Spend the night in JFK?

[maestra80]

Hello! :o

I was wondering if it's possible to spend the night inside of JFK or would the cops/security kick you out? The reason I ask, is because we have a hotel room reserved beginning Friday night (for UNGA weekend-woot woot!!), but the fares on Thursday are cheaper coming into JFK. So, we figure we can take a late night flight into JFK, and then just sleep in the terminal till Friday morning, therefore saving money on a hotel room for an extra night and we have the whole day to spot on friday.

So, is sleeping in JFK, do-able??

[PhilDernerJr]

I have seen people sprawled out against a wall or in specific bench areas near the food court of Terminal 4 for several hours or more. As long as you don't look like you're homeless, I'm sure you'd be able to get a few hours of shut-eye.

I wish there was an NYCA hostel or something.

Keep us posted on this. Maybe you can have a mini "Terminal" movie going on.

[T-Bird76]

I've seen people at T8 at JFK spending the night, either missed their flight or connection and just lay out. I've also see this at LGA. Either when I've arrived late at night or left early in the morning there are people always sleeping near the escalators with bags. So I'd say yes you could camp out. I had to do it once in T7...can't say I enjoyed it ;) Bit off topic but I did find it interesting that a plane full of people spending the night in a gate area would feel so comfortable enough to walk around in their boxers and undershirts...ah the joys of air travel.

[maestra80]

Allrighty, cool!!! So it is do-able. I'll just have to remember not to check my suitcase like I usually do...or else I'll have to go through security to the baggage claim to get it and be stuck on the other side all night.

I've never slept in an airport before, so this will be interesting, but I guess people do it all the time!! I don't know if I'd walk around in boxers and an undershirt though... :lol:

[Tom_Turner]

I've seen homeless people at Newark in Terminal A. Don't know if that still goes on or not. All the more odd, because unlike a bus station or train station, they presumably did not walk into that airport.... though I suppose its not impossible.

Tom

[JetBlueAirwaysFan]

I spent the night at BWI a few years ago. Route was JAX-BWI-ISP on WN. What a day! We get to the airport to find our JAX-BWI flight is delayed due to wx at BWI. I wasn't worried because there was one more BWI-ISP flight after ours. So we boarded the plane and taxied out to the runway and then hung around in that run up area in the airfield for an hour with the engines off. The engines started but the captain told us not to get excited because we were just going back to the terminal. We deplaned and then the CSA advised us that we had like a 15 minute window for wheels up. We almost didn't go that night and looked into just doing MCO-ISP the next day, but we decided to go for it anyway. So we got into BWI and all the ISP flights were gone and we were rebooked on the first flight to ISP in the morning. We had to get our bags pulled that night so we had to exit the concourse and go to baggage claim. We decided to spend the night in the ticketing area. We first set up camp in an area of baggage X rays by the AA counter, but we were asked to move, so then we set up in front of the WN counter. Since our flight was overbooked to ISP (and this was before WN had online check-in) I waited up all night until 0430 when the counter opened to check in for the A boarding pass. All in all, we were about 12 hours late getting into ISP ;)

It was definitely a lot of fun. Just make sure you can get comfortable. Somehow we had access to AA pillows and blankets in the ticketing area, so my dad was able to put some pillows under him to keep his back off the hard floor.

Most important, have fun! I'd do it again.