New York City - Part 1: Booking, Cost, Getting There and The Hotel

I promised a blog post on my New York trip and quite a few people told me they really wanted one so I've put all the info I have together - but I've split it into two posts. This one will cover our booking process, the holiday cost, and our flight experience and hotel details - it's really in-depth so perfect if you've never booked a trip to NYC before and want to know how to make everything work out well. The other blog post covers the stuff most people want to read if they have a trip to NYC already booked - where we ate, shows we went to see, and all the other things we did. Click here to read that one!

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Before booking

Before booking our trip I spent hours one day comparing prices, advantages and disadvantages of various hotels and dates for our trip etc. - and I fully believe that’s what you HAVE to do in order to get the best value for what you want, even though it can be tedious! I checked so many websites, and tried doing flights and hotel seperately, but eventually decided that booking the full package through Cassidy Travel would work best for us as it was the same cost as booking each part separately, but meant that we could pay the cost off in our own time before travelling. Remember if you book flights alone with an airline you’ll need to pay at the time of booking, which can be expensive. And if you book a hotel alone online, often you’ll be required to pay when you arrive at the hotel and that can cause some hassle, it’s much nicer knowing everything has been paid before you travel!

BOOKING

So once we decided The Time New York hotel was the one for us and that we wanted to fly to JFK with Delta, we got our quote for €745pp. This included 5 nights (February) in this gorgeous hotel in a perfect location, with a direct early flight over and a late flight (direct) home - giving us 6 full days in the city. You can, of course, find cheaper quotes with Cassidy Travel for February, but we wanted this specific hotel even though it's one of the more expensive 4* Hotels in Manhattan. Holidays including direct flights to JFK will always be dearer too.

EXAMPLE

The only downside was that we had Basic Economy Delta tickets in our booking and we weren't aware until after booking that Basic Economy isn't the only type of Economy ticket. Basic meant we couldn’t select our seats or have our luggage included in the cost. In the end it worked out a lot more expensive to pay for our bags at the time of travel (€50pp each way, and an extra €85 for our extra bag full of shopping coming home). Also, because our ticket type didn't allow us to select seats we were both given seats beside strangers, with the aisle between us.

ALWAYS book Main Cabin Economy (or better) if you fly Delta - it is an option on Cassidy Travel's site, we just weren't aware like I said. At the time of booking Main Cabin Economy isn't actually much dearer than Basic Economy, yet in the end it works out better value because your 23kg luggage will be included and you can be sure you’ll get seats together. If you book Basic and pay for your luggage each way on the day of flights it really works out a lot more expensive! Even Delta staff in New York told us it's not worth it and to be careful when booking packages with travel agents to check what exactly your flight ticket includes. I'm including this table showing the differences between Basic and Main Cabin economy with Delta and what the tickets include - you can see in the example the price difference is so low and the perks of Main Cabin are much better.

I found Cassidy Travel so helpful and easy to deal with the whole time. Even though our booking was done online, the process was very easy . It was also brilliant to be able to tailor to our exact preferences, so I highly recommend Cassidy's. I’ve already booked my next trip to New York with them! My next trip includes the exact same hotel for 5 nights in February, and the same flights, but with Main Cabin tickets and is coming to €767pp - see how tiny the price difference is when you select Main Cabin Economy!

GETTING THERE

Airport - check-in, security, preclearance

We flew DUB-JFK on Delta flight 45, which takes off at 10.50am during Winter (and at 9.55am during the rest of the year when it gets bright earlier in the morning). Delta recommend giving yourself 4 hours in Dublin Airport (an hour more than other airports they fly from as we have U.S. preclearance to get through) but they're absolutely right to recommend this much time. You CANNOT predict how busy check-in, security and preclearance will be so remember it's ALWAYS better to have time than to need it! We got to the airport at 7.20am, 3.5 hours before our flight. Thankfully there was no queue at check-in and we managed to get through security quickly, and on to Preclearance before it got busy. We were completely done with Preclearance by about 8.10am as there was no queue, so that gave us almost 2 hours until boarding to just chill. But honestly if we had gone to the airport just 15-20 minutes later, check-in would have been busier, security might have been too and preclearance for sure would've been HECTIC, so it would've been a completely different story!

Airport - 51st&Green Lounge

We had booked online for the U.S. lounge, 51st & Green, which cost €35pp and was so worth it. Not everyone books or goes to the lounge but I really can't imagine sitting in the airport after Preclearance where there is literally nowhere to eat and nowhere comfortable to sit! Your other options would be to eat after security before heading down to U.S. Preclearance but I think this would be risky as you don't know how busy it will be when you finish eating and go to the Preclearance area.

We found 51st&Green even nicer than other executive lounges in the airport as its bright interior was gorgeous with a fabulous view of the runway. We had a lovely fry for breakfast, as well as lots of other foods to choose from - all of which were unlimited. There was also a barista there to make our coffees and cocktails - I couldn't choose between caffeine or alcohol so I went for a flat white martini, the best of both worlds haha. When you add up the cost of a meal in the airport and drinks, and include as much as you want, you'd no doubt spend more than €35pp elsewhere in the airport! So I fully recommend starting off your holiday right with a visit to 51st&Green. These are the only pictures I took there. Spot my exact Delta plane in the background of the first one!

