Today my girlfriend & I accompanied my young niece from the Upper East Side of Manhattan to JFK airport.

From Manhattan to JFK, I reserved a car service from Dial 7. Price was $60 with tolls & tip (and a coupon). Door-to-door travel time was 35 minutes, leaving the UES at 12:30pm. We were at her gate by 1:40pm.

To return to Manhattan, we chose the AirTrain to Jamaica, where we boarded an E subway train to Lexington Avenue, where we transfered to a 6 train to the Upper East Side. Travel time was 92 minutes and the cost was $14. Note that we did not have to wait for ANY of the trains -- we were lucky -- nor did we have any luggage to slow us down on the many stairs and escalators (or wait for elevators).

Bottom line: I can't imagine a scenario where we'd use the AirTrain/subway option. A car service or taxi is much, much better.

If you take a taxi from anywhere in Manhattan but the UES to Penn Station, you can save much more time with the Airtrain. I think you got very lucky with traffic and that this isn't a very representative trip (the return was, however, since you had to travel on 2 subways).

I can leave my Murray Hill apartment by taxi and be at the terminal in JFK in just over one hour. And I can do it for a third the price of a taxi if I use the Airtrain.

Traffic to JFK can be a bit unpredictable both ways. I once took a taxi on a weekend and the travel time took 80 minutes. I've done the trip from my home in as little as 25 minutes at 5am, when there was no traffic.

I think what this really shows is that the UES is inconvenient to the rest of Manhattan but reasonably convenient to JFK by an expensive taxi or car service. Most tourists are not staying on the UES, so to discourage them from using the Airtrain is a bit misleading.

That was quick by car - but Air Train and subway/LIRR usually at least as long as a cab and often longer.

The reason to do public transit is just to save money.

I don;t get it - but them I'm allergic to luggage on public transit - although I take it all the time without.

To me - there's no way saving $20 or $30 is worth schlepping your luggage all over hell and gone.

I save $50 each way. In two weeks I am taking the subway to Paris.

really Gekko it comes down where you are - from my office on Grand St. a block from Canal Street, I take the A train to the Air Train and its 45 minutes. From my home in Chelsea it's an hour. From my son's school on th UES, once I did it in an hour and 15 minutes.

It's cheap. That's the reason to do it. Sometimes it's worth the time, sometimes it's not.

I think Airtrain to Subway took us just over an hour (on a Friday morning) to Mid-town East. We thought it was worth the savings since it was just the 2 of us, and we just had carry-on luggage.

If I was traveling alone with only a carry-on bag at rush hour, I'd consider the AirTrain/subway option.

Otherwise, my time is money and aggravation is as well.

Very often the Van Wyck, the highway that leads to JFK is a tied up which creates another type of aggrevation.