(no subject)

[sofiaviolet]

Lazyweb time: is anyone out there familiar with JFK and making connections there? Particularly in the terminal(s) that Delta uses? How fast can I dash through there at 7:30am on a Saturday?

I know I can make my connection in Minneapolis, having done it before in the same (very short) amount of time (and in heels, no less, which mistake I will not make again). But I'm thinking I should maybe suck it up and pay the baggage fee so I don't have to sprint through two airports, one of which I am not sure I have ever flown through, dragging a bright pink suitcase behind me.

Comments

[nanila]

If your flight is international, I do NOT recommend flying through JFK. The domestic and international terminals are separate and quite far apart, and if your layover is anything less than an hour, it's hell to get from one to other, go through security twice, go through immigration, collect & check in your luggage, etc.

[sofiaviolet]

All domestic, thank god. Boston-JFK-Minneapolis-Grand Forks.

You know, I think my family may have flown through JFK when we went to England. That was... not a good experience, though I'm not sure whether it was caused or simply compounded by our first flight being rather delayed.

[littlebutfierce]

I wouldn't count on anything at JFK being fast (although several years ago, right after they stepped up security screenings AGAIN, I was pleasantly surprised by how fast I got through, allowing me to get a foot massage in the Jet Blue terminal before my cross-country flight...).

7:30 AM certainly ups your chances, but... yeah, I dunno. When I lived in NYC we lived fairly close to JFK so generally flew out from there when possible & it was generally tedious & time-consuming (I wouldn't say moreso than any other large airport necessarily but that's not saying much). Especially if you have to change terminals, b/c the airport is pretty large.

[sofiaviolet]

I shouldn't need to go through security a second time. I figure a Delta flight arriving from Boston and a Delta flight departing for Minneapolis will use the same terminal (or if Delta has multiple terminals for domestic flights, they'd be terminals connected by some path that doesn't involve a second security screening).

If I'm wrong about that, wow is JFK a crappy airport.

[littlebutfierce]

I could be wrong, but I can't imagine any terminal being connected by a staying-within-security path. :/

& yeah, when we flew back after the hoidays last year, we had to go through security twice in the same terminal in Paris, which would've caused us to miss our connecting flight to Bristol (had it not been delayed: which we didn't know when we were hurtling our way to our connecting gate). So... it wouldn't surprise me if it was the same thing at JFK.

Maybe I'm wrong, though--it'd be nice if it were done more sensibly!

[sofiaviolet]

As far as I can tell, everything in Minneapolis is connected - at least, I've never had issues getting from C to G or wherever.

While I don't think either Boston or New Orleans (the two airports I know best) allow passengers to move between terminals without a second trip through security, they also have all flights from the same airline (or at least all domestic flights from the same airline) in the same terminal, I assume in large part to facilitate connections.

[littlebutfierce]

Yeah, I dunno--I know that in the past JFK has had some airlines split over two terminals (at least some domestic), b/c I almost got caught out once, & cabbies always seemed to ask, w/certain airlines, what our destination was. I did a little googling & found a site that said Delta was split but a whole bunch of ones that weren't.

JFK is huge. There's no way all the terminals could be connected; they used to run buses between them but now have a monorail (which I know is outside of airport check-in security boundaries).

Perhaps Delta might have some suggestions as to the feasibility?

[sofiaviolet]

I actually just checked and it looks like Delta has both my flights in Terminal 3 (they also use 2 and 4, but only for specific things which do not include Boston or Minneapolis). So now I just need to figure out how large Terminal 3 is, in terms of maximum linear distance I will need to cover.

Feasibility of the connection is kind of no longer an issue, for good or ill - already booked. At this point I am just trying to figure out whether I can take the "rolling suitcase" hit to my walking speed. And from what I can tell (airport map does not give a scale, argh), it is doable.

[littlebutfierce]

Phew, being in the same terminal is a start at least!

It sucks to have to weigh this against paying to check your bag, augh.

[sofiaviolet]

Heh, my mother actually offered to pay the fee (she reads my journal and saw this post). But it's a terminal with 18 gates arranged in a quasi-circular fashion, and I am toward the front of the plane. Probably doable.

[ajnabieh]

I've flown Delta from JFK, but I'm fairly sure it was international. In any case, it's a massive airport and you're gonna be clocking some serious time from place to place, so, especially with so many transfers, it might be worth it to check your bag.

(FWIW, I have vowed to, wherever possible, only fly JetBlue ever again so long as I live in NYC, because T5 at JFK is a thing of supreme beauty, complete with such amenities as legible signage, free wifi, and edible food. I have flown other airlines since discovering this, but not by choice.)

[sofiaviolet]

We have grown rather attached to JetBlue in my family - they have a direct flight from Boston to New Orleans!

Having looked it up, I am pretty darn certain both my flights will be in Terminal 3, which is helpful. What is not helpful is that I cannot figure out how big Terminal 3 actually is.