When the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey increased the rate of using the AirTrain at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from $7.75 to $8.00 back in January of 2022, that meant that another 25 cents would come out of your pocket or purse every time you used it between the airport itself and two stations: Howard Beach and Jamaica…
How To Purchase 10 Trips On AirTrain in New York For Only $25.00: A Step-By-Step Guide
…but the good news is that if you plan on using AirTrain up to ten times within 30 days, you only need to pay $25.00, which is as low as $2.50 per ride — or you can purchase a pass for an unlimited amount of rides within 30 days for $40.00.
The problem is that although the official Internet web site of AirTrain informs you that you can save money on AirTrain with either of the two aforementioned options, it does not exactly specify how to obtain those deals.
This step-by-step guide will show you with photographs how easy is obtaining one of the two deals — in this case, ten rides for $25.00.
First, use a machine which dispenses MetroCards for use with AirTrain. The fee for a single ride is currently eight dollars.
Touch the black Start button at the top right corner of the monitor to begin the purchase. Note that up to a maximum of four users per one trip may use the same MetroCard for entry, which means that if you and three other people use the AirTrain round trip, you will use up eight out of the ten rides and already save money on on what a single ride costs.
Next, choose English — unless you would rather use another language.
You only have one choice here at the time this article was written: touch the MetroCard button.
When prompted to please select a transaction, choose Get New card, which will cost you an extra dollar.
Important to note is that if you already have a MetroCard for the New York City subway system and want to save a dollar, you cannot purchase a special ticket for AirTrain by refilling your MetroCard. This is because the special ticket of ten rides for $25.00 requires its own MetroCard and cannot be mixed with any other use on the same MetroCard.
At the next screen, you should see the option for purchasing a MetroCard called AirTrain 10-Trip $25 in the upper left corner of the choices. Touch on that button.
Then, choose your method of payment. Credit card was chosen in this example.
The credit card was “dipped” upon request. No choice was offered for sour cream and onion, chocolate, or swimming.
The machine will then warn you that your credit card will be charged $26.00. Press the black OK button to continue.
The payment from the credit card will be processed.
Once the credit card — which will be charged $26.00 — is removed when prompted, your new MetroCard will be available.
Final Boarding Call
Remember that you cannot mix the ten rides for $25.00 on AirTrain with other funds on the same MetroCard. If you attempt to do that, you will pay $25.00 to add the funds to your MetroCard — but the system will not recognize the discount; and you will be charged the regular fare of eight dollars per ride when using the MetroCard for riding on AirTrain.
Hopefully, this article put you on the right track towards saving money whenever you are in New York and need to use AirTrain for at least four rides…
All photographs ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
