cch1

Hello,
I was looking at a flight itinerary on Orbitz which offered a special fare for a flight flying into JFK from Rome and departing from LaGuardia 3 hours later. How far apart are these airports, and does anyone have any concerns about this type of a flight itinerary? Is this common?

Thanks

sunny16

I've never made that connection, since I live in Queens, but the drive itself shouldn't take more than 20 minutes with no traffic. What time of day/day of week are you doing this? That will make it easier to predict the traffic.

screen_name

That kind of itinerary would make me sooooooo nervous. The possibilities for getting tripped up and missing that connection are endless. Flight delays, customs, traffic, security checks, etc.

It would have to be many many hundreds of dollars in savings to make it attractive to me.

Loki

I would never do this. I'd say your chances of making the connection aren't much better than 50/50, especially if you have to check baggage. It routinely takes me 45-60min to get my luggage and clear customs coming from AMS. An how would you get to LGA? Taxi stand lines can be long, I would definitely have a car hire waiting.

mingtsainy

Loki made an excellent point. Getting from JFK to LGA won't take more than 30 minutes. But waiting for your baggages will take awhile and since it's an international flight, it will take even longer, even with an American passport. And most flight like you to check in an hour before flying. So you have a very small amount of time to make the flight.

gail

I agree with above. Unfortunately, this is not all that uncommon. Problem is that many international flights go in/out of JFK and many shorter domestic flights go in/out of LaGuardia.

Have you checked Newark as another option - it actually might be easier to get to/from there than this choice.

nytraveler

The idea is fine - but three hours is probably not enough time. There is a fairly frequent shuttle between the two airports which is supposed to take 20 minutes - but can easily be more if there is traffic (bad traffic would be 40 minutes).

So - even if your plane lands on time (you can check and see how likely this is) by the time you taxi to the jetway, deplane, make your way to immgiration (and time through will depend on how many planes have landed at once) then wait for and pick up your luggage and make your way through customs to the shuttle - your chance of making it to LGA two hours before flight time (what most airlines reco) is nil.

If you are willing to risk arriving at LGA very late and running into long security lines (can take 10 minutes - or can take 40) you may actually make the flight.

It depends on how you feel about anxiety - and how much of a problem it would be if you don;t make the plane.

Can't you just take a late flight from LGA?

cch1

Hi everyone and thanks for your thoughts. The way this came about was a search on Orbitz.com seeking a flight itinerary from Chicago to Rome with return for a couple of weeks in Nov. The itinerary that came back was a return to JFK and a connecting flight to Chi. about 3 hours later from LaGuardia. The idea of changing airports on a Tuesday (which is what I was looking at) made me a bit nervous. I didn't investigate the itinerary beyone the flight times. Perhaps that airlines arrange for transfers through Orbitz? I dunno...

jlm_mi

The airlines definitely don't arrange for your transfer from one airport to the other. You will be on your own for that one.

AAFrequentFlyer

I make this connection numerous times a year TPA-LGA/JFK-LHR and never have any problems. Taxi is $20+ and will take ~20-30 minutes. If I have 3 or more hours between connections I take the shuttle but if it's less than 3 hours I take the taxi. Besides if there are 2 or more traveling, taxi is the better option.

nytraveler

There are flights from LGA to ORD almost every hour of the day - does it really raise the price of the ticket that much - or at all - if you just take a flight one hour later? Then you would have much less anxiety about late arrival, delay in immigration or baggage claim etc.