Category: Travel Tips

Key Takeaways

• Event transportation in New York City requires advance planning due to congestion, venue access rules, and tight schedules across the metro area.
• Transportation needs vary by event, from corporate meetings and weddings to sporting events, trade shows, and group outings.
• Group transportation services keep guests on time, reduce stress, and simplify coordination across multiple locations.
• Experienced chauffeurs handle routing, timing, meet-and-greet details, and ground transportation logistics for hosts.
• Choosing the right vehicle size supports reliable transportation and prevents last-minute capacity issues.
• Booking early improves availability and creates a smoother, more predictable travel experience for all involved.

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Originally opening its doors in 1948, the John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) is now underway with a $19BIL investment in its transformative re-development program with phase 1 scheduled for completion in December 2026. Building two giant new terminals, expanding and modernizing existing terminals, streamlining roadways, and including popular local retail and dining, the new JFK will be a modern, 21st-century world-class airport for all to enjoy.

However, with all that the re-development program will deliver to travelers and the community, there are some notable impacts along the way that travelers will need to be mindful of when booking and planning airport travel, particularly when it comes to JFK Terminal 1 and JFK Terminal 5. Read More

UPDATE AS OF MARCH 27, 2024: The MTA board OKed the congestion pricing plan, paving the way for $15 tolls (and up) starting the summer of 2024. Passenger vehicles will be charged $15, trucks will be charged anywhere from $24-$36 depending on size, and motorcycles will be charged $7.50. There are some exemptions — and some caveats. Get more information on this decision.

NYC congestion tolls have been the topic of conversation for years now and it continues to be a dynamic situation, but at last, it seems that an approved program will be implemented in the Spring of 2024.

According to Bloomberg, the timing of the program’s implementation could not be better. The MTA is struggling to recover pre-Covid ridership levels, particularly on the longer-distance Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road lines.Projections of NYC congestion pricing’s effect show that up to 45,000 additional riders would use the MTA each weekday. Meanwhile, the state plans to reinvest nearly 100% of the congestion revenues back into the MTA system.  Read More

While Teddy’s is delighted to be back to helping our clients with a few airport trips each day we have not done much flying ourselves and wondered about the screening process you will face upon flying back into the Greater New York City airports, LaGuardia, John F Kennedy, Newark, Westchester County and Teterboro (codes LGA, JFK, EWR, HPH & TEB respectively).

Well Team Teddy’s member Emerson Osorio just got back from his very first trip to the Colorado Rockies and besides being very stoked about the majestic mountains, filled us in on his experience flying back into LaGuardia Airport today.

In a nutshell, all passengers boarding in Denver were told to visit https://forms.ny.gov/s3/Welcome-to-New-York-State-Traveler-Health-Form and fill out the quick form. He completed his before boarding, worried about intermittent internet access while airborne.

HOWEVER, it looks like if you are only passing through a New York City airport, to stay in Connecticut, you are actually responsible to submit a report to Connecticut. More below.

I started the NY form while here at the Teddy’s offices, but did not want to finish it because I’m not actually traveling today. The first page advised you not to submit the form more than 24 hours before you enter the State of New York.

The form’s first page called for name and birth date. Page 2 was phone numbers and contact info. Three was travel date and mode of transportation, i.e.: check a box for airplane, bus, private car, public transport, ship or train. Page 4 was about dependents traveling with you. There were 8 pages altogether and I’m sure I would have finished in 3 minutes.

Once finished, you were to screen shot the findings of the site. If the site returned a green checkmark, you did not have to quarantine. I’m not sure what the alternative response page looked like.

Just passing through NY to Connecticut?

Failure to submit this travel health form or to self-quarantine may result in a civil penalty of $500 for each such violation.

An Affected Traveler is a person entering into Connecticut after spending 24 hours or longer in one of the Affected States or Affected Countries within 14 days prior to arriving in Connecticut and who is staying in Connecticut for 24 hours or longer. To control the spread of COVID-19 in Connecticut, all Affected Travelers are required to (1) complete the “Connecticut Travel Health Form” and (2) self-quarantine for a period of 14 days from the time of last contact with an Affected State or Affected Country, for any portion of such 14 day period they spend in Connecticut.

