I will be arriving LaGuardia on Spirit Airlines and meeting a friend who is arriving one hour earlier on American. I have never been to Laguardia. Will she be able to meet me at my gate? Where would the best place for us to meet? Baggage claim? Any suggestions? Thanks

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LGA has multiple terminals. The 1st thing you need to know is whether or not Spirit and AA share a terminal. If not, finding each other is going to be a royal pain.

My suggestion is to coordinate by cell phone when you arrive or just meet at your hotel.

Good luck!

Spirit arrives at Central Terminal Bldg concourse b (CTB-B) and AA at concourse c (CTB-C). Those share a common air-side (behind security area), so she will be able to meet you at your gate. As Gekko says, LGA is a zoo, so plan to coordinate by cell phone.

I've found that sometimes the best place to meet up is at the offsite car rental locations. (they are all remote, but no more than 5min shuttle bus ride).

She can only go to your gate if she arrives in the same terminal and doesn't leave the gate area. You can only get into the gate area going through security with a ticket or arriving from a flight at that terminal.

Coordinating by cell will be necessary in any case. If terminals are the same, I'd say meet in the baggage area, or outside near the taxi stand (they are usually more than 1 per terminal so keep that in mind). If terminals are different, it will be more complicated.

I thought AA and Spirit both arrived at the main terminal?

Have her meet you at the gate if possible.

To clear up the confusion, both planes do arrive at the main terminal, but different concourses. The only way you would be able to meet your friend at her or your gate would be if you are both arriving in the same concourse. And, based on whatJ62 has written here, that will not be the case.
Thus, I suggest that whomever arrives first should meet the friend in the area just before the security checkpoint (i.e., on the other side of security before a person would go through security to get to a departing plane). The arriving person can only get from the gate to the terminal through this way, so you should have no problem seeing each other.

One more clarification: When I mention the security station, I mean the one for whichever concourse the second person's gate is located in.

Now that I think about it, I believe Howard is right. The security check is at the entrance to the concourse B or C, so they do not share a common air-side area.

You would have to meet outside the secure area. I strongly suggest you pick a point INSIDE the termainal. Once you step outside, everything looks the same. Some place as Howard recommends (exiting the concourse), baggage claim #X, or at the Spirit Air checkin are all options.

When I met someone there recently (we flew into completely different terminals) I drove the car around in loops while talking on the cell phone. Locations like "I'm standing next to the green pole near the Hertz van, parked next to a yellow taxi" really don't help. I finally used echo-location. Beeped the horn a few times and asked for feedback - "Oh, I see you now...."

The foodcourt downstairs, outside security, might be a good place to meet.

andrews, I'm not if that's the best solution. FOr someone who's not been to Laguardia before, the terminal can be confusing. For example, when you say, "downstairs, outside security," which security do you mean? Each concourse has a separate security checkpoint!

How is that confusing? There's a pretty big food court outside the secured area. There are signs all over directing people toward it. You walk down a staircase near the ticket counters. It's not hard to find.