Don't Get SCAMMED when Arriving in NYC (Airport Mistakes to Avoid!)

the first impression many tourists get of New York is right here at the airport and unfortunately it's not always a pleasant one today I'll share how to avoid getting ripped off and scammed minutes after you arrive and then the best and cheapest ways to get from JFK to Midtown Manhattan and a few other common airport mistakes you want to avoid that'll have you feeling like a local here we go we're going to start with two potential scams that tourists need to be aware of the second they get out of arrivals and one of these is so sneaky that even some of my more experienced Travelers could fall for it you've seen it in the movies hailing a taxi from the airport and riding into the city in style but that's where you have to be careful here's how it works you'll walk out here and somebody will approach you offering you a taxi ride they might say taxi or Midtown and they may even tell you you'll get a better price than anywhere else but never accept these rides or this could happen this British couple was scammed four $470 a man stood in the airport entrance offered them a cab to their hotel and Craig assumed it would go to the meter and cost 50 bucks the pair later realized they should have been suspicious when he led them away to a private car park away from the taxi Rank and into a mini buus driven by a second man he asked them for the $20 for the parking fee which they presumed would be taken off the bill and told them they'd sort the fair when we get there he started explaining to us that there were new toll fees for going between Burrows and over Bridges he then told me to take me to Manhattan it was going to be $900 now I know what you're all thinking if this happened to me I would just get out of the car as soon as he told me that bad price but keep this in mind if your luggage is in the back you're practically a hostage this guy had an expensive engagement ring in his suitcase and he really had no choice but to negotiate with the Rogue driver now if you do end up taking one of these unmarked taxis best case scenario you'll probably get a little bit ripped off worst case scenario you'll pay a fortune or worse and keep this in mind even if you think you're getting a better deal these cars are not insured if anything goes wrong you have nobody that you can complain to oh welcome we're here for 5 days I'm watched everything we're actually making a video right now about arriving to the airport if you don't mind you feel free to be in the video absolutely thank you you're welcome imagine that you arrive in New York and the first person you see is me and even sneakier scam is somebody will be holding up an iPad or a sign that says Uber now maybe you're coming from overseas and you think in the US that Ubers are just waiting for you without calling them these are not Ubers they're also unlicensed cars it's the same situation you're going to be going into a Livery Cab they're going to charge you whatever they want and you have no insurance no way to fight anything so also avoid those I have seen those fake Ubers as recently as this year at lag Guardia if you're visiting New York from abroad don't go to any of the exchange desks you're going to get an unfavorable raid instead I recommend using revolute who is the partner for today's video with revolute hold multiple currencies and have all of your accounts in one app withdraw cash with no fees from over 55,000 in network ATMs just check out the map in your app for the one nearest to you there are even more cool features while you're abroad revolute will allow you to send money to friends or family while away and exchange currencies at spot Market rates revolute offers seamless and secure money management and if you're a New Yorker and traveling internationally revolute makes perfect sense for you as well access the same features while you're abroad it's so easy to use the revolute virtual card I have it on my phone can make any purchase even here at the airport just tap and go super super easy so check out revolute to enhance your trip to New York or anywhere else you travel in the world see my download link in the description what are the legitimate ways to get a car into Manhattan and the first and the most obvious is taking a yellow taxi now if you're like my parents you don't like messing with a smartphone this is by far the easiest and simplest way to get into Midtown or anywhere else in New York you just find the taxi sign right there they will assign you a number and you just find the lane there was like 10 people waiting actually I don't think you would have waited very long at all for a taxi how'd you have taken this Lane guys really asking for the taxi right there you see that the guy behind me is literally trying to get people to not take the taxi line and just go still happens as of late 2023 the flat fair is $70 or $75 if it's between 4 to 8:00 p.m. during weekdays and excluding holidays then we have totals up to $694 a $2.50 congestion sear charge for trips that end in Manhattan south of 96 Street which is likely where you'll be staying so you're looking at about $95 to $100 including A1 to $15 tip tip this is not an inexpensive method to get into the city but I do recommend it highly for groups or for people that are just not comfortable navigating public transit by the way if you have an issue with your driver the good news is that you can contact something called 311 you can report unsafe driving or any other issue you run into just make sure you have your driver's name or identifying number from the taxi if you do run into any problems and one more thing all New York City taxis must have a working credit card reader ride shares now this is my personal preferred method when I'm at JFK airport normally I'm traveling with my wife and my son uh I don't want to deal with public transit and why I love ride shares at this airport is you have three different options that you can shop with and see