Delta to Start New York LaGuardia Nonstop to Eppley

joleo · Post by **joleo** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:00 pm

It's on a CRJ-900 with a first class section.

Starts May 1st...just barely in time for Berkshire shareholders meeting. Should start about 2 days earlier.

OMA-LGA 2:15-5:51
LGA-OMA 11:25-1:43

Terrible schedule if you ask me!

It needs to leave in the morning. This schedule is very similar to the Northwest Airlines DSM-LGA that had horrible loads. It was recently re-timed to depart DSM first thing in the morning instead. I think it will do MUCH better.

They are asking $692.70 for this flight, even with a sat night stay. It'll be tough asking that much. Need to ask about $350 or so. Continental is asking $312 for EWR-OMA on a smaller plane, same dates. They just get a nice premium for last minute travelers cause these flights are fairly full in the winter and VERY full in the summer.

DSM-LGA is only $359.00 (on delta) for the nonstop...much more reasonable.

MCI-LGA is only $233.00 for the nonstop on the same size plane, also on Delta.

Hopefully the fare will come waaaaaay down.

Good luck Delta.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:50 pm

I don't know why Delta would charge that much when you fly Continental nonstop to Newark for $282.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:41 pm

DTO Luv wrote:I don't know why Delta would charge that much when you fly Continental nonstop to Newark for $282.

Particularly considering it is about 400 bazillion times easier to get to NYC from Newark than LGA.

I know, not everyone will be going to NYC, but still...

ricko · Post by **ricko** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:39 am

The scheduling IS lousy, but maybe these were the only gate openings available. Ideally, you need an early morning flight and an early evening flight to accommodate those traveling to attend meetings during the day with the intention of returning home on the same day. Presumably, these flights are targeted for business travel. I hope they're successful.

joleo · Post by **joleo** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 7:49 pm

Fares have been lowered to a much better level....$268.00 roundtrip. Hopefully it'll just fill planes now.

I can't believe the Omaha World Herald hasn't published this yet! When Des moines gets new service the register usually runs an article the same day is it first appears and then again the first day of service. Where are you OWH??????

thenewguy · Post by **thenewguy** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:18 am

the impression that i get is that the OWH is a little more arrogant about its news, and whether or not they need to publish it. Like they are the big dog in town, and don't need to promote such things. Then again, it's bigger news to talk about shootings and a dismal economy, than to include things that may actually help people. It's good for other cities' papers to want to help further the progress in their city. Surely people here would like to know about the ability to not have to drive to KC or fly to Minneapolis, then to NYC. If not for the forum, i sure wouldn't have known, and my wife and i were thinking of a trip out there maybe this summer.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:54 pm

So, can anyone comment on the difference between getting to Manhattan from La Guardia vs Newark?

I've never flown in to either, but I have been on the train from Newark to NYC. I can't imagine anything even remotely as easy as getting to Midtown Manhattan from Newark.

I would make a blind wager that the ease of travel from Newark would be worth a connecting flight in Chicago (depending on cost).

Mr.Nuke · Post by **Mr.Nuke** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:42 pm

joleo wrote:Fares have been lowered to a much better level....$268.00 roundtrip. Hopefully it'll just fill planes now.

The initial fares were likely misloaded into Delta's system.

Mr.Nuke · Post by **Mr.Nuke** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 3:08 pm

Big E wrote: Particularly considering it is about 400 bazillion times easier to get to NYC from Newark than LGA.

I know, not everyone will be going to NYC, but still...

Big E wrote:So, can anyone comment on the difference between getting to Manhattan from La Guardia vs Newark?

I've never flown in to either, but I have been on the train from Newark to NYC. I can't imagine anything even remotely as easy as getting to Midtown Manhattan from Newark.

I would make a blind wager that the ease of travel from Newark would be worth a connecting flight in Chicago (depending on cost).

I would say it depends on a couple of things. What time of day are you getting into the city? Day or weekend? Where are you going to in the city? How much are you willing to spend? Are you willing to take public transportation?

