The original post I made for today went missing, so I cobbled this together to make sure that my readers would have something that might be of interest to read today.
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Soon, I will travel from Croton to JFK Airport using mass transportation. As much as this will not be as easy as using a cab service (or Uber) to get from my house to the airport, it will cost much less. In some other cities, such as Chicago, one can get to the airport from downtown via a simple subway (EL) ride. The premium to do this is an extra $3.00 added to the fare coming from O'Hare airport. (The normal $2.00 fare applies on trips to the airport.) In New York, the Port Authority (who manages our airports) gouges passengers for an $8.50 fare to ride the Airtrain from the LIRR Station and NYC Subway station in Jamaica, or to the NYC Subway station in Howard Beach. Yet, it's still cheaper for a solo traveler to pay this price than to hire a car service.
But first....
When I went to Hawaii, I didn't have the option of using mass transit to get to the airport. So, I ended up spending $260 or so to spend one night at a hotel in Newark and to leave my car at the hotel for 13 calendar days. Two years later, I refuse to spend $150 to reach JFK from my house. Instead, I plan to spend $12 for a cab to bring me to the train station, $7.50 to reach Grand Central, $5.50 to get to Jamaica station, and $8.50 to reach the airline's terminal, for a total of $33.50. That's over $100 in savings by the use of mass transit. Please note that this only makes sense when travelling solo - it still makes sense for large families to use long term parking lots, as the cost to reach the airport is shared by more people.
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Do I think that this will be the way I will usually do things in the future? Who knows? But it's worth a try, and I have enough slack in my schedule to allow for minor hiccups....
