Saturday to myself plus the evenings so want to cram in the important things to see and do and places to eat of course....the 2 days I'll have free are Sunday and Monday. Any advice??

there's loads of great advice within this thread ...type empire state or similar into the site search engine or peruse the whole thread at your leisure

hammy_the_hammer

KarenG wrote: »

Hi Sue

I can answer some of your questions and have done the Newark (EWR) thing with Continental quite a few times now.

You should be OK with that connection time but it would be slightly tighter than I would go for if I had a choice. Last time we hade a connection time of 1 hour 45 and we made it by the skin of our teeth :eek:

You get off the plane, walk for miles until you reach Immigration. Queue for a bit, clear that, pick up cases, go through Customs and hopefully don't get searched.

You then drop off your cases again (which is very very quick, we've never had to queue) and go back through Security to get onto your next flight.This can take ten minutes or so if it's busy.

I like to have a minimum of two hours so I have a chance to freshen up and grab a bite to eat:)

That said, you should be OK with your connection as long as your plane from Manchester is on time.

it's very hard to generalise on immigration queues as it depends on the exact time you get there. your flight could arrive just after a full 747 lands with 400+ people on it from a country where the immigration grill everyone without a US passport

greenface

we waited at JFK for over three hours just to get our Luggage off (frozen doors -40) then got into a queue behind a flight from the middle east ? Plane landed safely @ 17.30 got into downtown hotel @23.20

anything can happen if you have to catch a cruise i would have at least half day or full day in reserve

sue136

KarenG wrote: »

Hi Sue

I can answer some of your questions and have done the Newark (EWR) thing with Continental quite a few times now.

You should be OK with that connection time but it would be slightly tighter than I would go for if I had a choice. Last time we hade a connection time of 1 hour 45 and we made it by the skin of our teeth :eek:

You get off the plane, walk for miles until you reach Immigration. Queue for a bit, clear that, pick up cases, go through Customs and hopefully don't get searched.

You then drop off your cases again (which is very very quick, we've never had to queue) and go back through Security to get onto your next flight.This can take ten minutes or so if it's busy.

I like to have a minimum of two hours so I have a chance to freshen up and grab a bite to eat:)

That said, you should be OK with your connection as long as your plane from Manchester is on time.

Thanks for that - I might look at a longer connection time!

sue136

hammy_the_hammer wrote: »

sue i'd be slightly wary of flight timings for continental out of manchester next year as with their review of operations one of the manchester flights (twice daily) may be cut ....so i'd think carefully about flight connections even though they are responsible for getting you there if ticketed through. also the internal flight schedules can change in the normal course of a year but next year is going to be extremely challenging for them and they will definitely cut frequencies.
i'd probably think about booking in a a stop at the beginning and the end

Thanks for that - I'm really not sure what to do for the best, because you really don't know what is going to happen to the airline industry over the next year - it all seems a bit risky at the moment. I may now look at the stops at the beginning and end. Cheers

xXHaloXx

I'm off to New York at the end of next week, i'm super excited!

This is going to sound like a really silly question, but i've never been to the States before and i'm asking this question with the difference in Yorkshire (where i'm from) and London water in mind - Is tap water ok in New York or am i best to avoid it and stick to bottled water?

M4RKM

yorkshire bloke here.... um.... tap water in NYC is fine, though bottled water is dirt cheap as well.... when in the hotel, i drank the tap water... no probs at all...

saying that.. i have no issues with drinking london water....

xXHaloXx

I don't necessarily have a problem with it, but i don't think it tastes as nice, just being fussy i guess! Thanks for your help

duchy

New York water is like London water-perfectly safe but lots of residents prefer the taste of bottled water.

Sue if you're flying to Miami to join a cruise PLEASE fly the day before and not the day of the cruise. I used to work in travel and I've seen too many people get caught with a delay (especially when the flight isn't direct) and literally "missed the boat".