At 12:18 AM 6/25/2004, you wrote: >Has AirTrain improved things? My wife just took it and she said it >worked great, but that the process was a little strange. I don't know >that the time difference is or if rush hour normalizes it, but she just >mentioned that at least it doesn't cost $45 in cab fare. [snip] As with much of NYC, depends where you are.The killer is that the AirTrain hooks in at Jamaica in queens. You get there either from Penn Station on the LIRR, or the Subway. This means you have to factor in getting to the starting line at Penn. (Via some transit option) or using transit to get to Jamaica. For example, from the east side, you need to either get to Penn, which is 20+ minutes by subway from midtown east, and more from further away parts of the east side, or get to a queens bound subway line, and transfer as needed to get to Sutpin/Archer. The NYC subway is not a friendly place if you're hauling a reasonable sized bag. I don't fancy doing it with just my roller-bag carry-on and briefcase, and I'd hate to try it with a full sized check-in bag. No real dedicated spots for luggage, hostile transfers (Stairs, walkways, escalators, with only random Elevators here and there) If you're not in a hurry, and you are not heavily burdened then the AirTrain clearly is a major step up from the old bus to the A-train that used to be the only subway answer, but it's still pretty much only useful in some circumstances. Oh, and if possible, a call car is the way to go for JFK. They're no more expensive than a cab, much of the time, and since they are on a flat rate, they have a strong incentive to go for shortest time, no largest bill. I've seen far more innovative routing from the call cars than random taxis. Heck, I've had to direct more than one taxi to JFK, as they were pretty much just following the distinctly inadequate street signage, - David - David