JFK transit - MCT

1. Should be. Is it one ticket or two?

2. Yes on security. If US citizens arriving on a domestic flight, then there is no customs. If on one ticket, your checked luggage will be check through to final stop. If two tickets, may have to claim luggage and go the front of the airport to recheck.

3. Train

You may have to pick up you luggage, even if there was only one ticket. I have never had to do it at JFK but I flew from Cancun to Charlotte, NC and we did need to go through customs and recheck our bags. If you bought any liquids at duty free, throw them into your checked bags. We did not realize this and needed to throw the items into a duffle we were using as carryon and check it through. Thankfully, we only had one checked bag between two of us so we did not have to pay additional baggage. The train is fairly easy but there is a lot of walking involved, pack light. That should be more than enough time.

To shed some light on Mary's comment, flights with connections out of the US (e.g. SF > NY > Paris) are treated differently than flights with connections into the US (Paris > NY > SF).

For the first, assuming you are booked on one ticket, the normal procedure is that your bags are checked through. They are tagged for Paris, you do not see them in New York, the first time you run into them is in Paris.

However, for the return trip to the US, with a couple of exceptions* you will always have to pick up your bags at the first point of entry into the US. Even on one ticket where they are tagged through to your final destination you have to pick them up. So in a Paris > NY > SF itinerary, even if your bags have "SFO" tags on them you will still have to pick them up and re-check them in New York. (This is because you have to clear customs with your checked bags.)

*The exceptions being if you originated in an airport with US preclearance, which are most major Canadian airports, some Caribbean airports, Dublin and Abu Dhabi. In an itinerary like Toronto > Chicago > St. Louis, you go through US immigration and customs in Toronto so you arrive in Chicago like any other domestic passenger and don't see your bags until St. Louis.

I assume Ann is leaving the US and not arriving in the US. There is no immigration or customs in the US when leaving.

Flights departing Montreal's (YUL) airport heading to US destinations have their US Customs and Immigration clearance in Montreal. So there will be no passport check at JFK airport under this scenario.

I fly on Delta in/out of JFK often. I’ll add a couple things to what others have said.

Delta flies in and out of BOTH Terminal 2 and 4. So if you are lucky, you will land at Terminal 4 and will be able to easily transfer to the next flight (unless you have to retrieve and re-check your luggage - not likely if you are booked all on one ticket, as others have said). Usually you can look on the Delta site within 24 hours and find out which terminal you will land at.

If you do have to go between terminals, there is a shuttle that will take you between the terminals so that you don’t have to leave the secured area. I took it once and it was very easy and fast.

In any case, you should have plenty of time to make your flight.

Montreal has pre-clearance for the US, right? I know as a US citizen, you'd be good to go upon arriving in the States. Are you traveling on a US passport or a Canadian one?

Hi,

We will be arriving at JFK via Delta at 6:30pm (YUL-JFK) and leaving
via Emirates at 11pm (JFK-DXB).

Is this sufficient time to go between the two terminals?

I believe Delta lands at T2 and Emirates departs from T4. Would we
need to pass security and customs twice? We will have checked-in
baggage with us.

How do we transfer between the two terminals?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ann

Ok....

Delta and Emirates are NOT code share airlines so you have separate itineraries I'm assuming. Yes?

You WON'T be able to take advantage of the shuttle between T2 and T4 because you have checked bags. You will need to retrieve them from your YUL flight and then check them at Emirates again assuming you're on a separate itinerary. The baggage carousel is landside which is why the shuttle between the 2 terminals won't be available.

Assuming your YUL flight is on time, you should have no time crunch to pick up checked bags. Will you be going through US immigration at YUL? If not, you'll have to wait on immigration lines and they can be long (over an hour). Still you have a good chunk of cushion time.

After you have picked up checked bags, follow signs to the Airtrain to transfer from T2 just one stop to T4. Make sure you board the correct Airtrain. Verify with any of the officials on the platform in case the signage doesn't clarify it. Then check your bags at the Emirates counter and wait on the line at security.

5 1/2 hours is a good cushion. Assuming your inbound from YUL is fine, you too will be fine. If your inbound from YUL arrives at T4, you won't need to the Airtrain obviously. You will still need to check your bags and go through security.

To add to Continental's post:

You WILL be going through US immigration and customs at YUL. Be sure to arrive at YUL with enough time for this, and be sure to go the correct section of YUL (US-bound flights leave from their own section, not the "domestic" or "international" sections).

Since you will have already "left" Canada and "entered" the US while still in the Montreal airport, and since flights leaving the US have no passport control on departure, you will not have to go through any customs or immigration at JFK. In that sense, it will be like a domestic connection, saving you lots of time. However, as said above, you will have to go through security.

At JFK when you're ready to get to Terminal 4, be SURE to ask at the AirTrain station to make sure you get on the correct AirTrain. There are three, and two go in one direction while one goes in the other! While they will all eventually get you where you want to go, the correct one will take 5 minutes, while the incorrect one will take more like an hour!

The JFK airport website

https://www.airport-jfk.com/terminals.php

...says "between Terminal 2 and 4 there is a free shuttle bus operated by Delta Airlines at their passenger’s disposal." So that's an option if the Air Train is experiencing any problems.

You have plenty of time.

shawn, as noted in a previous reply, the Delta shuttle is "airside", but the OP will have to go to the baggage claim area first, which is "landside". They will not have access to the Delta shuttle vehicle.

What is the 'on time' arrival history for your YUL-JFK flight? That, to me, appears to be the crucial question.

I cannot find a Delta flight, YUL-JFK that arrives ~630PM. When is this trip?