London - New York flight options

[takno]

United's terminal C at Newark is huge and very busy; BA use terminal B which is fairly small, most times immigrating there, admittedly from the front of economy or further forward, it's rarely taken more than 30 minutes to have bag in hand and be out. If Lufty have just landed an A340 in front of you, it can be up to 90 minutes. JFK can be much worse.

I haven't been regularly for a couple of years, but the United international flights always went into terminal B as well. There are immigration and customs facilities in terminal C, but the one time we used them the staff seemed to be mostly bewildered at the fact that some passengers had turned up to see them.

 

[robk23oxf]

The last time I landed at JFK it took over two hours from gate to baggage reclaim as they had the bare minimum of staff at border control. My experience of Newark however is largely positive and I'm more likely to consider flying there over JFK.

 

[Royston Vasey]

I haven't been regularly for a couple of years, but the United international flights always went into terminal B as well. There are immigration and customs facilities in terminal C, but the one time we used them the staff seemed to be mostly bewildered at the fact that some passengers had turned up to see them.

You're absolutely right, most of them do go into B, my mistake. Used to sit looking at them from the BA lounge, should have remembered!

 

[button_boxer]

Why on earth would you get a subway from JFK? LIRR runs from the same station in half the time...

It depends where your final destination is in Manhattan - the one time I flew into JFK I took the A train from Howard Beach as it was direct to where I needed to go (north of Central Park).

 

[takno]

It depends where your final destination is in Manhattan - the one time I flew into JFK I took the A train from Howard Beach as it was direct to where I needed to go (north of Central Park).

True. I was thinking of Penn specifically. It might actually be quicker from Newark to the financial district / village if you switch to PATH at Newark Penn. The point is that there's a fast regular service into Penn from JFK. Give it another 5 years and it should call grand central as well

 

[Vectron]

I'm potentially looking at a week in New York in August and currently considering the flight options. There's not a huge difference in price between the various airlines and I don't have any loyalty points etc, so would be interested to hear any recent experiences, positive or negative.

My advice is not to go in August with anyone - it's hot and humid (both can be in the 90s).

 

[BluePenguin]

There are some ridiculously cheap tickets available. I have been browsing on jetcost and been offered fares as low as £300 return. Norwegian appear to be a good cheap and cheerful option that might be worth looking at

 

[DenmarkRail]

Norwegian is cheap, but BA is a little more expensive, yet you get more for what you pay.

 

[BluePenguin]

Norwegian is cheap, but BA is a little more expensive, yet you get more for what you pay.

Is BA worth the extra money? I have not used them much before. Having baggage included is definitely a benefit

 

[atillathehunn]

Is BA worth the extra money? I have not used them much before. Having baggage included is definitely a benefit

You get free dinner and a chocolate bar (!) and a stingy crack at the booze trolley, and of course luggage.

I would say the biggest advantage of going with someone like BA (or other flag carrier) is alliance protection. Norwegian have a daily (I think) flight to JFK and if it goes Pete Tong you have 24 hours or more to wait depending on availability. With BA they basically run an hourly bus across the Atlantic to New York.

 

[Royston Vasey]

BA have a worldwide sale if you book by end of Tuesday 30th. New York from £366 return, 3 night holidays from £449 per person.

 

[Crawley Ben]

You get free dinner and a chocolate bar (!) and a stingy crack at the booze trolley, and of course luggage.

I would say the biggest advantage of going with someone like BA (or other flag carrier) is alliance protection. Norwegian have a daily (I think) flight to JFK and if it goes Pete Tong you have 24 hours or more to wait depending on availability. With BA they basically run an hourly bus across the Atlantic to New York.

Norwegian operates twice daily from Gatwick to New York (JFK) I believe one flight is an early morning departure (before or around 06.00am) & the other one is a late afternoon departure (17.10pm)

Cheers

Ben

 

[atillathehunn]

Norwegian operates twice daily from Gatwick to New York (JFK) I believe one flight is an early morning departure (before or around 06.00am) & the other one is a late afternoon departure (17.10pm)

Cheers

Ben

Thanks for the correction! Higher frequency than I thought.

