New York JFK airport put out that rideshare pickups for arriving passengers are no longer available at terminals 4, 5, or 7. That’s a miserable experience under all circumstances, but the need to take a shuttle or train to pick up an Uber is compounded for families and those with plenty of luggage (as passengers arriving off of international flights in New York sometimes do!).
- Terminal 4: (Delta, Aeromexico, Air India, China Airlines, Copa, Emirates, El Al, Kenya Airways, KLM, Singapore, Virgin Atlantic and others) can still do rideshare pickups there before noon, but otherwise take a shuttle to a separate lot.
- Terminal 5: (JetBlue, Sun Country, Cape Air) are instructed “to take AirTrain JFK to Howard Beach” for the ride app and car service pickup lot.
- Terminal 7: (Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Frontier, Icelandair, Ethiopian, ANA, Condor, Kuwait Airways, LOT and a few others) are instructed “to take AirTrain JFK to Howard Beach” for the ride app and car service pickup lot.
Rideshare pickups from @JFKairport Terminal 4, 5, and 7 are no longer curbside.
Terminal 4 customers: During peak hours of 12pm to 2am, you will need to take a free shuttle bus to our pickup lot and depart from there.
Terminal 5 and Terminal 7 customers: You will need to take… pic.twitter.com/lFAWeswbIE
— John F. Kennedy Airport (@JFKairport) September 8, 2025
It’s been over a year since New York JFK first announced rideshare pickups for terminal 4 moved off-site. One big reason to avoid Delta terminal 4 is the interminable walks, although the excellent lounge options there help to mitigate (Delta One, Capital One, Chase, American Express, Virgin Atlantic and more).
Those make the airport decent for departures, but it’s arrivals where the pain kicks in if you’re doing an Uber or Lyft into the city. This adds insult to the injury to the $20 surcharge Uber often imposes when you tell them you’re getting dropped off at Delta versus another carrier in the terminal.
Since the spring, the airport has been directing terminal 5 and 7 arriving passengers to the Airtrain Howard Beach station. It wasn’t a first-time imposition for JetBlue terminal 5, but it was an add for the hodgepodge old British Airways terminal slated for demolition. Live and Let’s Fly pointed out the smart play of taking the bridge from T5 baggage claim across to the TWA Hotel and grabbing your Uber from there.
To get to the parking lot at the Howard Beach station, passengers have to walk to the AirTrain (with luggage!), take the green line train to Howard Beach and exit towards Long Term Parking. Since the amount of time to get there is going to vary quite a lot, many will wait until after the schlepp to request their ride, further adding to the time it takes to get out of JFK.
There’s a lot of construction at New York JFK, but there has always been a lot of construction at New York JFK. It never makes the roadways better. In the meantime, this is a big advantage for American Airlines and its partners flying to JFK’s terminal 8.
Walking to airtrain with luggage is not some incredibly difficult feat. The corridors and the airtrain itself are built easily to handle luggage, even large checked luggage.
Having said that, I’ve arrived at 11:55am (five minutes before uber pickups shut off at T4) and already my driver and I were being shooed away. I had to stand my ground with the ground staff managing traffic to get into the uber I called and wasn’t about to pay a cancellation fee for.
Woah, hyperbole again… just take the AirTrain to T8… problem solved. Taxi to Manhattan $75. Entry-level Lyft/Uber slightly more. I do it regularly from T4/5. It’s not that bad or hard.
@ Gary — Avoid Delta? My motto!
@1990 – I am inclined to agree on it not being that bad or hard, if you live here. If you’re visiting, you gotta understand that the baseline expectation at a functional modern airport is to be able to get in a car either at the curb or in a parking garage (a la SEA). Telling people to take one form of transportation to get to another form of transportation is a non-starter.
Remember it’s bad enough that JFK (and for that matter LGA and EWR) all lack a one-seat ride to the city center (i.e. Penn or GCT).
Airtrains are miserable. They break down. When they do, the bus replacements can add up to an extra hour of intra-airport travel time.
There is a lot of complete nonsense in NYC that New Yorkers may be okay with but others are not. I could go on.
