Visiting NY from Raleigh (Trenton: buying, taxes, train)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Are your dates flexible? If so I'd look further out...we just booked roundtrip airfare for $200 per person to Boston and it was also the same to NYC based on the sale. Same price for both Delta and JetBlue.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Have you looked into Frontier Airlines? They travel from Raleigh to Trenton, NJ. And then you can hop on the NJTransit train into the city (about an hour and a half). The flights are usually pretty cheap, but they only run on certain days, so they'd have to work for you to make sense. And the train is less than $20.
As someone who doesn't like to fly, I have taken the Amtrak train many times (once took it from CA to DC!). The train is actually quite comfortable, particularly if you are used to airplanes. There is a lot of leg room and you can get up and walk around. I would not get a sleeper car to New York since it's not an overnight. And it's not any more comfortable to sit in the sleeper car; it's only worth it if you want to lay down to sleep and want privacy. Having said all that, the train ride to New York from North Carolina is long and if there is a delay (quite possible), it is even longer. And you would pretty much spend two days traveling, so you'd need longer than a weekend to go there. For a regular weekend, I think your only good option is to fly.
Depending on your flexibility, you can really get lucky if you check the airlines constantly. They will substantially lower the price on any flights that are coming up in a week or so and are not full. I was able to book Charlotte to Chicago for $85 round-trip on American Airlines, although the flight was at 8:00 AM on a Sunday. The guy next to me on the plane paid $691 for the same flight (he pulled out his ticket reservation)....
Have you got frequent flier miles? At least with Delta, last minute flights are basically the same number of miles if you buy a last minute flight as if you buy them further in advance. I wouldn't take Amtrak from Raleigh, that sounds miserable. It would probably be faster to drive to D.C., park outside the city somewhere, take the metro to union station, and take the Acela from D.C. (which I also probably wouldn't do, because that's still a solid 8 hours).
Wow, thanks for all the input, quite a community, nice to see the support.
In checking, nothing worked out in the end with the timings I need to be there and to be able to get back here in time for other things.
So next week it is, and the current family crisis is manageable enough to wait until then. Round-trips for two at that time are south of $500, which is not too horrible though more than I would have expected.
I also appreciate the comments on driving because I was ready to do that, but by all accounts here and from friends it's too much for a weekend and unpleasant any time.
Have you got frequent flier miles? At least with Delta, last minute flights are basically the same number of miles if you buy a last minute flight as if you buy them further in advance.
I've taken advantage of this before. Great suggestion. Miles always work out well in emergencies.
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