I'm heading for LGA this morning for my second time ever; first time was over 10 years ago. A couple questions. First, while I'm not renting a car for NY (I *do* know better than that!) a side trip has come up that has caused me to rent a car from there to pick up tomorrow (Friday) and return Saturday. I will be going back to the airport to pick it up, and I'm wondering which terminal I should head for, since I'll have my pick of where the bus should drop me off. Does any one have an advantage over the others? The rental company is Hertz.
Second question is for my return flight on Monday, which leaves at what would appear to be the terrible time of 5:30pm. How much time should I allow for the bus from Grand Central at those peak times of day? (The schedule time is about 40-45 minutes for the NY Airport Service bus, but I wonder if that's optimistic for 3pm or so.) And if I end up back at LGA with an hour to an hour and a half to kill, is there anywhere in particular I should go check out? I'll be leaving from central terminal C (AirTran).
Any tips would be most appreciated.
Thanks for your advice! There was indeed plenty of time to get back to LGA with the 3:30 bus (Not that it mattered; surely you heard what happened at LGA yesterday, ick. That's 2 for 2 on running into a 5-hour storm delay leaving from LGA; I didn't have this problem when I flew into JFK the one time.) In fact, the worst traffic was what we encountered on the way in on Thursday morning; I believe we departed about 8:40am or so. That trip took about 40-50 minutes. The other three trips were about half that.
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We did indeed walk from Marine Air Terminal to Hertz that Friday morning after the bus dropped us there at barely 6am. It was a nasty walk really because of the humidity, but no traffic, and we weren't sure when/if the Hertz bus might show up. On the way back we got them to run us over there to catch the bus to Manhattan, as I knew that would be its last stop before leaving LGA.
The non-gate areas of LGA seem actually quite nice now. Those rockers, by the way, are between C and D and between A and B. Between B and C is where the big opening to the food court below is. And I spent a lot of time down there, staring at gate C4 to see if my plane would ever turn up. It did, finally, about 10:30. I was lucky that I checked in so early; there were two AirTran flights back to Pittsburgh scheduled for 5:35 and 7:40, and they cancelled the 5:35. A good portion of pax stayed an extra night in NY it would seem, and AirTran's ATL pax fared even worse. The lines for AA and UA looked to be a couple hours long or more, wrapped all the way into the corridor behind the check-in desks. It was getting much emptier by 10:40 or so when I left.
All the buses go in the same direction, so it doesn't make any difference where you get off the bus. However, I think you can walk from the DL Shuttle to the rental cars, so that might be faster. The Marine Air Terminal is the last stop at LGA, so it won't save that much time.
It's been a while since I've taken the NY Airport bus from Manhattan. I use public transit because it's much cheaper, runs more frequently, and takes just as long (a traffic jam at the Midtown Tunnel at night?!!!)
From midtown Manhattan, it takes me about one hour on the 4/5 train to 125th St. and then the M60 bus to LGA in the early afternoon.
Between concourse B and C (or C and D, or both, I forget), there are some rocking chairs where you can rock and watch planes. You get a much better view if you go upstairs.
If you are taking a New York Airport Service bus back to LaGuardia to pick up the rental, tell them you want to get off at the Delta Shuttle (Marine Air Terminal). More importantly than the fact that you can walk to Hertz from there, it will be the first stop the bus makes, so you can get off that much quicker.
For a 5:30PM flight on Monday, you should be very safe catching a bus around 3:30PM, with a large margin for error. While traffic is always bad, it is lighter in the summer.
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LGA car rental plus time from Manhattan question