My wife and her friend are taking a trip to London. They depart from JFK, and we’ve been wondering how early they should get to the airport on their day of departure. It’s been a few years since I flew international, so I can’t remember how long it took us. Do they go through customs on their way out of the airports, or just when they land in each country?
They recommend getting to the airport 2 hours before flight time. But there’s a lot of construction around JFK right now, so that may not be enough time if the traffic is bad.
Customs is only when you come into JFK on the way back.
In the European Union, you go through customs on your way out as well. That’s because a distinction has to be made between EU destinations and non-EU destinations.
As far as arrival at the airport: call the airline for details.
If you’ve never flown on an international flight, or especially if you’ve never been to that airport before, I’d aim for 3 hours early. You might spend 1/2 hour figuring out where to park and where the correct international ticket counter is. This also gives you some time for at least 1 mistake (took wrong turn into the airport, stood in domestic line instead of international, etc.)
Arjuna34
I have to agree, JFK is a huge, incomprehensible mess. You can’t really be too early if you are inexperienced travelers (bring a book). They’ll do customs on the landing side, so no worries there. But parking, finding your terminal, dealing with luggage, finding your plane, etc is trouble enough.
Sadly, your wife and her friend can’t take the best advice, which is Avoid JFK At All Costs. I would, however, recommend that they not plan to drive to JFK themselves - either they should get a ride from someone, like maybe you, or they should plunk the money down for a car service. Parking at any of the NY airports is too much of a pain.
Do you live in Manhattan? There’s also direct bus service from several central locations, like the Port Authority, Grand Central, and some hotels. The following link (from the Port Authority) provides some other transit alternatives, plus general info. about Kennedy.
http://www.panynj.gov/aviation/jgtsfram.htm
Good luck!
I’ll be driving the two of them there. I’ve been there for int’l. pick-ups, but not for drop-offs, so I don’t know what the lead time was supposed to be like. I’ll plan on leaving home about 3.5 hrs ahead, I think.
Thanks for the input.