JetBlue just can’t catch a break. The struggling carrier has been dropping much of its Los Angeles flying and exiting several markets, cutting Europe flying and other key routes, slashing flying out of Washington National airport and dropping routes like Boston – LaGuardia. They no longer chase business travelers. They’ve scaled back their aircraft orders, reduced their pilot workforce and they are trying to reinvent their product.
The carrier still has strength at New York JFK, Boston, Fort Lauderdale and San Juan. JFK is their original base, using a slot portfolio gifted to them by Senator Chuck Schumer. However customers are likely to start avoiding flying JetBlue into New York JFK because of changes to ground transportation there.
Stating today, rideshare pickups – like Uber and Lyft – for New York JFK’s terminal 5 (JetBlue) and terminal 7 (hodgepodge in the old British Airways terminal slated for demolition) are going to be relegated to the JFK Airtran Howard Beach station.
To get to the parking lot at the Howard Beach station, passengers will 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.
What’s worse is it’s not the first time this has happened to JetBlue at terminal 5. A return of inconvenience and added time – especially with luggage – makes JetBlue and the requirement for “plane to train to automobile” an inferior option at the airport. If you are flying into JFK terminal 5, plan to take a taxi (which, no doubt, is what proponents of this change want to happen).
At this point perhaps the only thing JetBlue has going for it is United CEO Scott Kirby’s desire to exact revenge on American Airlines over his firing there and so it seems likely he’s overpaying and overpromising to grab a JetBlue partnership out from under American.
This article is woefully insufficient. Why is this change being made? Why just these two terminals? Why not just take the AirTrain to a different terminal at JFK and get an Uber from there?
Am I misunderstanding something – the AirTrain is expressly designed to accommodate luggage. This isn’t like schlepping through the narrow sidewalks of Soho on a Saturday afternoon with sunglasses-donning tote bag-carrying twentysomething bitches power-walking around you.
If you think the airtrain jfk is some kind of overwhelming challenge, then you either despise the working class airport employees who share it with passengers, or you just haven’t been on it and assume it sucks.
The worst part about airtrain is having to pay exit fare. The exit gates are such a bottleneck. But you won’t encounter them if you’re going to the rideshare station.
The schlep from gate to baggage claim to AirTrain is substantial. It is about a mile. Just from baggage claim to AirTrain station, there are two escalators/elevators, two moving walkways, and another elevator.
The easiest, fastest way out of JFK is yellow taxi — and they don’t cost more than rideshare.
All a political, dirty sport.
JetBlue is walking dead. United will buy them within a year for planes and slots then they will cease to exist. Frankly their revised business model is the worst of any US airline and no way they survive
Started at least two weeks ago. And, yes, it was a nuisance. Probably took about 12 minutes to get to the pick up area from the baggage claim area.
Nope. Private car service. Not rideshare.
Can they walk over to the TWA hotel and get a pickup from there?
That entire JFK set up is moronic. JetBlue will continue to get bottom of the barrel flyers that will do a 35 connection for a cheap fare. Most people buying Mint aren’t going to schlep all the way to Howard Beach to get an Uber.
Regardless of whether or not it’s a big deal, @Craig Jones is correct: it reflects dirty politics with our leaders making decisions based on powerful lobbyists not the general public.
The public should be upset that we are once again being shown that we are simply a tool to help our leaders’ political friends.
You can still take a taxi. It is typically cheaper than Uber/Lyft anyway to Manhattan at the flat $70.
Whatever. T5 Air train connection is a little bit of a walk, but it is often faster to take transit to Jamaica and then commuter train into Penn Station or GCT anyway. I sometimes spring for a rideshare to the airport at 5am, but generally the traffic on the southern Van Wyck makes it less convenient to take a car. I always take the train leaving the airport. And if money is no object, just take a cab or hire a car. This is pretty much a non-issue.
@andrew Yes—pin “TWA Hotel” (One Idlewild Dr.) and the Uber/Lyft app will dispatch a driver there rather than force‑routing to Howard Beach. It works because the hotel sits just outside the “central terminal loop” geo‑fence that the apps use to block curbside pins at T5/T7. Note that Port Authority or the apps can redraw the geo‑fence at any time so YMMV.