<p>Flying out of Tweed during winter season could be risky in the sense that the flight is more likely to be cancelled due to a bad weather condition. This is a just a rumor: At the first drop of snow, the flights tend to be cancelled. DS never tried that route because he prefers to be on a bigger plane.</p>
<p>There used to be two shuttle services: CT Limo and Primetime (the name of the latter was changed to other name a few years ago.)</p>
<p>Once in a while in the past, Yale College Council (or some other organization) might organize some bus services to nearby airports. It tends to be slightly cheaper. Also, a real bus rather than a van is used to transport the students. There was such a service for students leaving campus for Thanksgiving break this year.</p>
<p>Don’t know that I’ve heard of a Yale sponsored bus for the Christmas break this year. S will take CT Limo again to LaGuardia. That appeared to work well for Thanksgiving for him.</p>
<p>My child is a junior – I don’t know if she’s ever taken CT Limo in her 2-1/2 years of Yale-Florida commuting. She takes Metro North to 125th St, then bus to LAG; or Metro North to Grand Central, then A + AirTrain to JFK, or Amtrak to Newark. Cost can’t be beat, and she’s willing to spend the extra hour or so to save money. Just wanted to make sure that people realize they have options other than CT Limo.</p>
<p>Flying out of Tweed caused my daughter to take almost two days to come home once. I also missed a connection and was stranded overnight when I scheduled a flight out of Tweed.</p>
<p>My son also takes the Metro North to 125th St. and bus to LAG. There are many flight options from LaGuardia and public transportation is much cheaper than CT Limo. He also maintains that CT Limo is not always reliable and that they’re rude. I think he just loves navigating public transportation.</p>
<p>I know many Yalies are not completely satisfied with the servces provided by CT Limo. However, when your airport is BDL rather than the two airports in NYC, CT Limo is likely the only choice. There is no public transportation to and from BDL.</p>
<p>I think the service from Phelps Gate to BDL is generally fine. If anything could go wrong, it is likely the other direction. The problem is the students land at the airport at a different time/day and the business volume is not large enough on certain days, or at a certain hours.</p>
It would be our choice as well but the cost difference between BDL and LGA was significant flying to our hometown even including the cost of CT Limo. I am curious as to the public transportation costs to LGA compared to CT Limo if anyone can shed some light on that for future trips.</p>
<p>Both of my sons always flew BDL until Frontier pulled out of Hartford, leaving us no direct flights. LGA is now quicker and cheaper usually. Both have also done the Metro North + bus routine to LGA as well. However, getting to the train station hauling luggage, getting in and out of Grand Central, waiting in line for bus, etc., takes a lot of time; and so we decided to try CT Limo at Thanksgiving only because it is direct from Phelps right to LGA–very convenient. It was $90 round trip. The other route would have been $37 RT Metro North plus $21 New York Airport Service (if you use that) so the CT Limo was a bit more expensive–but quicker and more convenient if you have luggage. We’ve tried several different options now over the last 6 years of having a Yalie traveling to and fro.</p>
<p>So far we’ve had two trips home, done one from Hartford (took CT Limo- no issues) and one from Newark(took the Yale shuttle to the train station, Amtrak directly to Newark airport- got a great deal on the flight which mitigated the $59 (one way!) train ticket). DH and I have done JFK for parents weekend, so that just leaves Laguardia to try. After that I figure if there are significant savings/non-stops in flights we can pick and choose which airport.</p>
<p>For parents flying in for a visit I like the Westchester airport (HPN). It is closer than even Bradley and the car rentals are cheaper than the NYC airports but public transportation options for non-car renters are poor. The fares are always higher than LGA. My S uses LGA and the Limo services since he finds this the best compromise of convenience and low price.</p>
<p>My son took CT Limo for his first trip home for Thanksgiving and he had no issues and no complaints. If you are only talking about a $40 or so savings it’s not worth the hassle taking multiple forms of transportation. Of course that may change if future trips aren’t as smooth. For Christmas, he is driving back with his sister who lives in Baltimore so he is taking the Amtrak to meet her there.</p>