what the best deal is important note any terminal at JFK or any area airport is going to have signs for either ride SHP pickup Uber lift pickup whatever ever it may be just follow the signs outside I'm going to use all three ride share apps and I'm going to check which one has the best price the Marat Marquee in Midtown K Terminal 4 all right we're going to start with Uber we have got a price of 8993 which a little bit more than a taxi would be and you would wait one minute so you wouldn't have to deal with the taxi line next up lift price would be cheapest would be $1.95 so $2 more and my personal favorite is Revel where you ride completely electric cars use this code for 40% off your first two rides 88 47 although I will admit Revel does have the longest waight of 17 minutes that's the issue with Revels is they do tend to take a little bit longer than a lift or an Uber something else to keep in mind about ride shares is you are expected to tip 15 to 20% you know depending on the experience that you had so factor that in those costs though do include tolls in this scenario at this time of day I believe a taxi would have saved you maybe2 or $3 so they were all almost the same now when you call your ride share you just have to cross the street at least at Terminal 4 they pretty similar and find on your phone what letter and number corresponds to your driver so if you got an Uber it might say B1 or B2 and that's where your driver is going to meet you just follow the signs they make it really easy here when you're arriving to New York City make sure you have the exact address east side or west side if you're in Manhattan I'm going to show you why if you just put 109 42nd Street on the Uber you would get the following choices the first option is in Union City New Jersey so if you just tap that you're heading to Jersey and you're probably spending $150 109 East 42nd streets by Bryant Park and 109 West 42nd is a completely different address so look very carefully at your address and if it says New York New York that's Manhattan if it says Brooklyn New York that is not Manhattan look how much that would cost you from here $140 one other trick to keep in mind if you have some patience and the prices are surging on all the apps if you wait 10 or 15 minutes it could change of course in that case you might just be better off waiting in the taxi line so you can see how long the taxi line is if it's not long A lot of times that is a better play before we get to the lower cost options to get to Manhattan I want to throw one more out there that I think is just not worth it and that is the shared shuttle service it's about 50 bucks and how it works is they pack as many passengers as as possible into a van and they just drive you all over Manhattan dropping people off now depending how lucky you are it might be the same speed as a taxi or an Uber if you're unlucky you might be sitting in gridlock traffic as the shuttle goes from hotel to hotel and if your hotels last it could take you 2 hours with traffic to get there so I think in this case the middle ground is not worth it I'd either go expensive or cheap by the way for those who haven't been here since 2020 the New York City Airporter bus no longer operates it was $19 into the city not a thing anymore if you are on an absolute budget I'm going to show you how to get to Midtown Manhattan using public transit now something to keep in mind about both of these options is it's extra work if you're flying in overnight if it's your first time in the city if you have a big group I recommend a taxi or a ride share but if you you really want to save money these two options are interesting so the first step is to find signs for the air Trin in any terminal and something to keep in mind here is that for the air TR you pay at the end you do not pay for your ticket before boarding it's free to ride around the terminals that's how people transfer all right so a lot of flights have just arrived we're following the signs here transit to the city it's going to arrive on both sides we're going to Jamaica Station next one's in minutes get off you to get on hear what she said let the other passengers off first before you get on that's Subway courtesy as [Music] well remember what I said if you have a overnight flight you just don't want to deal with stressful situations just going to be a little stressful the first thing to keep in mind when you get off the air train is you cannot use contactless payment you have to have a a metro card or a special airra card which you normally get from the machine the second you get out we thee has been wed so this is interesting I've heard stories about this they waved the air TR fee it's free today maybe because there's too many people well they must have known I was coming guys I'm sorry the the the air train just went from free to to back to 8:25 5 minutes later I have no idea why I learned something new every day you could just get lucky and not pay unless it's your lucky day like it just was for us and they suddenly wave air Trin fees you need to go to one of the machines and pay $8.25 to purchase an air Trin Pass Plus an extra dollar for the new card now I would just buy a metro card with it which would be $9.25 then you have two choices one of which is the cheaper one to take the New York City subway for $275 you could add 275 to your card there pay $12 and be ready with one swipe or watch my New York City subway Survival Guide video so you know how to use Omni contact this payment on your phone I recommend that so much more than having to spend extra money to put more on the Metro card just tap and go for the subway I'm going to show you how to take the subway and why I honestly don't like it very much let's go all right so we are following the crowd following signs for the sub way we're looking for the eain so while you are getting the best price you are also walking a lot more now because the air Trin fee was waved this would be the only option to buy a metro