Can travelers be tested for COVID-19 instead of self-quarantine? Yes, an Affected Traveler is exempt from the self-quarantine requirement if the Affected Traveler (1) has had a test for COVID-19 in the seventy-two (72) hours prior to arrival in Connecticut or at any time following arrival in Connecticut, (2) the result of such COVID-19 test is negative, and (3) he or she has provided written proof of such negative test result to the Commissioner via email to: [email protected] or via facsimile to: (860) 326-0529.  (see more at item 14 here.)

For an ever-changing list of the Affected States, click here.

Hope it helps! Stay tuned while we keep an ear out for the process into Bradley (Hartford/Springfield) and Boston Logan. (Or if you know, please tell us by calling or writing [email protected] and we’ll post it here.)

For more about Teddy’s COVID safety protocols, click here.

Safe travels!

Team Teddy’s

 – pandemic-era ‘rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated’ …again

(The answers to the quiz question, the ROI of business travel, is at the bottom of this page.)

It was a typical livery service ‘fire drill.’ As they sometimes do, the Teddy’s dispatchers pulled me away from the phone to run out and drive a Teddy’s private car service customer.

This one was probably the early ‘90’s and the trip was short: Norwalk to probably Westchester County Airport in White Plains (straddling Harrison and Purchase, NY ..and mere yards from Greenwich, CT). Or maybe it was just the eight-mile run to Amtrak in Stamford.

Anyway, one of our full-time professional chauffeurs probably got hung up on the previous trip or maybe this client called and was ready early. The fare, I remember, was a man and a woman and the pickup was at an office building on Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk.

In short order, one of them thanked me, “we heard you were the company president so thank you for coming for us.” If I was true to form, I probably said ‘my pleasure’ followed by “if Stew Leonard can take a register when it gets busy, I can certainly service a VIP customer.”  Tom Peters had recently highlighted Stew Leonard’s grocery store in A Passion for Excellence so it was safe to assume everyone in a business suit knew about the Norwalk grocer.

They asked me how our dispatchers communicated with our drivers and I explained we had three Nextel repeaters and we’d have to dial into the right one depending on where we thought the chauffeur was: was he within a 25 mile radius from the channel 1 repeater on the Chrysler Building in New York City?  …or would the repeater in Syosset, NY work better which gave us good coverage across Long Island Sound into Greenwich, Stamford and Darien, CT. …or maybe the repeater in Bridgeport would work. (Ironically, with this system, the closer to our Westport office a driver was, the worst the radio reception.)

The woman passenger said I might be interested to learn about the project they were just pitching. She showed me a piece of paper with a honeycomb design and said they were going to buy our three Nextel repeaters then build 300 more in our region and 30,000 repeaters across the United States. ..and they were going to call it cellular telephone. That explains the honeycomb.

“Cell phones were going to be the death of the private car service industry.”

We heard that a lot. But business travel continued to grow every year as it always does.

Quite a few years before that, we heard we were upon the demise of business travel with the fax machine became widely available. Then with the 1995-’96 growth of the World Wide Web .. “who in the world would ever need to fly to a business trip again!?” Statistics continued to strongly prove otherwise.

Video conferencing, clunky at first, came quickly on the heels of the Internet and the refrain was the same. But business travel continued to grow significantly nearly every year. For seven consecutive years, Teddy’s was an INC Fastest Growing Companies in America.

AFTER ALL, Face-to-face meetings allow for clearer communication. In addition to being able to read facial expressions, body language and inflection, in-person meetings often end up being more positive and considered more credible than online or virtual conversations according to Entrepreneur.

Without non-verbal cues, you also run the risk of misinterpreting information. In fact, 60% of people regularly misread tone or message when communicating via email or phone.

No matter how much we may like social networking, in-person interactions are at the very core of relationship building, both personally and professionally. In fact, 85% of people believe face-to-face meetings contribute to stronger, more meaningful business relationships.

So, if you want to form true, concrete connections, try to meet in-person rather than online whenever possible according to an article in Medium.

Answer: Business travel has a 12.5-to-1 ROI

The Medium article also reminds us in-person meetings are more focused and more productive. In fact business travel is said to have better than 12:1 Return On Investment, or ROI according to Business Travel News.

So while you still have to be extremely cautious when you travel and its smart to avoid it a little while longer, if you can, incentives are far too high to believe Zoom is going to be enough to allow you to get the job done faster and better than your competition.

To learn more about the Teddy’s Platinum Reward Miles program, click here.