Honestly, the OMA-LGA arrives at a great time for just purely getting into the city. During mid-day assuming no major accidents or roadwork you can get from La Guardia to Midtown in 15-20 minutes in a taxi. This the "quickest" option into the city from any of the airports. However, this again is very time dependent. By 4:00 p.m. the same cab ride can take 2 hours. The downside to flying into La Guardia is there is no direct train connections into the city like the airtrains at JFK or EWR.

From Newark (EWR) a taxi is about 50 minutes assuming everything goes well. A cab in reverse to Newark can be a little more difficult as some cabbies flat out refuse to drive there, some don't have a clue where to drive in New Jersey. EWR does have the airtrain that connects all three terminals to the airport train station where you can catch an Amtrak or New Jersey Transit train into Penn Station. The overall easiest option of them all is US helicopter. I used them for the first time on my flight three weeks ago from Newark back to Omaha. You clear airport security at the heliport and your bags are checked through. It is a sub 10 minute flight to either EWR or JFK. At the airport a shuttle bus takes you to your terminal.

Your comment about knowing everyone won't be going to NYC is interesting as well. In my experience, (especially if it isn't the early morning flight) a fair portion of the passengers on the OMA-EWR flights are connecting passengers. I know I've used the flights multiple times in the past couple of years to connect to Europe. Before they moved the Omaha flights to Terminal A, this was a very attractive connection point for Omaha to Europe. LGA doesn't have this luxury due to the perimeter rule. Most of the OMA-LGA traffic will be to the New York City area. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Omababe · Post by **Omababe** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:59 am

Big E wrote:So, can anyone comment on the difference between getting to Manhattan from La Guardia vs Newark?

Assuming your destination is midtown Manhattan (there's really a lot more to NYC than Manhattan!), both are about equally inconvenient.

LGA is closer, geographically, but lacks rail connections. Taxi is what people usually seem to take from LGA, but there are bus and shuttle options, as well as bus to the subway. There's also rental cars, if you're feeling lucky and have a place to park in the city.

From EWR you have taxi (ex$pen$ive!), rental cars, and shuttle (but the traffic can be MURDER on the Skyway and Holland Tunnel at times) but if you know the connections you can do a rather quick Airtrain to NJ Transit to PATH and several variations depending on where you want to go.

It will be interesting to see how the new LGA service works out. I kinda like the Continental OMA-EWR flights, but the new service may be a viable option.

Wolverine · Post by **Wolverine** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:51 pm

Actually, this is pretty good news for me. I've made several personal trips to Brooklyn, and I've been so disgusted with flights and prices, the last couple of trips (and the one I'm taking next month), I've driven it. The only thing that would have made this news better was that it was to JFK, not LGA.

I think the schedule is fine for me, but maybe not business travelers (which is probably your focus). Would mean I don't have to get up at 4AM to make a flight. I get in at the back-end of rush hour (by the time you get your bags, you're looking at 6:30). Would also mean no super-early mornings on the way back, and I still get into Omaha early afternoon.

Mr.Nuke · Post by **Mr.Nuke** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:41 pm

joleo wrote:It's on a CRJ-900 with a first class section.
Starts May 1st...just barely in time for Berkshire shareholders meeting. Should start about 2 days earlier.

I was planning flights for some family coming back for the meeting today and I was thinking about this. It will be interesting to see how Delta handles this flight opening weekend. Continental makes significant schedule changes every year for this weekend on their flights from Newark. Thursday and Friday go from the typical 3 daily Newark to Omaha flights to four. In addition, two of the four are mainline flights on a 737. Typically the only mainline service Omaha sees on continental is the last flight in during the evening from Houston and an early morning flight back to Houston. The Omaha to Newark flights are typically all Embraer ERJ-145XR regional jets. I'm a bit surprised Delta hasn't either added a flight or upgraded the aircraft.

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