card and look at this line here so hopefully you have contactless payment enabled on your phone you can skip this line all right let's find the etra heading for Manhattan I'm going to recommend if you take the subway go as far down as you can away from the crowds you'll get a better chance at a seat the only Advantage I see to the E train is if your hotel is located close to one of the stops it actually could be kind of useful but if you're staying anywhere in Midtown I just don't think this is the best option let me show you what to do when the train comes it takes about 50 minutes to get to Midtown as I said go towards the end and you'll probably get a seat if you're fast instead of taking the subway I prefer taking the Long Island Railroad also known as the LI so either if the air TR happens to be free you leave or you pay $8 25 plus the extra dollar 925 to exit off the machine now you can either buy a Long Island Railroad ticket from another machine just a little bit down the corridor or my pick go to the MTA train time app and you would select Jamaica as the origin and then either Grand Central or Penn Station as the destination and there's one right now there's one in 8 minutes these are running constantly to to 34th Street Penn Station and you could buy a City ticket off peak for $5 that's it five bucks is what you would have to spend that's $225 more to get to Manhattan and double the speed and to be in more comfort as I'm about to show you if your train is between 6:00 and 8: in the morning on the LR heading to Manhattan or 4: to 8:00 p.m. on the way back to JFK you can buy what's called a peak City ticket which is only only $2 more at 7 Bucks so again the total cost would be $425 in most situations to get to 34th Street Penn Station or 42nd Street Grand Central You' got two choices we're doing a video about how to get from uh the airport to the city okay so we going to go under all other tickets City tickets off week and you to make it a pen one five bucks thank you so the trick is if if you want to get thank you for helping us you want to get a City ticket you have to go all other tickets to get the discounted price friendly staff here too got on our phone that it's track two easy to find no escalator unfortunately that kind of sucks if you have a ton of luggage I don't recommend the Subway or the LI if you have a reasonable amount of luggage Li is fine but you may find yourself taking some steps like this and if you're unsure you just look up it's says Pen Station 3 minutes it is so clear I'm telling you for $2.25 you're getting like $10 of a better experience very important before boarding make sure to activate your ticket okay I have to show you all a common mistake I see with the LR I've had viewers I believe they get on this and they just go right to the ends and look this barely could even fit my small suitcase in order to find the biggest luggage rack you have to go to the middle areas of the train this would fit a suitcase I think almost double this size also for that extra 225 look how much more space you get here just cleaner nicer and this goes directly to Penn Station now you're still going to have to walk or possibly take another Subway depending where your destination is in the city so factor that in a topic that I have been asked so many times and I've never actually addressed in a video is about SIM cards when you arrive to New York now you do have the option to buy it at JFK but I'm going to tell you why I don't recommend that now in the past they did have SIM card machines there's one here at Terminal 4 but it's not even operating so your only option is to go to a kiosk and I checked myself I was just curious what's the cheapest 7-Day pass you have the cheapest is $45 you get 4GB internet unimed phone un okay thank you the cheapest 7day SIM card was $45 which I think is too expensive so your best bet is one check with your local carrier to see if they offer some kind of an international package that might just be the easiest for you you don't have to deal with SIM cards going to a store the other would be going on Amazon or any other retailer online before you leave you can order us SIM cards in advance off of Amazon and if you can't do any of those I recommend going to the T-Mobile store which is right across the street from Macy's by Harold Square in Midtown Manhattan $15 to $30 is the range that I've been told do some research on that but I definitely don't recommend buying it right away at JFK airport because they do have pretty good Wi-Fi available in fact let me check if it works for me free JFK Wi-Fi free unlimited Wi-Fi you're now online the free Wi-Fi it's working so if you're concerned about calling an Uber I think you should be able to get service across this should we check let's check if you do call an Uber and you're using the JFK Wi-Fi I tested it I lost it like right across the street so I think you could hang out by the terminal and you could probably see your car more or less when it's about to pull up and then go I I think you could survive just on the terminal Wi-Fi these smart carts are $6 to rent and you Pur purchase them inside now sometimes if you get lucky somebody might just leave one out here and you might be able to use it for free it's not guaranteed to happen so if you have a lot of luggage this can actually be quite useful now if you excuse me I'm going to a Union City New Jersey now that you know how to get to your hotel in one piece in this video we expose every other scam of New York City watch this before you visit trust me head to this video next

Channel: Here Be Barr

Views: 658,559

Keywords: nyc, nyc scams, nyc airports, jfk airport, nyc subway, midtown manhattan, nyc tourist mistakes, new york city, tourist traps, nyc travel, nyc 2024, tourist scams, here be barr, times square, airport tips, kennedy airport, new york, travel tips, is nyc dangerous

Id: R3GkxA-kogo

Length: 18min 58sec (1138 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 29 2023