Chgo College Student to Fairfield CT
 

Hi...we have a Chgo. h.s. senior who may attend Fairfield U in Fairfield CT next yr. Is it generally better to fly into JFK or LGA? Anyone familiar w/ Prime Time Shuttle service that goes from both these aiports to Fairfield U campus(and other campuses.) Thanks!
---A Worried MOM

Checkout Westchester County Airport. (HPN)

I would contact the school and find out about transport to area airports. Westchester is much closer/easier/has many fewer delays - but I don;t know about flight times/costs to Chicago.

If that doesn't work LGA is closer than JFK.

Prime Time is reliable, my company often uses them. There is also a commuter rail ("Metro North"), last I knew they had a shuttle from the Fairfield station to the campus.

DEFINITELY fly into HPN. That's Westchester County and so much easier than LGA (next best choice) and JFK. I used to live in Chicago and fly home to Westport and HPN was great. It's small and easy. There are a few flights a day on both American and United (last I knew). The only problem is that when the weather is bad they are more apt to cancel flights since it's a smaller airport. Fairfield is great-wonderful school and good college town. Can take Metro North into NYC in 1 hr. 15 min. Lots of kids live by the beach when they get older. Good luck!

But is it as easy for the OP's son to get to FU from HPN as it is from NYC?

Are there any airlines that fly from your location to CT ? Isn't Hartford or Bradley International Airport a closer trip to Fairfield than JFK/LGA? Not sure, but the link below may help, it gives distances from various airports , etc and then you can link to them for ground transport to your final location:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/4762sh

Bradley airport is about an hour and a half from fairfield.

em: if that's about the same amount of time from nyc, then maybe flights and ground transport might be easier or not as overwhelming for a hs senior -

I would think the Fairfield U web site should have a "visiting campus" option as most colleges do - and they usually have links to arriving by train, car, air, etc -
if they don't, admissions should be able to give the info -

I would imagine "connecticut Limo" might have a bus or van that goes to fairfield. Bradley isn't as sophisticated as NYC airports, but it certainly is very easy to manage.

It's a balancing act based on getting to the airport, frequency/timing of flights (LGA has at least one flight to Chicago per hour) and cost of flights. As noted, no direct public transit from Fairfield to any of the airports - so it also depends on sharing cost of airport shuttles - which I'm sure students do all the time.

When I did my college visit to Fairfield from Chicago a few years back, I flew into Westchester County Airport and my parents booked a car service for me to Fairfield. It was really easy.

If I had to choose between LGA and JFK, definitely LGA. I live in NYC now and I fly home to parent's house in Evanston, IL all the time. LGA has a ton of American flights that leave practically every hour.

i have the exact same issue.
Worried Mom...what, if anything, have you concluded?

Wow, I am always so pleasantly surprised at how kind people are to take the time to share all this info. Thank you...I really appreciate it. My daughter and I will be doing a test run next week: Chicago's Midway to LGA, and then Prime Time Shuttle to Fairfield U campus. We shall see! Thanks again to all.

Bradley probably is the most expensive airport out of the surrounding airports to FU. I would check it for flights but there most likely will be cheaper flights into the NY airports.