<p>Interesting. So the Metro North is $ 37 rt? and the connection from 125th is $21 rt? Or is that one way? Where do they make that bus connections? Can someone posts links info…we are not from the northeast and I am unclear about what you mean about taking the train to 125th etc.</p>
<p>When I was comapring travel time and costs…
I only compared flights plus Ct Limo expenses…
The time from Phelps Gate to BDL, plus 2 flights home
vs the time from Phelps Gate to LGA, plus 1 flight home
ended up being almost identical in time and $$ etc. </p>
<p>Part of the problem for Ct Limo was that they don’t always have transfers available–meaning when I considered an early am flight on a Sunday morning–they don’t have transfers Sunday ams before a certain hour.</p>
<p>I have thought about sending kiddo via train to Newark and taking a non stop from there—</p>
<p>Kiddo has flown for both Thanksgiving and Christmas with one carry on bag only…A smallish duffle/athletic bag. Brought one pair of shoes beyond what was on feet. Brought a few days clothes and I guess planned to do laundry…idk… :)<br>
(So luggage for this kind of trip isn’t bad…its the move in/move out that will be biggest…though kiddo is telling me that they plan to leave most there over summer in res college.)</p>
<p>When I look at flights, I try to find the shortest overall travel time–
Ct Limo has always showed up with a large charter bus…and kiddo says there are lots of students each time.</p>
<p>We would like to find the easiest/most inexpensive way for us to get up for a visit. Kiddo won’t be coming home for spring break and we’d like to get up there between Jan and May.</p>
A potential problem is: They may not be able to leave too much over summer in res college. The most troubled one is furniture. This is why some students get cheap furniture and discard it before summer break. Some rent some storage space in town together with some others. (If you do not want to rent a truck, there is a company in CT which can even help you to move your stuff to their storage space. The company name is called “Two Dudes” or some name like that.)</p>
<p>fogfog, Metro North is $37 rt on peak hours. Off-peak I believe it is $28. The $21 is referring to the New York Airport Service from Grand Central station. S has not taken bus from 125th/Harlem train stop so I don’t have details on that. I do know he tried to take a taxi once from LGA to 125th/Harlem station and the taxi driver got lost…so never tried that again. (He ended up getting out at a bus stop and trying to negotiate his way from there.) We have only done the Grand Central/Metro North ourselves.</p>
<p>Rundown of the public transportation options to LGA and JFK from the Metro North:</p>
<p>LGA:
From 125th you take the M60 bus which goes directly to LGA - this would definitely be the fastest and easiest way by public transportation. It runs 24 hours a day and during the day it’s maybe 5-10 minutes between buses. It’s $2.50 now I think.</p>
<p>If you want to go to LGA from Grand Central, you can take the subway: 4/5/6 line to 59th street stop, transfer to the Queens-bound N/Q to the Astoria Blvd. stop and then transfer to the M60 bus right outside the station. Should be $2.50 with a free transfer to the bus. A cab might be faster, depending on the time of day and how the driver decides to get to Queens, but it would probably be at least $30 or so. </p>
<p>JFK:
For JFK it’s harder… from 125th you can take the 4/5/6 to 59th street, walk to the 63rd street station and take the F train to Sutphin Blvd. and switch to the Air Train to JFK. From Grand Central you can take the 6 train to 51st street, walk to the 53rd street station and switch to the E train to Sutphin Blvd, then switch to the Air Train to JFK. Either way is a mess.</p>
<p>A cab from Manhattan to JFK airport is a $45 flat rate, plus tolls and tip, and can take an hour or longer during rush hour, but the trains take just as long. For JFK I would always take a cab, so it’s probably easier not to bother with public transportation at all…</p>
<p>Though I am completely baffled that someone could get lost going from LGA to 125th. You leave LGA and get directly on the Grand Central which goes over the Triboro bridge, which puts you directly ON 125th street in Manhattan. Maybe the driver should look into another career…</p>
<p>How do the students get to the Metro station from campus? I assume it’s not by walking. Cab? If so, do I understand it would be cab to the station, train to 125th or Grand Central and then airport service or bus to LGA?</p>