| Rental car companies are surprisingly reluctant to deal with anyone under age 25.
But since this is an official university event, chances are that transportation has been arranged from the airport to the university, either by commercial airport shuttle or by some sort of university-owned van.
The only way you could do this trip without changing planes is to fly to New York City and then take a train to Rochester. But this is a LOT worse than changing planes. The train ride is like seven hours. Also, you would have to get yourself from the airport to the train station in NY, which is a little complicated and a lot annoying. You are better off changing planes. The worst that can happen is that you miss a connection and have to wait in an airport for a while until you can get another flight. You don't have to get yourself from one location in an unfamiliar city to another. With the train option, you would.
My son had to travel from Hartford, Connecticut to Washington, DC a couple of weeks ago, and he had to change planes in Philadelphia. He had no trouble finding his way around the Philadelphia airport. (He's a few years older than the OP, but this was only the second time in his life that he had ever been on a plane, so he's no more experienced -- and maybe less so.) |