I,m planning a trip to Spain & the cheapest fare I can find is out of JFK. I live in Toronto and will be visiting my sister in New Jersey before flying out of JFK. I prefre not to have to ask my sister to drive me to JFK from NJ. Is there somewhere in NJ or NY that she can drop me off & I can take public transit to JFK? I am looking for something economical & don't mind if it takes a little more time.

Where in New Jersey - the state may look small, but it can take 2 hours end to end. What time of day, season and day of week - if you hit weekend beach traffic, that will make a big difference.

She could drive you to Newark airport where you can get ground transportation to JFK. See the following link which describes transportation options between airports.
http://www.panynj.gov/aviation/connfram.HTM

You could take the airtrain into JFK, depending on where you're coming from in New Jersey. Here's a website with info about the airtrain:

http://www.panynj.gov/airtrain/index.html

I haven't used it yet, so I can't comment. Have a nice trip to Spain. Peace.

Robyn

My sister lives in Springfield NJ & the flight leaves JFK Friday 6pm in November. I see there's a airport service express bus. How does it work?

Springfield is pretty close to Newark Liberty Airport, so you might be able to take a shuttle from there to JFK. One of these is Airporter. From what I can tell, you can make reservations over the phone and online and it cost $26 each way from Newark to JFK. Take a look at their website if you want anymore information.

http://www.goairporter.com/ewk_to_jfk.html

There are some more options here:
http://www.panynj.gov/aviation/connmainjfk.htm#ewrjfk

Just one piece of advice - for a flight leaving JFK on a Friday at 6 I would leave A LOT of extra time to get there from NJ. In bound and outbound traffic can be terrible. If you want to be at the airport by 4:00pm I would plan on getting a NJ bus by 2:00. Last year we were traveling from NY to Italy on a Friday in March - it took two hours to get from our apartment in downtown Manhattan to JFK on a rainy Friday at 3:00pm. And we had an extremely knowledgable driver!

The airporter service that Islandboy81 writes of sounds pretty good, if you're starting from EWR. I would NOT take the Airtrain from EWR, as you pay an extra surcharge ($5?) just to help pay for that new station. On top of that, your sister has to deal with airport traffic. If she can drive you to the airport, she could drive you to another NJT station north or south of the airport. According to where in NJ you are, some other NJT line, or even PATH train or NJT bus may be in order.

Well I have been investigating how to do this trip since I may have to do it in the near future. Here?s what I have so far (get ready, this may sound a bit confusing, lol):

Note: This is assuming you are in the Springfield in Union County, NJ not the one in southern NJ.

There are a couple ways you can get to JFK from Springfield using public transportation.

Method 1: Using NJ Transit Bus to get to JFK:

Step 1:
It seems there is a NJ Transit bus (#114) that stops at the intersection of Mountain and Morris Ave in Springfield. That bus should take you to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

NJ Transit Bus #114 Schedule:
http://www.njtransit.com/pdf/bus/T1114.pdf

Step 2:
At the Port Authority Bus Terminal, you take subway line E to the Sutphin Boulevard/Archer Avenue/JFK Airport stop.

Subway Line E Map and Stops:
http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/service/eline.htm

Step 3:
At the Sutphin Blvd/Archer Ave/JFK Airport subway stop, you will follow the signs to the AirTrain. The AirTrain will then take you to JFK Airport.

I am not too sure of the cost or time of this trip, but it does seem like it could take a bit of time. I'm not sure how much the bus costs but I believe the subway is $2 and the AirTrain is $5.

Method 2: Using NJ Transit Train to get to JFK

Step 1: The two train stations closest to Springfield that I am aware of are the Union Station (next town over from Springfield and next to Kean University) and the Elizabeth Station. If you take the Union Station, you will have to stop at Newark Penn Station and transfer to another train that will take you to New York Penn Station (yes both the Newark and New York stations are called Penn Station). If you take the Elizabeth Station, it should take you directly into New York Penn Station. Hopefully your sister knows where these stations are. Use the Elizabeth station is possible for convinience.

NJ Transit Train Schedule:
http://www.njtransit.com/sf_tr_schedules.shtml

Step 2:
Once in New York Penn Station, you can take either subway line E or the Long Island Railroad (LIRR). If you take the subway, just follow the previous subway directions. If you take the LIRR train, you will get off at the Jamaica station. However, according to the LIRR website, not all trains stop at the Jamaica station so you will have to check the schedule.