Flights - specifications

The Delta 45 service from Dublin to New York Kennedy uses a Boeing 767-400 and includes lunch, dinner, and a beverage service and selection of snacks throughout the flight. In-flight entertainment, purchasable Wifi and USB sockets are available in all areas of the plane. Make sure to download the GoGo entertainment app before flying as that includes more Delta Studio films and tv show episodes than the screens on the seatbacks do! The flight arrives around 1.30pm in Terminal 4 of JFK in New York. As you'll have already completed U.S. Customs and Immigration in Dublin, you can pick up your bags and be out of the airport very shortly after arriving at your gate, giving you almost the entire day to explore the city! The same plane model is used for Delta 44 coming from JFK T4 to Dublin and everything else is the same too. We had a brilliant experience on both flights and much preferred Delta over United who we had flown with to and from the U.S. before.

From JFK to Manhattan

JFK is an hour taxi drive from the city if you're staying in Manhattan, so be prepared for it to take a while to get to your hotel. Luckily the flight lands at a perfect time to allow for this because by the time you arrive at your hotel, your room will be ready (considering most hotels only have rooms ready from 2-3pm). You can also go for the cheaper option of taking an airtrain from the airport on the Jamaica Station route, and then the LIRR train to Penn Station. I believe this is a quicker way to get to Midtown Manhattan, but remember you'll have to take a subway from there to wherever you're staying and on all of these modes of transport large pieces of luggage are an issue, so I'd recommend getting a cab outside the terminal. In a cab to Midtown it's a flat rate of (I think) $52 + toll + tip so it adds up to $65 give or take.

THE HOTEL

As I mentioned earlier, we chose to stay in The Time New York, which is located on West 49th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue. This is the theatre district of New York so you're right in the middle of everything and only a very short walk from Times Square. Everyday when we left the hotel we were so nicely surprised by the fact the hotel was in such a perfect location yet was in a spot where it wasn't affected by the sound of sirens and other NYC noise!

The Time is a 4* hotel and totally lived up to its expectations for us. It's only a 20-year-old hotel, it feels so fresh and modern, and its decor everywhere is classy and just beautiful. At the entrance/exit there's a small cafe where you can grab a coffee and a snack before you head out to explore, and actually this coffee is free! Unfortunately we never tried it but we loved that it was there and that it was complimentary. The Time has a really typical New York feel to it from the second you enter, I can't even explain it but it's just so special. Remember New York hotels taxes usually have to paid on arrival and a hold will be placed on your card for a certain amount, but this is the same in most destinations around the world nowadays. The typical fee at The Time is $100 per night to cover fees, potential damages and mini-bar charges but the staff were so nice here that before we even got to ask they offered to cut this in half. If we had asked I'm sure we could have even paid less than we did - so don't stress about these charges!

Our room

Pic isn't our exact room but it's very similar.

We booked a petite full room because we weren't too fussed about the size of our hotel room, as long as it was clean and comfortable, and we knew Manhattan is hard to get a decent-sized hotel room in anyway. We were very generously given a complimentary upgrade to a larger room though, so we were very happy with that! Still, the room wasn't huge but it certainly was just right. We were on the 10th floor and we didn't have a great view, but honestly if you're in New York you won't be spending a lot of time in your hotel room anyway! The room included a glass wardrobe which I was OBSESSED with, and a large circular mirror at the end of the bed. The coolest part is the tv is INSIDE the mirror! And when it's not turned on you wouldn't even know there was a tv in there - it's amazing. Aside from that the room was so comfortable and the bed was huge, the shower was brilliant, there was perfect lighting in the bathroom mirror to do makeup, and we had plug sockets everywhere (which a lot of hotel rooms don't have enough of!). We had a mini bar in the room but we chose not to use it. I'm so sorry I have literally no pictures of the hotel or the room!

Overall hotel experience

We had wifi throughout the hotel and each evening there was a complimentary wine and cheese hour. The hotel also has a fitness center but this is something we didn't use as we were so busy! The restaurant, Serafina, is a Northern-Italian style so that's right up my street but we ate elsewhere every night and I kinda regret not trying the restaurant at the hotel itself! On our last night the doorman told us the hotel offer a car service to JFK that costs $70 including toll and tip and it's much better than a cab as you get a very spacious, comfy sedan and obviously you won't have to stress about booking a cab yourself - they take care of it all for you. We went for this option and it just brought our trip to a nice close before our overnight flight home.

The staff everywhere in the hotel were beyond nice to us everyday and they really made the hotel memorable, which is why I'm staying there again next year! We really felt the staff consistently went above and beyond for their guests so it was one of my favourite hotel experiences ever. I can't recommend this hotel enough and can't wait to re-visit it next year!

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I think that's everything for this section of my New York blog! I apologise for it being so long, I wanted to include as much information as possible as it's all stuff I wanted to know before I booked and went! So I hope it was helpful and I hope you enjoyed reading. Head to my other post if you want to read about the things we did on our 6-day trip, and how much money we spent etc. Thanks for reading!

Love,

Aisling

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