@Un — Since you live here, you should know this is temporary (JFK is undergoing a major renovation). Just as with LGA for a few years, it’s disruptive, but the finished product is worth it.
Har-har… Let me tell you of the joys of a little thing we have on the Lefto Coast called LAXit.
All these airports are in a race to the bottom– and here, like LAX, the airport authority is helll-bent on NOT bringing mass transit all the way to the terminals. Even as they make The Car Thing even more miserable.
Although we just celebrated the LAX Metro Transit Station opening– a billion dollar explosion of taxpayer waste that, much like the GreenLine Station, ended up several miles from TBIT.
“We aim for LAX, but sometimes we miss and hit El Segundo or Manchester by mistake. Ooops.”
In my experience, getting on the train the overcrowded packed train with luggage is difficult. Why is that train packed? Right, because everyone had to get on to catch the Uber. So far, I am not happy.
On LGA, I have mixed feelings. At LGA, I used to be able to get to my gate, 10 minutes after arriving. Now, it is a lengthy walk to the gate. Albeit, I now have access to the 3 lounges (American, Amex, and Sapphire) with reasonable food, whereas before, best I could do was a bagel.
Arriving at LGA is a bigger problem. The walk is so long, that if I do not rush to the baggage claim, the bags are sitting there unguarded. Plus, it is a long walk with several heavy bags to the central Uber center. When I get there, I usually have to wait about 30 minutes, sometimes longer, while the Uber driver tries to figure out how to get in.
LAX: Yea, Ha Ha. Once or twice I left 2 hours early, but stuck non-moving traffic on the 405, thought I was going to miss my plane by 2 hours. Never actually missed a plane at LAX, but it is always a risk.
@Other Just Saying — If the new LGA isn’t ‘good enough’ for you, then honestly I’m not sure anything ever will be; like, my goodness, even if you are on the farthest ends of Terminal C, enjoy the exercise, and appreciate that it’s far better than the original terminals. And, if you’re exhausted from the walk, then stop by Bubby’s (near gates 70-79) for some fluffy pancakes; you’ll re-energize quickly.
LGA is much nicer, but a lot less convenient. Time is valuable. LOL: See Gary’s post about not wasting time at the airport.
@ Tom — Yeah, I’ve given up and just pay the extortionate black car price to avoid the LAXIt disaster.
@Other Just Saying — Ah, yes, go so late, occasionally miss a flight… such a great ‘hot take’ on here. *wink*
@Gene — Somehow this JFK post has become an LAX discussion… kinda like how @Tim Dunn can turn any comment into a Delta talk-a-rama. And, I’ll say, I’m all for it. Let the conversation go where it goes… haha.
Just take the AirTrain to the subway or LIRR. Costs less than $14 and no stress about traffic. Current time difference is 6 minutes vs a taxi. Usually takes about the same time as an Uber but sometimes is faster when there is traffic. If my 90 year old mother can do this with a suitcase so can nearly all of you. You can also feel superior by killing fewer people with your carbon footprint.
Everyone complains about that Western European socialism but most of the major airports in those countries have direct rail access to their city centers.
It’s kind of scandalous to me that airports in New York and LA lack reasonable connectivity to their urban centers.
First world problems.
Know your way around! @1990 broke the code, air train to T8 problem solved. T5 is a real hike from the station to the terminal and then to the curb, but if you need to get steps in that’s also an option. Or just yellow cab it.
It actually might not be such a bad thing not to be able to Uber from Terminal 4. I recently Ubered from Federal Circle and saved myself a lot of traffic, time and money.
Do what Andrew said!!!
“Just take the AirTrain to the subway or LIRR. Costs less than $14 and no stress about traffic. ”
Jamaica baby!
Millions of air travelers with all sorts of baggage manage to pick up rental cars at airports every day. This is no worse than that.
And it’s necessary. Each individual rider summoning their own car is tremendously less efficient than a line of cabs and you get in the next one. So if you don’t want to use the taxi stand, get on the air train and pay the penalty for being the problem.
(I understand that construction at JFK currently has the taxi stand relocated, this is more a general comment on ride share vs taxi stand.)