Question about JFK connection?
 

Hi,

I have been absorbing tons of information from all of you in anticipation of an upcoming trip to Greece this summer. My question is this: We will be flying into JFK on JetBlue(god willing)terminal 6 and flying out of terminal 1 with Olympic Airlines. We have a 2hr 20min. layover, will we have enough time assuming that the flights are ontime? How long does it normally take to get from terminal 6 to terminal 1?
Also, once in Athens we have a 2hr 10min layover before going on to Rhodes also via Olympic. We were told that our luggage would be tagged all the way through to Rhodes from JFK, therefore no need to collect it in Athens. I'm questioning this because I thought that you always had to go through customs at your first point of entry into a country. Does this sound correct? THanks for any info.

luggage customs inspection is at last airport in most european nations.

so they are correct that you will not see your bags until rhodes.

2.20 minutes at jfk if all goes well... hope so.

am not familiar with the exact distance and frequency of buses taking you with bags to the other terminals. if you get nervous jump into a taxi as those buses stop along the way at terminals to pick people up.

Terminal 6 to terminal 1 is a piece of cake....the air train runs now...follow the signs to the air train...the round the terminal train runs every 10 minutes....you will go to terminal 7 then terminals 8 & 9 and then terminal 1...figure 5 minutes at most.

I'd feel more comfortable if you had 3 full hours to make this connection, but you should have enough time to make your connection at JFK if your JetBlue flight is on time. Once you collect your luggage, you will jump on the Airtrain and be at Terminal 1 in less than 10 minutes. Signage is abysmal, however, so if you are confused just ask someone. There's a loop train that just does the airport circuit.

Be sure to confirm with Olympic what their check-in deadline is, but they have only 1 flight daily, so the agents should be able to deal with the passengers. If your check-in deadline is 2 hours, you will be in trouble, but if it's 90 minutes, you should probably be ok. I'd strongly encourage you to look for a flight that arrives earlier, but if that's not an option, then try to do carry-on for the Jet Blue flight if you can because there's not really any room for error here.

By the way, 2 hours is plenty of time in Athens, even if you were changing from Olympic to Aegean. Since you're not, then you should be fine. There's always a chance that your bag will miss the connection, but Olympic has frequent service to Rhodes, so you will probably get it the next day at worst. Do take a change of clothing and whatever you might need for 1 day on the plane with you.

I would be concerned about the JFK connection. With JetBlue's record who knows when you will really land. (Have you checked to see when the flight usually lands?) And what time does Olympic require you to check in?

(Is this at least on one ticket so you're protected if you miss the flight? If it's separate tickets and you miss the flight you're the one that's stuck buying a new ticket - neither airline is responsible.)

Is Jet Blue's record any worse than any other airline -- not counting the horrible single issue weather mess up a couple weeks ago?

Plenty of time in Athens. It is a nice easy airport to get around.

Carolena

I haven't tried to find out recent statistics about actual arrival time in JFK for our JetBlue flight...where would be a good place to find their departure/arrival stats? I called Olympic and they said that the latest check-in time is 90 min. before departure, but recommend 2-3 hrs. So, if all goes as scheduled we would have 50 min. to get luggage and transfer to Olympic terminal and still make the 90 min. check-in cutoff. The only other option we have is to change our JetBlue tickets to a 6:45AM flight (from our scheduled 10:25AM, which would then give us a 6hr. layover in JFK before our 2:15PM flight to Athens. Any thoughts?? There are 7 of us traveling together, so a $30/pp change fee would apply. I don't think there is any change in fare between those two flights. Thoughts/comments??

I do not believe that JetBlue will transfer your luggage to another carrier, much less to an international one. If you're checking baggage, I suspect you will have to WAIT FOR IT at the luggage carrousel, then get your bags and yourself to Terminal 1, wait in line to get your boarding pass and check your luggage, and get through security.

I think you potentially have a real problem here. What is Olympic's cut-off for accepting checked baggage?

Actually, I wish you'd said that you were traveling in a party of 7 earlier. That changes a lot for me. I don't think you can possibly make it with this many people ... there are always stragglers. Bite the bullet and leave at 6:45am. I don't envy you having to spend 6 hours in JFK, but it's better than missing the one and only flight.

Jet Blue won't be able to check you in for the Olympic flight, so you have no choice but to gather up all the luggage and do the transfer yourself. If you can ALL fly with carry-on luggage, then you can avoid the time change.

By the way, JFk has a longer lead time for luggage check-ins than many airlines, and if you don't make the cut-off, then your bag simply won't make the flight, even if you do check in on time ... another argument for flying earlier.

I don't think Jetblue's on-time record is worse than other airlines. But I'm pretty sure the OP are buying separate tickets.

So, the question isn't whether 2:20 is enough. But what's the chance of not being enough, and whether the OP can afford the consequence.

One can look up historical data for a particular flight on www.flightaware.com. If the OP can tell where he or she's flying from, I can look it up too.

At least we look OK on the Athens-Rhodes connection! Thank you all for your replies on that topic.

I agree that it is wiser to allow the extra time at JFK with an earlier flight.
I'm not good at worrying about making connections that so easily can get screwed up, and when possible I allow a half day or even overnight if possible. In fact when we connect in NYC for our trip to London in June, we're arriving a month earlier. Don't think we'll have any problems making our connection there do you? LOL.

Neo, I'm not sure one month is enough time. I recommend at least 90 days for the transfer from NYC to London, especially if you need to check luggage.

:-)

Darn. Too late to change the booking now. But I like the way you think, Doug.

Thank you all very much for your input. I think we are going to try to change our flight to the earlier one and "bite the bullet" with the 6 hr. layover. Thanks again. I'm sure many more questions will arise as our departure date nears, and I will turn to this board for your expertise!!

Doug...
What does "lead time" mean for luggage check-in? Also, just to let you know Olympic has 2 flights to Athens at the time we are traveling...a 2:15pm and a 4:30pm. We are booked on the 2:15pm flight. Have taken the 4:30 in the past and thought we'd try something new this time. Thanks for your help.

Go for the earlier flight. Even if your flight into JFK lands on time, it's not unusual to have to stay in your seat for ages while they wait for a gate-- happened to me many times. And JFK is extremely strict about not letting people check in after the cut-off time, even when the flight's delayed and not leaving for hours.

I completely forgot about the extra flight for the summer. Sorry about that. I'm going in May, and they don't start the second flight until a bit later in the season.

When I talked about lead time for luggage check in, I was referring to the time it takes JFK security to process checked luggage for international flights. I think the situation is actually much better now at JFK than it is at LaGuardia during some very busy periods, when bags simply back up and sit and don't make it on flights. Now, this is usually limited the the very busieset holiday periods. Usually having your bags checked an hour before the flight is enough, even at JFK, but 90 minutes is usually better.

Doug...

Have a great trip to Greece. We are leaving June 22, so into the summer flight schedules. FYI..Olympic has added a second return flight ATH-JFK, but I think it only flies on Fridays. It didn't help us as we are returning on a Sunday. Again, I appreciate your help(as well as everyone else's)and I am waiting to hear from the others in our party regarding making the change to the earlier flight.