 

[AlterEgo]

Cannot recommend WOW Air. Colleague used them to go back to the States this Christmas. €70 for cabin baggage. The only included bag (in an $700 ticket) was a tiny rucksack. It was another €100 or so for a hold bag. Service on board terrible, though transit in Iceland was nice.

1/10, would not recommend.

Jesus wept - $70 for cabin baggage..!

 

[baz962]

Btw tuesday's are quite often the best day pricewise to both book and travel.

 

[atillathehunn]

Jesus wept - $70 for cabin baggage..!

I asked her: it was actually more. It was $69 for cabin baggage (tiny rucksack included for free). Hold baggage was $100+. Absolute daylight robbery. Did I also mention that these prices were one way? Amsterdam - Baltimore via KEF

 

[Crawley Ben]

Just a thought - I flew to Philadelphia in May last year (spent 4 nights there) and then went to New York via Amtrak (90 min journey). OP could consider doing this instead of flying to JFK/EWR as an alternative if they so wished to.

Cheers

Ben

 

[GW43125]

I don’t know if you’ve already booked, but I’ll add my tuppence worth and say the food on BA can be a bit hit-and miss. I’ve recently done a nine-hour flight, on which we got a rather nice meal two hours after taking off, then nothing for six hours, then two finger sandwiches and a tiny toblerone (which we weren’t allowed to eat!) about an hour before landing.

However if it goes Pete tong you can’t really call how long it’ll be.

Our 747 got cancelled back in 2013 and it was a day before we were on another flight (though we were still in London so we stayed at home for a day), though for a the sake of a day the compensation paid for the flights.

 

[telstarbox]

I haven't booked yet but thanks for all the advice so far!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Why weren't you allowed to eat the chocolate?

 

[GW43125]

The

Why weren't you allowed to eat the chocolate?

It had almonds in it so I’d assume someone on the plane was allergic to nuts. However, having been served nothing more than two tiny sandwiches in six hours, my response could well have been “up yours”. I didn’t eat it and elected for the dessert I hadn’t eaten earlier.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Why would they even hand it out if there was anyone with an allergy on board if they were then going to say don't eat it?

 

[GW43125]

Why would they even hand it out if there was anyone with an allergy on board if they were then going to say don't eat it?

My thoughts exactly. though judging from how one of the FAs marched up to the PA with a worried look on his face, I think they forgot.

 

[Crawley Ben]

The service on BA has become so poor IMO. You pay a premium to fly with the carrier yet you don't get the level of service your paying for. I will look elsewhere for long haul flights in future and may well give Virgin Atlantic a try again as not flown with them in years.

Cheers

Ben

 

[GW43125]

The service on BA has become so poor IMO. You pay a premium to fly with the carrier yet you don't get the level of service your paying for.

I agree, BA have become a budget airline at flag carrier prices.

 

[cactustwirly]

I agree, BA have become a budget airline at flag carrier LCC prices

Fixed that for you (well for SH anyway)
I don't think that they're that bad, their pretty much on par with Virgin for LH

 

[GW43125]

Fixed that for you (well for SH anyway)
I don't think that they're that bad, their pretty much on par with Virgin for LH

The only thing that lets them down IMO is the food. It’s gone downhill over the past couple of years. And you don’t even get fed on SH anymore.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Fixed that for you (well for SH anyway

If only they charged LCC prices, nobody would really mind about the constant cost-cutting.

 

[cactustwirly]

If only they charged LCC prices, nobody would really mind about the constant cost-cutting.

From what I've seen they are very close to LCC prices, especially from Gatwick.

 

[GW43125]

From what I've seen they are very close to LCC prices, especially from Gatwick.

I’ll use London-Frankfurt as an example.
If you want to take one bag with you, the cheapest fare I could find is £65.

If I were getting fed, I wouldn’t mind.

But I’m not.