Airport shuttles were one of the many victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. Across the United States, a bunch of shuttle services went out of business, and most have not come back.
But Uber may be stepping into the void. In a pilot program, the ride-hailing platform recently started a shuttle service between Manhattan or Brooklyn and New York City's LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in Queens. The prices are significantly lower than taxis or regular Uber rides (more on that below).
If the shuttle proves profitable—and it had a good number of customers on board the two times I rode—it's safe to assume Uber will begin offering shuttles to other airports.
How is the ride? Read on.
Booking the Uber Shuttle
If you already have the Uber app on your phone, booking the shuttle is pretty close to what happens when you book a ride in a car. The biggest difference is you must go to the "Suggestions" section to click on the shuttle icon.
Once that's done, you'll be given three options for shuttle pickup spots if you're leaving from Manhattan: near Grand Central Station, Penn Station, or the Port Authority Bus Terminal. There's also a stop in Brooklyn at the City Point mall.
Routes from each location are direct shots to LaGuardia, except for the Port Authority option—though that's not clear on the app. This route often includes a stop at Grand Central, which means an additional 5–10 minutes on the shuttle depending on traffic.
The shuttle has two pickup spots at the airport: in terminals B and C.
Shuttles depart every 15 minutes or so during usual working hours, though not from each stop, so you need to juggle both locale and timing when choosing where you want to be picked up. It's hard to know if the frequency of shuttles will decrease once the service becomes better known and vans start to sell out. I counted 12 seats on each of my two shuttles, but Uber has said some vans can hold up to 40 people.
Alas, the schedule thins out early in the morning and again in the evening hours.
For me, that meant issues on the way back from LaGuardia. My plane arrived at 9:02pm, and I noticed there was a shuttle returning to Grand Central Station from the airport at 9:24. As we taxied on the runway, I was about to click "book" when I realized I didn't know how long it would take to get from my back-of-the-plane seat to the shuttle area.
So I held off on reserving my shuttle seat, and it was lucky I did: The plane couldn't use the original gate we were approaching and had to taxi to another. Consequently, I didn't get off the plane until 9:25 (yes, I checked the exact time), and it took me another 10 minutes to get to the shuttle area. At that point, there was a 9:55 shuttle heading to Penn Station—and no more shuttles to Grand Central that night—so Penn Station it was.
From there, the route back to my apartment wasn't as convenient and I had to wait an additional 20 minutes, but I've dealt with bigger travel calamities.
Finding the Shuttle Departure Location
There were no signs marking where shuttle pickup was to happen, but that turned out not to be an issue. For the ride to the airport, the app told me to stand in front of the grand entrance to Cipriani on 42nd Street (pictured above), and, because that's a pretty unmistakable landmark, I was able to find the shuttle easily even though it was an unmarked van (pictured at the top of this page).
In addition to there being no Uber-related signage at the pickup spot, the app didn't show the van's approach on the map, as it does with cars. Instead, a fellow emerged from the van and yelled out "Uber Shuttle!" before checking us in on his phone.
The directions to the shuttle stop at LaGuardia were similarly easy to follow and I boarded without incident.
The Ride
What is there to say? The van was brand-new and spotlessly clean. The driver wasn't the greatest conversationalist, but he did his job briskly and safely (albeit monosyllabically). He even helped load and unload luggage.
It was a ride I forgot about the moment I hit the airport—and that's what you want from a shuttle, right?
Is the Uber LaGuardia Shuttle Worth Taking?
The service costs just $18 to get from Midtown Manhattan to LaGuardia. Have I buried the lede here? That's significantly less than you'd pay for a traditional Uber or Lyft ride and roughly a third of the price you'd pay for a taxi to cover the same ground. Trips to LaGuardia via cab can be especially expensive during rush hour (there's no flat rate to LaGuardia as there is to JFK International Airport, so rates can increase by 25% when traffic is bad).
Traveling to the airport by public transit bus remains the cheapest option, but that can be challenging with luggage.
In short, I'll be riding this Uber Shuttle again.
Even with my commute from where I live in Greenwich Village this was a big win, costwise. Here's hoping Uber expands the service to other cities soon.
