04 Dec 08 It’s 5:00pm and your flight leaves at 7:30…
and you’re literally in Rockefeller center on the night Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
Imagine the following situation:
- Gigantic crowd, closed subway station at 47-50th because of the chaos at Rockefeller center and streets closed off
- Hotel is 9 street blocks north of you with your luggage (gigantic suitcase)
- The plane at JFK will leave with or without you.
That is the situation I found myself in yesterday. I literally had to push my way through a crowd of thousands of people to get to the hotel to pickup my crud. Finally got there at 5:25. Rushed upstairs got my stuff and thought about options on how to get to JFK.
* Taxi cab – $45, takes about 80 minutes.
* Subway Line A to Howard Beach station – $2 + $5 for Airtrain, takes about 70 minutes
* Subway Line E to Jamaica Station – $2 + $5 for Airtrain, takes about 60 minutes + time to get to Line E
* LIRR to Jamaic Station – ~$8 + $5 for Airtrain, takes about 35 minutes + time to get to Penn Station
Cab was out of the question. Battle came down to Line A (since it was right next to the hotel) or a trek to Penn Station. With the fact that having a giant suitcase on a subway at rush hour is *no* fun at all, I decided on the railroad. Made it to Penn Station at 5:40pm, train left at 5:45pm and I was pulling into Jamaica station at 6:15pm.
I thought to myself the entire way that I can’t even make it in 35 minutes by car or any form of public transportation to Seatac when stuck in Bellevue at 5pm… whereas in a city just barely under 10 million people and about the same distance to the airport I have options and the ability to do exactly that.
Soon, very soon, options wil become available in Seattle….