LIRR Schedule:
http://lirr42.mta.info/index.asp

Step 3:
If you took the LIRR, then once you get off at the Jamaica station just follow the signs to the AirTrain.

Again I am not sure how much this will take time and money wise. If you do pick any of these two options, my only advice would be to allow yourself PLENTY of time. Also, just so you know, there is an AirTrain at both Newark Airport and JFK Airport. These are not the same trains and do not connect to each other. If anyone can confirm or correct these methods, please do so.

Hopefully this wasn't too confusing, lol.

Amazing how much one can write at 3:45 in the morning.

I grew up in Westfield, a town next door to Springfield. I would take the Airporter express bus from Newark Airport. Your sister can get to Newark Airport from Springfield in under 15 minutes by taking Route 22. As she will be taking you somewhere between 1 and 2 pm (so you can get to JFK by 4 pm, i.e. 2 hours before your flight, although 3 may be recommended, check with your airline) there will not be a lot of traffic. Alternatively, you could take a taxi or car service to Newark from Springfield. A taxi would be under $30.

The Airporter express bus from Newark to JFK takes 90 minutes, costs $24. Runs every two hours on the hour. Take a look at http://www.newarkairport.com/aviation/connframewr.htm
or call Airporter at 1-800-385-4000. You can reserve a seat ahead of time. I would call and ask what time bus they suggest you get to be at JFK in time for a 6 pm flight.

I would NOT take NJ Transit buses or trains into New York. Neither are equipped to handle luggage. While you could make it with luggage on the train with a struggle, the bus would be quite problematic, I don't know that there is luggage storage at all. The subway is no fun with luggage either. Getting around Port Authority with luggage is not fun, and if you haven't been there, the station is huge and not especially well-marked. Finally, that is SO much changing when you could get on the bus at Newark Airport and be done with it.

Website for Newark Airport is www.newarkairport.com. You can get to the Airporter link from that site, by clicking on "Getting To and From EWR" and scrolling down to "Connecting between Airports" .

Islanderboy81:Thanks for the info on public transportation. Although it sounds a little complcated, it should be economical emough. I will certainly take that into consideration. I don't mind hauling the luggage aroung since I won't be carrying a lot. However, it would help with the planning if I have some idea how long it would take.
The Airporter shuttle costs $26 one way. I am thinking if there are 2 or 3 of us, cost wise, I might as well drive myself to JFK & park at the long-term parking there since we are gone only for max 8 days. Question is how easy it is to find long-term parking at JFK, any recommendation on a specific lot & how easy to get from parking lot to terminal?

I got these numbers by looking at the different websites:

NJ Transit train from Elizabeth to New York Penn Station: Appr. 35 mins - $4.55 US One Way, $7 US Roundtrip

NYC Subway Line E from Penn Station to the Sutphin Boulevard/Archer Avenue/JFK Airport stop: Appr. 45 mins - $2 US One Way

AirTrain from Subway stop to JFK: Appr. 12 mins - $5 US One Way

So it looks like it would be a little over an hour and a half travel time alone and about $11.55 cost wise one way. You would have to add in the time it takes you to get from the train to subway to airtrain and the amount of time you have to wait for each. I'm guessing give yourself 5-10 minutes to make each connection.

Not sure how much parking is in and around JFK but it might definately be worth looking into especially if there are several people traveling and if you aren't traveling for too many days.

Website for JFK is http://www.kennedyairport.com. An except on the parking is below. Long term lot seems to be $20 a day.

The long-term car park is located 6.5km (4 miles) from the terminals, at Lefferts Boulevard. The Howard Beach Station train operates between the long-term parking stations A or B and the Airline Terminal 1 (journey time: 8 minutes). The AirTrain JFK runs from the Airline Terminal 1 to the other terminals. Passengers using the long-term car park should allow for at least 30 minutes to reach the terminal. Call for more parking information (tel: 718 244 4168).

Parking Rates for the Long-Term Parking Lot are as follows:
First 24 hours
$3 for the first 12 hours or part
$10 for up to 24 hours
Over First 24 hours
$5 for each 12-hour period or part thereafter